Earth 2110: brief glimpse of life 100 years into the future

By Dick Pelletier

      

    What might life be like in 100 years? No one knows for sure, in fact projections even 25 years ahead are little more than guesses. However, by tracking exponentially-advancing technologies and mixing reality with a dash of imagination, we can create a plausible 22nd century scenario.

    The choice was ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes were needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living and technologies showed us how to make those changes. During the 21st century, humanity evolved from separate squabbling cultures into a peaceful global village.

    In Physics of the Impossible, author Michio Kaku explains how we will advance. He points to the merging of nation-states (EU), emergence of a planetary language (English), and world-wide communications (the Internet) as evidence of our transition to a global society.

    We may one day see the US and EU join to combat a merger of China and Russia, Kaku says. It will ultimately come down to the ideology of communism vs. capitalism. And as these two choices mature – socialism/capitalism and socialism/communism – they will become more similar and eventually morph into a single mandate.

    Humanity will look forward to many changes ahead. Today, we've mapped the human genome, conquered diseases, equipped most people on Earth with cell phones, and will soon develop quantum computers, molecular nanotech, and establish space colonies.

    Life extension advocates believe that biotech and nanotech will one day eliminate disease, aging, and all other causes of death. By mid-century or before, some say, civilization could bring an end to all unwanted deaths.

    Although one might think stamping out death will cause overpopulation and strain the planet's resources, experts say this will not happen. By mid-century, advances in molecular nanotech are predicted to produce an abundance of goods to support up to 100 billion people.

    In 2110, world population stands at 7 billion with another 2 billion living on Mars, moons, and artificial habitats. Humanity's first off-world baby was born on Mars in the 2030s during construction of the red planet’s first colony.

    Powerful telescopes provide amazing views of our universe showing millions of Earth-like planets with evidence of intelligent life on many of them. But light-speed barriers prevent contacting these new worlds. A planet 50,000 light years away takes 50,000 years just to say hello.

    However, physicists David Hochberg and Thomas Kephart believe they recently discovered evidence of self-stabilizing wormholes left over from the 'big bang' which, they say, might one day be used as portals enabling us to travel to, or communicate with faraway places instantly; thus erasing the light-speed barrier.

    2110 scientists believe they can harness these wormholes and use them to explore the universe. As we discover uninhabited planets, we will dispatch nanobots to terraform the new worlds making them human-friendly. By mid-22nd century, forward-thinkers believe more humans will live in space than on Earth.

    In the decades ahead, technologies promise to end sickness, aging and death, and usher in greater-than-human intelligence. Positive futurists believe these breakthroughs will thrust humanity into what promises to become an amazing "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.