Predicting the incredible world of 2050-to-2100

By Dick Pelletier

      

    What might life be like during the last half of this century? Forward-thinkers who ponder such things believe that from 2050 to 2100, new developments in bio-nanotech, artificial intelligence and physics will thrust humanity into a science fiction-like world.

    Super-human machine intelligence passing a Singularity point before mid-century, will give scientists amazing new abilities to create durable bodies that extend life indefinitely; produce new energy systems; enable faster-than-light travel; and communicate with parallel universes.

Indefinite Lifespans

    Ray Kurzweil in The Singularity is Near explains how our bodies will evolve. Today's frail body, "version 1.0" has unacceptable failure rates (over 50 million died last year, most from age-related damages). Bio-nanotech advances expected in the 2010s and 2020s promise a more durable "version 2.0" body immune to most diseases.

    This brings us to "version 3.0" expected by early 2040s. Fashioned mostly from non-biological materials, this powerful body boasts a zero failure rate.

    Even if a destructive accident were to occur, advanced nanotech guided by artificial intelligence could construct a new body with the patient's original consciousness and memories intact, allowing life to continue. Death would be no more disruptive than a brief memory lapse.

New Energy Systems

    The desire to replace fossil fuels, spurred by witnessing horrific problems of today's BP oil spill, has renewed interest in finding new ways to power our vehicles and homes. New possibilities include fusion-power, zero-point energy, and anti-gravity power schemes.

    Interest in desktop fusion sky-rocketed after a 60-Minutes interview of Stanford Research Institute scientist Michael McKubre, who predicted that one day, inexpensive fusion cells will power cars for four years between charges and slash home energy bills.

    Other ideas include zero-point energy, described as harnessing the power of attraction that exists when two objects get close to each other, and levitation schemes that defy gravity, which could one day yield rockets without propellants.

Faster-Than-Light Travel and Communications

    The prospect of traveling faster-than-light has forever enthralled humanity. FTL is necessary because of huge distances between stars. The Milky Way is over 100,000 light-years across and is only one among billions of galaxies. These vast distances must be shortened, so developing FTL travel and communication systems is a must.

    Experts believe that technologies such as fusion-power and zero-point energy hold the potential to produce ships that reach mind-boggling speeds. For example, a 2070s hyper-drive vessel or 2080s warp-speed ship might whisk us to Alpha Centauri, 4-light-years away in just 30 days, or make the 6-month trip to Mars in 3-hours.

Parallel Universes

    Studies underway at the Swiss Large Hadron Collider are providing proof that other universes exist. But what would really shake the world, says Discover Magazine's Corey Powell in a recent Edge article, would be our ability to directly measure other universes, which he predicts could happen by century's end.

    Positive futurists believe the next step in exploring these parallel universes might be sending and receiving messages. Will tomorrow's super-intelligence enable us to locate our "alternate selves" in another world and interact with that world? Forward-thinkers predict it will.

    Another Earth-shaking possibility includes communications with intelligent ETs. Space enthusiasts believe that late-21st century telescopes will finally turn this dream into reality. Welcome to the Federation.


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