2051: no more aging, androids in the house, rich-poor gap shrinking

By Dick Pelletier

      

    Positive futurists believe we could experience more progress over the next four decades than we did during the last 200 years. In The Singularity is Near, author Ray Kurzweil reveals how new technologies will change the ways we live, work, and play. The following represents possibilities for the next 40 years:

    Computers, TVs and Phones Converge by 2020 – The computer, keyboard and mouse are history. Internet data, 3D-TV, movies; all accessed by wireless electronics that read our voice, gestures, and thoughts; then display images on wall-size screens, tablets, cell phones, or directly onto our eyes.

    As the technology continues to evolve, flat screens morph into holographic displays with characters seeming to hop into the room. By 2025, it will be difficult to distinguish these simulations from real people.

    Healthcare Conquers Human Aging – During the 2020s, doctors direct stem cells to re-grow worn tissues, bones, muscles, and skin. By 2030, nanorobots maintain health throughout the body, and with ability to reprogram faulty DNA these ‘bots have eliminated humanity's most dreaded scourge – aging.

    By mid-century, nearly all adults live in a powerful forever-youthful healthy body that reveals no signs of aging or deterioration. A person's age is now important primarily as an indicator of life experience.

    Education Moves to the Net – By 2025, lecture theaters have been replaced by teamwork rooms supported by highly interactive IT infrastructure and software. Most curriculums include U-tube-type videos demonstrating everything from latest speech-recognition technologies to radical life extension breakthroughs, and topics such as how and why researchers are ‘humanizing' android-like robots.

    Experts ponder the effect other technologies might have on education. Many believe that science will one day provide intelligence boosts that would eliminate the drudgery of ‘reading' each sentence or word. Could the written word ever become obsolete? Some think it will (I guess this is goodbye to my career).

    By 2025, Household Androids Surpass Cars In Importance – Aggressive research by IBM and other forward thinking organizations have provided robots with ability to visualize and reason at human levels.

    Priced from $30,000-to-$100,000, these electronic household workers wear skin made of soft, sensitive nanomaterials – tough, but with the gentle touch of a masseuse. They understand and speak perfect language and perform many butler, chef and cleaning services; even carry disabled patients up stairways. Our silicon servants have become indispensible. Many wonder how they ever got along without them.

    The Internet Brings Affluence to the World – In spite of Web influence diminishing government control, most Third World countries recognize its economic benefits. By 2050, 90% of the world is building a better life through opportunities discovered on the net. This is narrowing the rich-poor gap worldwide.

    Mind-Altering Nanodust Curbs Violence – Pessimistic views of the future portray a world of terrorism and violence. However, this picture was proven wrong. By 2040, most military and police forces employ nano-sprays developed by the DOD that temporarily disrupts minds without killing. Although this system is seen by some as invading personal rights, it has reduced violence in nearly every country in the world.

    Human-Machine Merge – Physicist Paul Davies, in The Eerie Silence writes that humanity's future lies in becoming non-biological beings. "Biological life is transitory," he says, "It's only a phase of evolution."

    By 2050, a few bold pioneers are beginning to replace more and more of their biology with self-repairing non-biological muscles, bones, organs, and brains. Could immortality be far behind?

    Some wonder if we're still human with all these non-human parts in our bodies. While critics think technologies dehumanize us, Kurzweil sees us as the species that seeks to reach beyond its limitations. Most people believe that adding technologies into our bodies makes us more efficient, not less human.

    The coming four decades promise to change our lives beyond the wildest imaginings of science fiction. Clearly, the road to this vision winds around unknown turns, but strong commerce and government support suggests that this positive future could become reality by 2051. Comments welcome.

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