Predict the future

[Legend]

I think it's fun to write down what we expect the world to look like in 5-10 and 10-20 years.

1. True humanoid robots will become common. We are already at the point where these things are crazy good in labs:

In the next 5-10 years, these will be helping in disasters and industrial things. Battery power is the big limit for real world applications and we seem to be getting "good enough." A bit later than that or in rare cases we'll also see humanoid robots interfacing with humans in more public places. They'll be kinda a novelty vs non-humanoid robots but I think they'll still be used.

2. Automation will continue to happen and cause a long term economic boom comparable to the industrial revolution. Almost everything becomes cheaper to produce and industries can expand faster than a traditional work force would enable. I worry society will be slow adapting to this change and it'll cause a lot of people a lot of problems but hopefully that's minimized.

3. AI personal assistants will become standard and awesome. They'll be Siri like programs always watching and listening during our day to day lives. For example when people talk in person about future plans, the AI automatically adds these plans to its calendar. Then if in the future you seem to forget and start to schedule something for the same time, it can speak up and remind you about the scheduling conflict. Siri and Alexa wait for you to interact with them, but these future AI programs will be actively monitoring your life for ways to help you. Might start to appear in phones around 2020 but I think it'll take longer for them to be more accepted and less buggy. Eventually they'll be like non-imaginary imaginary friends.

4. Both a moon and a Mars colony/base will be formed towards the end of the 2020s. In space manufacturing will also become standard in the 2030s for things that benefit from zero g. I'm hopeful that human bases would spread throughout the solar system like an infection, but it's also reasonable to think the Mars colony will be a money drain that stops further expansion.

5. Video games for next gen will have tons of focus put on physics and interactivity between systems. The Last Guardian and Zelda Breadth of the Wild seem to be at the start of this new trend. Assassin's Creed Origins with its fire physics is another example. Currently it's standard for devs to avoid invisible walls in games but I think game devs of the future will avoid "artificial" walls in games: restrictions that exist even though in real life they wouldn't. That's assuming loot boxes don't cause an industry collapse.

6. Jet packs will become useful in real world situations. I don't think there's that large of a market for them, but they're moving out of the sci fi world. Drones will also work to carry humans around as battery tech increases. Also I expect drones to become a standard tool of automation for tasks that don't require heavy lifting. Use them to paint and clean large structures. Have swappable battery packs so they can return to the home station and swap in a new one. Will be cheap and versatile alternatives to humanoid robots. Pick up trash and smaller roadkill along highways when mated with a self driving car for example.

7. Augmented reality glasses will not become popular for day to day use. Even once they're small and sleek, I don't think people will want to wear devices on their heads all day long. Glasses killed off 3D TVs and those weren't half as bad. Instead people will continue to use their phone screens as those get better and better. Will not project screens onto our wrists or into the air like holograms. That tech will not be feasible anytime soon. Instead the big "future tech" that'll slowly become common is smart phone screens that can be illuminated by natural light similar to eBook readers. They'll look way better during full sun and have a "magic" like feeling which could speed up their adoption. Would still function as traditional screens too. Maybe ~10 years from now.

8. Quantum gravity and dark energy will not be solved by 2025. Gravity wave detecting telescopes will be a big thing and a space interferometer will be built in the 2020s. Additionally more non traditional telescopes will be set up in space due to the decreased cost to get there. This will include telescopes with large star shades and using light interference instead of a lense. James Webb Space Telescope will not find any proof of alien life, but will find tons and tons of planets that are just like Earth. Our solar system is far from special.

9.  People will still be waiting for VizionEck to release.


I'll continue to come back to this thread and post updates and new things I think I've noticed. Post your own predictions!

[the-pi-guy]

I was thinking to make some similar ones.  

Humanoid robots in the next 20 years.  

Automation is a big mystery in my mind.  I suspect in the short run, it'll be a boon.  After that it'll hurt the economy.  Society will be too slow to react, and there will be a lot of job loss.  After that, it'll stabilize and be a pro again.  

[Legend]

Two more from me.


10. Most disabilities will have very little impact on people's lives. Prosthetic limbs will be cheap and almost as functional as the real things. Just like glasses and contacts today, they'll feel minor and not considered defining features of the people that use them. Surgical amputations will be thought of as major events but not necessarily negative events. It'll be no different then getting bones and joints replaced by mechanics today. Blind people will see through cameras. At first this will be to augment their lives and describe in English what is seen, but eventually the camera images will be pumped directly into the brain. Mute people will have kinect like trackers that can translate sign language in real time, allowing them to communicate with anyone. Similarly, deaf people will have AR glasses that can put in writing all the sounds they're hearing. Eventually this too could be pumped directly into the brain.

Prosthetic limbs are already right at the edge of being this advanced. I'd give them another decade to become cheap enough to become common and the 2030's will be when they become standard. Robot advancements will be the big thing pushing this tech forward.

Apps are already in testing for assisting blind people. The software will be good enough within a couple years but it'll take a bit longer for it to migrate from a phone app to a headset with cameras. I'd guess 5 years before the first serious prototypes and another 5 years before it becomes popular as a smartphone add on. A few decades are needed before the cameras connect directly to the brain and skip converting it to audio.

Sign language translating is also already in testing. The software is almost good enough when using high quality finger tracking cameras. For specialized uses like with video calling on a laptop, this could be popular really soon. For day to day use, finger tracking hardware is the thing holding it back. I could see this taking a long time, around a decade or so, since I don't know of many other fields that would help push this tech. VR could do it, sensors in headset track hands and fingers to put them in game, or VR could focus on gamers holding controllers or wearing gloves.

Audio to text will be in the 2020's. It's pretty simple and already exists in simple versions. Another decade and it should be very high quality.


11. All cities and densely populated areas will become zoo like with their animals. Wild animals will be killed off and 100% eradicated from the cities since they cause tons of problems for society. In their place, monitored animals will be added to keep parks and places pleasing to the public. Squirrels could be sterile, teeth filed, and have invisible fences like some dogs. Pigeons, hawks, rabbits, etc. would all be the same. This may sound ludicrous, but it's exactly how plants are today. Every bush, shrub, tree, and grass in a city is placed there and controlled. It requires an incredible amount of maintenance but we like the look so we do it anyway.

This is much much farther future than my other predictions but I expect we'll see it starting before the end of our lifetimes.

[the-pi-guy]

10 is a good prediction.  
11 kinda scares me.  

[Cute Pikachu]

That 11 prediction is terrifying.

[Legend]

10 is a good prediction.  
11 kinda scares me.  

That 11 prediction is terrifying.

Yeah it's unnatural feeling.

My dad is an entomologist and my brother has an environmental horticulture degree so without their perspectives I would have never thought about it.


Plus it'd be a lot nicer for the animals.

[the-pi-guy]

This is a prediction that I don't really think will happen, but I hope it does.  

I predict that movies and TV shows will be replaced with interactive media.  The benefit here is that AI will basically be able to tailor the experience to the audience.  

People can still watch their shows as before.  But people would have more effect on what they watch.  

I'm only like 10% sure this is likely to happen.