• From the possible colonisation of other worlds to clothes
that will automaticallyclean themselves when you step into sunlight, we count
15 technological advances predictedby wise minds for the future of our species
within the next 50 years or so15 - Autonomous Robots, • This is one that could
go very well, ordestroy human life as we know it - robots capable of performing
independent functionsto help mankind • We already have this technology to a
smalldegree in missiles and helicopters that can automatically fly themselves,
and despitewide protest to stop the development of machines that can fight wars
for us Skynet-style, it'shighly possible we may turn to this technology to
prevent human lives being wasted on thebattlefield • Just imagine an arms race
producing deathrobots of greater and greater magnitude, stronger and smarter
than human beings with each passingmodel 14 - Moon Colonisation,• You might
turn around to say, well, what's the point of building a moon-base when
there'snothing on it and no point being there? • In 2009 the LCROSS probe
discovered icethat can be melted down into water near the lunar south pole,
catapulting the possibilityand opportunities of a permanent expedition to the
Moon• An international group of companies and governments are already building
concept plansfor a moon base that'll use resources of the moon to expand the
sphere of human influence,and though it'll take time, you can almost guarantee
we'll have a permanent human prescienceon the Moon just as we do in space with
the International Space Station13 - Replicators, • Sure we already have 3D
printers and wecan already create a vast number of useful things, but in the
next 10 years alone you'regoing to start to see them create things like a Star
Trek replicator• Soon they'll be as inexpensive as a HDTV, one in every home,
download blueprints fromthe internet to create a birthday cake or a Rolex watch
- even car parts providing youneed them • It even has uses in practical medicines-
imagine the day when you can download and print organs you need to replace, or
evensooner than that, build prescription medicine using a basic formula from
inside your ownhome 12 - Longer Life,• In the last 50 years alone, the average
life expectancy has gone up from 65 to 75with dramatic rises as you look back
further to the beginning of basic medicine• With nanotechnology, little robots
swimming through your bloodstream fixing problems beforethey arise, that
average could easily exceed 110, 50 years from today• Parents could choose
their children's traits before they're even born, eliminatebiological defects,
but with longer life come social implications - if your life expectancyhas
doubled, what does it mean for a career, retirement, marriage - bearing
children? Willpeople even WANT to stay in a single relationship for a hundred
years anymore?11 - Batteries, • Right now it's a massive problem in theindustry
that phone and laptop batteries can only last one or two days used
frequently,but there's been some progress • Soon you'll be able to throw your
phonein a bowl when you get home from work and it'll wirelessly charge it -
you'll also findflexible batteries used for wearable wrist screens• But most
importantly, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy Oak Ridge
NationalLaboratory has started testing batteries that could last well over 50
years with one charge- not only a revolution for smartphones, but also
pacemakers, removing the need for surgeryevery 10 years and instead allow it to
last an entire lifetime• The best part? This technology isn't even that far
off, you'll start hearing about itin the next 10 years 10 - Drinkable Ocean
Water,• Of course, this won't mean our oceans will be transformed into desalted
drinkingwater - that'd kill a huge amount of underwater species• But the
ability to build solar power plants that can strip the salt from ocean water
usingresidual heat en masse, providing drinkable water for regions of the world
currently experiencingdroughts without running out because, well, you have the
entire ocean to work with• You might even see this technology come out in 20-30
years, and though it won't solvehunger problems at least it'll quench our
thirsts till 3D printers can cook us up aroast ham using sawdust and toothpicks
9 - Self-Cleaning Clothes,• Engineers in China have already developed a coating
for clothes that will eliminatestains and odour-producing bacteria, and all you
have to do is step into the sun• In South Korea they've eliminated the need to
use detergent, by instead gettingyou to dunk your clothes into a tank filled
with robotic fish who clean them for you• The fish robots are able to detect
dirt and grime on clothes using sensors, whereuponthey will suck the grime from
your clothes and squirt jelly to absorb dirt, which alsoprevents oxidation and
discolouration 8 - Fat Pill,• It's possible in the next 10 to 20 years that we
might be able to swallow a pill thatwill stop us from getting fat based on what
we eat• Of course, it won't stop us from getting lazy or unfit, but for those
with obesityproblems and eating disorders it may be a lifesaver - genetically
modified rats arealready able to eat and eat and never gain weight, it's simply
a matter of transferringit to humans • If we're able to control weight, we mightuse
the same technology to treat or eliminate diseases affecting our bodies7 -
Invisible Computers, • Over the years, we've seen technologyget smaller and
smaller - micro SD cards sold dirt cheap at high capacity, phones the sizeof a
fingernail • Eventually we'll reach the point wherethey'll be so small, and so
powerful in terms of computing that we won't even see them - they'llbe in our
clothes, inside rings, watches and contact lenses with no need for keyboard
input• We're already on the verge of a wearable computing age, but within 50
years our liveswill be so intertwined with technology that you won't even be
able to take a dump withoutrobots being involved 6 - Memory Storage,• With
Google Glass and similar products slowly starting to appear, we're going tosee
a massive advance in the realm of image and video storage• Just imagine you're
watching your kid take his first steps and you realise you didn'thave time to
record it, well, the tech built into your head will have automatically doneit
for you • Instead of trying to remember a thingthat happened, you simply access
the file on that date and time and watch a highlightreel of it - it'll be like
smartphone recording only 10x more efficient5 - Cancer, • One would HOPE that
cancer will be a thingof the past 50 years from now, but you can't deny it's a
pretty uphill battle with someresearchers claiming it'll never be cured because
of the way humans are naturally built• But what we look to are better
treatments, less invasive medicine - which may come inthe form of chemotherapy
nanoparticles, mini robots that will heavily reduce pain and sideeffects • Not
only that, but it'll even make thetreatment more effective specifically
tracking and eliminating dangerous cells which maycontinue to grow in your body
4 - Reversing Climate Change,• Despite all the warning signs of climate change
running rampant the world over, societyas a whole hasn't taken enough steps to
prevent permanent damage down the line• What we CAN do is manually reduce it
for ourselves by geoengineering projects to reducecarbon emissions in our
atmosphere, to literally suck the fumes we produce in our daily livesout of the
sky and render them harmless • Basic plans have already begun, whichalso
include artificial trees and ocean fertilisation but the projects haven't been
backed on aninternational scale as of yet 3 - Digital Existence,• We can't
anticipate what leaps and bounds technology will undertake in the next 50
years,I mean just look at virtual reality - we thought he had it back in 1995,
but even today 20years later we're only barely tapping the potential• If you've
watched the movie Transcendence starring Johnny Depp, you'll understand whatI
mean by a digital existence where you take the human brain and upload it to a
cloud service,effectively making you immortal • There's a hefty chance 50 years
is a bitgenerous in discovering this technology, but what you WILL see are the
first whisperingsof it - plans and tests, followed by mice getting successfully
uploaded to a cloud sometime later, then monkeys, then humans, followed by
expensive procedures and eventually a widerollout - providing we can map the
quadrillion connections between all the brain's neuronsfirst • Until then, get
your cryogenic chambersready - you're gonna need 'em 2 - App Doctors,• These
technically already exist, but they haven't been adopted into mainstream
medicineyet - exactly what it sounds like, an app that can detect what is wrong
with you andprescribe medication • It'll measure your heart rate,
respiration,saliva and blood tests too - basic functions that'll get more
advanced as technology movesforward • The reason they aren't used
professionallyis because the medical industry don't feel they've gotten quite
to the point of beingofficially used - you don't want to measure someone's face
and prescribe them anti-stupidpills when they're fine 1 - Dark Matter• It
accounts for over 23 percent of the universe, but we can't see what it is,
butmaybe within 20 years or so we'll have the technology to unlock its secrets•
The reason we know about it is because we can see the magnetic field in space
pullingeverything towards it and yet we can't identify the source• Some suggest
our universe exists inside the ring of a supermassive black hole slowlypulling
us towards the center, and that multiple realities exists when you cross the
eventhorizon found in the center • Whatever the answer, we'll be one stepcloser
to discovering the mystery behind our universe
