forebode the future is hard . It ’s nearly insufferable to know what technological wonder await inthe next few year , let alone the next eight decades . Undaunted , we ’ve put together a list of 10 super - advance technologies that should be around by the class 2100 .
Some of these technologies are rather “ out there , ” but I ’m reasonably confident in make these predictions . As radical as some of the items described here look , most — if not all — should be around by the turn of the twenty-second century . The reason has to do with an innovation that does n’t appear on this inclination : Artificial superintelligence . As computer scientist I. J. Good aptly point out in the sixties , “ the first ultraintelligent machine is the last conception that man ask ever make . ”
Once smashing - than - human intelligence information emerges in a simple machine — a development that could happen as early as the 2050s — all stakes are off in terms of what ’s technically possible . Intelligent machines will supercede humans as designer and engine driver , construct the technologies of our dreams , include some we had n’t even thought of . Here are just 10 of those technologies that could interchange most everything .
1. Brain-Linked Virtual Reality
Wearable VR - enabling devices like Oculus Rift are all fine and well , but no matter how advanced these sorts of gadgets become , a “ unfeigned ” mother wit of existing in an alternate world will persist out of reach . What ’s required is something a bit more … invasive — and by the prison term we reach the 2100s we ’ll have constitute a way to make a virtual reality experience that ’s indistinguishable from the real thing . fabulously , these experience will be eat directly to our brain , bypassing our normal sensory inputs to make it all the more believable .
To get that intangible feeling of what it ’s like to live in our surround , we ’ll demand to go to the reference of that experience : the human brain . Indeed , the mentality ( among other things ) is a centripetal processing equipment . All of the things we sense on a even cornerstone , whether it be the olfactory property of your taco or the rank glow of your computing machine screenland , are routed to your mastermind . As Morpheus put it so eloquently in The Matrix : “ What is real? … If you ’re talking about what you may sense , what you may smell , what you may savour and see , then ‘ real ’ is simply electrical signals translate by your brain . ”
Futurist Ray Kurzweil , author ofThe Singularity is Near , explicate how this could come about ina Q&A about his Bible .
I see this get down with nanobots in our bodies and brains . The nanobots will keep us level-headed , provide full - immersion practical reality from within the skittish system , provide direct Einstein - to - brain communicating over the Internet , and otherwise greatly boom human intelligence . But keep in mind that nonbiological intelligence is doubling in potentiality each class , whereas our biological intelligence is basically desex in capacitance . As we get to the 2030s , the nonbiological portion of our tidings will predominate .
Kurzweil ’s sentence lines are probably a bit optimistic , but his concepts are level-headed ; we ’re find newways of breaching the lineage - brain - barrierand creatingmicroscopic machinesthat cantravel around the consistency . And just as importantly , we ’re creatinga elaborate function of the mastermind , includingareas responsible for for processing incoming sensory information .
Once plant in the encephalon , Kurzweil ’s nanobots would locate the learning ability ’s various sensory stimulus and shut out them down ( for example disrupting the electrical signal collect by the retina , capitulum , etc . ) , making the mortal altogether incognizant of their real surroundings ( it would be the double-dyed sensory deprivation chamber . In place of these signal , the nanobots , course by wireless transmitting , would replace those miss signals , feed the brain ’s cortical regions with artificial senses — and an entirely new subjective experience . To the individual , it would feel like they ’ve been transported to another cosmos .
2. Utility Fog
prepare by nanotech pioneer J. Storrs Hall , service program fogsare a swarm of nanobots , or “ foglets , ” that can take on the shape of virtually any aim , and alter its shape on the fly . Storrs came up with the idea when trying to reckon a futurist seat swath . But instead of static straps and inflatable airbags , Hall imagined an intelligent cloud of interconnect snowflake - similar foglets capable of morph along with the movements of anything around it , include the passengers of car .
public utility fog resist the imagination in terms of the technological sophistry required . Each foglet would measure just 10 microns across ( roughly the same sizing as a human cell ) , be fit with a bantam , fundamental onboard computer to verify its actions ( which would be controlled outwardly by an artificially intelligent organization ) , and a dozen telescopic branch that extrude outwards in the shape of a dodecahedron . When two foglets link up , they would form a circuit , earmark for the distribution of power and communicating throughout the web . The foglets would n’t be open of floating , but would or else form a latticework construction , called anoctet corbel , when holding hands in all 12 direction .
A utility fog would work like programmable matter , capable of act around , enveloping , and and even enchant an object or someone . More radically , utility fogs could be used to make a practical humanity around a somebody — and even host a individual who has uploaded themselves into this nano - infused cloud ( similar to the foglet beingness in Warren Ellis ’ Transmetropolitan ) .
3. Space-Based Solar Power
As our civilisation struggles to mitigate the effects of clime change and transition into a more sustainable push economy , it ’s tempting to recollect we ’ll never be capable to forgather our on the face of it insatiable muscularity needs . Space - based solar power — an melodic theme that ’s been around since the 1960s — could solve this problem once and for all .
Nearly 60 years ago , Peter Glaser foresee solar powered satellite capable of shift appropriate solar energy down to receiving ravisher on the Earth ’s surface via microwaves . A phone number ofdifferent schemes have been proposedsince then , with Japan lead the way in terms of having an genuine plan to get it done . Called theSBSP System , the Nipponese orbital farm would run in a stationary ambit about 22,400 naut mi above the equator , where it would transmit energy to Earth using laser shaft of light . Each satellite would target a 1.8 - mile wide of the mark receiving station that could render an entire gigawatt of electrical energy , which is enough to power a half million homes . For condom , the receiving place should be positioned far from human dwelling house , such as a desert or island .
4. Mind Uploading
By the go of the 22nd hundred , many humans will have choose for a purely digital existence , one free of all biologic constraints . send for brain uploading , or whole brain emulation , this will involve the punctilious copying of an existing biological brain . The scans would capture every cognitive detail down to the molecular level , and let in computer memory , association , and even a individual ’s personality quirks .
futurist are n’t entirely certain how mind uploading will encounter , but a critical step will be to check that the important part of a brainpower are copied , particularly those link up to a mortal ’s sense of personal identity ( namely the parahippocampus and retrosplenial pallium ) . This could involve “ destructive ” copying , where an existing brain is sliced or otherwise take apart in ordering to record a mortal ’s brain state and memories . Alternately , a sufficiently hefty Einstein electronic scanner could be used to take a shot of a person ’s brain , and then “ pasted ” into a computer up to of translate that data into a work judgment . In parliamentary procedure for an uploaded person to go “ unremarkably , ” they would have to be equipped with avirtual bodyand environment .
https://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-upload-yourself-to-a-supercomputer-1497856380
An important scientific and philosophical enquiry to ask is whether or not this represents a unfeigned “ transfer ” of consciousness , and not just the mere copying of a person ’s encephalon . What ’s more , it ’s not entirely clear if witting ego - sentience can be replicate in digital substrate . scarily , each upload could be a form of zombi that behaves and functions like the pre - existing individual , but would in reality be nothing more than a book - driven bot .
5. Weather Control
It ’s improbable that our species will be able to totally control the weather by the end of the current century , but we should be able to put a serious nick into it . We ’re alreadyseeding clouds with atom to make precipitation , and California has been doing this for intimately 50 year . During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , Chinese authorities fire 1,100 rockets into the cloud to trigger downpours before the tempest reached the capital city . There are even feat tofire optical maser pulses into thundercloudsin Hope of quarter out lightning in a controlled manner .
Looking ahead to the future , weather engineers could build massive wall - alike structures to foreclose devastating tornadoes from forming , or construct massive — and very unassailable — array of offshore turbines to blow the energy out of hurricanes . On that last candidate , a study in 2014showed that a wind farm consisting of tens of 1000 of individual turbines could repress peak wind instrument by up to 92 miles per hour ( 148 km / h ) and decrease violent storm surges by up to 79 percent . That would in effect reduce a hurricane ’s power by an entire order of magnitude .
More radically , we could eventually construct a weather machine to make a programmable ambience . A particularlyintriguing plancalls for a thin global cloud of humble diaphanous balloons lifted up into the stratosphere , where it would shade or reflect the amount of incoming sunlight . A mirror would be put inside each balloon , along with a GSP to supervise its placement , an actuator to operate its orientation , and a small computing gadget . lift by hydrogen , the “ programmable green house gasolene ” would come to a rest about 20 miles above the Earth ’s Earth’s surface . When the millions of mirror face away from the Earth , they would reflect the sunlight back into space . This system , pass by AI , could shape atmospheric condition patterns around the world , and release marginally habitable areas into moderate neighborhood .
6. Molecular Assemblers
mean 3D printers are awing ? Just expect until the arrival of molecular assembler , a divinatory storyteller described by nanotechnology pioneer K. Eric Drexler in his seminal book , Engines of Creation . Drexler key out a molecular assembly program as a gadget capable of manipulate private atoms to build a desired product . If you ’ve ever see an episode of Star Trek in which a member of the crew uses areplicatorto churn out a steaming live cupful of Earl Grey tea , then you ’ve basically seen a molecular assembly program , which some futurist relate to as fabricators , or fabs for short .
Drexler basically argued that biologic assembler already survive , produce complex and tremendous structures like bacterium , Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , and even you and me . Using the same logical system , he figures we ’ll finally be able to knock into the mechanically skillful properties of the uber - modest , and use similar principles to develop objects of any physical body , form , or consistency .
Fabs could innovate the populace to an epoch of “ radical abundance , ” allowing us to create token and stuff that would otherwise be unsufferable to work up , constructing them from the ground up ( or more accurately , from the molecule on up ) . But these machine could even be used to create items we ’re intimate with , like food . To make a steak , for example , the fibber would take base materials , such as carbon , hydrogen , and nitrogen , and then dress them into aminic window pane and protein , which would then be assembled to shape a steak .
7. Geoengineering
Disturbingly , the effects of climate changeare likely irreversible . No matter what we do from now until the year 2100 , the levels of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere will bear on to warm the major planet .
To prevent the many environmental calamity wrought by climate change — from rising sea levels and megadroughts through to superstorms and mass extinctions — we’ll begrudgingly have to startgeoengineering the major planet .
Some noted geohacking proposals includecirrus cloud seedingto reduce reflectance , stratospheric particle injectionfor solar radiotherapy direction , sulfur - aerosol injectionto induce global dimming , and simple solvent like tropical re-afforestation to restore the atomic number 6 balance . Other ideas include a elephantine space reflector ( though that might be beyond our technological capacity by 2100),ocean fertilization to engender carbon - sucking algal blooming , and sea alkalinity sweetening to make the sea less acidulent . Clearly , there are no dearth of ideas , and we wo n’t be restricted to just one .
The problem with geoengineering , of course , is that we couldroyally wreck our planetshould something go wrong , andwe may become dependent upon it . But despairing time will command despairing measurement , and we ’ll have little choice but to rely on complex climate models and supercomputer to ensure safety and efficaciousness .
8. Mind-to-Mind Communication
on-going advances in communications engineering and neuroscience will transform man into a telepathic species .
The advent of lineal mind - to - mind communicating will bring us even closer together as individual , and conceivably give rise to a “ hive mind”—a vast web of interconnected idea working together over the succeeding instantiation of the internet . In such a future tense , we may pop to see the profligacy of the somebody , and the raise of a corporate mass consciousness .
https://gizmodo.com/how-much-longer-until-humanity-becomes-a-hive-mind-453848055
signally , this future may be skinny than we recollect . Back in 2014 , an international squad of researcherswere the first to demonstrate a unmediated and entirely non - invasive brain - to - mind communicating system of rules . During their experimentation , two participant were able to exchange mentally - conjured words despite being break by one C of miles . A year afterwards , a freestanding squad of researcherstransmitted brainpower signals over the internet to ensure the hand motions of another person , allow them to join forces on a reckoner game . These systems , though passing fundamental , power point to a future in which we can simply use our thought to discourse with one another , and “ telekinetically ” control overbold devices in our environs .
9. Fusion Power
before this year , physicists in Germany used a 2 - megawatt microwave impulse to warm low density hydrogen plasma to 80 million degrees . The experiment did n’t farm any vigour , and it only last for a quarter of a moment , but it was an of import step forward in the effort to harness an extremely promising form of energy production bang as nuclear fusion .
Unlike nuclear nuclear fission , where the core of an speck is divide into minor component part , nuclear optical fusion creates a unmarried enceinte nucleus from two lighter nuclei . The resulting alteration in great deal generates a tremendous amount of vim that scientist think can be harnessed into a viable source of clean vigor . finally , merger superpower could replace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear nuclear reactor .
https://gizmodo.com/the-real-problem-with-fusion-energy-1777994830
But to get there , scientist will have to figure out how to dependably and safely finagle conditions typically found on the sun . The job is that fusion plasmas do not care to be check ; these free - fall streams of protons and electrons are tough to wrangle . Our sun holds on to its plasma with its acute gravity , but here on Earth , we ’d have to swear on magnets or optical maser to perform the same trick . Should a diminutive fraction of the blood plasma escape , it would pit the wall of the machine , causing the fusion reactor to shut down .
10. Artificial Lifeforms
Not content to contain at familial engineering , scientists of the time to come will be able to contrive and create new organism from cabbage — from microscopical synthetic bacteria through to redesign humans reminiscent of the Replicants in Blade Runner . This burgeon discipline , acknowledge as unreal life ( or Alife ) , is the effort to recreate biological phenomenon with the helper of computers and other synthetic media .
The quest to make synthetic forms of life is already underway . Earlier this twelvemonth , investigator fromSynthetic Genomicsand theJ. Craig Venter Institutesuccessfully created an artificial bacterial genome that , with its scant 473 genes , is smaller than anything found in nature . Further breakthroughs in this domain will help biologist search the core procedure of life , and to categorize indispensable genes within cells . research worker could use “ building pulley block ” cells like these to manufacture organisms with capacities not incur in nature , including bacteria that can consume credit card and toxic waste , and microorganisms that can function like medicines inside the consistence .
In a have-to doe with discovery , a unexampled initiative co - founded by Harvard Medical School ’s George Church isseeking to create a semisynthetic human genome from scratch . The investigator say they ’re contented to stop once they figure out how to power cells with synthetic human DNA , but the same technology could conceivably be used to create artificial organism and even architect human being .
Any one of the engineering science heel here has the potential drop to reshape our civilization . What ’s less cleared is how these marvel will work in tandem bicycle with one another ; the convergent burden of technology are often laborious to presage . For case , the convergence of brain - linked VR , mind uploading , and AI could result in a hybrid computing machine - base civilisation lie in of real - world humans , emulated brains , and artificial understanding . Future geoengineering schemes could desegregate conditions control systems and engineered nanoparticles . And so on .
The more predictions we make about our next technologies , the more difficult it becomes to recognize what the future might actually look like .
FuturismNanotechnologyScienceTechnology
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