WHAT'S IN OUR FUTURE?

The times ahead will be exciting and challenging---and maybe a little scary. Here are some of likely realities of our future based upon predictions of leading futurists.

The Brain

*Nanocomputers may soon be placed in our brains to enhance memory, thinking, and visualization. Our pleasure centers could also be stimulated. Technologies will also be available that allow us to connect our brains to a computer and either download or upload data.

*Based upon new knowledge about the brain, new psychotropic drugs will cure depression and other mood disorders. Aggressive criminals will be controlled through brain chemistry.

*Pleasure drugs will make the search for the perfect aphrodisiac unnecessary.

*Brain destroying diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease will be a thing of the past through medical breakthroughs.

Education and Information

*Images of a student's brain activity as they solve problems may be used to tailor teaching strategies to individual styles of learning.

*Students will have more choices about where they are taught, and the "classroom" will expand to many places---labs, studios, workplaces---to better cope with the needs of employers.

*A liberal arts and sciences education may be more valuable than a specialized education in a future, as fast-changing technologies and workplaces demand broadly educated workers who can learn continuously and solve problems creatively.

*Schools may solve behaviour problems with nutrition. When students are given healthy foods, there are fewer acts of violence and better academic performance.

*More children will have Internet access. Increased computer literacy will boost school performance.

*Due to data bank availability, many students will know more about their favorite subjects than their teachers.

*The costs of textbooks and the updating ability of computer data banks will result in a decline in the number of printed and bound textbooks.

*Although the traditional university will not disappear, "Internet Universities" will proliferate. "Virtual Universities" led by superstar teachers could revolutionize university instruction.

*By 2030, the text of all books written in the English language will be available in a machine the size of a sugar cube.

*Oral communication will replace written communication by 2050. Voice-In/voice-out computers will give access to the world's expanding knowledge base to anyone, regardless of ability to read or write printed words. These user friendly computers will respond to our voices and tell us what we want to know.

*The number of Internet users worldwide will nearly triple from 130.6 million in 1999 to 361.9 million in 2003.

Family and Lifestyles

*Singleness is one the rise around the world as more people postpone or forgo marriage. The trend offers a wide range of opportunities for "single-minded" services such as housecleaning, travel, and financial services.

*New reproductive technologies will give couples more options during their childbearing years.

*Women may one day be able to take a "career pill" to reset their biological clocks, postponing menopause until age 70.

*The kitchen will be used less. People will eat more meals out due to lack of time.

*The backyard will shrink. This is already being seen in Sydney. Lifestyle changes have already resulted in people spending less time in the backyard. Also, large backyards take more time to maintain. Urban planners assume smaller backyards by up to 25%.

*Our growing dependence on computers, mobile phone, and other media technology will turn us into "mediapeds". Our attention spans will shrink. We will be known less for who we are and more for who information says we are.

*Many parents will demand genetically perfect babies.

*Job seekers will gain a competitive advantage by claiming on their resumes that they have genetic advantages over others in terms of resistance to disease, ability to concentrate, intelligence, adaptability, etc.

Health and Medicine

*A new method for screening embryos for genetic diseases, called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, will one day become a common diagnostic tool. Doctors copy DNA snipped from a lab-grown embryo and examine the copies to see whether the embryo has inherited a particular gene defect. If not, it is re-implanted in a mother's uterus.

*Threats to children's health will increasingly be behavioural rather than medical. Obesity, hypertension, diabetes, will be more prominently on the public health policy agenda.

*Tonsils may be shrunk by microwaves. A new tonsillectomy procedure called tonsillar coblation, uses radio-frequency probes to apply mild heat to the tonsils thus reducing tissue volume without cutting, making it virtually pain-free

*Mental illness may reach epidemic proportions as the population ages. The number of persons aged over 65 suffering psychiatric disorders is projected to reach 1 million out of an elderly population of about 5 million.

*Computerized health care will enable the health care system to reduce costs and boost efficiency.

*As the population ages, there will be a need for more doctors specializing in geriatrics. There will be a greater need for nursing homes and for nurses to care for the growing numbers of elderly.

*Nanomedicine will emerge by 2025. Nanotechnology-based medical therapies will reach clinical use, including machines to monitor our internal processes, remove cholesterol from our arteries, and destroy cancer cells before they become tumors.

*Tissue engineers may one day grow a "heart in a bottle". Using a fibrous "scaffold" that is seeded with stem cells, researchers could "coax" the cells to grow into the needed organ. This would greatly reduce the need for organ transplants and for donor organs.

*As more effective psychotropic drugs emerge, current illegal drugs may be rendered obsolete. This will reduce the expensive and un-winnable "war on drugs" and save economies billions of dollars that can be better spent elsewhere.

*As more effective diet drugs emerge, dieting will be more fun, less frightening, and more successful.

*Biotechnology may soon produce "edible vaccines". These are easier to store and distribute.

*"Immortal skin" may one day treat severe burn victims. Researchers have already been able to keep skin cells actively dividing in petri dishes for more than a year. The cells can be genetically modified to meet different medical needs.

*Organ regeneration from your own cells may one day be possible. Japanese scientists have successfully grown a frog's pancreas in a test tube, using an undifferentiated embryo cell. The test-tube pancreas was found to secrete insulin and other products of a normal pancreas.

*Tissue regeneration will lead to disease prevention. As researchers develop the ability to regenerate or re-engineer tissue, the human body could be made to resist diseases such as Alzheimer's, as well as regenerate a missing body part.

*The following is a list of bionic body parts either already developed or soon to be developed:

Synthetic:
Bone
"Smart" Blood Vessels
Larynx
Trachea
Joints
Muscles
"Boosted" Cartilage
Skin
Breasts
Liver
Kidney
Lung
Pancreas
Bladder
Face
Eyes
Ears
Heart

Longevity

*Gene therapy may one day improve people's learning abilities and reverse the effects of aging on memory. Neurobiologists have added a single gene, NR2B to mice, increasing their ability to solve problems, learn, and retain information about their environment. As the mice aged, their brains retained the functional capabilities of the juveniles.

*By 2030, over half of all Australian adults will be age 50 or greater. Even by 2020, 20% of the Australian population will be over age 65.

*By 2050, life expectancy will exceed expectations in the world's wealthiest countries. For women, life expectancy in Australia will be age 91 (up from age 83.5), men perhaps a little less (as now).

*As the population grows older, more people will suffer from age-related impairments such as hearing and vision loss. This trend will not only affect sufferers' quality of life but will have economic effects such as loss of productivity and increased health-care costs.

*More people will age healthily, joining the 100+ club. The world will boast 2.2 million centarians by the year 2050. More people are heeding the positive attitudes that enable them to live longer, healthier lives, including being optimistic, being proactive about dealing with problems, and embracing life-long learning.

*As old age is prevented by the use of genetically engineered drugs, diseases of old age are avoided. Thus, life expectancy may be as high as 400 years. The chief causes of death being accident and suicide.

Source:
Cetron, M. & Davis, O. (2003) Trends shaping the future. THE FUTURIST (March/April), pp. 30-43.

 

Complete News Archives: 2003 July: Self-Cannibalism June: This Will Kill Ya May: Still more of What's New about The Odd Body and Brain March: About Face February: Why we are all brothers and sisters January: The "Curse" That Won't Die 2002 December: Why is your face so red? November: How to be creative October: The Little Differences Between Men and Women September: The Mars Effect August: Weird mysteries of creative giants July: How many senses do we have? June: The Samson Syndrome May: Phantom Limb Syndrome April: Can we talk to the unborn? March: Movie Revelations February: Navel Secrets January: If Whales Can Do It? 2001 December: Body Odysseys of the Famous November: The Psychology of Smell October: Light, Colour and Music Therapy September: Three Brain Mysteries August: Baldness July News June: Laughing