{"id":51,"date":"2007-06-28T03:47:01","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T11:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevenrbrandt.com\/wordpress\/?p=51"},"modified":"2007-06-28T05:05:32","modified_gmt":"2007-06-28T13:05:32","slug":"thursday-thirteen-tech-predictions-for-2040-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stevenrbrandt.com\/?p=51","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Thirteen: Tech predictions for 2040 AD"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are heading for a brave new tech world. Most of these predictions are things that could probably happen in ten years, but I’m giving them a little extra room to be on the safe side. Some of these predictions are rather scary when taken in combination — some are even scary by themselves.<\/p>\n

It is important to remember, when thinking about future technologies, that almost every area of technology is currently on an expontential growth curve.<\/a> Things are accelerating.<\/p>\n

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  1. Passwords are Obsolete: Improvements in face recognition<\/a> and other biometrics will make them unnecessary.\n
  2. Displays Everywhere<\/a>: Flexible, transparent displays could cover many surfaces: clothes, tables, or even cover the walls of your house.\n
  3. The End of Paper<\/a>: I know, you’ve heard this one many times before and are skeptical, but once you can make displays that are as easy to read and convenient to carry as a book, books will go.\n
  4. Cyborg Animals<\/a>: This is like a page from “Lord of the Rings,” Saruman uses birds to spy for him.\n
  5. A Cure for Obesity<\/a>: A host of medical problems will be solved by 2040, and obesity is one that we’ve already made significant scientific progress toward curing.\n
  6. Self-driving cars<\/a>: I’m not talking about the use of special tracks in the road, but cars that drive with humans on the same roads.\n
  7. A cure for cancer<\/a>, one current avenu for progress in this area gold coated nano-particles.<\/a> However, there are many such promising advances.\n
  8. Creating new organs on demand<\/a>: Imagine you can just print organs! But there are a number of technologies that could give us new supplies for organs. Some think that pig stem cells will be used to grow them for us.<\/a>\n
  9. Brain Interfaces (without surger)<\/a>, also this.<\/a> But most importantly, a paralysed man can walk through a 3D virtual world just by thinking about it<\/a> — and we can do this now<\/em>. This may also mean we someday have infallible lie detectors<\/a>.\n
  10. Computers will be 1,000,000 times faster and have 1,000,000 times more storage: This just assumes computers keep doubling in speed every 18 months<\/a> (Microsoft Word, however, will continue to feel slow and consume your entire hard drive). Soon we will be able to record our whole lives<\/a>, carrying a camera wherever we go. I believe this is probably my safest prediction.\n
  11. The space elevator gets off the ground: LiftPort answers objections.<\/a> Actually, some other cheap method of transport to orbit<\/a> might make this obsolete.\n
  12. Death Rays<\/a>: The old mainstay of science fiction will finally come to pass. It is close to happening already.\n
  13. Terraforming of Mars<\/a> — OK, I don’t really think this one will happen. But maybe we’ll get started. It’s more of a stretch goal, something to hope for. In the meantime, however, you can always get a job on the moon.<\/a><\/ol>\n

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