We will certainly attempt to. A majority of scientists in the US support a federal programme to explore methods for engineering the Earth's climate otherwise known as geoengineering. These technologies aim to protect against the worst effects of manmade climate change. Antarctica will be "open for business" Dev 2. The area seems worth keeping as a natural wilderness so I am hesitant here, but I do expect that pressure will eventually mean that some large areas will be used commercially for resources.
It should be possible to do so without damaging nature there if the technology is good enough, and this will probably be a condition of exploration rights. PT: Pretty close. Before there is a rush to develop Antarctica we will most likely see a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic. Whether the Arctic states tighten control over the region's resources, or find equitable and sustainable ways to share them will be a major political challenge in the decades ahead.
Successful if not necessarily sustainable development of the Arctic portends well for the development of Antarctica. This is very plausible. We are already seeing electronic currency that can be used anywhere, and this trend will continue.
It is quite likely that there will be only a few regional currencies by the middle of the century and worldwide acceptance of a global electronic currency. This will gradually mean the others fall out of use and only one will left by the end of the century. PT: Great try! The trend on this is actually more in the opposite direction. The internet is enabling new forms of bartering and value exchange. Local currencies are also now used by several hundred communities across the US and Europe. In other words, look for many more types of currency and exchange not fewer, in the coming decades.
We will all be wired to computers to make our brains work faster Dev 2. We can expect this as soon as for many people. By most people in the developed world will use machine augmentation of some sort for their brains and, by the end of the century, pretty much everyone will. If someone else does this you will have to compete. Nanorobots will flow around our body fixing cells, and will be able to record our memories Alister Brown.
Right now, medical nanorobots exist only in theory and nanotechnology is mostly a materials science. But it's a rapidly growing field.
Nanorobots exist within the realm of possibility, but the question of when they will arrive is another matter. This is likely by and almost certain by It's widely predicted that we will achieve this.
What difference it makes will depend on what other energy technologies we have. Americans are less certain about future changes in the share of Americans in the upper class. Race and family income are closely associated with these views. Regardless of their income category, majorities of Americans predict that the size of the lower class will increase as a share of the total population. But those closer to the top of the income ladder are somewhat more likely to forecast a growing lower class than those who are closer to the bottom.
Partisan differences on these questions are relatively modest. About a third of both parties predict that the relative size of the upper class will increase. The public is uncertain whether the troubled state of race relations today will still be a feature of American life in Unlike the large differences that mark views of blacks and whites on many race-related questions, the racial divide on this question is narrower. Optimism about the future of race relations is closely related to educational attainment.
Other findings suggest the public thinks barriers that have blocked some groups from leadership positions in politics may ease in the future. Expectations of a female president are broadly shared. Eight-in-ten or more men and women, whites, blacks and Hispanics, and Republicans and Democrats predict there will be a woman in the White House by When Americans predict what the economic circumstances of the average family will be in , they do so with more trepidation than hope.
While comparatively few Americans predict a better standard of living for families, minorities are somewhat more likely than whites to be optimistic. The public also is broadly pessimistic about the economic fortunes of older Americans during the next 30 years.
The public does see at least one bright spot ahead for older Americans. However, the public is broadly pessimistic about the trajectory of health care costs over the next 30 years. Meanwhile, the number of days over 90 degrees will double. As bioengineering technology improves, medical experts predict that American patients will grow new organs rather than rely on donors and transplants for things like livers, kidneys, and even hearts.
Researchers are currently developing ways to grow them in labs with universal donor cells and other emerging technology. In the next 10 to 30 years, experts have predicted that organ transplants will become a thing of the past. Median incomes are projected to drop over the next few decades, falling by 0. Although the figures on their own are not staggering, the percentage drops over time will add up significantly.
The number is even more noticeable after accounting for inflation. Recent funding debates have prompted some people to speculate that the missions may get delayed to the s if preliminary Moon landings detract from the budget. Either way, however, it seems evident that will see the United States a lot closer to contact with the red planet.
With smartphones, Apple watches, and tablets ubiquitous on American streets, it would seem that everyone in the U. But recent census data found that just Unlike traditional American jobs with salaries and benefits, employers in the United States are increasingly moving toward hiring part-time, freelance-based contractors in the emerging " gig economy.
But by , the printers are predicted to transform manufacturing in America. From aerospace engineering to fashion merchandise, 3D printing will be a central part of production.
As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated and the presence of drones and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles UUVs increases dramatically, submarines may be rendered useless due to their inability to remain stealth, according to Andrew Davies, director of research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Navy, which has one of the largest submarine fleets worldwide, is sure to be impacted if underwater vessels become ineffective.
In , three-quarters of the population in America was Christian, according to the Pew Research Center. By , the number will drop to two-thirds, decreasing by about Meanwhile, the Jewish population will lose its second place spot as the largest non-Christian religion, replaced by Muslims who will become the second most populous religion in the U. With the number of non-white people in America growing as its Caucasian population shrinks, voting constituencies are shifting dramatically for both Republicans and Democrats.
With white voters no longer making up the majority, the goals of politicians will shift. Although it's hard to predict exactly what their platforms will look like, it's safe to assume that politicians on both sides on the aisle will consider people of color more when establishing their positions on issues. In the years right before , more than half of all U. As we move toward , this decrease is expected to continue as people have fewer kids with the figure getting close to zero by that point in time.
As telemedicine advances in both popularity and efficacy, patients will have fewer reasons to go to hospitals in the first place—and when they do, they will often interact with doctors who are not on site, possibly even in different parts of the country. In an interview with the Guardian , Lorna Ross of the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation said by , American patients will likely limit hospital visits to emergencies and surgical procedures as self-monitoring and virtual care becomes the norm for day-to-day health care.
By the same token, many doctors in the hospitals will use virtual reality and perform telesurgeries. Recent numbers indicate that divorce rates are shrinking among millennials, especially compared to the boomer generation, which saw major increases in marital separations. Due to the aging baby boomer population, medical experts have predicted that the number of people living with Alzheimer's disease will triple between and According to a study published in Neurology, the increase will present challenges to the health care system.
As autonomous vehicles explode onto the scene over the next decade or two, commercial fleets will be impacted, too. For the nation's fleet of million commercial trucks and 1. Cabbies, bus drivers, and delivery drivers will be impacted as well. Although it's unlikely truckers will ever disappear completely, the new technology will shrink the population to the point of virtual obsolescence.
According to the CDC, 1 in 3 people in the United States will have Type 2 diabetes by unless there is a major shift in lifestyle trends. Currently, an estimated The figure is about 9. On top of those present-day figures, another Although printed books aren't anticipated to disappear completely for another 50 to years , it's inevitable that by , far fewer will remain.
While print books are still the most popular reading format, audiobooks and digital readers are increasing in popularity every year. A combination of more extreme weather mixed with increased power usage will lead to a higher frequency of large-scale, citywide blackouts. In places that are crowded and congested, particularly in the northeast, the blackouts will be even worse. Researchers in London recently released a study suggesting that by , almost no one under the age of 80 will die of cancer.
The improvement will be due to a combination of genetic research, better screening and diagnostic tools, new treatment procedures, and decreasing levels of tobacco smoking. Rather than having a dozen teenagers working the drive-thru or manning the cash register, American fast-food restaurants will be almost completely automated by Places like McDonald's will still offer the same menu items but will have self-serve touch screens in place for placing orders and robotic assembly lines in the kitchen that will make your food.
A hamburger restaurant in California is already using an early version of a burger-flipping robot that can grill burgers per hour. The decade-long Dust Bowl drought that plagued big parts of the country during the Great Depression will pale in comparison to the mega-drought many climatologists are predicting. The drought would prompt dust storms and wipe out trees and agriculture from California to Iowa. Written by: Rachel Cavanaugh.
Republish this story. Read on to get a sneak peek of the future. We'll travel between cities in a human propulsion network. There will be three times as many people. Debt will nearly double. It will be as hot as the Middle East in some U. There will be many more elderly people.
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