A lot of technology and a lot of heat are the repetitive forecast about the future of the world. For better or for worse, we advance to that every day, to fulfill some of those fantasies that we saw on TV cartoons when we were children and that seemed incredible to us. Flying cars, pills to feed us, and trips to the Moon promise us the science and technology for the future of the Earth in the coming decades. Although going back to reality, it probably won’t be like that, we will surely see ideas of innovation and automation that will change our lives and mentality. Let’s look at how the planet will be in the future; how we will see the future and what will happen in 50 years.
Predictions of the future in the world
We will be the front-row spectators of unexpected changes and events in the coming decades and one of the biggest drivers of these surprises will be technology. There is talk of a lunar base to which mere mortals will have access, androids that will do housework for us, and changes in currency, climate, and food, the list of omens between the years 2030 and 2050 is extensive and interesting :
Innovation and exponential technology
Already today we see how technological advances exceed our capacity for wonder and adaptation, we barely understand the operation of new electronic equipment and another superior one appears with capacities that we could not even imagine. On a large scale, Artificial Intelligence develops at the same speed and covers an infinite number of sectors of progress and scientific research.
We will witness the emergence of new technological unicorns, as great surprises are predicted in the fields of 3D printing; autonomous vehicles; electric cars; drones; androids; virtual reality and gaming industries; voice technologies; artificial intelligence and automation technologies; block chain; space exploration; asteroid mining; and renewable energy.
The use of technological devices for the coming decades will increase and it is estimated that by 2050, nanotechnology will create an artificial brain, through a brain-computer interface. For that same year, it is speculated that the long-awaited flying cars that we have seen from television series and movies may come to light, as well as autonomous vehicles with the use of road sensors and not fossil fuels.
But the dream of flying through the sky does not stop there, it is believed that vacations will no longer be to other countries by air transport, but to the Moon and the planet Mars, in fact, facilities will be built together with trees and plants. At the same time, 3D printing technology will allow anything to be easily done by shaping it.
But let’s slow down the imagination, because all this or nothing can be made possible, what is certain is that the technologies of the future or technology in 2050 will be smaller, smarter, and cheaper; This way we can put sensors in almost anything: the containers will notify you when they are full, the televisions will notice if we fall asleep and turn off. Disturbing, right?
Technology underpins everything today, food, health, relationships, and work, and it tells us that in the future we’ll probably depend on it for just about everything, including, as we mentioned, private space tourism, drone delivery services, and more. the algorithms or virtual assistants that are in charge of managing our homes.
Climate emergency
Don’t let the idea that we visit the planet Mars in a couple of decades seem so far-fetched, much less the idea of populating it. The climate emergency is already a defining problem that has significantly affected many countries and our survival as a species will only depend on seriously addressing this problem and what is going to happen in the future. In that case, the forecasts of what the future will be like do not sound very encouraging, the most daring speak of colonization and a multi-planetary civilization not too far away in time.
It is believed that at this rate, for the next decade carbon footprints will be considered socially unacceptable. If it is true that there are already many people, companies and institutions committed to the task of achieving an energy change and building a sustainable future that minimizes or eliminates carbon emissions in the world; The reality is that the majority of us are still not aware of the damage we do to the environment with our daily actions and of the need for the contribution and action to be collective to achieve effective results.
Climate models predict that temperatures will rise another 4 C (7.2 F) during the 21st century if greenhouse gas levels continue to rise at current rates. Warm temperatures will cause changes in climate, rainfall, and other aspects of the Earth’s system. Melting snow and ice, rising sea levels, acidic ocean water, severe weather changes, risk of marine and human life from pollution, etc.
Demographic changes
The prophecies indicate that by 2030 there will be many more human beings who will inhabit the Earth, the world population could reach 9 billion people and the largest demographic group will be those over 65 years of age. It is also estimated that India will overtake China as the most populous country on the planet.
It also visualizes what the world will be like in the future by the year 2050 when about 75% of the world’s population will live in cities, which are described as urban areas full of skyscrapers interconnected by walkways, in order to attend to the mobilizations of people living on islands and seaside locations that will be covered by the waters. By that date, it is believed that many of the jobs and trades in these cities, around 50% of employment, will be carried out by robots and not by people.
The truth is that the demographic increase according to how life will be in the future triples the population that inhabited the planet in the 1960s, and it is thought that it will be mostly concentrated in poor regions of India, South America, and Africa, a continent that could contain nearly half of the world’s population by mid-century. Meanwhile, India adds a million people to its working-age population per month. These figures promise serious consequences for already quite critical issues such as food, the world economy, migration, and the environment.
Sociocultural forecasts
The world as we live it will not be the same, that is, divided between prosperous and backward economies, a higher working and productive population, who aspired to many children and properties, who handled printed money. It is estimated that within a decade or more, there will be more grandparents than grandchildren, more robots than workers, more computers than human brains, and more currencies than countries. It is assumed that the reordering of how the future will be will change everything we know and do now in social, economic, cultural, political, technological, etc. matters.
Food future
We are already experiencing a large part of this prediction, a food transition that implies the development of vertical agriculture controlled by artificial intelligence; hydroponic plants for fruits and vegetables, and meat cloned in vitro. These projects, together with genetically modified crops and synthetic meat, will be what is necessary to respond in the coming decades to the increase and demand of the population.
Social future
The patterns of social and cultural behavior that articulate relationships have already clearly undergone their modifications. Digitization has drastically transformed and will continue to do so, the way in which we know and become intimate with work relationships, friendships, and even other more transcendental intimate ties. The online exchange has upended old social norms like traditional engagement/marriage, formal civil unions, etc. The courtship stage has been extended and although it can be good for connections and coexistence, it is not so good for family formation.
Laboral future
It is one of the most terrifying predictions since it suggests that automation will exacerbate the replacement of human labor by machinery. Technology will displace human capacity, so instead of taxi drivers, we will have self-driving Ubers, robots instead of receptionists, web planners instead of brokers, doctors, writers, and countless other professionals replaced by Artificial Intelligence networks. Of course, the employment contract for computer engineers and mechanics, programmers, vertical farmers, or space tourism guides will also arise.
It seems unlikely what will happen in my future but it is not, surely you are already part of the payroll that does not work behind a desk or keep hours and, you did not even imagine it in a dream a couple of decades ago, right?
Sanitary future
The pandemic greatly trained us on the subject, health care strategies are increasingly focused on the issue of prevention and permanent control over health information, it is expected that by 2030, through the use of biosensors of self-monitoring and smartwatches that collect data on the physical state of each person, which will be analyzed and synchronized with electronic health records.
This will allow patients to take early measures, including guided and monitored lifestyle habits, as well as the prescription of medical treatments prepared and adapted to each person’s DNA. It is estimated through genome mapping, custom drug design, and 3D printing of replacement organs. This is what Earth will be like in 50 years.
Some consequences of global changes
Let’s take a look back to the previous two decades when we thought many advances in technology weren’t possible when it was predicted that walking down the street FaceTimed with Grandma while corporations and governments used facial recognition technology to keep an eye on you. It was going to be something everyday and common.
It was a simple and utopian premonition of the end of the world, with its advantages and disadvantages as well. The oracle of the future world may cause you those same feelings of disbelief, fear, and excitement. Not in vain, the truth is that some of them, perhaps the majority, although they represent progress for humanity, also bring with them a list of not very desirable consequences of what will happen in the future, among them:
Electricity
Electricity usage by data centers is huge and continues to expand. The threat is that it will exceed 10 percent of the world’s electricity consumption in the next decade and, in time, increase CO2 emissions by up to five times compared to all global air travel. The colder these data centers are, the warmer the planet will become.
Unemployment
Automation will continue to have its effect on the economy and society in general, although it is true that it can improve lives, it is also an element that seriously affects the demand for employment and the hiring of labor. Upon entering each company or organization, the employment rate decreases, and workers are replaced by Artificial Intelligence. Already many of the jobs are contract or commissioned and recent college graduates are drowning in debt and also underemployed.
Food demand
The imminent increase in population will require industrial agriculture to double its production to supply food demand. Already today, our meat-eating habit is responsible for nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, one-third of arable land use, and more than 10 percent of the entire freshwater footprint. the world.
Climate change
The effects of climate change may be very complex and difficult to measure. Scientists agree that more volatile weather conditions will likely lead to an increase in the number and intensity of extreme weather events, and rising sea levels will mean more flooding in coastal areas.
The Red Cross estimates that by 2030, 150 million people will need humanitarian assistance as a result of climate change-related disasters such as floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires.
Increased climate volatility is one of the impacts of climate change that increases pressure on small farmers in El Salvador and many other poor countries in the Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia. With the world’s population increasing, there is a need to maintain and increase agricultural yields, to feed an additional one billion people by the end of the decade.
Refugee crisis
The number of climate refugees is increasing and the political dynamics of that will be significant. Resource conflicts will also be inevitable as populations grow, and so will competition for resources.
Some of the predictions about the future of the world that we mention in this article may seem a bit exaggerated to you, but what we are sure of is that the world is changing rapidly and constantly. Some issues such as the increase in technology, climate change, and the recently overcome pandemic, irremediably shook the planet, many things have changed in recent years and people have accelerated the pace to live with more intensity and awareness. We move towards the future of the Earth that we so long to have, global and evolved.
