Do you remember yourself 10 years ago?
The world around you was very different from
now, wasn’t it?
No wonder: the 21st century is the age of
rapid technological progress, and we’re
advancing at a mind-blowing rate.
So what do you think our world will look like
by 2025?
It’s only a little bit more than 5 years
from now, but by various accounts it’s going
to be really exciting in 5 years.
Let’s see.
Solar panels will beat fossil fuels in energy
output, becoming the largest source of energy
on the planet.
Researchers from Thomson Reuters are sure
this will happen because of new and modernized
materials.
With those, solar panels will be able to absorb
much more sunlight, and even when it’s overcast.
Augmented and virtual reality will become
a thing.
Today, it’s a pretty new and raw technology,
but 5 years from now it will already be something
everyone uses in their everyday lives.
For example, you’ll be able to have a virtual
tour around a hotel before booking a room
in it.
Or how about taking a good look at 3D models
of all goods in a store before adding them
to your cart?
Handy!
Speaking of augmentations, people themselves
will become enhanced.
Microchips embedded into your skin instead
of a paper or plastic ID; bionic limbs having
all the functions real arms and legs possess;
implants improving the work of internal organs;
you name it!
By 2025, all this and more will become available
to the masses, and from then on it’ll only
get cheaper and more popular.
The problem of traffic jams will either be
solved altogether or very close to it.
With the growing demand for driverless cars
and even flying cars (I can’t wait!), the
human factor will decrease dramatically.
And since it’s the main reason why traffic
congestion even exists, big cities will finally
enjoy relatively free roads, and we’ll all
be able to get things done on time.
Can’t wait for it!
By the way, gasoline fuel will become a fading
memory by 2025.
Electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles will
push gas-powered ones further and further
out of the market.
Also, solar-powered cars will probably emerge,
gradually replacing all the rest.
Just imagine: a car that only requires sunlight
and some time to charge before you can go
wherever you please.
No more running out of fuel in the middle
of nowhere!
The Internet of Things, or IoT, will be omnipresent.
Smart homes, smart offices, whole smart buildings
— literally everything will be connected
with everything else, separated only by closed
internal networks.
Living alone yet coming home from work to
a hot dinner and a clean house will become
reality.
Everything will be done automatically, following
just a few flicks of your finger over the
smartphone or tablet screen.
The Internet will become truly global.
Today, only 3 billion people in the world
have constant access to the web, while the
other 5 billion have either limited access
or none at all.
Several large companies, like Google, Facebook,
and SpaceX, are already working together on
a project that will bring the Internet to
everyone on the planet at speeds over 1 megabit
per second.
By 2025, it will surely be implemented.
Artificial intelligence will make a huge leap
forward.
In 5 years’ time, the AI will not only be
able to answer simple questions and follow
your commands, but it will also become deeper
and more inquisitive itself.
It will probably even be able to talk to you
— not like Siri does today but rather like
Tony Stark’s JARVIS.
In short, it will become everyone’s ultimate
helper.
Medicine won’t stay where it is either.
Even now, more and more advancements are made
in this crucial field, and in 5 years, doctors
will find solutions to the most important
issues we’re currently facing.
These include a cure for cancer and AIDS,
diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and many other conditions
that have plagued humans for a long time already.
Of course, it’s not as easy as it sounds,
and it won’t be cheap at first, but the
main thing is that the answers will be found,
and the rest is a matter of time.
Human genome will most probably be cracked,
and only ethical issues will remain before
genetic modifications of people become available.
With those, we’ll be able to get rid of
pretty scary genetic conditions in children
even before they’re born.
Scientists all over the world discuss this
possibility even today, so by 2025 the question
should have a definite answer.
Plastic will finally become a thing of the
past.
The same Thomson Reuters report I told you
about earlier says that by 2025 biodegradable
materials based on cellulose will replace
plastic packaging for all purposes.
No more littering the soil and the oceans
— we’ll be making a huge step towards
a greener planet.
And the new material will feel like plastic,
by the way, so you won’t even notice the
difference!
A little bit of sci-fi for you: teleportation
and time travel won’t be a myth any longer.
Scientists have recently discovered that quantum
teleportation is possible, while others made
an experiment where particles returned to
their previous state, making it seem like
time traveling for them.
The researchers stress that quantum experiments
can’t prove that these things can actually
be repeated in the material world.
And of course, we won’t be able to go to
the past or teleport around the world in 5
years’ time.
But the concept itself will become more real
either way.
With genetic modification becoming commonplace,
modified crops will be grown indoors.
Changes to the plants’ DNA will make them
more resilient and less prone to failure,
while at the same time increasing the yield.
The times when GMOs were up for debate will
have long since gone, and everyone will be
able to literally taste the progress.
Robots will take over the most menial jobs
on the market, making humans turn their attention
to more intellectual tasks and opening new
opportunities for avid learners.
Everything that can be done by robots will
not require human assistance any longer.
However, in some spheres, these robotic workers
won’t be completely autonomous.
They will have to be manipulated by people
either directly or by programming them to
do the required stuff.
That will open up new jobs, so no need to
fear that robots will take away from us and
add to the unemployment rate.
Speaking of learning, acquiring new skills
will be much easier in 5 years than today.
With the development of AR and VR, of which
I told you earlier on, even the most practical
skills will stop needing your actual presence
in the room with your teacher.
Want to learn how to drive a car?
Here’s a simulator, right in the comfort
of your home!
Perhaps such a method of learning won’t
be too widespread yet, but it will definitely
start taking over the minds of people and
get more and more popular with every passing
year.
Machine learning will also make large progress.
Things like near-perfect electronic translators,
navigation systems that adapt to your driving
style, and other gadgets and software will
make our everyday lives much easier.
We’ll be able to communicate with anyone
we want almost without the language barrier
and do our routine stuff quickly and without
any discomfort.
And it’s all thanks to clever machines that
teach themselves off their surroundings and
the decisions taken, either by humans around
them or by the machine itself.
5G mobile Internet connection will be a common
thing in most technologically advanced countries
and cities.
With 4G, it takes up to an hour to download
a movie from the web; 5G takes it to a whole
new level, downloading the same movie in just
a few seconds.
The connection speed of this network is simply
astounding, and it allows all kinds of things
to be done, from real-time broadcasting of
sports events, like it was done during the
Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018, to
long-distance manipulation of robot surgeons
by actual doctors.
Blockchain will become the preferred method
of transferring money and valuable assets
between people and organizations.
You must have heard about bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies — those are based on the
blockchain technology.
In short, it allows you to get rid of the
middleman while transferring your money, making
the operation secure and direct.
For example, when you make a transfer from
card to card, your bank plays the role of
that middleman: it tracks all your transactions
and can block your account if you do something
it thinks suspicious.
With blockchain, nobody but you knows of your
operations, which makes it pretty awesome
— you know your money is always in your
hands.
Until you spend it.
And finally, entertainment will become even
more diverse with the growth in popularity
of space tourism.
Right now, entrepreneurs like Richard Branson
and Elon Musk are only getting ready to launch
their first space tours, and they’ll only
be affordable for the wealthiest.
But by 2025, the cost of it will slowly start
to decrease as the whole process will become
more easily performed.
I’m not saying we’ll all be able to go
see the stars first hand, it’ll still be
very expensive, but it will be a beginning,
and who knows — maybe in another decade
we’ll be riding rockets into orbit like
we fly in airplanes today?
What do you think will happen in five years’
time?
Let me know down in the comments!
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