Looking ahead
I can see the future. You can too. It's all right in front of us, if you know where to look. We cannot predict events, but trends and paradigm shifts are almost obvious. Again, all you have to do is look. As I have stated many times before, progression is not linear. Technological progression does not continue at the current rate, it's increasing at an ever growing exponential rate. (see: Accelerating Returns) "So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate)." -written in 2001 by Ray Kurzweil. This means that in ten - twenty years things will be very much different then they are today. Through out this website I have posted information that gives us clues on what the near future will look like. The quote above was written in 2001, not that long ago, yet still a very different time. This is before the wide spread use of cell phones, think of how different life was then, just seven years ago. (see: Ten Years) Given the information I have read and I have seen this article is about what I see in our technological future. Almost everything is based on information I have posted on this website.
Twenty years from now everyday life is going to be very different then today's life. With the implementation of nano-robotics human being will be capable of astounding things, but by then it will seem completely normal, just as cell phones, and laptops seem normal to us now. People will have nano-robots patrolling their bodies killing viruses and cancers. They will be able to repair infected or damaged tissues and even enhance tissues that have worn down by time. This will eliminate your worries of disease and infection. Inflictions such as arthritis will be a thing of the past. Lets say you pull a muscle while lifting a box. In only a few hours or possibly much less that pain will have gone away because of the robots constantly refurbishing your entire body. Age will become less and less important, as the nano-robots get better at repairing and renewing your system, along with other medical enhancements such as artificial blood cells that will be thousands of times more capable then our natural ones. In Kurzweil's speech at TED, he said that with the replacement of only 10% of your red blood cells with artificial ones, you will be able to do things like sit at the bottom of your pool for four hours with out taking a breath, or do an Olympic style sprint for fifteen minutes with out a single breath. (See: Kurweil @ TED) Drugs will come on the market that will turn on and off different genes in our bodies that control things like fat storage and protein usage. (See: Biological manipulation) The stigma around stem cells will have long disappeared and they will be used on a everyday basis to re-grow nerves, replace/re-grow cells, and tissues. This eliminate diseases such as Diabetes, Cerebral palsy, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. The recovery from loosing limbs, and/or debilitating accidents will be greatly reduced. Spinal cord injury will be completely repairable. Things like teeth and hair may even be able to be re-grown. "NERONIC" replaced lost limbs with advanced mechanical, robotic limbs that connect directly to your nerves and move that same as your biological limbs do, will be a common sight twenty years from now. (-see: Nova Science Now #2) By this time you may even be able to choose the very genes your child receives. And this is just the beginning. By this time technological progress will be much, much faster then it was the twenty years leading up to this. I don't know about you but I find this to be amazing.
Computers will be completely integrated into our into everything from cloths to our contacts (even though we will not need contacts for visions anymore) to the paint on our walls. You will walk into a room and watch TV right on the wall. You will be able to have contacts that have computer screens on them that are showing you the internet while your at work or school. Of course everything will be wireless, probably provided by cell phone towers or maybe even satellites. Scientists will have completely reverse engineered the human brain which results in tons of major break throughs in almost all forms of medical science, computer science, and the biological sciences. The age of brain mapping struggles will be over and the age of merging biological and technological will have begun.
Synthetic massively parallel, neural networks will be the "super computers" of the twenty twenties. These machines incredibly intelligent and will have the ability to use "pattern recognition" in their thinking which therefore will allow them to make judgment calls as well as understand simple everyday things that human take for granted, like tell the different between your friend's face from your dad's face. These computers will be able to learn and pass on massive amounts of information. These machines of the future will be more like living things then computers. (see: "The Age of Spiritual Machines," and "The Singularity is Near") Problems and models that have a seemly infinite number of variables such as global climate change, will be able to be solved in minutes, if not less. This is will again greatly accelerate technological progression, put us a few steps closer to complete singularity.
In the next twenty years there will be major breakthroughs in nano technology, some of which I have already described. With the adoption of nano technology the world will slowly begin engineering just about everything on the nano scale, that is five atoms at a time. We will begin using nano engineered fuel cells that are super efficient and will eventually completely fill all of our energy needs. The solar cells in solar panels for instance, will be completely nano engineered and massively more efficient. The waste of natural resources will drop down to almost nothing and the age of fossil fuels will be drawing to a close. Each metal strut, every window, and every piece of plastic, in each new building or house will have originally been constructed on the nano scale. (See: nanotechnology) Electronics will implement carbon nanotubing as a way to transmit data at a far faster rate then today's electronics, which by it's self will speed up all forms of computation and effectively increase the rate of technological progression. Large algorithms that used to take minutes to process, will only take tiny fractions of a second.
As far as space exploration goes, I'm not really to sure where we will be in twenty years. This type of stuff is really up in the air right now as far as I can tell. There are several companies such as Space X and Virgin, that are saying they want to privatize space exploration and are currently working on plans to do so. Weather or not they will succeed is hard to say. There are so many things that can go wrong when it comes to space. If all goes well NASA will have set up their moon base, and will be in the process of sending people to Mars. (see: Constellation Program) There should be a probe on it's way to explore the deep salty waters of Jupiter's moon 'Europa'. There should also be a large number of tourists visiting space every year, and maybe even staying in hotel structures orbiting the earth. Hopefully by then the use of Helium 3 as a fuel for fusion reactors will have started, (see: Super Fuel) allowing us to make much faster space ships. With the use of the new nanotechnologies, massively parallel neural network computers, and more advanced scientific understanding, the true age of space exploration and colonization will have began. However, like I said, it's hard to tell when it comes to space stuff.
A buddy of mine has a dream that some day he will be able to be a colonist on Mars. With Singularity and exponentially accelerating technological progression, he may live to see his dream. And I guess that, that is the point that I am trying to make here, things are changing much faster then people think. None of this is by any means 'far-fetched,' or for that matter, far away. So any of you that may think that anything in this article is not probable in our lifetimes, I urge you to look into it. I have all the sources on this website. And for everyone reading this, I recommend reading "The Age of Spirital Machines," and "The Singularity is Near." These are amazing books that explain how and why technology is progressing faster and faster much better then I can.