The World 100 years from now

I was born in 1984. The year of the first Mac, the awesome Nike Air Jordans and Indiana Jones. 100 years from now I will be 134 years old. How do you think your life wilk look like in 2118?

So how many are we and how old are we going to be? We are more and getting older and older. In 2030 world population reaches about 8,6 billion, as the UN 2017 estimates. Roughly 1 billion more than today. The average number for the start of 2100s is over 11 billion. This trend is not exponential and we are finally reaching a plateau where growth stagnates.

Unfortunately, Romanian population does not follow the trend. If I were to retire at 65, roughly in 2050, Romania’s population would be about 16 million with a continuous decrease to about 11 million at our 200th anniversary.

The good news is that we live longer. Much longer. It is absolutely amazing how we have prolonged our life expectancy in the past 100 years. Just look at Romania: about 100 years ago, our life expectancy was 36 years old. Now, almost 75 years and in 2100 almost 87 years.

Organizations, businesses and governments make better decisions if they understand how many we are, how wealthy we will become and where new markets appear. Where are the new consumers? Where are new tourists coming from and going? Why continue to look at Africa as the poor cousin instead of the fast developing one?

So how does life look like after 2030? We will be part of a growing global middle class demanding more and more products and services and entering an age of unprecedented ageing. We will be in the middle of a new technological revolution based on new types of industrial production, bioscience and digital processes that transform our world. AI will be present in everything we do while 3D and 4D printing become mainstream. Even with all this technological advancements, climate change challenges will hit dramatically billions of people. With 40% demand for water and 30% of global cereals lost due to weather instability crises will continue to flourish. Between 1.8 and 2.6 billion people will suffer from lack of usable water and agriculture will begin to be hit by something we did not really care that much: bee colonies are starting to collapse towards 2030, especially in the US.

Life for a middle class family around 2030? A 1TB internet everywhere, a smart house in a post 5G world, an electric car and on demand experiences. On demand because everything is more and more personalized. Companies use data to understand our every need and offer us directly what we will want. Or think we want.

So what do most people eat in 2030 and beyond? Most people will stick to products made by industrial agriculture although the population growth outpaces production capacity. Now, more than 15% of current greenhouse emissions come from growing animals and almost half of usable land is used for food production. Significant numbers of people will switch to technology based food or bio-food that has a lower impact on environment.

We, at home, will probably try insects in the next 15 years. There are more than 2000 edible insect species in 2018, consisting of low-fat proteins, fibers and minerals. Already now more than 2 billion people eat insects regularly.

We will after 2030 try lab grown meat as prices will go down as well as non-meat products on a more regular basis. There are already now companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods that make incredible plant-based burgers, chicken and sausages, Beyond Eggs or Clara Food making eggs without eggs or Kite Hill and Perfect Day creating milk and dairy without using animal products.

Of course, 3D printed food is approaching. My daughters, knowing how good of a chef I will continue to be, might just buy me a bioprinting food machine when I turn 50 in 2034.

Most of us will still have a non-sustainable way of life in 2030 and continue to die due to heart diseases as the common death cause around the world. Obesity, diabetes and stress related issues will become more and more common.

I remember the times I used to text back in the 2010s. We moved to Whatsupp and FB messenger and then all the other apps that allowed us to send text to each other. These will transform eventually. More and more people towards 2030 will start using Virtual Telepathy and around 2040 it will be as common as texts used to be. It will be the dominating personal communication method. Devices will be miniaturised and made more comfortable with options for implants. Some will complain that people forget how to write by hand and even read.

After 2040 I will start feeling my age. It is not the fact that I will be already 60. That will be viewed more and more as the middle of life. But many of the people I love will begin to die. Such is life, right? Some gone even earlier, despite advanced medical improvements. Holographic recreations of dead people will be affordable in 2050. Resurrection via immense AI and supercomputing powers. We will be able to meet parents, grandparents, friends and celebrities. I will be able to have conversations with Dalai Lama or Kennedy or even Einstein.

So how is this possible? How do we go so fast that I will sometimes feel behind it? Well, quantum computing will not be a dream anymore. 20 to 25 years from now on, computers are trillions times faster. So fast that they will also be able to transport us towards the skies.

My daughters will catch the first humans on Mars in their adolescence. Be it with Elon Musks overambitious plan to land people 6 years from now or NASAs more realistic 15 years from now, this is a reality. Tourism on Mars might become the new French Riviera 70 years from now with spectacular views from Olympus Mountain or the Mariner Valley, the largest canyon in the solar system. This will be extraordinary. It is very possible that 100 years from now advances in nanotechnology should allow us to produce large volumes of graphene and carbon nanotubes, superlight and superstrong materials, that will completely change construction on other planets and especially on Earth. As a trend for the next decades, construction will become more and more automated and new materials will completely change cities.

30 years from now we also see the creation of the first products that can postpone ageing significantly. This would be only the beginning of a long process or technological development in which human lifespan would be significantly extended.

Speaking of growth, a recent study of PWC shows that in 2050 the global economy will double and the top 5 is shared between China (1st), India (2nd), US (3rd), Indonesia (4th) and Brazil (5th). As emerging markets mature, they will become less attractive as low cost manufacturing bases but more attractive as consumer and B2B markets.

Out physical traits will be modified with much fewer side effects. Skin and body enhancements will allow us to modify our very own appearance. Of course, not for free. Nothing will be. Everything will cost. It is just the means of paying that will change. If you want and can afford it, you can become faster, stronger and smarter. Almost like a SuperHuman. Not everyone will accept it. Some will choose not to enhance their mental and physical performance. And this is when we will start the vast ramification into different species.

By 2050 it is very possible we will have the capacity to fine-tune our own feelings with a higher precision, as Michael Bess tells us in “Make Way for the Superhumans: How the science of bio enhancement is transforming our world”. As neuroscience and cognitive psychology come to offer better understanding of the brain, this will translate into new methods of modulating moods and hormonal functioning that control emotions. My daughters will be my age in 2050. Their early 30s will be a world in which one can only be honest. You will never know who has a retinal device that can detect lies and emotions. As the early 2000s brought elastic surgery clinics everywhere, 2050s will bring brain and memory enhancement clinics everywhere.

In the 2050s we will make ourselves learn faster through targeted chemicals but also in the old fashioned way. Electricity will be used to energize various neural circuits and increasing the speed with which we learn.

More and more sensors and nano-implants will be present in our bodies to measure, announce and eliminate any possible signs of diseases. With the increase in performance and accuracy of AI doctors, 30–35 years from now the need for “normal” doctors starts to dissapear. Similarly with dentists, as new technologies of automatically remaking teeth appear.

The future also brings God like powers to scientists through syntethic biology. We are already able to reprogram yeast to secrete antimalarial drugs, e-coli to create modified forms of spider silk stronger than Kevlar, algae to consume carbon dioxide while making eco gasoline substitutes.

Full Immersion Virtual Reality will become so realistic around 2050 that it will be almost impossible to distinguish between real and virtual. The fluidity of movements will trick the brain to release chemicals that transform into emotions. Reality will be divided in 3 types: primary, secondary which is augmented and third, virtual. Some people will decide it is better to live in the virtual, fulfilling their dreams and being happy. Forgetting they are in virtual and feeling more alive then in real life. Loosing their identity or actually transforming it.

Early 22 century is a world in which science is starting to replace natural selection evolution with evolution by intelligent design. It is the first time in over 4 billion years when we move from an organic slow evolution to an inorganic fast evolution with an unknown number of results.

Because the pace of change is faster than it used to be, preparing for a profession is not the rule of the future. Preparing to be adaptable is. What do we need to know today to understand tomorrow? In which skills and businesses should we invest these days to stay relevant 3, 5 or 7 years from now? What do businesses and organizations need to do now to be prepared for a shortage of skilled labor force, and increseas in automation and migration? What can families and future parents expect from future education and identity?

Don’t stay foolish. Stay curious!

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