The years 2000, 2020, 2040

[CliffFletcher]

1) Gotta agree on Spotify. I still find it hard to get my head around the fact that I have unlimited access to virtually all published music, and at the monthly cost of one CD. Runner-up: Voice-activated assistants. We basically have Computer from Star Trek available in our homes, cars, and phones.

2) Drones everywhere. Delivering parcels and food, monitoring our behaviour, policing our laws. Runner-up: Factory-grown meat. Eating meat grown on an animal will be a decadent indulgence.

[troutman]

Screw Spotify - they don't pay the artists fairly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Spotify

https://www.theringer.com/tech/2019/...y-payout-model
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...outube-payouts

[BsFaninCGY]

1. For me, it’s kind of a return to the past. I love my record player and record collection and the act of sitting down and specifically listening to music. 20 years ago I never would have guessed that it would be my preferred way of listening to music.

2. Body cameras on everyone. Right now it’s a bit of a battle getting police departments on board, but with liability issues and the benefit of having them in your car I can see a future where everyone is always recording everything just in case they get sued or need to share their side of the story from all the social shaming that has come about in today’s times

[JohnnyB]

20 years ago, I would never have expected the extent to which we have now integrated our brains with computers that we carry around in our pockets. In terms of what technology enables, I wouldn't have expected how many things in life have come to work just like utilities that we turn on and off while being ubiquitously available.

20 years from now, I expect our understanding of identity to be radically different from now as we become even more seamlessly integrated with digital technology and this results both in new forms of collective and hybrid consciousness as well as the capacity to modify and reengineer aspects of ourselves that we now consider fixed and essential to who we are.

[RichieRich]

1. We are almost living in the age of the terminator... setting ourselves up for that.
2. We might be living in the age of the terminator... where AI/machines govern us.


But seriously I'm astounded at how much smart-phones and social media have played into governing our lives, forming means to mis/educate/influence, and creating such social disruption to family units and friendships. And personally I struggle with my own Pavlov's dog automatic reaction to being unable to live without my f*n phone and virtually unable to not respond when it makes some notification noise. I swear it's gotten worse during WFH/CoVID era.

[#-3]

I think the way entertainment has evolved is the most surprising thing.
Youtube
Prime Time Reality TV
The MCU
Steaming Binges.
Entertain is both better quality and so much worse at the same time, It consumes things in a way I don't think we could have easily been predicted when we were rewinding VHS tapes or renting DVDs.

2040
Gene based medicine, I think in the near future most genetic disorders and cancers will be as easily treated as a bacterial infection is today. Not to say there will be a 100% success rate, but a large portion of disorders being treated with 10 days of uninvasive out patient treatment seems within reach to me. Currently the biggest barrier is avoiding off target effects, and it's going to happen fast when they find a solution for that.

[Flashpoint]

1) Cell phone processing power. We’re all carrying around personal computers containing the sum of human knowlege in our pockets.. or airpods these days. You can get the answer to almost anything fact based just by asking. Or cat videos. Whichever floats your boat.

2) 20 years from now you’ll see kinetic powered wearable devices. Your sunglasses will be a VR headset and HUD that is powered by the heat and movement of your body. Energy storage devices will be compact, durable and flexible enough to be worn wolven into the thread of garments. The PlayStation 7 will be a t-shirt.

Stretch goal? VR/HUD contact lenses in 25 years.

[zamler]

20 years from now we will be living in a Minority Report world. The crisis will be largely manufactured but at that point no one will be able to discern truth from engineered truth.

[Buff]

1. The cloud. We stream our music, movies and tv shows. 20 years ago we were still heavily reliant on physical media. Napster was fresh out of the oven and nobody knew quite how much music sharing (pirating) was going to change how we consume our entertainment.

2. We implant memories into our brains like in Total Recall.

[Sled]

1. Good Porn

2. Better Porn

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by #-3

I think the way entertainment has evolved is the most surprising thing.
Youtube
Prime Time Reality TV
The MCU
Steaming Binges.
Entertain is both better quality and so much worse at the same time, It consumes things in a way I don't think we could have easily been predicted when we were rewinding VHS tapes or renting DVDs.

2040
Gene based medicine, I think in the near future most genetic disorders and cancers will be as easily treated as a bacterial infection is today. Not to say there will be a 100% success rate, but a large portion of disorders being treated with 10 days of uninvasive out patient treatment seems within reach to me. Currently the biggest barrier is avoiding off target effects, and it's going to happen fast when they find a solution for that.

The medicine parts will be interesting with universal healthcare in Canada. Will we able to diagnose ourselves? Will there still be huge wait times for MRIs and Surgeries? Does that kill for-profit clinics? Do alternative medicines like naturopath and homeopath thrive or fail?

[#-3]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The medicine parts will be interesting with universal healthcare in Canada. Will we able to diagnose ourselves? Will there still be huge wait times for MRIs and Surgeries? Does that kill for-profit clinics? Do alternative medicines like naturopath and homeopath thrive or fail?

Will we able to diagnose ourselves? No, that would be crazy

Will there still be huge wait times for MRIs and Surgeries? Yes, in a big data world diagnostic tools become the bottle neck

Does that kill for-profit clinics? hopefully, but probably not. For-profit becomes predatory in environments where choice is limited by ones own sense of mortality.

Do alternative medicines like naturopath and homeopath thrive or fail? They will do neither, they will continue to be fringe because its too hard to take these things from people who want them, but they will never thrive because they would need to be successful to thrive and there would need to be some factual basis for their practices to succeed.


I was moreso predicting, there there will be specific forms of cancer or genitic disorders, cured with a DNA test and 10 crispr injections over 10 days that can be self administered by an epipen. I really think we are close to testing things like that.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Question 1: What would the you of 20 years ago be most surprised that the you of today is using from a technological standpoint?

Question 2: What is your one bold prediction for technology for 2040? So 20 years from now, what will yourself of 20 years from now be shocked that yourself from today didn't know about?

My answers:

1. Spotify. As a collector of CDs I would never thought that all music would be in one place.

2. Flying cars. I don't think it'll even happen so 2040 I will be shocked when we all own one.

1. Phones. I don’t think I could begin to describe to myself in 2000 the relationship the world would come to have with their phones.

2a. I would hope that we see a major breakthrough in nuclear energy. It seems like the only way to solve our energy needs and climate security needs at the same time. Fusion is a pipe dream until it isn’t.

2b. I don’t think self driving cars are going to have the impact people think they will.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Sled

1. Good Porn

2. Better Porn

The way things are going it'll be the last way to know what human interaction was

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

The way things are going it'll be the last way to know what human interaction was

heh, Speaking of human interaction, I think travel as we know it won't exist because there will be cameras everywhere allowing for real-time virtual visits. You'll be able to just hang out with someone on the other side of the country for a few hours at night and actual physical travel will be viewed as a hipster deal (in terms of desire and ability to do so).

[GomerPile]

1. I can't believe the Spotify/Netflix age. It is truly bafffling that I don't have to record the radio to get the latest hits on a tape. Or wear out my one tape, or cd through numerous listenings.

2. By 2040, the majority of the major motion pictures/tv/music will be geared to the largest consumers of it. China. We will all be watching our favorite shows with subtitles.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by GomerPile

1. I can't believe the Spotify/Netflix age. It is truly bafffling that I don't have to record the radio to get the latest hits on a tape. Or wear out my one tape, or cd through numerous listenings.

2. By 2040, the majority of the major motion pictures/tv/music will be geared to the largest consumers of it. China. We will all be watching our favorite shows with subtitles.

Not a chance. AI will have an easy time of recreating everything in any language.