In today's ever-changing technology, anything we find impossible has the potential to become a reality, just as 100 years ago, when people could not imagine the prosperity of the Internet today. So what are the new technologies that are likely to emerge in the next 100 years?
Here are ten predictions that scientists today are making about life before 2100, and if they come true, they will turn the world upside down.
1. Contact lenses with Internet access
Appeared before 2030
Forecaster: Babak M. From the University of Washington, Seattle Professor A. Parviz
Can you imagine one day surfing the Internet as simple as blinking your eyes? One contact lens that Professor Parviz is currently working on may make you understand that anything is possible. This new type of contact lens is lined with a collection of LEDs. Parviz said: "These LED combinations can form a variety of images in front of the eyes. Most of the material of this glasses is translucent, and people can wear it freely. ”
The glasses will also recognize people's facial features and show the lives of those they see, and will also translate one language into another so that people can read the subtitles displayed on the lenses. Perhaps the students preparing for the final exam will be the first customers of this contact lens, and I believe that it will also be loved by science fiction fans.
2. Human organ store
Forecaster: Dr. Anthony Attala, Wake Forest University
In the unfortunate event of a car accident or illness, people can order spare organs grown from their own cells from the "Human Organ Store".
Scientists can now grow cartilage, nose, ears, bones, skin, blood vessels and heart valves. They developed their first bladder 4 years ago and the first trachea last year. In the next 5 years or so, scientists will be able to grow livers. Dr Atala said: "What we can foresee is that in the future it will be possible to provide ready-made organs, people only need to take out the damaged organs and then implant the new organs they need to be bred. ”
3. Mind reading
Forecaster: Kendrick Kaye of the University of California, Berkeley
Current technology allows for the implantation of a chip into the brain of a stroke paralysis patient and connecting the chip to a laptop. These patients will eventually learn how to use their minds to edit emails, play video games, and surf the web.
Kay is compiling a "dictionary of ideas," and he's developed a computer program that can crack brainwave signals. "It would be possible to identify a particular image seen by a patient from a large pile of images, and to restore that image simply by detecting the activity of their brain," he said. ”
Japan's Honda once built a robot that allows employees wearing helmets to control the robot's activities through their minds.
4. Resurrection of extinct animals
Appeared before 2070
Predictor: Dr. Robert Lanza, an American advanced cell technology company
In the future we will be able to have zoos that house extinct animals. Lanza was able to extract usable DNA from the carcasses of animals that had been dead for 25 years, implant that DNA into cow egg cells, and nine months later, a cloned animal was born. In this way, the species is resurrected.
Even though Neanderthals have been dead for tens of thousands of years, their DNA has been deciphered, so scientists are debating whether to revive them. Lanza argues: "If we have the tools to control genes, it will theoretically be possible to use genes to revive species." The question is, should we do this? ”
5. Delay aging
Forecaster: Dr. Leonard Gualente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Although no one has been able to find the elixir, scientists can now analyze and tease out the process of cellular aging from a genetic and molecular point of view. Many genes that affect the speed of aging have been found in yeast cells, fruit flies, and worms.
Scientists have extended the lives of insects, rats, rabbits, dogs, cats and monkeys through "heat control." That is, if you reduce their caloric intake by 30% when feeding them, you can extend their lifespan by 30%. Gualente discovered the SIR2 gene, which has the potential to explain the mystery of "heat control."
6. Deformation
Appeared: 2100 years ago
Forecaster: Jason Campelli, Intel Corporation, USA
In the movie "Terminator 2" or "X-Men", there are scenes of shape deformation, and this is also the dream of scientists who study "programmable matter". They made an electrical chip the size of a pin cap for a pin, a nanoscale microcomputer called "catoms." These computer chips are programmed, which can be combined in different ways depending on the given charge.
Campeli said: "For example, my phone looks too big in my pocket, and it is too small if I play with it in my hand. If I have as many (programmable) chips as 200 to 300 milliliters, then I can always get the phone into the shape I want. Justin Ratner, a senior researcher at Intel Corporation, said: "In the next 40 years, this will become a very common technology. ”
So at Christmas time, all we need to do is download the software for our gifts, and then press the button and the gifts appear.
7. Build a starship
Forecaster: Mason Peck, Ph.D., Cornell University
Stars are so far away that even the nearest one would take our rocket more than 70,000 years to reach. But Peck believes the first starship will be a tiny computer chip the size of a fingernail.
Even if only a small number of chips reach the star, that's enough to send back valuable information. Dr. Peck's idea is to send millions of chips around Jupiter so that the powerful magnetic field around Jupiter will be able to accelerate them to "tens of thousands of kilometers per second," and he thinks this speed can be increased indefinitely until it is close to the speed of light.
8. Defeat cancer
Predictor: Leroy Hodder, Seattle Institute for Systems Biology
Now, when a tumor is found in the chest, it may already have 10 billion cancer cells. But in the future, the protein released by a few hundred cancer cells could be recognized by DNA chips installed in toilets, which would advance the discovery of tumors by 10 years. From then on, the word "tumor" will disappear from the world.
The way people check up will also change. Hodder once wrote: "In June 2018, Sally took out a small device, pressed it on her finger, and took a small drop of blood. With this drop of blood, 2,000 different tests can be performed and the data wirelessly sent to a remote computer for analysis... Micro devices will detect thousands of blood components, and DNA sequencers will be able to quickly decipher an individual's genome. ”
In addition, scientists have developed "nanoparticles", which are miniature molecules. These molecules can destroy cancer cells like smart bombs. In past trials, 90% of cancer cells have been killed in this way, which will make a fundamental change in cancer treatment.
9. Fusion of humans and robots
Forecaster: Rodney Brooks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In the coming years, robots may have the same intelligence as mice, cats or dogs, or even monkeys. By that time, some people thought robots might be dangerous. It has been suggested that we should plant chips in their "brains" so that once they have evil thoughts, they can be turned off. But some people say, why do different robots fuse? And that's exactly what Brooks, who was the head of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab.
"In the 50 years from now, we will be able to see fundamental changes in the human body through genetic modification," he said. Human populations will change in ways that people can't imagine today. We will find ourselves no longer limited by Darwinian evolution. My prediction is that by 2100, our daily lives will be filled with intelligent robots, and humans will not be able to distinguish themselves from them, and we will also be robots, interconnected with robots. ”
The advantage of this is that one day when you wake up, you will find that your body is perfect: beautiful, super strong and immortal.
10. Space elevator
Forecaster: Bradley Edwards, founder of Carbon Design
Imagine one day you walk into an elevator and press the ascend button to go into outer space, isn't that cool? This is the space elevator, which will make the dream of opening up the universe to tourists a reality.
At present, it takes about 50,000 or 30,000 yuan to launch an object weighing about 2 or 2 kilograms into low Earth orbit, but the space elevator can greatly reduce costs and allow ordinary people to travel in space.
The space elevator's manned capsule is capable of moving on tens of millions of meters of cable, which is held in place by the centrifugal force generated by the earth's rotation. The emergence of carbon nanotubes is another step towards the realization of this dream. Edwards has shown that using nanotechnology can make super-powerful cables that can support space elevators.
"Building a 200-ton elevator is a reasonable idea and has commercial value," he said. A 200-ton space elevator is the size of a large business jet. The size of the space elevator depends entirely on our wishes and is not limited by any physical aspect. ”