This is a part 2 of What will life be like in 100 years. In part 1, I talk about how life will be immensely different from today in terms of housing, travel, food, energy, health and so on.
But the differences don’t end there. There’s a lot more where that comes from. Technology really touches all aspects of life and as we progress further into the 21st century, it will have a deeper role in shaping the entire world.
Let’s take a look at some more changes that we or our future generations will get to experience.
1. Computers
Computers will always be one of the most influential and major milestones in our human history. This invention might just have changed our entire course and possibly the reason why we are able to even envision a future consisting of flying cars and printable organs.
In a few years from now, we will reach the limit of how small we can go in terms of microprocessors and that will spark another revolution in the computing world. We will gradually shift towards quantum computing that will increase our computing prowess by millions of times.
To be able to achieve all the exotic technologies of the future, quantum computing will be of utmost importance. Along with that, a fully functioning general purpose AI will simply change everything (again) for us humans.
Not only will it affect the society but will also affect our economics, financial and perhaps one day, even our political structure. Many experts peg 2050 as the year of the singularity which means when AI will finally be more intelligent than us.
The positives include a totally automated and smart life where everything is done for you. It will even make scientific breakthroughs on its own possibly making it our ultimate invention.
2. Jobs
This point is related to the previous one. After AI spreads its reach everywhere, many jobs will be obsolete. Automation will be the biggest reason in the future for loss of jobs. But if history has shown us anything, it is that we can persevere.
We, as humans will need to reexamine our purpose and how we can provide value to the society. Based on that, new jobs will emerge that we can’t even think of now. Also, jobs will be more creative where human intuition and emotions will play a big role.
3. Robots
By the end of 21st century, walking talking robots will be very common. They will be in our homes, in our offices, in the military and even space. If they do not decide to rise against us and do not eradicate us till then, I think their presence will be beneficial for us.
Of course, the downsides are there which I talked about in the previous point but robots are something that are quickly becoming a part of our reality especially with so many companies investing and researching heavily in this field.
If you could time travel to 2117, the world would be so much similar to the one shown in the movie I, Robot. I think that movie paints the perfect picture of what’s to come.
4. Money
With the internet and computers more easily accessible to the third world countries, almost everyone will be online and reaping the benefits of the convenience it brings with it.
Cash as we know it will be gone and only online transactions will be done. This is already being done throughout the world so one might think what new could happen in this area.
Well, it wouldn’t surprise me if in the future, we used fiat only in rare cases and cryptocurrency was everyone’s favoured method of transacting. Cryptocurrency, as we all know, is really getting popular day by day and in the future, everyone might be using it in all walks of life.
Also, if automation results in a widespread loss of jobs, we might see some form of Universal Basic Income, i.e. the government will give every citizen a fixed sum of money for basically being a citizen.
5. Space Exploration
This is one of the things that excites me most. As you may know, humanity has already started concentrating its efforts towards colonisation of Mars and establishing bases on moon. Different institutions have different predictions of when we will finally do it but rest assured by the end of 21st century, we will have done it.
Till then, civilisations 2.0 will be well under way on Mars which will have a self sustaining human population. Whether or not we are able to terraform Mars into a more Earth like planet is a different question.
Also, we will have multiple bases on the Moon by then and our space exploration will be a full fledged effort focused towards finding life (if we don’t already find it by then) and looking towards colonising even more planets.
Also, space tourism will be a normal thing and you could easily book a family vacation to Mars or the Moon. It would be as easy as going to any country in the world today, but only a thousand times more awesome!
6. Language
Today there are roughly 6,500 languages spoken in the world today but many people believe that, that number will drastically reduce over the coming century. We are already observing that many languages are disappearing, partly because not many people speak those languages.
UNESCO believes that half of today’s languages will disappear by 2100. We will have recorded proofs of those languages but there simply won’t be anybody speaking them anymore and their traces will only be found in museums one day.
As the world develops and globalisation becomes more prevalent, there will be fewer and fewer languages. Some even say that we might have only a hundred languages left till 2117. Time will tell.
What do you think life will be like after a century? Chime in down below!