Ten ideas that will define our future
Ten ideas to shape our future
Michio Kaku, The Times, 23 April 2011
Translation: InopressaWhat innovations will enter the life of earthlings by 2100?
The predictions on the pages of The Times are made by Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York.
He expects several important discoveries by 2030. So, no later than this time, contact lenses with Internet access should appear. Professor Babak A.Parviz from the University of Washington (Seattle) is working on a prototype of such a device. In an interview with The Times, he explained that the image will be formed "in front of the eye" with the help of translucent LEDs that do not interfere with vision. The device will be able to recognize faces, perform automatic translation from foreign languages and display other information in the field of view.
At the same time, it is expected that various "spare parts" for the human body will be available for free sale. Even today, scientific achievements allow us to create cartilage, bones, skin, ears, noses, blood vessels, heart valves, bladders and trachea. This is done as follows: cells taken from the patient's body are sown on a sponge-like plastic base. After adding a growth catalyst, the cells begin to multiply, and the base gradually resolves, Dr. Anthony Atala from Wake Forest University told the publication.
Further, by 2030, humanity may have mastered telepathy. Even today, the paralyzed are implanted in the brain with microchips, with the help of which they are trained by the effort of thought to write emails, play video games and surf the Internet; Honda Corporation engineers have created a robot controlled by the same principle. Kendrick Kay from the University of California at Berkeley is working on a "dictionary of thinking": "It is possible that it will soon be possible to reconstruct the picture of a person's visual experience using measurements of brain activity alone," he says.
There is a possibility that by 2070 it will be possible to bring extinct animals back to life," continues Kaku. Experts were able to clone the animal using DNA samples taken from the remains 25 years after its death. At the moment, the Neanderthal genome has already been decoded, and there is talk in the scientific community about the prospects for the revival of this species. "I think it will be possible when we have the tools for genetic manipulation. And theoretically, we will have such tools sooner or later. The question is whether it needs to be done," Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology Corporation describes the essence of the discussions.
By 2070, the emergence of technologies that can slow down human aging is also expected. Experiments on animals and insects have shown that a 30% prolongation of life can be achieved by "calorie restriction" by the same 30%.
By 2100, scientists' dreams of "programmable matter" may come true, which will allow objects to change shape, just as the robot did in the movie "Terminator-2". To date, special microchips the size of a pinhead, the so-called "catoms", have already been created. By changing the electric charge, they can regroup, thanks to which they take the form of a sheet of paper, then a cup, then a fork, then a plate, the newspaper claims. The author of the article dreams of a time when "whole cities will rise in the desert at the touch of a button."
At the beginning of the XXII century, a spacecraft suitable for traveling to the stars will appear, scientists hope. Perhaps at first it will be small, "the size of a fingernail", but very fast, capable of moving at near-light speeds, computers that can be sent out in millions across space.
At the same time, Earth's civilization may be victorious over cancer. Kaku associates these expectations with a breakthrough in the field of diagnostics: DNA chips built into the toilet bowl will allow you to notice the disease at an early stage. To fight cancer cells (the word "tumor" will disappear from the English language by this time, he is convinced), smart bombs made in the form of "nanoparticles" will be thrown, test samples of which are already available today.
Rodney Brooks from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology expects a "merger with robots" by 2100: "In 50 years we will witness radical changes in the human body with the help of genetic modifications... We will no longer be limited by Darwinian evolution... By the year 2100, very intelligent robots will enter our daily lives everywhere. But we will not be separated from them – rather, we ourselves will partly become robots and will be connected with robots," the expert predicts.
At about the same time, there should be a breakthrough in space tourism associated with the creation of a space elevator. It is assumed that this invention will reduce the cost of cargo delivery to near-Earth orbit by a hundred times, as a result of which space travel will become available to the average person. The cabin will rise into the sky on a cable thousands of miles long, held by centrifugal force from the rotation of the Earth. The recent discovery of carbon nanotubes gave hope for the implementation of this project. "There are no physical obstacles," says Bradley Edwards, founder of Carbon Designs.
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