Futurists in the ’90s predicted we’d be living underwater or riding flying cars by this point — but now experts are warning of an even more terrifying future.
DailyMail.com spoke to tech experts who have predicted what the world will look like in 2050 — and some fear that artificial intelligence has enslaved humans or that climate change will make large swathes of the world uninhabitable.
Other predictions include making contact with aliens – but whether or not this is a bad thing remains unknown.
However, it is not all bleak, as technology is expected to make the afterlife possible.
Here are eight things that will happen by the middle of this century — for good and bad:
By 2050, AI will have a profound impact on society – and may even take over to become the dominant species
AI “masters” can turn everyone into serfs
Right now, people are focusing on artificial intelligence potentially causing job losses — but the reality could be much worse.
This is according to George Stakhov, chief strategy officer of global advertising agency DDB EMEA who has created an AI tool called The Non-Creative Agency.
“People tend to overestimate the effects of new technology in the short term and underestimate those effects in the long term,” said Stakhov. “This is known as the law of architecture.
At present, we are at the peak of the AI hype, and people are afraid that white-collar jobs will be destroyed by GPT-4 in the next few years. This seems like an exaggeration.
But by 2050, artificial intelligence will have “profoundly” reshaped the world, Stakhov warns.
He said: ‘There is a dark future for AI where those who control AI will gain immense power, while 99 percent of the population will be disenfranchised. The AI lords will control the world’s data and turn the rest of us into their slaves.
The alternative is a smart AI scenario, where everyone benefits from AI through better healthcare, faster transportation, and less pollution.
Machines will really do most of the work and basic wages will become commonplace, allowing us to enjoy more leisure time and realize ourselves as human beings. This will require a fundamental change in society and in our approach to education.
Reality will likely end up somewhere between a dark AI future and a bright future.
People will have chips implanted inside their bodies
Implantation of chips in your body will be commonplace by 2050
By 2050, people will typically implant chips inside their bodies and “improve” themselves, says Heather Delaney, founder of Gallium Ventures, a PR and communications consultancy in London.
The chips will monitor conditions inside the body and enable people to stay in touch with their health.
Delaney already has a basic chip implanted in her hand that enables her to unlock doors.
She said: ‘Looking ahead to 2050, I expect to see growth in a number of areas in technology including biohacking, which is a form of human augmentation or (do-it-yourself) augmentation, where people try to alter aspects of their biology to improve it. their health, performance or well-being.
I am already included in this community, having a chip implanted in my hand, which enables me to open doors and connect people to my company website, social media and some examples.
Delaney believes that biohacking will be common in the future – and will enable people to improve their health.
Heather has a chip implanted in her body
“By using biohacking, we should be at the point where users can better understand how their bodies interact with health and fitness regimes along with how a drug affects the body, including when the drug hits the bloodstream and stomach walls,” she says. “.
People can “live” after death thanks to artificial intelligence
Dr. Ajaz Ali, chair of the Department of Business and Computing at Ravensbourne University, says that relatives who die may not die in the future.
A powerful AI will “capture” people using motion capture tools and recordings, turning people into a “digital twin” of themselves who can “live” after death.
Dr. Ali said, “By linking AI with digital technologies and motion capture tools, our awareness, knowledge and experience will be transferred to our digital twins.
Using tools based on NLP that will be more advanced than ChatGPT and Bard, people will be able to interact with these digital twins in real time and benefit from their knowledge and ideas.
Their loved ones can continue to interact with their relatives who are already dead but exist in the form of a digital twin.
Custom TV Shows created by AI just for them
Are we going to enjoy TV shows that were created just for us?
By 2050, we may all be watching different TV shows and movies — customized to our desires and created by artificial intelligence, says Matt Littler, founder and CEO of ARK Immersive — a virtual reality production, technology startup based in Liverpool.
Littler believes long-dead movie stars will also stay on screen thanks to AI technology – so people will continue to watch their childhood stars into old age.
Littler sayid: “TV and movies will start to use artificial intelligence — think along the lines of ChatGPT — it’s possible that by extrapolating our social feeds — looking at the things we like and interact with, our lived times and search history, that we’ll soon start offering personalized media, shows, and content The request is not limited to anyone other than us.
This will be generated for the end user in AI; Entire TV shows, characters, and story arcs, created with AI, and actors we love playing roles that appeal to us, with endings that resonate. It wouldn’t be small scale either, without budget constraints, AI could dream of creating big properties like Marvel.
Humans will upload their minds to computers and live
Ray Kurzweil thinks the singularity is near (Getty)
Futurist and former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil — who claims to have an 86 percent success rate in predictions — says man will merge with machine by 2025.
In an event he describes as the “singularity,” Kurzweil predicts that robots will pass the Turing test in 2029, and by 2045, people will connect their brains to machines.
Kurzweil said, “2029 is the fixed date I predicted when artificial intelligence would pass a valid Turing test and thus achieve human intelligence levels.
I set the date 2045 for the “singularity” which is the time when we multiply our effective intelligence a billionfold by merging with the intelligence we created.
We’ll all be wearing AI’s talking glasses
The glasses, which are similar to regular prescription glasses and will be able to answer any question, says Alexander Nick, director of Future Labs at EdTech company GoStudent.
Within the next decade, glasses that look like regular prescription glasses will arrive (they will be adopted first by eyeglass wearers.
These will provide on-screen tips such as email notifications and directions, but they will evolve quickly.
Nick says, “The way we communicate with computers will evolve. Keep in mind that in the beginning users had to use punch cards to get things done. Then keyboard and mouse and finally voice input.”
The next stage will be vision, that is, allowing computers to see. It will become a mainstream input stream, allowing people to ask human-like questions related to the visual image and point to something they need help with. For example, you will take a photo to ask “What’s broken and how can I fix it?” “,” How many of these vegetables should I eat to get enough nutrients and vitamins? , “Is this pineapple ripe?” “What is this?” Are these expenses exempt from tax? “
We will have found intelligent aliens
Seth Shostak predicted that we will find aliens by 2050
Astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project bets his fellow astronomers a cup of coffee on We Should Find Aliens Within Twenty Years in his 2012 Ted Talk.
This means we could be in touch with ET by the year 2036 (and Shostak stands for intelligent life, rather than microbes or something like that).
Since then, Shostak has doubled down on his predictions, saying that the new measurements indicate there may be billions of Earth-like worlds out there.
That means if Earth is the only place where life exists, it’s like winning a lottery where the odds are billion to one, Shostak says.
Shostak says, “This may be the strongest argument for life in space. Because, if nothing, there is something really exceptional about what happened here on Earth.” Although the data doesn’t rule it out, it seems a little selfish.
UFOs have been in the news lately – but could an alien species reach Earth in the next 50 years?
Large tracts of land may be uninhabitable
Higher humidity and higher heat will lead to heat waves as it is nearly impossible for humans to survive outdoors in regions including South Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, according to NASA.
By 2070, this will also be true in regions of Brazil and China.
“Wet bulb” temperatures refer to conditions where the temperature and humidity are high, making it difficult to survive outdoors.
Humans can withstand temperatures of up to 50°C when the humidity is low, but at high humidity, humans cannot survive because there is no way to cool off by sweating.
Even very strong and fit people die in a matter of hours.
