Without the notion of time, we cannot grasp existence. That’s why the human being tends to always situate himself under temporality as on a safe floorwhich lets you know where you came from, where you are, and where you are going.
It is perhaps the third time, the one from the future, the one that causes the most obsessions. It is true that history as a discipline was built on the curiosity of inquiring into past times, but wondering about the future is something that involves even greater uncertaintywhich sometimes borders on mania.
That is why in every culture there has always been someone who, from their own technique or method, seeks to know what the future holds for us. In ancient times, numerous indigenous groups of Mesoamerica threw corn grains to predict the futurewhich they read as they fell on a shell.
Without dismissing other techniques, today we can perhaps approach the future with greater certaintybecause we can accurately predict what will happen, at least in a few decades and on some very specific topics.
Thanks to science, we can know with some certainty some things that the future holds for us by 2050.
We know that by the middle of the century there will be approximately 9 billion people, a figure that borders on the incredible and that helps scientists from different branches to make solid hypotheses about what the year 2050 will be like. The Big Think portal he asked some of them what life will be like in just over 3 decadeson the topics of greatest interest.
These were some of the bets on the future, by the most prominent scientists:
How will we live?
According to biologist and mathematician Joel Cohen, by 2050 the majority of people in the world will live in urban areas, and it is very likely that these will be larger than the current average.
Contrary to the exaggerated perspectives with which our parents imagined the year 2000, with flying cars and things sci fi similarly, urban specialists like Bill Mitchell think that technological advances will make our ways of life more discreet and perhaps personalized. Cars will drive themselves and there will be faster transportation, and life in general will be more governed by artificial intelligence. But no: there will be no flying cars either.
How will the communications be?
The Internet will continue to radically transform media and life. Perhaps that will have a direct impact on the forms of social organization, who knows?
According to Daniel Okrent, author and editor of the New York Timesthe Internet will continue to open alliances and gaps through which all types of individuals will be able to communicate in an increasingly broad and professional manner, which will transform the media.
Thus, technology is likely to make us more purposeful and active and lead to positive social change. For Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Center, future generations will be less and less likely to be empty consumers of information and entertainment, to become active users of technology.
And climate change?
It should not be forgotten that according to some predictions, some of which include mathematical calculations, it is likely that by the year 2100 we will be extinct due, in large part, to the environmental crisis. For environmentalist Bill McKibben, if we do not combat climate change, it is likely that by 2050 we will see worrying rises in the level of the oceans, which will endanger islands like the Philippines. In addition, the depletion of resources will cause wars for them; for example, by fresh water.
But technology can help us
It is likely that as Charles Ebinger, director of the Energy Security Initiative, points out, as a technological society we will all be more involved in the production and distribution of clean energy than there will be, since buildings and houses will be more efficient in this sense, and technology will it will help manage energy and our own lives around it.
And as oceanographer Sylvia Earle says, perhaps technology like Google Earth will get to the point of making it easier for people to care for the planet, for example, by being ocean conservationists.
How long will we live?
According to Patricia Bloom, associate professor at MT Sinai Hospital, we will live longer and be healthier. We won’t live to be 120 years old, but we may be much healthier at unsuspected ages, like our 90s and even our 100s.
It is difficult to know what will happen to some diseases and epidemics, since trying to predict whether a cure for cancer or HIV will have been found by 2050 would be doing a lot of futurology. However, it is likely that due to the increase in population in cities, green markets and orchards will become a necessity and populate the cities. Specialists like Nina Plank, creator of green markets, believe that there will be a more regional culture around food: something like what mass movements such as Slow Food are already proposing. That will make the inhabitants of the future much healthier.
What to conclude?
In general, everything points to the fact that 2050 could be a future where we will have evolved and will be able to create better connected and more efficient societies, where perhaps even stronger collective ties of cooperation will be forged.
Utopian? We hope not. Technology can and should emancipate us. But it will also be important that we always live in the present, both today and in 3 decades, because this is how a good life is built: in the here and now.
* Photography: Marcus Soriano
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