Limitations fade as boundaries are broken. If we can avoid extinction and continue building bridges to tomorrow, our relationship with time, nature, technology, and each other will uncork unknowns and light a path to our neon future.
Robotics
With AI in the brain and emotions that curate a personality, robots are advancing to go beyond isolated tasks. Cyborgs will turn knobs at work, with humanoids completing chores at home. With the mundane covered, the role of humans can shift toward leading whenever ingenuity is required. With full access to robotic efficiencies, economies will shift and the human touch will be even more luxurious. Leaders who welcome technology, yet never lose touch with the soul of their art, will be the hybrids who prevail.
Biotech
As technology interfaces with human biology, a bionic age will alter the laws of nature. When the electrical impulse from a thought is all that’s required to prompt action, the speed at which data can move is unfathomable. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and other forms of neurotech are already treating disease and restoring movement by reconnecting the nervous systems. Most people don’t want to be first, but when might a routine doctor visit include individualized diagnostics and software updates to the nanotechnologies inside your body? When every cell has a microscopic computer connected to it, the resource consumption is diffused by DNA computing and the mysteries of health care are solved.
Material Science
The atomic levels of technology has already connected intelligence to so many things we interact with everyday. We see how the Internet of Things (IoT) adds digital depth to our physical world and as the cost and size of technology continues to shrink, the periodic table will be the playground. We already have materials used in roads that transfer the force of vehicles to batteries. The energy is stored and converts to energy used to light the street at night. This example of elemental exploration and creative recycling is only a flicker to the flame of alternative energies and improved storage methods that can quench our planet’s thirst for energy, while eliminating a dangerous dependency on limited resources. The universe provides everything we need. It’s up to us to squeeze improvements from elements that are waiting to arrive at their full potential.
Quantum Computing
When “or” becomes “and”, a bizarre world of duality is unveiled. The computing aspect within quantum mechanics uses quantum bits, or qubits, to solve complex problems with measured superpositions, entanglement, and interference. Dig in to learn more, but the superpositions found in quantum computing mimics complexity with simulations that include all possible solutions at once. This is not a more powerful, number crunching supercomputer. Quantum computers represent a whole new approach to harnessing the atomic and subatomic levels of physics. A scientific asset that eliminates secrets presents a mixed blessing. With the chemistry of life mapped, medicine may solve disease. Machine learning can be fully adorned and the universal potential of material science will be realized. At the same time, current cryptography and the encryption standards that provide security online is at risk. Increased checkpoints, biometric confirmation, photon distribution keys, and other post-quantum encryption standards are being tested to ensure the world is ready for hardware to keep qubits cold enough to unlock a world-changing partnership between classical and quantum computing.
Life Extension
Quantifying the cosmic depths of our own kind will give us ways to experience time in more profound ways. Instead of hoping to reverse the effects of aging, food, medicine, and augmented activities will engrain longevity from start to finish. When aging is countered over time, the human body may not hold up forever, but living more than 100 years will be normalized. As we live longer, how might agriculture, infrastructure, education, healthcare, economies, and our global climate adapt? Many who plan for this longevity will be primed to meet new demands in existing industries. The quixotic leaders will explore less obvious opportunities and convert unexpected challenges into new industries as well.
Outer Space
The cosmos make us feel small, yet limitless wonder helps us think big. As bionic humans and quantum computing improves material science, a robot-supported species can be multi-planetary. The origins of astronomy are prehistoric, but off-planet exploration began when machines first visited space in the 1940s, then humans in the 1960s. Scientific exploration led to a commercial space industry that has propelled an excursion throughout our solar system and beyond. Today, orbiting observatories are looking toward the origins of the universe, with life on Earth’s moon and Mars seemingly inevitable. As we interact further into the void, celestial frontiers can provide added stability for the human race and extend life on earth. Cosmic research, travel, communication, resources, manufacturing, logistics, and tourism must all be addressed by international leaders united by shared intentions, on behalf of all humankind.
There are untold innovations not conceptualized yet, but these bridges to tomorrow all signal progress. Widespread adoption is never straightforward, but listening suspends belief and continuous steps forward can transcend invisible lines for us to work as one. This compounds potential as future generations pilot the world toward our neon future.
