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[Geektimes-style] Our tech future: predictions from experts

From the earliest times of mankind, people have sought to look into the future. Everything went into business: witchcraft, predictions, astrology, astronomy, religion, etc. Throughout history, we have sought to find out what will happen next - either in order to have time to lay straws, or out of natural curiosity. In fact, the future is always a hope for the future, for a better, for a more perfect world, and people always strive to bring it closer. Today, many fantastic ideas are not based on dreams and fortune-telling, but are seen as the evolutionary result of the work of scientists. Therefore, for many of us, it’s even a little boring to read forecasts: we are almost sure that everything that seems miraculous and unrealizable fantasy today will be operational tomorrow. And it’s still scary that we did not learn to accurately and reliably predict relatively simple and dangerous events - as you can see,humanity is sometimes taken by surprise. Today, there are some boring predictions that seem to really be able to change our lives. 


Medicine


The first and main field of such forecasts from corporations and scientists is medicine. And it’s not at all because the world is waiting for the coveted vaccine or an ideal treatment regimen for the coronavirus infection COVID-19, no. While we are covering our faces from the fashion virus, hundreds of thousands of people suffer from complex diseases that are not treatable or amenable to, but weakly, actually at the level of palliative care. Already today there are microrobots that travel with the camera through the gastrointestinal tract, there are smart bioptoms, sophisticated medications and unique operation technologies - something that even seemed to our parents fantastic. But there are still many problems. And the world is waiting for the “production” of these inventions.

Cancer Detecting Tablets


This prediction has very good chances to come true: in 2014, the Google X Lab announced the work on a tablet that will release microscopic particles into the blood that can detect cancer and the likelihood of a heart attack long before these ailments manifest themselves in the usual way. A commendable initiative, if Google succeeds, then development can save millions of lives.

▍ Neuro prostheses


Back in 2001, they wrote about a project, in the framework of which they were going to test a neuro prosthesis - an artificial hippocampus. The silicon processor had to take on the functions of this damaged part of the brain. Many years have passed, but no breakthroughs have yet been heard. However, who knows: the aforementioned startup Kernel was aiming at the release of brain implants. Perhaps in the future we will be able to get artificial brains. The scarecrow is indignant.


▍ Tissue Examination in Seconds


Scientists from the UK have already developed a “smart needle” that can accelerate the detection and diagnosis of cancer, but so far this is still a project from the future, because years sometimes go from experimental development to full-fledged putting into practice.


The prototype of the new smart needle University of Exeter / PA The

needle is a diagnostic method that is carried out using a low-power laser penetrating the beam into the studied part of the body. Such a “needle” can diagnose certain types of cancer (for example, lymphoma) in a few seconds and the patient will not have to wait for a long restless few days when the biopsy results come. This speed is due to the ability to measure molecular changes in tissue with a smart needle.

▍ Alternative to biopsy


At the University of Vermont, scientists and specialists in computer technology and robotics are working on tiny hybrid robots created using stem cells from frog embryos. In fact, scientists are creating a new class of "creatures": not a living organism and not a robot in the classical sense, but a living organism that can be programmed. 


Douglas Blackiston / Tufts University / PA

Such robots are supposed to be used for diagnostics, for transporting drugs to the necessary organs, as well as for environmental tasks, for example, for collecting microplastics in the oceans. 

I’ll take up my own prediction: in view of the events of 2020, in the near future we will see many breakthrough technologies in medicine, in particular in diagnostics, in maintaining respiratory function and in matters of infection protection. 

However, all of these innovations can only remain laboratory studies for a very long time - and not so much because of technological difficulties, but for ethical reasons. In general, the question of ethics often gets in the way of the rapid development of scientific thought - and it is important to understand that this is atavism, an inhibiting factor from the past or a measure that should always go hand in hand with science. The question is complex, and so far there is no single answer to it. 

Technologies


There is the widest range of predictions in technologies: from an engineering-verified (but not yet very marketable) hyperlope to incredible forecasts of cosmic events, which we just won’t be able to verify, because they will happen in billions of years. Nevertheless, they are exciting, interesting and quite scientifically based. To predict future technologies and future technologies, scientists use complex mathematical models, analytical methods, and create simulation programs. An interesting situation is created: progress works for progress.

▍ Rings around Mars like Saturn


We are unlikely to succeed in verifying the accuracy of this prediction. The appearance of rings around Mars in the image of Saturn depends on how successfully Phobos works: it gradually approaches the surface of Mars and in 20-40 million years it either falls on it or breaks up into many fragments, which eventually form dust rings. 

▍ Telepathy


Ian Pearson has been practicing futurism for several decades, they say, on a professional level. He is confident that in the not too distant future, technology will allow us to communicate mentally. Ian believes that we can choose thoughts and send them to the brain of another person, much like we send emails over the network. By the way, today there is a startup with the speaking name Kernel offering the Neuroscience as a Service (NaaS) service: the authors claim that they can read and decode brain activity, that is, within certain (very narrow) limits to read human thoughts.

▍ Transparent walls in airplanes


The engineers of the British company Center for Process Innovation believe that in 10-15 years commercial airliners will lose window windows. The fact is that each window unit is quite heavy, and if you get rid of the windows, this will significantly facilitate the plane, which means it will save fuel. And in general, the design will become stronger and simpler, because window openings reduce the strength of the case. And so that we do not feel like sprats in the bank (and fully reveal themselves as sparrows-aerial bullets), the walls will be entirely covered with ultra-light flexible screens on which the surrounding space will be projected. For those who are scared by the prospect of flying in an armchair through the clouds, there will be an opportunity to turn off their segment of the screen. In general, one question remains: are you afraid of heights?



▍ Dust tracking your every move


Chris Pister, an IT specialist at the University of California, back in the 1990s put forward the idea of ​​“smart dust”: tiny sensors, almost indistinguishable by the eye, that will record everything that happens around. That's all. Total surveillance of the world, in every corner. According to Pister, it seems that the best friend of the person in the future will be a vacuum cleaner.



▍ Before renovation heals


Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder have already created experimental prototypes of living concrete - a complex hydrogel mixture of sand, bacteria and a special gel. This building material must be durable and have the ability to repair itself . The project team expects that live concrete will allow the creation of structures and buildings that can "heal their own cracks, suck out dangerous toxins from the air or even glow on command." And of course, concrete will be extremely environmentally friendly unlike a modern ancestor. 


By the way, did you know that concrete is the second most consumed material on Earth after water?

▍Communication with dead relatives in virtual reality


No, no, we did not slide towards the end of the post into esotericism and mysticism - we are still strictly on duty in a scientific direction. The icon and mastermind of modern futurism, Raymond Kurzweil, despite his old age as a director of engineering at Google, believes that in the future it will be possible to digitize the minds of dying people so that their relatives can communicate with them after the death of the physical body. Kurzweil considers this method, though not too realistic, but still better than photographs and video recordings. And in this place it is worth again returning to ethical issues, which, at the very first preprint, will tighten religion and morality to this completely scientific task. 


Ecology and biology


This is the most unusual area for forecasts for the future. Only in it can the task of the future become ... an exact reproduction of the past. For example, the creation of mammoth clones based on preserved DNA, the study of plants that began life on the planet with the first animals, the reconstruction of the entire chain of the origin of life and evolution. 

▍ Forest fire, stall


Extinguishing forest fires is an environmental and technological problem: the fire spreads very quickly, its areas are huge, the wind and forest structure help him. In service - airplanes with chemical extinguishing agents (less commonly) or airplanes with water from a nearby (or not very) large body of water. Sometimes the process looks completely helpless and only rains can solve the problem - the volume of water in the "belly" of the aircraft is too small. 

Now scientists are working to ensure that forest fires are eliminated by drones with the help of sound. The technology is simple: sound is a powerful wave that will destroy, cut to the limit the air near the fire, thereby blocking the oxygen necessary for combustion. If you select the right frequency, the fire quickly and spectacularly goes out. Scientists from George Mason University in Virginia have already been able to demonstrate the fundamental work of the invention (it seems that the basses are winning so far):



▍Megafaunas lived, do not live, but will live


So, for example, Russian scientist Sergei Zimov hopes to recreate a habitat in a wildlife park 12,000 years old for herbivores, such as wild horses and bison, with extinct megafaunas, similar to mammoths, replaced by modern hybrids. Sergey is going to study the evolutionary influence of animals on the environment and climate. The same story when the reserve (by the way, the already existing Pleistocene Park reserve) of the past is part of the coolest technologies of the future. 



Sergey Zimov

And could you ... play a prediction on the keys of your keyboards?


In recent months, due to coronavirus and self-isolation, the number of couch analysts, virologists, political scientists, infectious disease specialists, mathematicians and other experts has increased many times over. Frankly, we noticed such comments in the Habré :)

Actually, a real intellectual transformation is taking place: virology experts literally turn into experts in oil prices and macroeconomics overnight, and yesterday cryptotraders become gurus in the legal framework for introducing a state of emergency.

It's time to find out who most accurately pokes a finger at the sky. Right hereall the instructions: enter the numbers in five points, and on May 15 at 12.30 we will play among the 20 most fortunate predictors the main prize - IPhone SE 2020 (which, by the way, also seemed unrealizable to someone - but now it’s already almost you). 

Give a quality forecast!

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