A vision of 2050: Part III
How our lives will change
So now that we have looked at a few game changing technologies and established that more free time is not unlikely, what will our actual life look like? How do we live? What technologies do we use? How do we communicate? Travel? Work? Let’s begin to imagine…
A smaller world
We can be where we want to be, not where we have to be.
Cheap, efficient travels and refined virtual communications (Video calls, VR, voice assistants) will allow us to effectively be where we choose.
A beach? A house in the woods? The centre of a mega city on the other side of the world?
Remote work (if we are working at all) will be easier than ever, and the same technology that enables us to work remotely, will allow us to keep close contact with our loved ones.
The language barrier will almost completely disappear. Especially in virtual communication where instant, real time translation will allow for frictionless communication. Globalisation of both markets and competence (people) will increase collaboration across nations and nationalities.
A physical world
Even with all technological advancements, we will still be physical human beings with physical needs. We will still cherish true physical experiences with physical people. Even though we will have plenty of virtual experiences to immerse ourselves with, we will spend an increasing amount of our new found free time with the people we love. Family and friends, new and old.
We might have domestic robots cooking for us, or drone delivery for take out. But sharing a meal in a social setting won’t disappear. You may be playing intense VR games with people all over the world, but that poker night with your buddies can’t be replaced. You might find your next date online, but you will still want a romantic place for that first date.
Meet friends at the pub, visit the art gallery, or just take a walk.
Moving around
Cities will adapt. As urban population increases, cities will face the challenge of transport, space optimisation, pollution etc. A big part of the solution will be the introduction of autonomous vehicles.
Electric vehicles will becoming predominant as the cost per mile will be far less than their gas counterpart, decreasing inner-city pollution. With self driving cars, valuable space will be reclaimed as cars won’t have to be parked close to where people are. They can drive off to dedicated parking spaces where they can be packed tightly.
Roads can be narrower as self driving cars needs less room, and the traffic can flow significantly easier. Even traffic lights might be a thing of the past.
Personal transport
Autonomous car and ride sharing will become standard, providing everyone (literally everyone) with flexible, safe, cheap and sustainable (electric vehicles powered by clean energy) transportation.
Owning cars will still be valid for the privileged enthusiasts or people living outside heavily populated areas, but more as a luxury than actual need since the shared solutions will be substantially cheaper. But even people having their own cars will benefit from vehicle automation with hours saved not having to find parking (days for cities like New York) and smoother traffic.
Shopping around
While most things can (and will) be ordered online with fast autonomous delivery methods, physical stores will not disappear as long as they provide experience over convenience which will still be appreciated.
Even so, the physical shopping experience will be highly affected by automation with integrated customer identification via biometrics which provide personalised service (and marketing, on a theoretic level with “Minority Report”, but not nearly as creepy and intrusive) and easy payment.
Advertising
Personalisation of advertising will continue to increase. More than just communicative it will be predictive with messaging adapted to you as a person and your needs.
“Old media advertising” which as has translated to banners and video pre-rolls will fade away more and more as audience disinterest for “mass ads”, programmatically targeted or not, continues (adblocker anyone?).
Big tech companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon etc.) will continue to fight for the same advertising money as traditional media producers, and will continue to introduce radically changed ad formats.
TV commercials (or their future equivalent) will have to earn their place as entertainment, drawing an audience by their own merit rather than rely on being aired to masses. With the exception of live broadcasts, TV ad exposure will be non-existent as traditional TV fades away.
We will have the option to “sell our data” for services rather than accept advertising intrusion in our homes. We might opt to let our smart fridge recommend new groceries based on personalised advertising algorithms, but we won’t to a larger extent accept offer spamming. Email advertising via newsletters will have to adapt as to not be filtered out by our digital assistants protecting us.
Relevant contextual ads
Ads that appear in your view, relevant to your mindset and contextual to where you are. On your private screen as you browse your social media. Shown through your AR glasses as you walk the streets. In the stores as you look around.
In-experience marketing
Think product placement in the future. As you engage in VR content, your surroundings will be packed with brands and products on a less intrusive but still engaging way. Ski in the alps on Fischer skis. Race the streets of Paris in a Mercedes.
The way you follow influencers will be on a much more immersive level which will allow for even more elaborate product placements.
Branded experiences
The branded content of the future. See an exclusive show arrange by a fashion brand. Visit an amusement park created by a soda brand. Especially VR and AR experiences will be heavily branded as they will require quality content for immersion, and quality will still cost a lot of money to produce.
News and information.
So how do we keep ourselves up to date in the future?
As the central hub for all our doings, our digital assistants will be key when it comes to find and sort news and information that would be relevant to us. Based on our interest and circumstances, our assistant will collect and suggest relevant news and provide us with ways to consume it. Whether it be in audio form, news videos, or read on any accessible screen close to us.
Just as today there will be a virtual overload of information but with powerful AI, our assistants will be able to sort and condense information in ways that are both more efficient and more reliable than today.
Information will continue to be planted and spread virally through social networks where anyone can be a publisher, and new technology will help dubious information look and sound even more real (flat-earth videos might look more convincing), but our assistants will be able to help us with real time research and fact checking (as long as we want them to).
Distributed ledgers will help us validate (through economic incentives) and track information sources, making it a crucial tool for future journalism (Blockchain for news media).
The value of data
Data will become more valuable than ever, and with the help of high speed Internet and distributed ledgers, your data can in real time be aggregated and sold with value instantly transacted back to you. All as anonymous as you want it to be (the more info about yourself you reveal, the more you would likely be compensated). Let companies gather data about you from your smart home, and use the compensation to pay for autonomous delivery services. Instant, automatic.
Distributed ledgers will also provide an interface for your different services and accounts to connect and seamlessly transact value. Convenient, instant deliveries and frictionless payments via blockchain networks will be commonplace.
Smarter homes
The smart house will adapt to your routines and current context. Light, sound, temperature, all controlled automatically for optimal energy efficiency and personal comfort. It is also smart enough to detect individual needs and compromise when several people are sharing a space.
Appliances will be smart and aware.
Have your coffee ready as soon as you step out of the shower. Let your domestic robots clean when you are out of the house. Your fridge will never run out of milk with automatic deliveries of groceries.
Package deliveries are fully automated through drone networks or fleets of autonomous delivery vehicles.
Homes are retrofitted to allow for secure unattended package reception and storing (for example cold storage of the groceries).
Entertaining ourselves
Technology will help our social life. Not replace our social life.
Movies
While it will be possible to put on a pair of glasses and headphones to experience your own gigantic cinema screen, there will still be movie theatres where we can go and see Movies together with others. Comparable to the 3D glasses we wear today, there will probably be added immersion, but we will still appreciate the social aspect. Just as sitting at home watching a live broadcast together with friends and family.
Bars and nightclubs
High speed networks, real time translation and extended reality will enable every party to become a global one.
A new type of bar networks and clubs could have the opportunity to collaborate to attract a truly global audience. Step into a bar in Tokyo and have drinks with visitors at the New York sister bar.
Spectator sports
VR will allow us to be as if right on the field, maybe even see the game through the eyes of a player. AR will allow us to consume sports data in realtime. But we’ll still want to have that experience standing together with thousands of others in the arena, or screaming at the referee together in the sports bar.
There is however no doubt that virtual, social experiences will be massive (Second Life or World of Warcraft will dwarf in comparison) and that just as WoW have had issues with player addiction and health, future experiences will struggle with the same.
Health and beauty
This leads us to the challenge of staying healthy.
On one hand we have the fact that automation will do so much for us, for example going from A to B might take less physical effort than ever.
On the other hand we will have huge technological advancements that will help us monitor our health in every way imaginable.
Smart clothes and wearables will help us keep track of things like our exposure to sun and pollution.
Much of the food we eat could in the future be locally produced/grown. Not at traditional farms but in special growing houses, indoor micro-farms and labs specialised in growing meat.
The food might even be possible to personalise to your specific need, 3D print a dish that not only tastes good but have exactly the nutrition you crave.
Home cameras and smart mirrors allows for daily tracking of changes in our appearance as well as guidance on makeup, skin and hair care.
Products we use for body care could easily be printed at home. Moisturiser, shampoo, toothpaste: personalised and created with the press of a button.
Electric tools might help apply products (such as future versions of things like Opteskin, that uses built-in cameras to detect where on the skin the makeup needs to be applied.). Ageing will be addressed with anything from “next generation botox” based on gene research, to artificial skin applied to our bodies.
There will also be a clear difference between “salon experiences” and convenience treatments. Robotic hairdressers will be able to easily, efficiently and affordably maintain your haircut. While a more premium experience with a human will cost a little extra.
Exercise
With more time on our hands. There really shouldn’t be any excuses left to not work out. Whether you like strength training, team sports, yoga, endurance training. Technology will help you.
Smart clothes, wearables, 3D cameras and voice assistants can help make sure you are doing the correct routines the right way. Balancing the effort, correcting your movement, tracking your progress.
Don’t have a partner for ping pong? Robot trainer to the rescue.
Don’t know if you are doing that yoga pose correctly?
Your digital assistant will tell you based on input from your clothes and cameras.
There will also be new ways of working out, often blurring the line of what is entertainment and what is sports. Extended reality will be able to place you in situations that feels like playing a game, but in the end is a full on workout. Whether it is flying a dragon, medieval fencing or some Sci-Fi ball game. Working out will be made fun!
Smarter work
Increased remote work together with new roles and flexible work hours will transition workplaces to become places for meetings and collaboration rather than solitary desk work.
A smart office will link with your digital assistant and provide you with everything you need for your stay at the office: Assigning work spaces, book meeting rooms, finding people and services, controlling light and temperature and interfacing with the facilities.
Collaborative robots (Cobots) will be all around, underpinning most automated supply chains, logistics services and deliveries.
Powered by AI to work alongside humans and/or together with other machines, they are aware of their surrounding context and communicate in real-time when cooperating on projects.
Finding purpose and continue to learn
If Universal Basic Income finds its way and become reality, there will certainly be people that are happy doing nothing special and just have fun with the extra time and money. But there will also be plenty of us who will strive to find more meaningful ways to spend our days.
What do people do when a job is not their main focus?
They get hobbies — they become creators.
With Universal Basic Income as security, people will have the opportunity to explore their own creativity. Paint, draw, write, act, play sports. And with the help of new technology, that explorative journey can take new heights. Whatever interest us will be possible for us to explore and learn. VR and AR will allow us to educate ourselves and try out things that before was impossible.
The hobby astronomer will still look at the stars through a telescope, but also visit planets, solar systems and galaxies in VR.
The recreational gardener will still get their hands dirty from the soil in the backyard, but digital assistants and AR will help them learn and grow things to perfection.
Even if we aren’t necessarily required to form careers, there will still be a lot of ambitious people that out of curiosity, human empathy or pure economic incentives want to continue to learn to be able create new products and services that pushes us even further.
New advancements in education will make learning accessible and easy through online courses that are tailored with AI to adapt the learning to your needs and progress, and VR/AR for real hands on experience.
If an idea for a product or service appears, prototyping and manufacturing will be accessible through advanced 3D printing and automated manufacturing. Not to mention software that can be written for you by an AI based on your requirements without the need to actually know how to program.
And in the future articles like this that try to predict the future, might very well be formulated and written by an AI as well …
To the stars and beyond!
