Things That Will Disappear in the Next 20 Years

Let’s play futurist.

The world is constantly changing and if you think about the way we were 20 years ago — on the cusp of ubiquitous internet access, next to no concept of a SaaS company, and still asking people on the street for driving directions— things are going to be even more different 20 years from now.

While it’s hard to say what will just be a fad (wearables?) and what will evolve into widespread adoption, it’s a bit easier to come up with things that are so broken and inconvenient that they’re bound to disappear in the next 20 years.

Here we go.

1. Human-driven cars

This one is obvious. And while it may technically take a bit longer than 20 years to completely replace all “manual” cars, I strongly believe society will be encouraging this push as quickly as possible. You can check out my other post about how that will actually go down, but I will summarize briefly.

Humans are prone to error and should not perform repetitive tasks. Whenever I see people working on something that a computer could easily do, I question why they keep doing as they’re told instead of questioning the system. But that’s another story. The point is, if I computer can do it more reliably, with less emotion and less errors, by all means, whatever the task may be, let the computer do it.

2. Food Preparation

I think people cooking food is ridiculous. It’s the same thing over and over. Design a machine that takes recipes and pops out prepared meals. Integrate said machine with a smart-refrigerator that knows its contents and automatically orders items that are low in stock through a food delivery service like Simon Deliveries and there you have it — your own carefree utopia.

3. Many Large Companies

I may have a bias since I consider myself part of the startup community, but we are going through a trend where consumers are becoming more likely and less skeptical about buying products from small companies that they have never heard of prior to the purchase. As eCommerce continues to boom, I predict a decline in large B2C retailers. People will prefer to get most things delivered which may present a gap in the market for smaller local couriers and delivery companies.

4. Cable Television / Curated News Sources

We’ve seen this happen already and I sense it will continue to do so even more in the future. Consumer-generated content feels more authentic and palatable than what we’re shown on TV by big media networks. While every knows that the news is manipulated and there’s a good amount of lobbying and nepotism that happens, we continue to see news aggregators like NowThis get millions of views on their videos due to the fact that they are short, to the point, unbiased and have a chic aesthetic. When you match user-generated sources with 360 video and live curated streaming, there’s vast potential to be explored in the next coming years.

Conclusion

This is just a short list, but there are many topics that could be postulated about particularly in the B2B space. You can spend days thinking about the future of crowdfunding, or venture capital for example. Feel free to leave a comment describing other things you foresee having drastic changes in the future.