Life in the 22nd Century

Rage, Rage

It occurred to me today that I’ll never know what life is like in the 22nd century. I won’t live to be 115, however many advances take place in medicine. I’ll be blessed and fortunate to make it to 85, but that’s neither here nor there.

Starting this year, the first inhabitants of the 22nd century are being born. Sure there will be others, older ones, but the 84 year old senator or the 85 year old lawyers are being born today- the elders of 2100 are the rug rats of today. When those old minds strain to remember our bygone era, the ghosts they will imagine are you and me.

What will life be like in the 2100s? My honest opinion is that it’ll be much like it is today except the lines between digital and analog will be impossible to find. I’d imagine a person reading a book would be doing so on some sort of holographic display ala Star Wars. Someone travelling will almost certainly be doing so in a vehicle that drives itself, and I would imagine that the very sickest people in the hospital would be akin to someone today having a stage 1 or stage 2 cancer. Treatable. Death will likely become a planned event, much more so than it is today.

AI will inevitably play a larger role. Menial tasks such as grocery shopping and painting your bedroom wall will be undertaken by something without a heartbeat in the traditional sense, freeing us to pursue other avenues of enlightenment. I’d imagine they will have more free time and thus be a happier and more healthy people overall.

What will love look like? Will it be like AI: Artificial Intelligence or perhaps Blade Runner? I believe so, just less exciting. Pair bonding will always exist but will both parts always be human? How likely is it that Mary brings home a robot for dinner, or that Steve loses his virginity to a being with numbers in her name?

Overall I think the whole thing will be less exciting — save the lives of those living on the edge of exploration. Gid willing, we will be an interplanetary species. Deep sea and deep space will be the frontiers of the 22nd century. We will make our first steps into these realms well before 2100, but human life won’t begin to flourish there until later…and after extreme losses.

So, buckle up your children tightly and make sure they eat their peas. Tell them the old stories so they know how to tell the new ones. Make sure they ķnow the bitter bite of defeat as well as the warmth of a hard-fought victory. The future, the true future, is no place for those of weak fortitude.