See the End Of The 21st Century

Science and Technology has come a tremendously long way, from the days of our Stone Age antecedents to the modern-day Silicon Age. Humanity has made some quite outstanding achievements in both science and technology; we have fulfilled things our ancestors could only dream or pray for; things that would have been labelled witchcraft, or magic, or sorcery a few decades before.

It has been a fairly, slow grinding process that may have begun with the first hominids millions of years ago, mostly by trial and error, and sometimes “accidents”. Today, the discovery of the uses and means to tame fire is still considered one of the most important made by humankind, while the invention of sophisticated languages (as we see today) is considered our greatest creation. We have noticed the creative use of man’s imagination and thoughts, from the creation of written language to cloning of living cells. History is filled with individuals who were at the fore-front of this creative reasoning process; individuals who would still be amazed by how far we have progressed.
Although there has been invaluable contributions made throughout the existence of humankind; these achievements are belittled by those made during the 19th Century through to the 21st. These were the times man could really be referred to as “modern”. The invention of the computer, motor car, steam engine, aeroplane, the internet, the space shuttle was all ushered in these times. Still, I predict that there are more still to amaze us before the end of this century. This here is some of the wild thoughts in the mind of the mad genius;

The dream phase/alternate reality: ever had a lucid dream (dreams in which you are aware that you are dreaming, and are able to manipulate it course) that felt so real? Now, imagine if you could do this on purpose with the help of a device or machine. This would be a world as real as the one you are in now. After all, your present reality is just the perception of signals generated by sensory organs, by the brain. A world that could be programmed so that you would not even know you were dreaming (for true reality effects).

 The entire system could even be interlinked and developed to support multiple users at once, so that two or more individuals could all perceive similar realities i.e literally share dreams. The application for this system would be endless; imagine soldiers partaking in a real war without any casualties or death (as part of their training), imagine pilots training for risky flight missions without ever leaving their beds, imagine games where you could gain valuable survival and training skills, all in the comfort of your bed; imagine learning how to drive a car in your sleep, imagine spending the day with a lost relative or celebrity figure from history. The possibilities are endless.

Landing and Colonization of other terrestrial bodies: by the end of the century, I believe man must have conquered the red planet. The age old question of “is/was there life on mars?” would be finally answered. I see mankind fully colonizing our moon, with resorts and luxury hotels, and permanent scientific stations. Space travel would be available to the common man (at least the rich one); with human and animal babies being born on the lunar surface. Man would by then, be able to exploit resources from distant planets and moons, or even asteroids and comets. 


A stable community of permanently based Martian stations, where people would inhabit all year round. I see mankind answering the age old questions of “are we alone in the universe?” or “how truly did the universe start, and how is it going to end?” I see space travel being greatly shortened and safer for astronauts by improved technology.

WWIII: sadly, I see world war three happening before the close of the century, and as expected, it would set humanity back centuries. Countries likely to be major participants are the present G8 economies and countries such as Syria, North Korea and South Africa. It would be the greatest war since history, and approximately 2 billion persons would lose their lives as a direct consequence of the war; billions more would be affected indirectly. This war may in turn foster the demand for space colonization (with radiation levels soaring dangerously high on the earth’s surface), with about 0.004 % of the planets population living semi-permanently or permanently on the moon and on mars.

Eradication of incurable disease: by the end of this century, presently incurable diseases such as cancer, AIDS, ebola would have been greatly eradicated by vaccines, drugs and surgical procedures. 

Diseases such as yellow fever and polio may have been completely wiped out.  Although sadly, communicable diseases would be on the rise, mostly due to over crowded cities and shortages in freshwater supplies. Millions may die in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, South and South East Asia, and Latin America as a result.

Colonization of the sea floor: just at about the time of space colonization, there will also be great investments in colonizing the sea floor, although this would not be met with the same enthusiasm as that of space colonization. Shallow seas all over the planet may be riddled with semi-permanent and permanent communities (mostly scientific, luxury hotels and military communities) that function independently of the surface for food and fresh water (but still oxygen is still obtained partly from surface). 


Human and animal babies would be born thousands of feet below sea level, and individuals would be present that may have never seen the surface of the planet. The colonization of the sea floor may be instigated partly by flooding of coastal cities such as Lagos, Venice, Cape Town e.t.c, after drastic melts of the polar ice-caps.

Artificial Intelligence: mankind may reach the singularity for artificial intelligence. Machines would be able to perform complex and demanding task, with the same judgement as a human; just only faster and more accurately. This would be machines that would function without human supervision and surveillance. They would be able to reproduce copies of themselves over time. 

They would be anything you could think of (most times to replace humans or their help), from robot maids, to robot soldiers, or self-piloted vehicles, to “loverbots”. But, unlike Hollywood may have made you believe, this artificial intelligence would not try to overrun our society or make humans totally obsolete; as they would be devoid of true emotions and feelings. For example, it will laugh at your jokes just because it adjudges that it is appropriate to laugh, but it would not gain true satisfaction out of it. Although, the 22nd Century will see human becoming almost obsolete, and artificial intelligence running 99% of society’s duty.

Preservation of human consciousness: human thoughts and consciousness would be preserved after the death of an individual (making him immortal in some sense). This technology would be developed after several means to extend the human lifespan further. Individuals who may have participated as subjects from enhancements of my theory of decisions would be way easier to preserve (as they were implanted with computer chips that recorded all of their daily life until death). 

But as expected, it would only be available to a selected few at first, as it would be very expensive or deemed illegal by various governments. Such consciousness could be implanted into the frame of an artificial intelligent being (it could well be one of the ways of creating artificial intelligence, or it could be one of the ways of making machines truly intelligent). Cloning of humans may also be developed as a means of preserving the human life-form.

Early Days of time travel: the end of the 21st Century will witness early human advancements in time travel (into the future). The need for humans and AI to travel outside of our solar system would likely be one of the paramount reasons for the developments of technologies that would enable us move at speeds just under the speed of light, or to tap into the gravitational fields of black holes and wormholes, and  hence time-travel. This technology will be greatly improved in the 22nd and 23rd Centuries; as at then when it would be regarded as man’s greatest invention.