The World in 2045?

Have you ever wondered what the future may be like? What new inventions and scientific breakthroughs will there be? In 30 years or so time, will we be able to transform days train journey into an hour? Will we have a way to stop climate change? And will we finally get our hover boards?!

The World Economic Forum have recently​ tweeted the below video linking to predictions from The Pentagon Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, (DARPA), on what the year 2045 may bring for the world.

Among the list of possible outcomes predicted is being able to control gadgets using our brain signals.  Such technology has already enabled a man with a prosthetic arm to to control it with merely his own thoughts by installing a neuro-prosthetic device into the part of his brain that controls  where his intentions  are made. 

DARPA sponsored researchers. have already succeeded in restoring a paralyzed man's sense of touch.

So perhaps such a future that enables us to control our environment using only our mind will meet us closer than 2045?
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Dr. Justin Sanchez, a neuroscientist and director of Darpa's Biological Technologies Office, (and person in the above video), wants to continue to take the neurotechnologies to another level.

"Imagine a world where you could just use your thoughts to control your environment...Think about controlling different aspects of your home just using your brain signals, or maybe communicating with your friends and your family just using neural activity from your brain."

But what would the implications for this be? On the one hand, being able to just 'think' your lights off without having to get out of bed, walk to the switch and then walk back to bed again, does sounds pretty handy. Yet on the other hand, at what cost is this mind-control power, and other similar ones, going to come at? Because there is always a cost. What will we have to allow in our brains - the control headquarters of our very being - to allow for such a connectivity to our devices that we can control them with nothing but our brain signals?

Once again, this is an example of a wonderful innovation with amazing potential for helping people improve their quality of life, as already proven. However if not provided with the correct and adequate safeguards, we may be in danger of this break through being used for more sinister objectives. Whether or not the methods and tools used would possibly have an impact on our health is also something that will need to be sufficiently analysed, and protection from hacking, goes without saying. Considering that this neurotechnical innovation has already begun its process, the demand for such analyses and crisis mitigation is needed most urgently, or we may be in for a 2045 with plenty of new and cool inventions, yet with no safeguarding and/or legal systems that is prepared should something go wrong.

DARPA has already in 2015 utilized social media to ask the public on their thoughts on what 2045 may hold, and responded by interviewing DARPA researchers to see what their thoughts on the future may be.

Aerospace engineer, former astronaut, and now deputy director of DARPA's Tactical Technologies Office, Pam Melroy, envisioned a future wherein machines and humans work together as partners;

"I think in 2045 we're going to find that we have a very different relationship with the machines around us."

Discussing human-machine interfaces in the video below, Melroy goes on to explain the importance of the governments role in securing safe frameworks to develop within and the importance of regulatory policy that allows technology to integrate into what we are doing in a safe manner.

 ecWith any new invention comes new risks. With every new time comes new possibilities. 

The years from now to 2045 will be full of technology-meets-science experiments, some a break though and some, just, broken. Although we as a society may not be able to say for certain what exactly the year 2045 will bring, what we can do is critically embrace each new innovation - excited for its potential yet weary of its possible misuse. 

Some may argue that not every change in the next 30 years will be for the better and admittedly there will be a need for a transition period, particularly for those whose industries will be impacted by emerging technologies. Where we have humans working alongside the machine, there is the sci-fi embedded fear that the machine may overtake us humans in job prospects or pose a threat to our personal safety and/or privacy.

To reassure societies that the technology of the future is nothing to be feared, corporations who design and implement them will first need to prove that they are safe, both to use practically and in regards to their impact on society. Governments, as pointed out by Melroy, will also need to play their part in the regulation and monitoring  of such technology which has the potential to impact their population on a large scale.  

Therefore what we really should be hoping for by 2045, is a trusted and secure regulatory system that has already been established. One that does not stifle scientific and/or technological inventions - whether that be flying cars or talking fridges - but is also conscious of the complexities of a human and machine working relationship and works towards enabling that in the safest way possible for everyone who may be impacted. 

It may seem like an impossible feat. But hey, if we can restore a paralyzed person's sense of touch through technology, then I am confident that we can continue along this path of humanitarian innovations and still be able to conduct them in a safe and ethical manner.

​No matter what the future may bring.

And create real hoverboards.

(I want a flying hoverboard...)