Ongoing increasing in monitoring of people as a routine procedure as it becomes practical to do so. More cameras, more facial recognition, etc. A larger increase in monitoring of communications, especially online. Was anyone surprised at what NSA, GCHQ et alia are doing? There's some lip service to reining it in at the moment, but that's just temporarily convenient meaningless politics. Any anonymity online will continue to be eroded, stigmatised and eventually outlawed - only terrorists and child abusers would want any privacy, don't ya know?
Continuing increases in the integration of online with the real world, mainly though improvements to mobile devices. Some form of more convenient display by 2030, probably, either as glasses or contact lenses. Thus further eroding privacy, as almost everyone will be wearing a continuous recording device.
Continuing increases to unemployment due to increasing automation, increasing use of online shopping and the beginnings of domestic fabrication by 3D printing. I doubt if it will have much application by 2030, but it will be growing. Maybe some print shops by 2030, rather than home use. I think it will still be too expensive for home use, but for a while there would probably be a market for print shops. Few if any people would use one enough to justify the large initial cost, but for a while the price would be in a range that could make it profitable to buy one and sell printing to people at a markup.
Improvements in electricity storage and generation, possibly to the extent of making EVs and large scale use of renewables practical.
Advances in medicine that open up new ethical questions. For example, the first successful genetic engineering on humans was completed recently. First acknowledged one, anyway. The point is that the technique is known and can be done reliably. As knowledge of genetics increases, so will the potential applications of genetic engineering on humans. The current applications are clearly ethical - the published success cured a group of volunteers who were going blind due to the faulty gene and the next intended application is a cure for cystic fibrosis. I think that there will be some controversies by 2030, though. It's a very powerful technology that can quite fundamentally change people. Nanobots are another technology on the verge of being relevant. There are now in vivo nanobots. They're in monkeys and they do nothing, but it's a step. Maybe by 2030 bona fide medical nanobots will exist. Big can of worms there, maybe even more so than genetic engineering.
Interesting times.
Continuing increases in the integration of online with the real world, mainly though improvements to mobile devices. Some form of more convenient display by 2030, probably, either as glasses or contact lenses. Thus further eroding privacy, as almost everyone will be wearing a continuous recording device.
Continuing increases to unemployment due to increasing automation, increasing use of online shopping and the beginnings of domestic fabrication by 3D printing. I doubt if it will have much application by 2030, but it will be growing. Maybe some print shops by 2030, rather than home use. I think it will still be too expensive for home use, but for a while there would probably be a market for print shops. Few if any people would use one enough to justify the large initial cost, but for a while the price would be in a range that could make it profitable to buy one and sell printing to people at a markup.
Improvements in electricity storage and generation, possibly to the extent of making EVs and large scale use of renewables practical.
Advances in medicine that open up new ethical questions. For example, the first successful genetic engineering on humans was completed recently. First acknowledged one, anyway. The point is that the technique is known and can be done reliably. As knowledge of genetics increases, so will the potential applications of genetic engineering on humans. The current applications are clearly ethical - the published success cured a group of volunteers who were going blind due to the faulty gene and the next intended application is a cure for cystic fibrosis. I think that there will be some controversies by 2030, though. It's a very powerful technology that can quite fundamentally change people. Nanobots are another technology on the verge of being relevant. There are now in vivo nanobots. They're in monkeys and they do nothing, but it's a step. Maybe by 2030 bona fide medical nanobots will exist. Big can of worms there, maybe even more so than genetic engineering.
Interesting times.
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