Earth 2050: A glimpse into the future

2050 Coral island

As a number of drones grew, people got tired of these flying bots used for spying and advertising. Imagine a butterfly that hangs right before your face while targeting your eyes with stereoscopic commercials! The first cases of drone hunting were plain self-defense but soon it turned into a sort of

# robots # society

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

23

2

2050 Coral island

First AI ghosts appeared on cemeteries soon after personal AI assistants got popular. Since an AI assistant collects lots of personal data of his host (including his vocabulary, voice samples, images and contacts), this machine intellect can successfully imitate his deceased owner in a voice chat or

# AI # human

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

11

2

2050 Coral island

It's great when you can control the weather: more rain is sent to drying farmland, and big cities use regular "sanitary" rains for cleaning. However, more rain in one country could mean less rain in the other. As soon as hidden methods of weather manipulation are detected, some countries start "wars

# nature # government

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

9

2

2050 Coral island

The mass schooling was found to be ineffective. First, it was too abstract and static: kids were forced to seat for hours and passively watch the endless streams of information with no practical use. Second, mass school didn't teach the most important subject - social life; while kids were concentrated

# education # AI # society

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

18

4

2050 Coral island

A new group of environmentalists got very popular after they presented serious scientific evidence of health deterioration in the areas of excessing electromagnetic fields (Wi-Fi, GSM, SATCOM and other transmitters for wireless communications). To fight extra radiation, the moderate wing of this eco-movement

# nature # society

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

6

1

2050 Coral island

In older days, palms and fingers were scanned for identification. Now, palms and fingers with implanted sensors became scanners themselves. These implants come in different models, yet there are two main variations. First, a simple scanner for daily use: it helps to read different tags and product codes,

# human # biotech

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

9

3

2050 Coral island

Through the ages, Ringworm was a nasty fungal infection - but not anymore! Now, genetically modified ringworm, as well as some other skin diseases, are even more popular than tattoo! You can make them paint beautiful colorful ornaments on your skin, with no harm to health. Same way, tamed Caries is now

# human # biotech

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

36

6

2050 Coral island

In XX century, some artificial islands were built by UAE, Japan and China, but their land reclamation technologies were rather old-fashioned: large amounts of rocks, cement or clay had to be moved to a targeted area. That's why those artificial islands were small and very expensive to build. Now, with

# nature # construction

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

45

6

2050 Coral island

At first, human memory editing was meant for good: it helped people with terrifying experience to get rid of their bad flashbacks. However, some corporations started to use this technology as a new type of copyright enforcement. Any intellectual property, like a melody or a book, is now "licensed" to

# human # society

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

5

8

2050 Coral island

In older times, mute people were outcasts so they couldn't proliferate. Nowadays, they can easily communicate and get all necessary things via Internet. In fact, even people who have voice don't use it much now: messengers, games, business correspondence and multiple web services work quite well without

# human # society

Mersey Shelley

15 Nov 2018

8

7

2050 Barcelona

News reports about personal data leaks tend to be about credentials for bank accounts and other online services. However, it is biological data that will soon be the most valuable kind. Unlike passwords and bank accounts, biodata cannot be changed, so the effects of any leak will be lifelong. Already,

# biotech # society # love

Mersey Shelley

07 Feb 2019

38

5

2050 Athens

In view of lockdown restrictions and the mass shift to remote communication in many walks of life (work, study, personal relationships), the problem of distinguishing a human from a robot is especially acute. The development of malicious AI that feeds on personal data has led to the emergence of fake

# AI # society

Mersey Shelley

02 Jun 2021

130

9

2030 California

In the past, space tech was unique and classified, so it was hard for an outsider to discover vulnerabilities in space control systems. That’s why hacker attacks on such targets were largely unsuccessful. The situation changed in the 2020s. In modern spacecraft, unique analog devices of

# gadgets # robots # space

Mersey Shelley

16 Feb 2022

50

7

2030 Bangalore

At the beginning of 21st century, the western IT industry was in urgent need of an ideological basis for the promotion of its products, so it started to actively exploit the concept of “technological singularity.” Invented by fantasy writer Vernor Vinge, this concept comes from the observations

# AI # human # society

Mersey Shelley

16 Feb 2022

39

10

2050 Quezon City

Pandemics, remote work services and AI have changed the common appearance of the medicine. If you feel sick, there is no need to visit health clinics with their numerous cabinets, labs and crowds of other sick people (inter-hospital spread of infections was one of the greatest dangers in previous years).

# gadgets # medicine # robots

Mersey Shelley

21 Apr 2022

53

13

2040 Istanbul

The global financial system has conclusively turned into an unpredictable casino making hostages of us all. No longer does human well-being depend on ability and hard work, but on “exchange rates,” “inflation levels,” and “banking crises.” Each new crisis is more global

# human # society # economy

Mersey Shelley

27 Jul 2023

17

3