The BBC Looks 150 Years Into the Future
This article is more than 2 years old
What do you think the future holds? Not hold in the literal sense, unless you think the future will grow hands with opposable thumbs. Are the predictions you made as a kid still relevant in today’s society? Mine aren’t. Thanks a lot, Lawnmower Man and Futureworld. And Future World.
Thankfully, the BBC has compiled 40 predictions made in the last few years by top thinkers in science and journalism, and, on a lesser note, politics and blogging. (I predict someone will scoff at that joke.) The snazzy-looking infographic spans the next 150 years, and gives odds on the likelihood of each entry actually becoming a reality. It even chronicles paths to a hypothetical utopia or dystopia. And if you call now, it’ll have everything color-coded for field classification. You can click the image below to open up the full infographic.
We’ll skip past the mundane shit like “Google buys Pinterest in 2013” and “Facebook taken over by bigger social network in 2016.” Should you choose to accept it, the next five years of our lives may contain $100 gene sequencing, digital currency, immortal mice, and iceless Arctic summers. In the fifteen years after that, get excited and scared about fusion power, tracking chips in humans, a third-party U.S. President, and a world government. Also, record every conversation you ever have and store your brain on a computer. Yikes.
Going further, you may or may not plan for a peak and eventual decrease in global population, selectable genetics in fetuses, automatic cars, six-mile-high buildings, clones, abolished taxes, and a new ice age. Gasp, gasp, gasp. The final prediction is the most cryptic of all: a human that will live to be 150 years old. And it’s set for 150 years from now. So some of you better start getting pregnant if you want to beat the rush.
