The 4 discoveries that Gen Z could experience
We could all use a bit more optimism.
Today's smartphones are yesterday's mainframe computers, and today's neural networks will be tomorrow's androids. But, long before any technology becomes a reality, it must be imagined.
Science and technology are constantly changing fields. It is hard to predict what the future will hold. However, we can make some educated assumptions based on recent breakthroughs in nuclear physics, quantum computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and Facebook's name change. Set our time machines to "January 31, 2100" and consider the four most astonishing scientific and technological breakthroughs that a distant future has to offer.
Nanobots in medicine
The concept is straightforward: small, cellular-level robots capable of healing tissues, eliminating intruders, and administering targeted nano-drugs. And this does not necessarily imply that trillions of small particles of metal and silicon are being injected into your circulation.
There are numerous grounds to anticipate that scientists will be able to transform today's biological robots into artificial intelligence agents capable of performing coding functions in human bodies. Consider a swarm of artificial intelligence directed by a custom neural network and linked to our brain-computer interfaces just for the goal of optimizing our biological processes.
We may not be able to solve immortality by 2100, but medical nanobots may be able to fill the void.
Fusion power
The power of fusion is another technology that will undoubtedly save many human lives. Fortunately, we are on the verge of resolving it (at least in a rudimentary way). The key premise here is that as we get closer to achieving fusion power, we will be able to use quantum computers to optimize civilization. Fusion has the potential to be an infinite source of power and is theoretically viable, allowing us to gradually enhance its energy production capacity to the point where energy is ubiquitous for private and commercial usage, as well as air travel.
Under such a paradigm, we may envision a race to the top in scientific activities, with the ultimate goal of creating a utopian society. There would be a minimal motive to struggle over resources and numerous incentives to optimize our life if practically boundless energy were freely available.
Imagine what we could achieve with quantum supercomputer clusters that harness the unrestrained energy of entire stars if we can teach classical algorithms to drive vehicles using binary supercomputers. We could provide algorithms to every living thing in the cosmos and optimize their survival.
Warp drive
To be sure, warp drives are a spectacular piece of technology. Technically, because Mars is so close, we don't need to travel beyond our solar system. However, it is clearly proven that mankind needs speed. And if we ever want to see stars up close, other than the sun, we'll need spaceships that can travel at breakneck speeds.
The main issue here is that nothing appears to be able to travel faster than light in the cosmos. It's also quite slow. Traveling to the nearest star to Earth would take us more than four years. It's equivalent to spending one-twentieth of your life walking to a neighbor's house.
Warp drives may be able to remedy this.
Instead of traveling faster, we could possibly harness the universe's insanity to travel farther in a given amount of time without increasing speed. Moving between bubbles in a region with strange weather properties is involved, but it is essentially as easy as Einstein's insight that time works differently on the edge of a black hole.
In the current period, physicists are thrilled about some intriguing equations and simulations that are making the concept look less like science fiction and more like science. Another advantage of the development of Warp propulsion would be an exponential rise in the likelihood of humanity encountering extraterrestrial life.
If the aliens aren't right next door, they're probably a few blocks away.
Who knows what our long-range sensors will be able to detect if we can start firing non-warp probes out of range by 2100?
Metaverse
The ideal metaverse would be an adapted environment that differs only in its utopianism from reality. In other words, you know it's a hoax simply because you have influence over the metaverse. While it is evident that "entering the Matrix" might be dangerous, the capacity to escape reality can have good consequences ranging from alleviating depression to giving those with extremely low quality of life reasons to live. The ultimate form of freedom is the ability to create one's own world.
