Top 5 Technologies from Science Fiction We Can Witness in the Near Future

With modern science advancing at the current pace, many dreams of early 20th century science fiction writers such as Jules Verne have already become commonplace technologies. As of 2019, we may be just several decades away from megacities, artificial worlds, moon colonisation, digital immortality, and other ideas devised by Douglas Adams, Philip K. Dick, and Robert A. Heinlein. Below are the top 5 technologies from science fiction we can witness in the nearest future.

1. Alternative Medicine and Treatment

Science fiction novels are full of alternative medicine and treatment methods. With the growing scarcity of diagnosticians, general practitioners, and nurses, the Star Trek-style self-diagnosis and self-healing concepts can become a reality of modern medicine. The wide popularity of alternative medicine and treatment is largely substantiated by the accessibility of these methods in many areas of the world where traditional medical services are not available. While their effectiveness for treating serious illnesses is highly controversial, some of them provide good analgesic results. Why not boost their actual effectiveness with telemedicine and remote learning used to transform local alternative practitioners into therapists capable of diagnosing dangerous disease symptoms and calling for a professional intervention? This initiative may also be assisted by such disruptive innovators as Michael Laufer who successfully produce modern pharmaceutical drugs with portable MicroLab pill synthesis laboratories sold for mere $30. So, in some 15 years, an AIDS-positive kid in Africa may walk into a hut of a local healer and come out 30 minutes later receiving an acupunctural treatment for pain symptoms and a pill of generic Daraprim for conservative treatment. However, the new therapy and diagnostic methods will have to be thoroughly tested in order to be covered by national health insurance systems.

2. Education

The rapid development of VR devices can make ‘Ready Player One’-style classrooms a reality in the next 10-15 years. This would fully disrupt the current classroom system (which is not necessarily a bad thing) transforming the world into a real ‘global village’. A virtual yellow school bus may gather Angolan, Spanish, Argentinian, and US learners in a single educational environment reducing the need for excessive transportation or building new schools in rural areas. Remote learning resources such as Khan Academy can also facilitate the students who cannot access the ‘virtual classroom’ during specific hours. This may also be convenient for increasing the number of PhD students in developing countries and poor environments. With the launch of the global Starlink Internet programme by SpaceX in 2020, young talents living in rural Africa may get the possibility to submit their dissertation drafts for review to academic tutors from Oxford or the MIT. You can only imagine what boost this may provide to global development programmes.

3. Health-Aiding Implants

While cell-like nanorobots replacing human T-cells and fighting cancer tissues and bad cholesterol still remain a thing of the future, internal monitoring systems may well become a part of our reality before the 2050s. The regular measurements of arterial pressure, artery plaque buildup, and other critical indicators of our physical being are very important for preventing heart attacks or blood clotting. However, the main question posed by some scientists is whether we should monitor these things from the outside. Installing small devices with wireless charging under our skin may provide for accurate measurement results and unlimited methods of using the collected data. Imagine that internal sensors located close to your heart can send emergency signals to a nearby hospital minutes before your organism gets into an acute condition. They can also provide longitudinal diagnostic data to your doctor on a daily basis. Some of the presently developed solutions may even include small adrenaline containers or shock devices to kickstart your heart in the case of heart failure.

4. Neuromancing and Advanced Bodyhacking

The previous idea is perfectly in line with the concepts of bodyhacking, artificial organs, and neural implants described by the cyberpunk genius William Gibson. In 2017, scientists at ETH Zurich learned how to 3D-print artificial body tissues and even human organs such as the heart. Imagine replacing your old blood vessels with molecularly superb ones preventing cholesterol plaques or blood clots accumulation. Do you want a heart that does not have a beat and will last you 150+ years? Or would you prefer a Heart 2.0 with several performance profiles fine-tuned for office hours, sports activities, and night recuperation? Besides the competition for ‘body upgrades’, these technologies can also make the waiting lists for organ donors obsolete. The invention of Autodoc medical systems from late 80s sci-fi movies makes the cyberpunk ideas of installing a new retina for augmented reality on your way home or selling an extra liver to pay for your rent perfectly realistic.

5. Transhumanism and the Mars Colonisation

The capability to purchase new organs and prolong your life through advanced body management inevitably brings the questions of transhumanism to the table. With late XXI century geriatrics, a 40-year old person has good chances of becoming as physically adept as his 20-year-old counterpart. Or, would you say, competitor since he is already ahead of him or her with 20+ years of skills and industry experience. In this context, expanding into other planets of the Solar system can become a cure for unemployment rather than a science fiction dream. Luckily, SpaceX had this humanity dream covered as well with its SpaceX Mars programme. While the most optimistic results promise a first colony set on Mars by 2050, the development of new materials and technologies may speed up this process.

While driverless vehicles and medical advancements do not look especially gruesome, we should also think about the negative outcomes described by the great visionaries of the past. The brave new world may put us one step closer to a utopia but charge its price in terms of social consequences. However, with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and increasing pollution levels, the main dilemma of humankind progress is still, “Can we not be running all we can do, to merely keep in the same place?”.

Author Bio

Anna Clarke is the owner of online writing company 15 Writers. She is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in freelancing, academic dissertation writing consulting, specialising in Business, Economics, Finance, Marketing and Management.