{"id":185309,"date":"2017-07-21T19:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T17:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=185309"},"modified":"2017-07-21T17:03:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T15:03:07","slug":"bizarre-predictions-about-life-in-the-21st-century-that-probably-wont-happen-any-time-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/185309\/bizarre-predictions-about-life-in-the-21st-century-that-probably-wont-happen-any-time-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre predictions about life in the 21st century that probably won’t happen any time soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Futurists dare to dream, and accept fully that predictions can be hit or miss as technology, time and circumstance open up and close off different paths for humanity to take.<\/p>\n

In 1982, Random House New York published the\u00a0Kids\u2019 Whole Future Catalog by Paula Taylor<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 a book looking \u201cfar\u201d into the future (2000 and beyond).<\/p>\n

It contains a wide mix of predictions based on the understanding of science and technology at the time, and ventured to imagine how people would be communicating, living, eating and interacting in \u201cthe future\u201d.<\/p>\n

Looking back on some of the predictions made by the Future Catalog, it’s startling to see how clearly technology and society were heading to a rather predictable future – but the great minds were not without their missteps.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the strangest and most bizarre concepts that were held as a hope for our future 35 years ago, that don’t quite cut the mustard today – as well as where today’s futurists say we could be going with them.<\/p>\n

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We would be building ‘dome cities’<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It was predicted that we would build massive domes over cities to protect the populace from the elements, and to control the internal climate.<\/p><\/div>\n

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A deep sea underwater city, with houses ‘grown’ like shells.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the 1980s, futurists were already looking at how humanity would solve problems like overpopulation, affordable housing and fighting the elements.<\/p>\n

From ‘growing’ houses from plants, or even under the sea, to building homes underground, the 80s offered up some interesting solutions. While putting cities under a dome, or on a floating island have remain sci-fi favourites.<\/p>\n

None of these are really considered viable solutions to city challenges in today’s world, however.<\/p>\n

What we say now:<\/strong> With more people flocking to existing cities, instead of heading to the ocean, or under it, our cities of the future are more likely to be high-rise mini-cities – super skyscrapers dedicated to residential living.<\/em><\/p>\n

With 3D printing technology advancing at a rapid pace, building homes could also get a lot cheaper and easier to build – and 3D-printed homes may be commonplace by 2035.<\/em><\/p>\n

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We’d be going on holiday in space<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A mock-up advert for a ‘space hotel’<\/p><\/div>\n

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It was predicted that space stations would continue with their modular design, but expand to incorporate more living spaces and other facilities for life in space.<\/p><\/div>\n

Space travel was all the rage in the 80s. Futurists of the time expected great things in the 21st century, from mining on the moon, to modular mega-space stations and space hotels being a popular destination for those looking to get away from it all.<\/p>\n

While moon mining<\/a><\/strong> is still on the cards the costs involved with anything to do with space still makes it incredibly difficult for people to actually get out there.<\/p>\n

Until there is perhaps a significant shift in technology, enough to counter the cost and logistics of space travel, we’re very much still in the ‘observer’ and ‘remote explorer’ phase of space travel.<\/p>\n

What we say now:<\/strong> Space tourism is definitely on its way to becoming a thing, but no one expects humanity to make the jump to space living the way they thought we would in the early 1980s. Space travel will always be expensive, and any ‘recreational’ activity will be reserved for the super wealthy.<\/em><\/p>\n

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There would be a robot servant in every home<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Every home would have a personal robot servant, but robots would also do other tasks, like working in factories and teaching our children.<\/p><\/div>\n

Robots to cook, robots to clean, robots to walk the dogs – even robots to teach your kids at school. We were to be living in a world where our robot friends would attend to our every need.<\/p>\n

In today’s world, we certainly have some basic forms of robotic servants (like the Roomba), but we are more integrated into the “internet of things” – connected devices that manage some tasks around the house – than we are dependant on a singular robotic servant.<\/p>\n

What we say now:<\/strong> We are making strides in robot technology, and contemporary futurists predict we will have robotic helpers and even companions as early as 2030. It is predicted that the rise of true artificial intelligence will be around by 2025, and that by 2045, humans may have started merging with technology through augmentation.<\/em><\/p>\n

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We’d have super cycles and flying ships<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Cars would become smaller to better suit city living, where space for parking would be limited.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Bicycles would be developed for much faster speeds, hitting as much as 60mph. Electric bicycles today are limited to 25mph because of the dangers faced at high speeds.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Blimps were expected to become far larger and used for freight and global travel.<\/p><\/div>\n

The 80s futurists were pretty spot-on when it came to predicting how future transport would look like – from smaller ‘commuter’ cars, to even the development of the ‘hyperloop’, these are things we see happening today.<\/p>\n

However, some ideas are a flight too far: flying boats, giant airships and human-powered flight are just some of the crazy concepts that just aren’t going to happen.<\/p>\n

What we say now:<\/strong> We’re already entering the era of self-driving cars and ‘clean’ vehicles – but some futurists still stick to some outlandish ideas. Some predict the advent of drone delivery to herald the sci-fi favourite ‘flying car’ era around 2050. Underpinning this ‘next revolution’ will be friction-less technology, and vehicles with no moving parts.<\/em><\/p>\n

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While some of these ideas are outlandish, the Future Catalog never gives any exact timelines, referring to only “in the future”, or “in the 21st century”. That means any or all of these could still become a reality within the next 85 years.<\/p>\n

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Read:\u00a0This is what the future of tech looked like for people 35 years ago<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Futurists dare to dream, and accept fully that predictions can be hit or miss as technology, time and circumstance open up and close off different paths for humanity to take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":185817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-185309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185309"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186275,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185309\/revisions\/186275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}