Life in 2050

Robots, flying cars, space sports and a volatile environment — these are just some of the predictions science and technology experts and futurists are imagining for our planet by the middle of this century. While 2050 is about 30 years away, at the current rate of technological development things are going to look very different when we get there.

“The biggest innovations expected to change our way of life are artificial intelligence and machine learning,” says futurist Chris Riddell. The ultimate goal (or ultimate concern, depending on who you ask) is to build self-improving artificial intelligence into computers, meaning they learn to act like humans but can learn more and faster because of their artificial ‘brain’.

Cars are set for a makeover in years to come with flying cars, drones and driverless technology. “We’ve already seen how driverless technology is picking up rapidly,” Mr Riddell says. Well before 2050, he predicts roads will be filled with self-driving cars, and people wanting to drive their own vehicle will have to pay an extra fee for the pleasure.

Shortly after that, he predicts that we’ll take to the sky. “Personal drones will be around by the year 2050,” Mr Riddell says. The city of Dubai has already made plans to use drone taxis to ferry people over the city. And eventually, cars and drones will merge.
“What you’ll see eventually is the converging of the two. You won’t be able to separate cars and drones.”