In the year...2112 (Part 1)

I read this article about predictions people had submitted for potential advances by the year 2112. I did find it interesting, and had mixed emotions about the predictions themselves. I thought giving my opinions on them would make for a good blog post (for attribution, note that the text highlighted in bold are the submissions, which I have copied from the article); as there are twenty numbered predictions listed, I will post ten today and the remaining ten tomorrow:

1. Oceans will be extensively farmed and not just for fish
My feelings on this one are mixed: on one hand, harvesting more sea-based plants, harnessing tidal power, and the desalinisation of salt water would go a long way to solving food and energy problems. At the same time, I am concerned that if ocean-farming was poorly managed or too extensive, every piece of marine life would be consumed. The harvesting of the seas would have to be carefully planned, otherwise the resources they contain would end up being wasted and the ecosystem destroyed.

2. We will have the ability to communicate through thought transmission
Telepathy would only be a good thing if we could also block being able to send/receive thoughts. If anything, I would prefer to have more empathic abilities (as with Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation) than telepathic.

3. Thanks to DNA and robotic engineering, we will have created incredibly intelligent humans who are immortal
If "robotic engineering" here implied fitting people with a heavy amount of electronic implants (going back to STNG here, but think of the Borg), then I would be strongly opposed to this, but I would have less of a problem with genetic enhancements (Julian Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). To address immortality, I could only agree to allowing people to become immortal if: 1. we have colonies beyond the Earth to support the guaranteed increase in population; 2. the behaviour of humanity will have changed by then to use less resources and/or recycle as much as possible; 3. the technology would be available to everyone.

4. We will be able to control the weather
This would be a good idea, providing it would be managed sensibly. Maintaining the weather, such as ensuring a certain region gets its average historical rainfall, or preventing an area from flooding would be positive. I doubt there would be any "personal weather-control" devices, however; it would likely be a global system.

5. Antarctica will be "open for business"
I would oppose this completely: the Antarctic should be left alone. If anything, we should be trying to preserve the wonders of the continent.

6. One single worldwide currency
For the sake of convenience, this could be very useful (especially for people who often travel from country to country). At the same time, there would have to be mechanisms in place to prevent the currency from ever running into any problems. Perhaps a universal currency that could be used in addition existing currencies might be a better idea.

7. We will all be wired to computers to make our brains work faster
No thank you, this brings me back to the Borg, whom I mentioned back at number 3. To be honest, I suspect the vast majority of people, regardless of their background, who oppose being made into machines (for one thing, being plugged into some sort of worldwide supercomputer could end up robbing everyone of their individuality and independence).

8. Nanorobots will flow around our body fixing cells, and will be able to record our memories
Again, I think genetic enhancements would be better. That being said, nanotechnology within people to aid in healing would be preferable than having us plugged into machines or fitted with cybernetic implants (providing they are not used as a stepping stone towards either of them).

9. We will have sussed nuclear fusion
All I can say to this one is that I hope it will be around long before 2112: then we will be able to get rid of fossil fuel and nuclear fission power plants.

10. There will only be three languages in the world - English, Spanish and Mandarin
This will probably be the case, or something similar; but I do believe it will be a huge cultural loss for smaller languages to die out.

That is the first part of my thoughts on the Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now article now complete; remember that these were only my thoughts on the predictions, not necessarily a comment on their plausibility. I would also like to thank the people who gave their submissions to the magazine. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.