What will happen in fifty years time

The future is now: Flying drones that deliver packages and cars that drive themselves are already being tested, while virtual reality software helps train aviators both to fly a plane and to jump out of it.

A World of Embedded Intelligence I n , we already have sports watches that record workouts and autonomous flying drones the size of birds.

Imagine similar giant leaps in sensors, communications capabilities, displays, software, batteries, and mechanical actuators. Already, smart devices can answer simple inquiries and understand simple commands. Some of these devices will fail in the market, but others will hit the sweet spot that delights consumers and improves or enhances their lives. Cars that drive themselves, in constant communica- tion with other vehicles and with traffic signals. Displays that cover entire walls,.

Entrepreneurs and engineers are using 3-D printers to create everything from custom toys and machine parts to working prostheses. Consider 3-D printing.

GE Aviation used to Google. But not for its latest, most routinely working and playing with each other efficient engine. The company now builds the nozzles one layer at a time by precisely in full immersion visual-auditory virtual depositing material with a 3-D printer, in much the same way an ink-jet printer sprays on paper.

It officer at engine and power systems manufac- University. Or imagine inventors dropping possible to build interactive systems that raw materials in manufacturing processes. You could even The future world could bring what Asimov connecting rod, a 3-D printer puts material just print stuff in your own home.

Such shell layer by layer. This technology makes print out your new organ. He then makes the part Kurzweil. Expanding Our Connections M any visionaries foresee that people in future decades will want to be connected even more than they are today, and that such connections will improve their quality of life. If so, engineers will be the architects of this hyperconnected future. The developing world will continue to leapfrog old Alex Pring the old wired infrastructure, as remote villages connect of Groveland, to the larger world with wireless broadband networks.

Florida, practices picking up objects with his new 3-D As is frequently the case with new technologies, printed prosthetic hyperconnectivity will offer challenges along with arm and hand, opportunities. Will the regulations written for telephone designed and made by engineering communications need to be rewritten for the Broadband students at the Age?

Can cybersecurity efforts not only keep the hackers University of at bay but also keep criminals and terrorists in check? Can we find a balance between hyperconnection and personal privacy that is acceptable to most people? Engineering Ideas into Reality Making Energy Sustainable I ntelligent, hyperconnected devices, 3-D printers, and other technologies will bring surprises, meet unanticipated needs, and change our lives in ways that are hard to imagine.

But some aspects of the future are easier to predict. To create a better, richer, and healthier future for all people and nations, we know we must tackle and solve problems that are already obvious now. Something as simple J. In France an experimental Climate Assessment. As a virtually under construction above. It may also low-carbon power and to use less energy must be possible to harness the fusion reaction that go forward.

Energy is crucial there and elsewhere are in the offing. Improve- under construction in Cadarache, France. To bring billions of people out of poverty, example, are rapidly making them more technical hurdles, many experts remain hopeful. But right now, because of intermittency. Argonne National Laboratory, for president and chief technology officer at our dependence on fossil fuels, humans are instance, is leading a major multi-institution Sandia National Laboratories.

Such batteries could also make electric of the Draper Prize, is using the techniques in millions of years. Since , the planet cars far more practical and attractive, weaning of directed evolution to produce new biocata- has warmed by about 0. In other labs researchers use catalysts extreme weather events scientists are linking Huge improvements are possible in using and other materials to mimic photosynthesis 50 Making a World of Difference. At least five different designs are Feeding the competing to turn the energy from ocean waves or tides into electricity.

Smart micro-grids promise not only to keep the lights on in U. At the dawn amounts of salty water. Meeting the Grand Challenge of making solar energy of the 20th century, about 50 percent of the U. Grand Challenge. A surplus of energy would also make it possible to power Today that number has dropped to 2 percent. Many experts insist that the world will depend on fossil fuels and fermentation. September 10, Climate change scientists don't like to use the term "prediction.

There's a good reason for that. In a world awash in misinformation—about medicine, politics and climate, and pretty much everything else—part of a scientist's job now involves teaching the public about how science works. Convincing the public to have faith in science means making precise, measured projects about the future. They've got to overcome the big question: Can you really make accurate projections about what the planet will look like in 50 years, a century from now?

Climate scientists think they can, based on the past five decades of climate science that has proven accurate. Futurists, such as Jamais Cascio, a distinguished fellow for the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit foresight group based in Silicon Valley, study present trends and available data to lay out plausible outcomes for the future.

Today, a lot of Cascio's work is centered around climate change, helping people prepare for the future and make informed decisions for a warming world. Scientists have relied on climate models for over 50 years. To people who aren't scientists, it's challenging to understand the calculations that go into these projections. So, what exactly is a climate model?

Meteorologists can make weather predictions for the next hour, or even week, based on weather data and forecast models that use humidity, temperature, air pressure, wind speed, among other current atmospheric, land and oceanic conditions. But with climate, a specific region's weather averaged over decades, is a little more challenging to project and understand.

An extension of weather forecasting, climate models factor in even more atmospheric, land and oceanic conditions to make longer-term forecasts. Using mathematical equations and thousands of data points, the models create representations of physical conditions on earth and simulations of the current climate.

Climate models predict how average conditions will change in a region over the coming decades as well as how the climate appeared before humans recorded it. Researchers can then understand how these changing conditions could impact the planet, which is useful especially for understanding climate change, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research center based in the Bay Area.

The first climate model, developed over 50 years ago in the early days of climate science, helped scientists gauge how the ocean and atmosphere interacted with each other to influence the climate. The model predicted how temperature changes and shifts in ocean and atmospheric currents could lead to climate change.

Today, these models are much more complicated and run on some of the world's most powerful supercomputers. A decade ago, most models broke up the world into kilometer segments, but now the models are square kilometers.

More regional patterns emerge when simulations are at a finer scale. Schmidt, a senior climate adviser at NASA. Through these advancements in technology, these models are becoming even more useful to scientists in understanding the climate of the past, present and future. A majority of Americans already notice the effects of climate change around them, according to a Pew Research Center survey from But individuals, businesses and politics must "adapt to a radically and dangerously changing climate," Cascio said.

On the individual level, people must consider the climate in all of their monumental decisions: whether to have children; which car to buy; how to invest; when and where to buy a house. Governments are tasked with climate decisions that impact the future of entire nations, such as whether to invest in alternative energy or write policy curbing emissions.

Instead of thinking about climate models as whether or not they are right, Schmidt said climate models should be considered as to whether they provide useful forecasts. Do they get things right more than you would have done without them? Usually, the answer is yes, and what these models inform scientists is crucial for their understanding of the future climate. Hausfather knows this better than anyone, as he led a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters analyzing the accuracy of early climate models.

Some of the findings were included in the latest report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in August. Hausfather, along with co-author Schmidt, compared 17 model projections of global average temperature developed between and with actual changes in global temperature observed through the end of Hausfather and his colleagues found promising news: Most of the models have been quite accurate.

More specifically, 10 of the model projections show results consistent with observations. Of the remaining seven model projections, four projected more warming than observed while three projected less warming than observed. But Hausfather and his colleagues realized this wasn't telling the whole story.

After accounting for differences between modeled and actual changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other factors driving the climate, it turns out 14 of 17 model projections were "effectively identical" to warming observed in the real world. The accuracy was particularly impressive in the earliest climate models, Hausfather said, especially given the limited observational evidence of warming at the time. For example, this tube system will connect the U. Underground skyscrapers: These multistory buildings that will be built underground will be earthquake resistant and offer many living spaces like home, office, shopping centers and gyms.

Self-cleaning houses: When you are not at home or you are sleeping, technology will be developed that will clean the house via a button. Space hotels: Journeys to the moon and other planets will be possible.

These journeys will be performed with a system that will adapt to the gravity of each planet. Organs that are 3D will be produced to change organs or make them function better. Bug-burger takeaways: In the next 50 years, bugs will be the most important protein sources for people. Flying buses or cabs: It is known that air cabs will start serving some years later. High-power drone copters like flying buses will be an indispensable means of public transportation. Body implants: These implants will be used to learn how the health of our bodies is and to measure our body values.

Moreover, they will work as translators. These sports will present a 4D visual feast by bringing thousands of people together in stadiums. Interactive virtual reality films: You will find yourself in a film by wearing virtual reality VR clothing at home and experience the feeling of touch.