What will life be like in 20 years?

There are two scenarios - one positive and one negative. Let’s start with the negative.

Global Warming

With the climate change on rise, and governments not doing enough to prevent it, it’s very logical to assume that in 20 years we will finally reap what we sow. Paradoxically, there will be a shortage of food and land to farm on hence we won’t really sow much. By 2040, Climate Change will be irreversible and we will have to accept our fate. Extreme Weather events will increase significantly, a lot of cities will fall victims to flooding and drought, seas will be acidified and arctic will melt. This will have an adverse affect on our civilization and economy, leaving million dead.

Superbugs

With the extensive use of antibiotics, the humanity is creating “superbugs” that are resistant to most of the antibiotics. This is a new problem, and even today we face problems such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections and skin infections.[1]As the numbers of super-bacteria increase, a super-deadly pandemic, with no cure, can annihilate the whole humanity in a matter of years.

AI

All the tech juggernauts, such as Google and Facebook, are investing billions annually in Artificial Intelligence, and it’s potency is growing exponentially. It’s said that AI will be our last invention - it will either make earth a paradise or it will kill us all. I lean more on the “destroy the world” scenario. Humans compared to AI will be what ants are compared to us. In order to achieve higher goals, or higher consciousness, AI won’t hesitate in destroying us.

Now let’s look at the sides from a positive side.

Gene Editing & Bio-technology

Did you know that Google has a separate research company focusing on immortality called Calico. It might have seen like a fantasy just a decade ago, but today the issue of immortality is taken very seriously. Advances in gene editing bring a lot of opportunities to the society and in 2 decades, most of the diseases we know today will probably be cured.

AI

While AI can have devastating effects on our society, it also has a chance of being beneficial to us. Unlike humans, robots will be able to read hundreds of books and articles a day and remember every bit of information. Their intelligence will be incomprehensible to us and hence to them, our biggest problems will seem like 2+2. AI has the potential of curing cancer, making light-speed travel a possibility, achieve immortality and much more.