Science and Engineering in the Year 2065

might not be here at that time

Well, whatever anyone predicts it is going to be wrong, so unless you plan to use the data as a reverse barometer it will be useless for anything but a good laugh at a barstool in some pub.

The best I can predict is that there is a high likelihood that come 2065 engineers will still be sitting on those stools.

If you don't believe me, just do some searching of historic predictions for the future made throughout the 20th century. Make sure you are sitting on one of those stools when you do.

More specialization in individual fields, more synthetic and engineered materials, less waste...

The World has trended towards secular belief systems for some time, I expect that to continue...

Population growth will have slowed to a crawl....

All new cars will be electric....

Virtual reality will be all the rage....

Defense systems will become more mechanized and autonomous....

Electricity will be produced from the first fusion reactor....

Shared vehicles will be omnipresent and in many shapes and sizes....

After Microsoft wins the world war against Google, Skynet will become a reality!

Skynet will become a reality!

And then the insidious remnants of Microsoft's handiwork will result in an AI that rapidly upgrades, patches and bloats itself into a barely usable, resource hungry entity that eventually collapses in on itself solving mankind's potential extinction problem. Given the speed of computing that should take a few minutes from AI sentience to death, few in the world will even notice (except for the short internet slowdown).

Problem solved.

Really hoping to have my doomsday device fully functional by then.

By then AI will have taken over. If your name is Sarah Conner you are in deep doo doo.

By then AI will have taken over.

Really, that sucks.....

I'm only certain of one thing. Cavaliers will still be piles

I see darkness in our future. In 2065 I see the beginning of a new dark age where Science is shunned instead of embraced. Just look at our own forum response to this thread up to this point. Half of the comments are apocalyptic from a desire for doomsday devices to expectations that AI will dominate us. People who make their living using scientific knowledge have a sub-conscious fear of science. Add to this the continuing denial that we are changing this planet just for the sake of profit. Also, our continued exponential population growth will consume more and more of our non-renewable resources. In fifty years I do not expect a complete collapse to have happened yet, but it might.

I hope that we do not reach the level of darkness portrayed in Walter M. Miller's story A Canticle For Liebowitz. I do see Science getting blamed for humanity's woes, regardless of how many times Science rescues or warns humanity from trouble.

"Add to this the continuing denial that we are changing this planet just for the sake of profit."

That's undeniable. Every species on the planet does that.

People who make their living using scientific knowledge have a sub-conscious fear of science

I don't think its fear, more like a healthy respect for runaway technology. Machines replacing humans, that's my job. Its just that there is no end and AI has to come along someday.

"machines making machines, that's just crazy"(quote from I Robot)

50 years is a lifetime in the fields of Science and Engineering and simple developments like the airplane, electronic valve, transistor and internet and the next big things change the world so much that predictions are almost always wrong (or dead wrong).

Ok, so here are a few of mine.....

3D printing will change the way we manufacture and help decentralise (but not totally) manufacturing of everything we use and consume.

Graphane totally changes the material sciences and manufacturing allowing cheap, strong construction. Skyscrapers hit 4000m in height.

........

interesting question, I wonder why you pose it? most of us will be dust or pushing up daisies I'll be 105 so I'm doubtful I'll enjoy or loathe the times. I see some rather dour responses. I'm not with them. there will always be problems.

science and medicine will continue to make leaps forward.functional robots will become commonplace.transportation will be more mass transit and less individual

I wouldn't be surprised if both the moon and Mars had semi-permanent bases( growing food there seems impossible to sustain more than a handful of people, just another challenge).

I hope we'll whip the mystery of controlled fusion by then. nano will be typical and big will fade away.

land and water will continue to be fought over.

our planet will host humans rather easily for many thousands of years. but exoplanets will not escape our touch and influence.

war and greed will continue to destroy from within. but good people will always rise up and mostly prevail.

crooks will still be crooks. sex will always sell.

computers with attached wires will only be found in the Smithsonian.

when a body part wears out your doctor will just order a new one that is grown with your DNA.it will be a good place for those that want to work for it.

whiners and ANONS will still be worthless.

Anything you need to know will be on a chip that is implanted into your skull and wired directly to your brain.

Soon after that, the body as we know it, will no longer be necessary at all.

Soon after that, an unforeseen, catastrophic solar flair will wipe out all electrical circuits on earth and mankind, as it existed in 2015 and what was left in 2100, will cease to exist.

Earth will revert back to an uninhabited, unpolluted Garden of Eden forever.

"Earth will revert back to an uninhabited, unpolluted Garden of Eden forever."

Except for N Korea. They will still be about the same in 50 years if not comparatively worse off than now.

There is a pretty good chance that Anonymous Poster #1 will still be wandering around CR4 asking inane questions.

If politicians dominate the world, science & technology cannot do much good for mankind.