Canadian scientist George Dvorsky (George Dvorsky), whose activities are closely related to the analysis of global challenges that await humanity in the way of its development, has published a new article describing the most frightening in his view of the phenomena of the future. Some assumptions that George may never come true, others will be confirmed or disproved in the long term, but some of the predictions will become a reality very soon…
So, George Dvorsky and his Ten predictions about the future that scare you to death.” Abstracts are listed in order of presentation by the author.
Almost anyone can “start” pandemic
The project “Global priorities” of the University of Oxford included artificially provoked a pandemic to the list of disasters that would claim the lives of 10 or more percent of the planet. Conditions for the start of a deadly epidemic that could result from the evil intent of an individual or a terrorist group is likely to develop in the next five years. A number of prerequisites is already shown in projects like “genome editor” CRISPR and 3D bio-printers. In the end, even the usual study of dangerous viruses produced using new technologies and available for a wider circle of people, can serve as a basis for the implementation of someone’s evil designs.
The digitization of the human mind as an unintentional suicide
The physical body is mortal, and therefore there is a temptation to create the immortal “personality” in the form of a supercomputer that contains a “copy” of the mind (or brain) of a person. The problem is that, first, poetapnoe brain scans will almost certainly lead to the death of this body, and secondly, received a copy of the mind is unlikely to be accurate, as scientists are far from understanding how to recreate human consciousness.
The era of authoritarian regimes will be back
Response to huge disasters (like the aforementioned pandemic), associated with hundreds of thousands or millions of casualties in an individual country, could become the coming to power of an authoritarian ruler (or group of like-minded people) which will encroach on the seemingly inherent human rights, such as privacy and freedom of movement. Living in fear, people may subsequently create a social demand for the tightening of the dictatorship.
Privacy will become a relic of the past
The Orwellian dystopia of “1984” are still more fiction than reality, however, every year Big Brother is getting closer to go from the pages of the novel English writer. Total surveillance best elite as a tool of control over ordinary citizens and big business that wants to improve sales tools. Observation and recording as many episodes of human life will become the norm, the more that technology is contributing to this becoming more widely available.
Robots would be easy to manipulate people
Futurist and science fiction writer David Brin (David Brin) predicts the emergence of special robots that will use empathy — an exceptional gift to the man who expressed empathy (understanding) of feelings of others — to manipulate. The machine will almost perfectly to adapt to the interlocutor, to reach their programmed or originally “invented” purposes. In the end, those few who can resist the robots erratum with their well-honed facial expressions, phrases, and gestures will be sociopaths (straight from the chamber of weights and measures) and a few narrow specialists.
Climate change will be irreversible
Despite the efforts of leading States to reduce the negative anthropogenic (coming from man) influence on climate, the conditional point of no return might be passed, and in this case, the consequences of irresponsible exploitation of the resources of the planet will be felt for hundreds and thousands of years. George Dvorsky emphasizes the problem of greenhouse gas emissions — the same carbon dioxide to be able to “warm” the grounders, even when in the course of rapid industrialization of the XX century will remain only the scholars and the a-students of the future. To change the situation in the best (or worst) side can only geoengineering projects.
The effectiveness of antibiotics will come to naught
The number of bacteria resistant to any antibiotics is growing, and by 2050, according to forecasts by British actuaries, more than 10 million people annually will die from “superbugs”. The problem of resistance “hackers” of the immune system to any reasonable extent the impacts can turn Russian roulette surgery to remove the Appendix or to bring to the grave of a patient with pneumonia, which is relatively easy could be curable in the past. However, the hope for a scientific breakthrough in this area remains.
Robots killing people will become a part of everyday life
If the script of “Terminator” — when in a special way programmed robots (devices) are sacrificing people — will become the norm, a part of reality that side effects will occur. Like you, for example, “illegal” robots with nuclear warheads under the mouse or the machine, control of which is lost, and the “blood lust” widely prescribed in the code? Manufacturers of Autonomous lethal weapons (Lethal Autonomous Weapons, LAWS) to assure the public of a thorough testing procedure of killing machines, but in any case, a complex device is difficult to design accurately.
The satellites will fail
The day when mankind will lose its artificial satellites due to their strong geomagnetic storms or war in space, will become a nightmare for almost everyone. Today we can certainly speak about the financial crisis as one of the consequences of failure of all (or almost all) of the satellites. Dependence on cosmic helpers is only growing, that is alarming scientists, advocating the development of alternative technologies. On top of that, sooner or later it will become a question of collecting space debris. “Sweep” near-earth space would be very costly.
We did not establish communication with the aliens
In the existence of alien life believes a significant number of people, and some of them are waiting for any message from extraterrestrial intelligence, to proud to enter a new era of mankind. However, the space is silent, and it is alarming, because the milky Way galaxy more than 13 billion years — during this time, “neighbors” could easily reach the level of development, sufficient for sending signals to the starry sky. Whether earthlings are not interesting enough to spend time on the intergalactic “chat”, whether our signals are not recognized in other civilizations, in General, Amateurs make contacts with UFOs waiting for boring gatherings at the telescope for a duration, maybe in a thousand years.
Incidentally, the famous scientist Stephen William Hawking (Stephen William Hawking) in his discussion on the prospects of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (“the universe Stephen Hawking. The story about everything”) noted that it is important to be careful about sending signals into space, because they can hear not only “friends” and “foes”.
