2020 in forecasts: from flying cars to teleportation

At JavaRush we often talk about the future and even try to look into it as best we can, make forecasts (mainly, of course, relying on the opinions of authoritative experts), imagine how the IT industry will change in the next years and what will happen to the programming language Java. The last days of the outgoing year and the beginning of the next are the ideal time to make predictions for the future, as well as take stock and see if old prophecies have come true. It is this topic that we decided to devote today’s article to – forecasts for the future. And the strange forms they sometimes take.

2020 in the forecasts of futurists of the early twentieth century

And we will start with forecasts that are already a hundred years old or more. At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, people looked to the future with great optimism and imagined how technologically advanced the world would be in a hundred years. Since then, the world has really changed a lot, although not quite as our ancestors imagined. Many of their predictions now only cause laughter, and some even make us regret that they did not come true.

Prediction #1. Knowledge from books will be downloaded directly into the brain

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the then futurists imagined that by now there would be no need to read textbooks to learn anything, because their content would be downloaded via wires directly into the brain. Convenient, isn't it? Of course, this concept preceded the advent of the Internet and was partially realized in it, because the Network really gives us access to all the knowledge of mankind, but it will not be possible to download it directly into ourselves, bypassing such a tedious process as conscious learning, at least for now. How cool it would be to master all the intricacies of Java by simply putting on your head such a funny hat as in the picture. But alas, we don’t yet know how to download programming skills directly into the brain, so JavaRush offers to learn Java in the simplest way that actually works here and now.

Prediction #2. Flying cars and buses will be everywhere

Our ancestors in the 19th and 20th centuries expected that by now we would have outgrown cars, buses and other wheeled vehicles and switched from them to flying vehicles. You can find a surprising number of drawings in which the futurists of the day depict people in cities flying with wings on their backs or controlling aggregators like small cars plowing through the air. But for some reason the people of the future (that is, we) did not appreciate this bright idea of ​​our ancestors. It’s a pity, after all, flying to work every morning would be more fun than being stuck in public transport, and again, there wouldn’t be such problems with traffic jams.

Prediction #3. Underwater racing

And finally, another fantasy of the futurists of the past, so strange and illogical that it even makes it attractive. Underwater racing on... eels. Sounds like a hell of a fun sport, doesn't it? Why specifically on eels (after all, they are terribly slippery and not so fast)? One can only guess. Still, the futurists of the past had a much more vivid imagination than the futurists of our time (about whom later).

5 relatively recent forecasts for 2020 that did not come true at all. It's a pity

Prediction #1. By 2020, monkeys will be drivers and cleaners

In 1994, the RAND Corporation, a global think tank that has contributed to NASA's space program and the Internet, predicted that by 2020, animals would literally be working for us. According to the forecast, by this time humanity will have learned to breed intelligent species of animals, in particular monkeys, who will be able to engage in manual labor. For example, they will work as cleaners and gardeners, and every self-respecting wealthy family will have a monkey driver. But alas, 2020 is almost here, and only homo sapiens still work as drivers. Although sometimes you can’t tell from them.

Prediction #2. The need to eat food to survive will disappear

This forecast was made just 15 years ago by the famous futurist and scientist, as well as a worthy heir to the visionaries of the early 20th century who dreamed of racing the eels of the future - Ray Kurzweil. In his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near, he wrote that by 2020 there will be “nanobots” capable of penetrating the bloodstream to “feed” cells and remove waste. As a result, the way we consume food as we know it will become obsolete and out of fashion. Bold forecast, right? Kurzweil probably sees the future so far ahead that he sometimes makes mistakes in the dates of his predictions by centuries. Or maybe, while writing the book, old Ray simply stimulated his imagination with something. Only he (and his drug dealer) knows about this.

Prediction #3. Telepathy and teleportation will become possible

However, Ray Kurzweil is not the only one who likes to make bold predictions about the development of our civilization. Michael J. O'Farrell, renowned emerging technology expert and founder of The Mobile Institute, predicted in his 2014 book “Shift 2020” that 2020 would be the dawn of “ era of nanomobility.” “In the coming era of nanomobility, I expect telepathy and teleportation to be possible by 2020 and commonplace by 2040,” said Michael O'Farrell. Sounds unlikely, Mike. However, perhaps a respected expert knew something unknown to us, and telepathy and teleportation will indeed appear in 2020. So let's give him a chance, after all there is still time.

Prediction #4. We will live in flying houses

Inventor, scientist and futurist Arthur C. Clarke believed in 1966 that by about 2020 we would be living in mobile flying homes. “Entire settlements will be able to migrate south in winter or move to another place if residents want to change the landscape,” the scientist writes. It’s beautiful, of course, but humanity will probably have to endure another hundred or two hundred years for this to happen.

Prediction #5. Everyone will be rich and no one will work

In the same 1966, Time magazine predicted that by this time the global economy would have developed so much that machines would do all the work for us, and people would simply get paid for doing nothing. In particular, the futurists of the sixties expected that by 2020 the average US family would have a basic income of about $30-40 thousand per year, which, adjusted for inflation, is now about $300-400 thousand.

5 optimistic forecasts for the near future that would quickly come true

And finally, a few optimistic forecasts, which, according to experts from the authoritative magazine Popular Mechanics, will come true within the next ten years. We hope they are right.

Prediction #1. Self-cleaning buildings will fight smog

According to scientists, buildings will soon help clear city air of smog. A special technology has already been developed for this. When sunlight hits the aluminum surface of the building of the future, a special titanium dioxide coating releases free radicals that break down dirt and convert toxic nitrogen oxide molecules in the air into harmless nitrate, which is simply washed away by rain. As they say, we didn’t understand anything, but it sounds very interesting. Let's just hope that scientists haven't made a mistake anywhere.

Prediction #2. Clothes will also become self-cleaning

Clothes that clean themselves are of course less important, but would also be very useful. Chinese engineers have already developed a titanium dioxide coating that helps remove stains from fabric and eliminate odor-causing bacteria. So, it is likely that the smell of someone's dirty socks in a train carriage will soon become a memory from the past. We cross our fingers and hope that this will happen.

Prediction #3. Roads and bridges will be made from self-healing concrete

And this forecast will certainly spoil the mood of our officials. University of Michigan engineer Victor Li has invented a new composite laced with microfibers that bend without breaking. The fractures are repaired within a few days when calcium ions in the mixture react with rainwater and carbon dioxide to form a patch of calcium carbonate. Roads and bridges covered with such material will be restored independently, without any participation of builders.

Prediction #4. Traffic jams will disappear

More precisely, the software will predict and eliminate traffic jams before they occur. Using big data archives, roadside sensors and GPS, IBM has developed a simulation program that anticipates traffic jams an hour in advance and helps prevent them. In the first tests, this system showed successful results.

Prediction #5. People will be fluent in any language

Technologies for instant machine translation from one language to another are developing at a breakneck pace, so we can expect that by 2030 our phones will be able to speak Chinese, for example, for us.

Epilogue

As we can see from the above, humanity mainly consists of incorrigible optimists who, no matter what, tend to believe in a bright future and changes for the better. And even though our predictions do not always come true, and some brilliant ideas are dashed by harsh reality (oh, the eel race..), thanks to constant learning and development, we still move forward and improve our lives, albeit not as quickly as this seen by many futurists. The JavaRush editors wish their readers a Happy New Year! According to our forecast, in 2020 you will find many interesting articles, news, analytics, guides and, of course, fresh materials for successfully learning the intricacies of Java. And this forecast will certainly come true. We checked.