Read the text to learn more about what life might look like in the future.

Dorota Giżyńska Future Science or Fiction?

You’ve seen it in science fiction films. A group of super‑rich people leave Earth to live on a luxury space station after a natural disaster incident which wipes offwipes off [wipe off]wipes off any form of life on Earth. Will reality look like this? What will our world be like in 2050? What does the future holdWhat does the future hold?What does the future hold for humanityhumanityhumanity, the food we consume, the technologies we use, and our homes? It's easy to use clichéscliches [cliche]clichés like food pills, flying automobiles, and lunar baseslunar bases [lunar base]lunar bases, but the truth is likely to be less spectacularspectacularspectacular. In 2050, the world will most likely be similar to today, but smarter and more automatedautomatedautomated. Some innovations will go unnoticedunnoticedunnoticed, while others will knock us off our feetknocks you off your feet [knock somebody of one’s feet]knock us off our feet and forever change our lives.

Everything, such as food, health, and work will be underpinnedunderpinnedunderpinned by technology. When it comes to food, the major revolution might be verticalverticalvertical agriculture where food is grown in AI‑controlled buildings. Actually, this is already happening. The response to growing populations and the need for more food will be genetically modifiedgenetically modifiedgenetically modified crops and syntheticsyntheticsynthetic meat. If scientists can create a low‑cost method of growing edibleedibleedible meat in the lab, it will permanentlypermanentlypermanently revolutionise the way we live and eat. In 2050 we may also include insects in our staple dietstaple dietstaple diet.

In the world of work, instead of humans collaborating with machines, automationautomationautomation is likely to eliminate some jobs, eg. taxi drivers will be replaced by self‑driving Uber cars and receptionists will be replaced by robots. However, new jobs will be emergingwill be emerging [emerge]will be emerging, including computer engineers, or mechanics who will repair self‑drivingself‑drivingself‑driving Uber taxis, or programmers fixing robots who interact with people. To save people the trouble and risk, robots will be able to take on the more difficult, risky, and boring jobs. In theory, robots can also work faster, more efficiently, with fewer errors and no salary. What’s important is that since technology  continues to disruptdisruptdisrupt businesses and remove some jobs, this will result in the emergenceemergenceemergence of new professions that we have yet to imagine.

In the world of health, personalisedpersonalisedpersonalised treatments and 3D‑printed replacement organsreplacement organs [replacement organ]replacement organs will be possible thanks to genome mappinggenome mappinggenome mapping, while driverlessdriverlessdriverless ambulance drones will use unmannedunmannedunmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology. In general, better electric automobiles, personal flying machines, private space tourism, and drone delivery services are all expected to be possible in the future thanks to advances in technology.

While not all the advancements are possible, three things are definite when it comes to how far we can develop in the future. Technology devices will become smaller, more intelligent, and less expensive. We'll undoubtedlyundoubtedlyundoubtedly wear fitness sensors on our skin, charge our devices with wireless power or have algorithms optimise and protect our homes. In all this, virtual assistants will help us manage and make sense of the flow of dataflow of dataflow of data. In fact, computers and sensors will most likely become so small, smart, and cheap that we'll be able to put them in nearly anything. Rubbish bins will alertalert (verb)alert the councilcouncilcouncil when they're full, and 4K televisions will detect when we've stopped viewing and turn off to save energy. We're also on our way to the internet of thingsinternet of thingsinternet of things, where everything is connected to everything else, not just the internet. So, the future is... uncertain.

1 Źródło: Dorota Giżyńska, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.