Do you ever take a look back at old fiction, say from the 1960s and 1970s? They often depict a future that, today, we live within. Media back in the day would use the first few decades of the next century to paint society in so many ways. Movies like The Running Man that showed society as a deeply flawed place. Others showed a society in the mid-2000s as completely transformed, with high rise buildings and flying cars. We appear to have landed somewhere in the middle of this in 2019. However, when we think of 30 years in the future, towards 2050, what do we imagine? What do we see?
We are presently in the midst of an incredible societal change on a global sense. As we move into a new decade, it’s expected that we’ll see complete transformation of everything. From how we live to how we get around through to what we do with our free time, everything will adjust. The cities of the future will be nothing like the cities of the present – just like the past. Technological, economic, societal and cultural change will drive massive change in the decades to come. What, then, are future cities like to be like as we approach the second fifth of this century?
The future is green
If we are to survive as a species, we are likely going to need make massive changes to our cities. Many cities still thrive off an industrial past – but it’s a green future that will sustain many cities. From moving to green energy to self-sustaining cities powered by greenery, change is already coming into action. The United Arab Emirates, for example, is investing record sums of money into the Vision 2021 plan.
This will be a plan that, if followed elsewhere, could change the world. Driverless cars, AI governmental tools and desalination to help keep water drinkable will become common. The introduction of blockchain and machine learning into far more than just digital cryptocurrency is likely to arrive in the future, too. One of the technological leaders in city building, Tallinn in Estonia, is already utilising techniques like this.
We are in a process if immense and unstoppable change in many ways. We world is going to look like a very different place in 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050. Each decade is expected to bring more environmentally sound ideas. It’s also supposed to bring more technology to help reduce our dependency on people.
Is that a scary thing? Yes, in a way. The world is going to keep becoming more and more connected. Technology is going to fuel everything, from the food we buy to how we get to and from A to B. Smart cities are just around the corner, with everything linked and working as one large network.
Some see that as a rather Orwellian future. With a planet still suffering from the effects of industry and excess consumption, though, something will have to give. For many, that will mean foregoing some privacy in exchange for a cleaner, more modern world. By 2050, expect just about everything to be automated: and that will create its own list of problems for society.
Until such problems arise, though, we should enjoy the ride. The next decades look to be some of the most developmentally important in modern human history. Where will it take us? Probably far beyond even the most ambitious films of the past. 2050 in reality might look a whole lot different to 2050 in most forms of fiction.
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