From smartphone apps that can do seemingly everything to driverless cars, the past decade has seen dramatic advances. What amazing advances are we likely to see in the next 10 years?
To find out, HuffingtonPost reached out to top futurists, and they gave us some pretty surprising predictions. Here’s the summary of what they think:
Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and author of "The Future of the Mind:"
"In the next 10 years, we will see the gradual transition from an Internet to a brain-net, in which thoughts, emotions, feelings, and memories might be transmitted instantly across the planet.
Scientists can now hook the brain to a computer and begin to decode some of our memories and thoughts. This might eventually revolutionize communication and even entertainment.
Dr. Ray Kurzweil, inventor, pioneering computer scientist, and a director of engineering at Google:
"By 2025, 3D printers will print clothing at very low cost. 3D printers will print human organs using modified stem cells with the patient’s own DNA providing an inexhaustible supply of organs. We will be also able to repair damaged organs with reprogrammed stem cells, for example a heart damaged from a heart attack. 3D printers will print inexpensive modules to snap together a house or an office building, lego style.
We will spend considerable time in virtual and augmented realities allowing us to visit with each other even if hundreds of miles apart. We will be able to reprogram human biology away from many diseases and aging processes, for example deactivating cancer stem cells that are the true source of cancer, or retard the progression of atherosclerosis, a cause of heart disease.
Dr. Anne Lise Kjaer, founder of London-based trend forecasting agency Kjaer Global:
"The World Health Organization predicts that chronic diseases will account for almost three-quarters of all deaths worldwide by 2020, so the evolution of M-Health (mobile diagnostics, bio-feedback and personal monitoring) is set to revolutionize treatment of conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
Apps designed by medical professionals will provide efficient real-time feedback, tackle chronic conditions at a much earlier stage, and help to improve the lifestyles and life outcomes of communities in the developed and developing world.
Dr. James Canton, CEO of the San Francisco-based Institute for Global Futures and author of "Future Smart: Managing the Game-Changing Trends that will Transform Your World:"
"Wearable mobile devices will blanket the world. By 2025, there will be a massive Internet of everyone and everything linking every nation, community, company and person to all of the world’s knowledge. This will accelerate real-time access to education, health care, jobs, entertainment and commerce…
Artificial intelligence becomes both as smart as and smarter than humans. AI will be embedded in autos, robots, homes and hospitals will create the AI economy. Humans and robots merge, digitally and physically, to treat patients who may be around the world.
Predictive medicine transforms health care. Early diagnosis of disease with medical devices that sniff our breath, and free DNA sequencing that predicts our future health will be common.
Jason Silva, host of National Geographic Channel’s "Brain Games:"
"The on-demand revolution will become the on-demand world, where biological software upgrades, personalized medicine, artificially intelligent assistants will increasingly transform healthcare and well-being. Additionally, increased automation will continue to make our day-to-day lives infinitely richer. Self-driving cars will be ubiquitous, transportation itself will be automatic, clean, and cheap.
Mark Stevenson, author of "An Optimist’s Tour of the Future:"
"The technologies aren’t the most important bit, although they are super cool. It’s what society does with them, and right now it’s institutional change that’s the sticking point…. What you really want to look at, in my opinion, is new ways of organizing ourselves.