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Imagining the tech world in 2050

news.com — Sharon Nunes, who leads IBM's green-research initiatives, launched IBM's Computational Biology Center. She predicted that by 2050, clean water and energy would be available to the entire planet.

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  • asteroid, on 05/05/2008, -12/+2Hey! Some of us have naturally curly hair!
    • putergirl, on 05/05/2008, -2/+2Yeahhh..me too! But cmon, she's trying to talk about the future with a hairdo from like 1950 LOL
  • brock2020, on 05/05/2008, -11/+1Imagine the Video Games in 2050!!
    • bmson, on 05/05/2008, -2/+2No ***** ingame sex in GTA.
      We will be ***** for real... I can't wait....
      • FlyingSpaghetti, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1So says the 70 year old virgin in 2050.
  • mediaspree, on 05/05/2008, -10/+27Will all people look like am unfortunate hybrid of Carrottop and Weird Al in 2050?
  • jamesov89, on 05/05/2008, -10/+1Only if it is economically satisfiable.
  • nickspohn, on 05/05/2008, -10/+6But the world ends in 2012.


    Or is it 2020?
    • plizard, on 05/05/2008, -5/+4no 20/20 is a show
      • ripple123, on 05/05/2008, -4/+1Its also my vision. Well. actully not. Damn glasses.
    • specialK16, on 05/05/2008, -2/+12032
    • huggybarrel, on 05/05/2008, -1/+22012 is what the mayan's have said
    • natediz, on 05/05/2008, -0/+12012 isn't necessarily the end of the world, it was the end of the Mayan's calender. It counted down instead of up like today's. It is said to signify the end of an era, which would mean the start of a new one. I'm excited!
      • kurtu5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1It doesn't count down. Its simply cyclical. Just like our 365 day year. Every once in a while we hit Dec 31st and have to start over with Jan 1. 2012 is the year where the mayan long count has its Dec 31st.
  • OfNumbers, on 05/05/2008, -12/+4Is that Weird Al?
  • kevinsmail23, on 05/05/2008, -10/+0shhhhh! Nobody tell all Gore. That she got it right.
  • orangefly, on 05/05/2008, -12/+1i predict that by 2050 at least two more clintons or bushs will have been president....
  • shoopdawoop, on 05/05/2008, -11/+0*obligatory comment on the failed realization of the hoverboard*
  • dolphonia, on 05/05/2008, -10/+3Didn't understand any of that but, boy, doesn't it sound cool.
  • plizard, on 05/05/2008, -13/+1ibm has a green division? omfg people are drinking the al gore kool aid.
    • TomFrost, on 05/05/2008, -1/+5Isn't it worth it? I mean, whether or not you buy that humans have had any significant impact on the greenhouse effect, isn't "going green" good *anyway*? No matter how you spin it, we still pollute our environment and the resources we breathe and drink on a daily basis. Taking the environment into consideration gives us a cleaner place to live, makes us healthier, lowers our electric costs, leads technological innovation, and will (hopefully) give us excellent, more cost-effective transportation methods. Whether or not we're the cause of global warming is superfluous to the "green" movement being a generally Good Thing.

      I don't know about you, but I'd love to see my electric bill cut in half.
    • rayraym0fucka, on 05/05/2008, -1/+4I'm no crazy environmentalist but it's not hurting anyone. Whether global warming is for real or not shouldn't matter. There's nothing wrong with saving some energy where possible.
    • kurtu5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1OMFG we pull 3/4 of a megawatt of juice where I work to run our machine rooms. I can't recall how many tons of cooling we have, but when that goes, we shut everything down.

      Why would we want to buy new servers that run cooler and take less power? OMFG we love shelling out the $$.

      Sarcasm aside, the only reason to go green is economics. Feely good stuff will never win out, but connect it to the bottom line and everyone will go green.
  • r3s0p, on 05/05/2008, -9/+0s/would/could
  • Abomonog, on 05/05/2008, -10/+2I WANT MY ***** FLYING CAR ALREADY!!!
    • kurtu5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1You will.

      Pulse Detonation Engines will be made of metamaterials that dampen out not only the loud noise, but the loss of efficiency due to destructive vibration of the engine. Since we will be getting the bulk of our power from orbiting satellites, fuel costs won't be so much of an issue.

      These lightweight PDEs could allow for small hypersonic personal transport craft. Coupled with some rockets, you could probably boost into suborbital trips.

      The car will be made out of such light material, that you will probably weight more than it does empty.
  • KMartSheriff, on 05/05/2008, -2/+22Wow, so many comments and so much fail.
    • ElAssoWipo, on 05/05/2008, -6/+3Digg is the new youtube.

      Is there anything out there that's like Digg 2 years ago? I'd like that site.
    • GeekyGerge, on 05/05/2008, -3/+1People will look back at this in 42 years and see us fail at making good comments.

      P.S. Hello future people. How's the weather?
  • HillerMylife, on 07/24/2008, -2/+20In 2050, people will look at these predictions the same way we now look at the Surgeon General's prediction in 1967 that antibiotics would be "the end of infectious disease."
    • Viend, on 05/05/2008, -3/+2Okay, we get it. We suck at making predictions and we always have.

      In 2100 they'll probably be looking at the predictions in 2050 like the 2050 dudes looked at our prediction, and like we looked at the 1950 prediction. It just goes on and on and we will never learn to stop making predictions which never come true.
    • jer2eydevil88, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1I was thinking more along the lines of the predictions made about flying cars being prevalent in American homes by 2000...
  • professorfurley, on 05/05/2008, -8/+2that woman looks like weird al
  • adeladel2, on 05/05/2008, -9/+2i think that in 2050 the world will just get worse not better there will be environmental issues and a big problem in energy so if we don't work out a solution for the current issues 2050 will be just like 2050bc lol
  • speel, on 05/05/2008, -7/+7I WANT MY ***** HOOVER BOARD!
  • jaej, on 05/05/2008, -7/+2these are some of the lamest comments ever.
    i, for one, welcome our 14-year-old billionaire overlords
  • TurboLuvah, on 05/05/2008, -4/+4"In 2050, a 14 year old boy will make $10 billion sitting in his bedroom in one day."

    Is this guy ***** serious?
    • wonderchemist, on 05/05/2008, -0/+14Your forgetting the impending collapse of the dollar.
      • nbcaffeine, on 05/05/2008, -1/+2I was thinking "so what, he sold one comic book on ebay"
    • Arramol, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1And according to Asimov, he'll do it with a computer named after Alexander the Great's horse.
  • wonderchemist, on 05/05/2008, -3/+16And Windows based computers still use Ctrl-Alt-Del.
    • IDiggDrSiN, on 05/05/2008, -0/+0Will it still take repeated attempts to try and end a program using this method?
  • Seabaka, on 05/05/2008, -2/+3I'm just waiting for my Holodeck combined with the Internet
  • redchina, on 05/05/2008, -3/+5And gas will be $10,000/barrel.
    • fiskehaps, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Don't want to know what the food prices would be
  • imthepresident, on 05/05/2008, -2/+3Sharon Nunes is the new sex.
  • wjfox2008, on 05/05/2008, -1/+2IMO, this is one of the best sites on the web for future predictions:-

    http://www.jrmooneyham.com/future_history_timeline ...

    Tons of detailed and incredible stuff, going all the way up to 6000 AD and beyond. His ideas on the 22nd-24th centuries are particularly fascinating. Nanotech and AI will change the world beyond recognition.
    • wjfox2008, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1FFS, why have I been dug down for this?
      • BloKKem, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1because you actually posted something on topic, that's not allowed here.
    • kurtu5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1In the future, web sites that predict the future will look like web sites from 10 years ago.

      Ok, good content. Like http://www.islandone.org/ (future space propulsion)
  • RicardoWilliams, on 05/05/2008, -4/+3everyone always imagines a utopia-type future... i'd like to think its gonna be more like Mad Max...
    • huggybarrel, on 05/05/2008, -0/+2wow. Do your friends call you Mr. Optimistic?
    • MWeather, on 05/05/2008, -0/+3Read Utopia sometime. It's anything but Utopian.
  • kraftj, on 05/05/2008, -3/+2I just want the flying car I was promised by "Beyond 2000" back in the early 90's.
  • Pixelante, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1Criswell, is that you?
  • JYoungest1, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1Its always surprising to see uplifting optimistic Diggs, and to see the hoards of people post negatively.
  • MWeather, on 05/05/2008, -1/+2Clean water and energy are already available to the entire planet. It just costs more than dirty energy and dirty water. Problem is, we're cheapskates.
  • lsalih, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1None of the speakers would be alive to see it. Will I at age 27?
  • IDiggDrSiN, on 05/05/2008, -2/+1I think this possibly the best case scenario for predictions . Like predictions before they are obtainable goals , but for these goals to be accomplished there needs to be some sort of a catalyst either a new global conflict , the type we haven't seen since the end of the Second World War or a change in the political landscape of the entire planet.

    Take the "free" energy advancements , energy will never be free at least until it stops being practical to dig/pump Fossil Fuels out of the earth , the energy companies would see to this.

  • shieldss, on 05/05/2008, -1/+8The problem with these "predictions of the future" are that they look at technology through the narrow vision of the present. If you look back at predictions from the 60's, much had to do with life on other planets due to the space race or calculators that would be portable as this was merely enhancing current trends in technology. No one foresaw innovations like the internet, Email, GPS, affordable cell phones, etc. and now, the same trend occurs: Being "Green" is all the rage these days so naturally predictions about the future will only look at things through today's eyes. There is a focus on alternative fuels and cleaning the environment so the predictable prediction is that in the future we will have enhanced ways of creating clean fuels and water. While I have noticed this psychological trend as well, credit is due to Ray Kurzweil for describing it much better than I do in his many writings. I agree with him in saying that the future is beyond our imaginations and will go in directions we are unable to see today but cannot imagine living without tomorrow.
    • psbpv3o, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Most of the time I can't imagine living in today's world.
  • blast_flame, on 05/05/2008, -1/+4The singularity is near...
  • Joepg, on 05/05/2008, -2/+0Pessimism is rarely popular, but like it or not, reality includes the possibility that WW III will occur before 2050. With nuclear proliferation occurring every year, how long before someone starts nuking someone else?
    Yeah, reality bites sometimes.
    • kurtu5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1Not long. Just wait until metastable isomers and nanomaterials are put together.
  • KaivenTor, on 05/05/2008, -1/+4On one side, we have the spacing guild and on the other we have the sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit...
  • svensksvamp, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1sex?
  • Risingashes, on 05/05/2008, -2/+2Anyone who makes predictions about such a long time in to the future is setting themselves up to look stupid.
    Moonbases, flying cars, machines that will wash your dishes for you- all ridiculous imaginings that should have been invented by the 80's.
  • linksus, on 05/05/2008, -2/+1why even bother. we are screwed anyway.
  • charlietuna, on 05/05/2008, -2/+1... for a fee.
  • xDibblerx, on 05/05/2008, -2/+1They said we will become the Borg by 2050.
    • manitoba98xp, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Actually, it's 2365 (TNG: Q Who?) until we meet them. So we still have some time left.
  • novenator, on 05/05/2008, -1/+2An abundance of clean water and energy depends on consumption levels and population figures. After the "green revolution" in the 1960s, the world more than doubled its food production, yet starvation persisted as distribution networks became corrupt and the worlds human population exploded.
  • randersontt, on 05/05/2008, -2/+1okay, so the entire world will have clean cheap power, and our handheld devices will have the power of todays supercomputers, and we'll live forever and all be billionaires. Hmmm...but that doesn't explain how we're going to feed 40 billion people or where we're all going to park. And oh, yeah...what about the freakin' flying cars we were supposed to get a long time ago?!
  • aenima987, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1The tech world is anticipating the upcoming release of 3-D Realms' epic new game Duke Nukem Forever
  • xombiefarts, on 05/05/2008, -1/+1Your still gonna have to wait another 950 years to bite Benders shiny metal ass.
  • markgl, on 05/05/2008, -2/+1I've seen terminator. I know what the future holds.
  • kurtu5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1I predict that all the grandiose directions we can go will be stunted by humans wasting 99% of their efforts in supporting the oligarchs.
  • kadath44, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1If you haven't already watched it, take a look at this discovery channel documentaries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2057_%28TV_series%29
  •  

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