Funhouse
Guesstimates, you know, predictions about the future or even the present is chancy at best as change is the only constant and because of that, one can only throw darts and hope one doesn't miss. In Crossing the Rubicon ..., BRT talked about a perilous future, here, within that time frame, will be a tiny partial guess as to how science and tech will hold on as best as it can as in the face of a most pernicious storm of our own making.
For starters, SI FI in books and film is at it's acme with China going full tilt in examining it's relationship to same as it becomes the other super power on planet earth.
Cancer becomes solvable due to AI and intense compute power able to discern how proteins fold and how that impacts the communicative problem of cancer cells as to why they go rogue.
Fusion will happen as there is simply too much money and need for it to not happen. Think MIT and private enterprise on this front as research is beginning to bear real fruit. Timeframe - 20 years. This will be the true start point to hopefully ameliorating GW as solar, wind and wave lack the energy density to transition energy grids from coal, oil and gas with any degree of success.This is key if civilization is to survive as nature does reset if given a chance as carbon and methane injection into the atmosphere will begin to fall if fossil fuels are finally done away in their entirety. If this doesn't happen, we're toast.
Happy motoring begins to collapse as there is no more cheap energy to be found. Shale and natural gas have had their day in the sun. Scarcity becomes the new watchword for now though cheap and powerful batteries to power the inevitable changeover to electric goes prime time.
Graphene becomes real in more ways than one can imagine. Ditto quantum computing.
Really big telescopes get built and discoveries of all kinds take off.
Space travel ...
As obnoxious as Elon Musk is, the man knows rockets and how to build them to be useful and practical at the same time. This reusability factor will expand to other vendors, as it always does, as the resources in space are too valuable to ignore. Starting with good enough and improving upon same to make the space tech reliable and relatively cheap will make space travel viable but Mars "ain't" the answer to how man will survive the coming storm of GW.
Astronomy goes lunar with radio and optical scopes being built on the far side of the moon.
Moon and Mars get bases, 10-20 years out.
The James Webb telescope becomes operational, finally.
Extraterrestrial life is discovered. Mars, Europa, Enceladus or Titan look to be the best candidates or perhaps aliens make the scene. It's about time don't you think?
Quantum Mechanics and Relativity finally gets unified under a new theory.
Quantum chemistry goes primetime
Gravitons indirectly become recognized as the carrier force for gravity.
Medical
In situ stem cell treatment of maladies like cancer, diabetes and hear problems gain traction due to the aforementioned computational and AI prowess of systems coming online as we speak. This also applies to increasing the lifespan of man though, in light of what's coming, one has to ask the existential question, Is it a good idea?
AI becomes sentient. Question, What's next?
Guaranteed income is coming as bots are going to take over most jobs because it's cheaper and more efficient. Sustainability will become the mantra as conditions on planet earth get worse.
Smart weapons, autonomous bots and digital swarms of cheap but deadly drones, controlled by AI, replace the large and overly complex systems of today. Think Avatar.
Lab on a chip gets real.
Nanotech gets real, finally.
Local farming gets real.
Geoengineering, a tech most disquieting, gets all too real.
Media, untrusted to the max, becomes immersive. Think Blade Runner 2049.
Video goes virtual but we already know that. Think The Mandelorian.
Hardware craps out. Solar, 20 years, ditto wind. Will we have the resources to replace said tech?
Bots as sexual companions go prime time.
Deep Fakes reside everywhere, not only in images and video but also in audio and writing.
Guns become more cherished than ever in the home of the brave & land of the free.
China and the US avoid a hot war.
Rewild the world - David Atenborough
We totally depend on tech, a most fragile entity without question.
All of this can happen if we have enough time ...
Resource depletion et al ...
30 years from now, it's June 30 therabouts. Think 2050.
The descent.
Countries splinter in the face of GW, resource depletion and environmental degradation.
Hundreds of millions die as forced migration is hazardous to one's health. India's problem with Covid is just a taste of what's coming as glaciers dry up and variable land disappears under the onslaught of GW.
India, without the monsoon, is terrifying to the max.
Science get attacked by the ignorant. Politics becomes ever more fractious. The US anyone?
Man goes tribal.
Enclaves of modernity will spring up to hold off the hordes of impoverished millions along with bands of foraging bandits, bringing forth a new dark age with islands of civilization residing, either behind fortified walls or hidden away to avoid detection. Dangerville awaits.
VR will be big as travel becomes too perilous. Cybersecurity will be job one to keep intruders digitally away.
2050 looms.
Roadway 101
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