Scientists are currently working on the most unbelievable technology. What’s coming may seem like weird stuff today, but will eventually be a part of our everyday lives. When you were a child, you probably thought you had the coolest technology around. At the time, you probably did. Your parents may have told you they wish they had the same stuff when they were kids. Now that you are all grown up, you may be saying the same thing to your own children. This is a trend that will likely continue as long as humans continue to exist.

In this post, we will explore many odd things that are heading are way. Although some are just speculations from brilliant scientists of what might happen, some are already in the works and may be released within the next few decades, or sooner. We will explore various things that are coming within the near future, the next 100 years and the next 1,000 years.

In The Near Future

Michio Kaku is a famous Japanese-American theoretical physicist and futurist. He wrote several best-seller books and makes appearances on radio and television. He has hosted TV shows on a variety of channels such as the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel.

Some of the information, predictions and speculations are based on the evidence as well as current trends gathered from Kaku. It is also based on the information gathered from a variety of other well-known and credible futurists such as Jamais Cascio and Jack Uldrich.

Self-Driving Cars

Imagine being able to get from A to B without having to do the driving. No limo or taxi driver needed either. This is going to become a reality in the near future. Companies such as Google and Nissan are already working on making driverless cars available to the consumer. Google plans on making them available by 2018 while Nissan claims they will make they way to showrooms in 2020. In 2015, the very first computer-controlled vehicles are expected to be seen on British streets. The Government is going to allow companies to start running trials.

Google as well as other companies are currently in the process of designing the vehicles without a steering wheel or accelerator pedal. This is simply because they do not need them to be functional. In order to sense their surroundings, they will be using radar, lidar, GPS and advanced computer vision. The driverless car is said to be much safer at preventing accidents than a human driver. This could potentially increase the chances that insurance companies could offer much lower rates since the chances of an accident are less likely.

So how much are these amazing vehicles actually going to cost you? They are said to cost at least $10,000 more than the price for an average conventional car. However, the potential saved money from possible lower insurance rates as well as lack of vehicle accidents can potentially even out the price. Over time, the price is likely to go down quite a bit regardless.

This new technology may erase the words “accident” and “traffic jam” fro the English language. Vehicular accidents are said to cost about $450 billion in annual costs with tens of thousands killed. In the U.S. in 2012, 33,561 people were killed from motor vehicle accidents.

So When Are Flying Cars Coming Out?

Just 15 years after the Wright Brothers developed the airplane in 1903, many more had the dream of a flying car. For several decades, people have been waiting for the arrival of flying cars. Finally, it looks like they will be available for purchase by mid-2016. Unfortunately, they will not come at a cheap price. They will be available for an expected base price of $279,000.

Although the first models are said to reach top speeds of 100 mph, newer models are going to be designed to go faster. Terrafugia is working on the TF-X flying car that can reach a top speed of 200 mph. It can also take off like a helicopter, eliminating the need for a runaway.

As far as driver safety goes, flying cars are not nearly as safe as driverless cars are. The last thing you want is to get in a accident while you are way up in the air. Although flying cars are designed to help improve human freedom, they are not designed to help prevent accidents.

Augmented Reality

How about wearing glasses that can connect your mind to the Internet? In the near future, you will have glasses that are equipped to do many different functions such as provide bios of anyone, scan products at a grocery store, translate any language and much more. These glasses are definitely going to change the way we interact with the world forever.

If you have seen the movie Terminator, you are probably familiar with the robots that can automatically see a bio of anyone in the form of subtitles. You will also get to experience this technology. It will provide you with a plethora of benefits. For instance, if you are traveling to China and do not speak of a word of Chinese, your glasses act as a universal translator providing the translation directly to your glasses, and vice versa. Let’s say you are a politician and are about to speak in a debate. You will never have to worry about saying something foolish ever again. This is because your script will literally be right in front of your eyes.

Internet Contact Lenses

What if you are one that doesn’t like to wear glasses? They may be uncomfortable and also unfashionable to you. No need to worry because you will have the option of wearing internet contact lenses. These lenses will have the same available functions as the internet glasses.

The 360 Degree Cave

So you really like the fact that your cell phone is compact, but you would rather text using a keyboard? You will one day be able to scroll out intelligent paper (e-paper) as far as you need just from your little cell phone. This future technology will allow you to create a screen, keyboard for text messages and many other functions. Think this new stuff is a little out of the ordinary? Well, just wait until you find out what your living room will be like in the future.

You Will Talk To Your Wall Paper

You will be surrounded by 360 degrees of moveable and very intelligent screens. The four walls that surround you are called the “Cave.” This amazing technology will come with many amazing benefits. It will surely open many doors to a whole lot of convenience and fun.

Today, you probably have already experienced the headache of dealing with discolored and worn out wallpaper. In the future, this will not be an issue you will have to worry about. You can simply just talk to your wallpaper and tell it to change to the color of your preference.

Your wall will also allow you to do many other things such as watch movies and even find a date. Since the wall already knows your preferences, you can ask for an available date when you’re feeling lonely. The wall will actually set you up. Sound bizarre? Well, it is certainly on its way. This wild technology may eventually eliminate the need for online dating services.

Virtual Dog: The Holographic Companion

Imagine not ever having to pay for your dog’s food or clean up their urine. What about never having to take them to a vet when they get injured or become ill? In the near future, you won’t have to worry about any of that. Of course, there will still be dogs, but also virtual dogs. Virtual dogs will be a part of everyday life. They will run, bark and even play with your kids.

Your Face In A Movie

The image above shows a man who put his face onto an image from the movie Scarface. How about putting your face into your most favorite movie? You can be your favorite movie star in a make believe world or watch yourself doing amazing stunts that only the professionals do.

This is a technology that is already in the works. In fact, it is already available for scenes and film clips. A company called OddCast allows users to put their face into a movie scene or video clip. This new technology will likely evolve and may eventually become a bonus feature to a Blu-ray player. Your children can jump into their favorite cartoon and become a hero.

Within The Next 100 Years

The Talking Toilet: Will Let You Know If You’re A Victim Of Cancer

Your toilet is going to monitor your health. Yes, your toilet. It will let you know if you are eating too much or have high sugar levels. Most importantly, it will inform you if you are a victim of cancer. In the toilet is a DNA chip that will capture DNA fragments from cancer cells. It will detect proteins from cancer colonies early. The toilet will predict cancer within 10 years before it even has the chance to grow and become a malignant tumor. Imagine how many lives can be saved by finding cancer early enough to destroy it before it becomes deadly. This may eventually eliminate the word “tumor” from the English language.

Watch A Replay Of Last Night’s Dream

Picture yourself waking up from an odd and obscure dream with the capability of playing it back on a screen. This technology is in its early stages. Scientists can now see the thinking brain as it thinks. They have the capabilities to record your thoughts and can also visualize what you are thinking about. The first steps in this direction have already taken place.

Here Is How It Will Work:

Scientists will take the living brain and put it into an MRI that will get 30,000 dots to code the amount of electrical activity. The 30,000 dots are put into a computer program that can interpret them. What you get is a picture of what the person is thinking. This will eventually lead to the photographing of dreams. This was once thought as pure science fiction, but in the future, this is going to become a reality.

Here Is How It’s Done:

A patient is placed in an MRI scanner and then falls asleep. Next, the brain is scanned creating 30,000 dots. A computer then analyzes the 30,000 dots of a sleeping brain. It will then reconstruct rough images of what the patient is dreaming about. At this time, the images are crude. However, one day it will be refined. You will be able to wake up, push a play button on a computer and replay last night’s dream with sharper images.

Telepathy: The Early Signs Of Success

In March of 2014, an amazing discovery occurred. For the first time in human history, scientists were able to send a mental message from person to person simply using the power of their minds. Although most of us call this telepathy, scientists call it ‘mind-to-mind direct technological communication.’ The experiment involved a team of scientists, powerful computers, advanced robots and an EEG (electroencephalography) cap.

A man in India successfully transmitted his thoughts to a doctor at a University in France located nearly 5,000 miles away. The men were blindfolded, wore earplugs to cancel out all sounds and were connected to a sensitive headset linked to the internet. The men began to concentrate and think. The man in India attempted to send a simple signal using only his mind. A computer was able to translate his words into a digital binary code. The message was then emailed all the way from India to France. It was delivered via robot to the receiver. Although the receiver couldn’t actually read the message, he could still report flashes of light in his peripheral vision corresponding to the exact moment the word was thought out.

This is the first documented telepathic conversation in all of human history. However, the man in India only shared two words. He shared the Spanish greeting ‘hola’, and the Italian greeting ‘ciao’ all the way to France. After 70 minutes, the two words were transmitted and converted. This still proves that it is possible to send messages between two people without using any of the five senses. Eventually, this discovery will lead to medical breakthroughs that will work wonders for people suffering from serious health issues and disabilities.

The Wonderful Benefits This Discovery May Bring

Within the next few decades, doctors believe stroke victims and extreme paraplegics  (as well as other conditions) will benefit tremendously from this discovery. Today, English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking uses a EEG sensor that picks up radio waves from his brain, which then decodes it, allowing him to manipulate a laptop computer to a certain degree. The sensor is located at the right frame of his glasses. Although Hawking only has the capability to blink, with this advanced technology, he is allowed to communicate.

Paraplegics will soon be able to transmit instructions to artificial limbs so they can use their thoughts to move. In fact, this has actually happened for the very first time in 2014. To kick off the World Soccer Cup, a  paraplegic man put on an exoskeleton to kick off the World Cup. The man left his wheelchair and made a successful kick. This is just the beginning of what is coming as it is surely going to have a profound impact on the human race.

Tissue Engineering: The Human Body Shop

These days, if you get seriously ill and need a liver transplant, you are placed on a waiting list. In the United States, there are currently around 17 thousand people waiting to get a liver for transplantation. Unfortunately, it is said that an average of 18 people will die each day without ever getting their vital organ. In the next several decades, this will all change. When you need a part to keep your vehicle running, you simply visit a mechanic shop. In the future, if you are in need of a human organ, you can visit a “human body shop” to replace it.

Tissue engineering will allow you to replace body parts you need without waiting for a donor, all from scratch. Scientists will be able to regrow noses, ears, bone, skin cartilage and eventually hearts. Even better, the human body parts will be regrown from your own cells, preventing possible rejection of a foreign object.

Today, children that have defective heart valves have very limited options. Values from animals do not last long. Unfortunately, artificial valves can potentially cause clots. Successfully growing a valve from one’s own cells will prevent these possible complications.

The video below shows remarkable predictions for 2057. It will discuss the process of how the human body shop will work. Surgery and health will change for the better. Of course, there are still more studies and experiments needed to further develop this technology.

Surrogate Avatar Soldier

The company DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) wants to develop the technology to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-independent machine, allowing them to act as the soldier’s surrogate. In order to make this technology successful, they are developing interfaces and algorithms to allow machines to perform soldier duties. This would give the soldier more time to focus on other important duties. Via remote control, the duties of the avatar would include room clearing, combat casualty recovery and assistance in guarding. So how is this far-fetched plan supposed to work?

To effectively put the user inside a remote system, scientists may use an exoskeleton or a form of direct brain control. The troops will be able to control the robot from virtually anywhere. This is an idea that is similar to the movie Avatar. Surrogate soldiers can eventually lead to not only a more robust army, but can also help reduce the risk casualties.

Human Life Extension

Human life expectancy has certainly increased over the years worldwide. However, why not attempt to increase life to maybe 200 years or even much longer? The 2045 Initiative is a organization with a community of researchers studying the field of life extension. Their ultimate goal is to create a technology that enables one’s personality to be transferred to an advanced non-biological carrier to extend human life. This could eventually lead to immortality. Imagine you lost a close friend and were still able to communicate with them in another form. Although their body is dead, their mind and memories would live on.

For some, this may sound extremely weird and even creepy to imagine. However, others embrace the idea. The avatar will host one’s personality by using an advanced brain-computer interface system. The deceased person’s personality would be transferred with their original consciousness. Being transferred to an avatar is a must because imagine your personality, memories and consciousness being transferred to just a computer. This would likely be worse than death itself. You would probably feel trapped in a little space forever without being able to move or have any control. Talk about claustrophobia.

With an avatar, you will be able to move and will be fully functional. In the distant future, the organization plans on developing bigger goals such as creating a hologram-like avatar. This technology is said to be far beyond our capabilities and current understanding of physics.

What Age Is The Oldest Age Ever Recorded?

The oldest human to ever live was a woman named Jeanne Louise Calment from France. She lived 122 years, 164 days. In the decades ahead, this world record will likely be beaten.

Within The Next 1,000 Years

Teleportation

Within the next 1,000 years, we may be able to successfully teleport human beings. Teleportation is the ability to transfer a person from one place to another instantaneously. Of course, today this sounds like something straight from the movie Star Trek.

Most scientists are saying humans will probably never be transferred via teleportation. They are just too complex and made of so many parts. However, scientists in the Netherlands reported their ability to teleport information about 10 feet. So for now, we can only teleport a single atom and very small chunks of material. If you look at the current advanced technologies that were once thought to be impossible, it may be safe to say that it very well could happen when research eventually leads us in the right direction.

Let’s say researchers made a big breakthrough and announced they are able to teleport humans from one place to another. The big question is, will the transferred atoms still be you? This is a question many of us ask when we think of teleportation.

Time Travel

So is it possible to travel into the future or back in the past? According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time will only flow in one direction, and that is forward. If time was to flow in the opposite direction, we would have all of our memories of the future and not the past.

Stephen Hawking believes that if humans build a spaceship that can travel faster than the speed of light, traveling into the future is possible. Just one day on the spaceship would be equivalent to a year on Earth. One can travel millions of years into the future. This is based on Einstein’s theory that as objects accelerate through space, time slows down around them.

Starships: Interstellar Travel

Humans are certainly a very curious species. We are currently on a mission to find a planet that is capable of hosting life. Fortunately, we have recently developed the technology to identify Earth-like planets. If we happen to find an Earth-like planet that can possibly contain an alien civilization, we will likely jump on the idea and may eventually find a way to visit it. We will want to visit not only to get a glimpse of what alien life may be like, but also to save the human race by spreading out into space. However, this is easier said than done.

Today, we don’t even have the technology to send a probe to the nearest star. The nearest star is called Proxima Centauri. Even if you were to travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take you over four years to get there. At this time, we don’t have the technology to travel that fast. For interstellar traveling to be a success, it would require a machine capable of traveling faster than the speed of light. A wormhole could be the answer to super fast interstellar traveling. If possible, it would allow a “shortcut” through spacetime.

So What About Intergalactic Traveling?

The idea of traveling to different galaxies is even more unlikely than interstellar traveling. Galaxies are so massive, traveling from one to another is at this time, impossible. If the human race survives another 10,000 years, maybe the technology will exist, but probably not. Even if we can succeed with a wormhole, traveling between galaxies is highly unlikely.

Final Thoughts

There is definitely going to be some big changes to the way we live our everyday lives. Your grandchildren will probably laugh at the technology you grew up with. Just look at the last 125 years of advancement. Humans have created airplanes, sent people all the way to the moon, sent a probe to interstellar space, brought us the amazing Internet and a whole lot more. Can you image what the world will look like in the next one hundred and twenty years?

After learning about the strange things that are coming soon (or are already in the works), in the next 100 years and the next 1,000 years, do you know of other weird stuff that is heading our way? Based on current trends, futurists are diligently studying what the future holds. They are making predictions and certainly have a lot of fun and exciting things to share. New technology will not only provide more convenience, but also a safer and longer lasting life.