“The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet” — said a famous sci-fi writer, William Gibson, in the late XX century
What Gibson said could have been attributed to us throughout the existence of humanity
In modern history, however, there appeared technologies, that managed to even out the distribution of future & bring the enlightenment of innovation even to the darkest corners of our world
We call them General Purpose Technologies
And so far there’s been three of them:
- Steam engine
- Electricity
- Internet & PC
All these technologies have been game changers for human civilisation, altering the way we live and work, democratising access to goods and services by drastically cutting production costs
No technology has surpassed the importance of internet and computers just yet
Artificial Intelligence, however, finally, is now giving us the tools to analyse and interpret the near infinite data we’ve accumulated throughout our existence
It is precisely at these moments – on the cusp of the coming breakthrough – where the fortunes are made and lives are changed forever
I decided to come up with something useful and present you several optimistic scenarios of how AI, coupled with other technologies, can improve our near future and empower humanity
The stories are based in 20 years from now – just enough time if you are a young patient investor, looking for long term game changing returns!
STORY 1 – Choose What You Want To See
Mark has always been a tenacious inventive person. He managed to secure a well paid job as a professor of entrepreneurship in a tiny industrial town in the UK. The town was one of the last remaining coal dependent cities in the country. Since all of UK was now transitioning to solar energy, town council had to ensure job retraining before all of the residents lost their old jobs
The school Mark was teaching at was located on the edge of the town, surrounded by coal factories, old pubs and abandoned grey buildings
Every day, Mark embarked on a mundane commute to work, longing for something to brighten up his otherwise miserable uneventful journey
It was before he discovered app, which over imposed a chosen theme over the bleak surroundings
Since the discovery of VRDali, Mark was full of excitement before he embarked on his commute, when now he could choose to walk in the world Guillermo del Toro’s, Jurassic Park or Avatar
Passers-by became intrigued with the VR set, and as more people in the town discovered VRDali, the town soon embraced the technology of augmented reality
As a result, this once-boring town became a breeding ground for AR engineers and designers, showcasing the transformative power of technology, and attracting people from all over UK
To make this story come true we need to keep investing in VR hardware, sensors to tell the distance to objects, Generative AI to create the themes and immediately adopt them to the surrounding, as well as the general AI and IoT technology to single out the potential threat while using the headset
STORY 2 – Royal Ascot. Ukrainian Glory
In the 2020s, fashion trends were wild and extravagant, but creativity and craziness was mostly reserved to the rich and famous, or rich and crazy for that matter
It all changed when Generative AI came into play
Now people worldwide could create the designs they wanted, based on style, traditions, favourite designers, time periods and purpose they were trying to achieve
Using Generative AI technology in 2023, I wanted to bring more attention to the Ukrainian cause by creating the first in the world AI designed Royal Ascot dress in Ukrainian colours
But by the 2040s, individuality would have reached new heights. People in 40s will no longer rely on famous designers or mass produced rags; they will create outfits right at home using body scanning hologram technology, 3D printers and robotics
With the help of AI, anyone in 2040s will design unique clothing for any occasion, and have it ready faster than Zara used to roll out its collections in 2020s
Investing in holograms, Just In Time Logistic, AI & 3D we are investing in the individual-cantered fashion of the future
STORY 3 – Death Is a Bug, Not A Feature
Mei Chan was only 55. She was a successful sci fi writer in China. She expanded on Cixin Liu’s dark forest theory and enriched our understanding of possible alien worlds, beyond the carbon life on Earth or Stanislaw Lem’s collective consciousness ocean. Nothing predicted what she was going to face so early on.
First the bright beautiful worlds of alternative realities started fading from her imagination, later even the everyday details seemed to have started slipping her mind. All this happened in the span of a few months. When she started forgetting who she was and why she was at a certain place she realized she needed urgent help. As Chinese doctors have discovered, Mei had an unexpected onset of aggressive brain cancer which was quickly manifesting itself in dementia
In 2023rd one of the most famous Hollywood actors, Bruce Willis, stopped being able to express himself properly due to the most horrible inhumane disease, that locks you in a black box of desperation and fear having no idea who you are anymore
In 2020s there were thousands of cancer and Alzheimer trials a year, mainly involving animals and humans at a later stage. They took years and only a handful proved to be getting anywhere at all
Interestingly, the gaming industry hinted at what could be the possible future solution for solving humanity’s suffering and diseases already back in the early 2000s
2005 World of Warcraft Corrupted Blood incident used a very realistic projection of how the virus would be spreading across different cities and towns depending on the density of population and the irrationality of human behavior. Pets as disease carriers, super spreaders, irrationality and self isolation all took place in the game, which has been later researched by academics to accurately model the spread of the COVID pandemic
Another amazing example of game being used to solve complex medical problems was the Foldit competitive game – which attempted to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-solving intuitions
After the academic world has been puzzled with this conundrum for good several years, Online gamers have deciphered the molecular structure of a key HIV protein in 2 weeks – an achievement that scientists are now using in the development of new AIDS drugs
In 2040s using the large swaths of data, obtained from each living individual on their composition and every possible recorded reaction, as well as using the most advanced cloud of quantum computers, scientists were finally able to create a perfectly identical digital twin of any human who has agreed to share their personal data, and run millions of parallel trials to determine which exact molecular compound will be the most efficient in targeting the exact disease a person has been suffering from
This Purpose Built Digital Verses will allow us to replicate any medical scenario and illness, testing any combination of drugs or vaccines in seconds
Time as a concept will all but disappear in a Verse, powered by Quantum Computing
As required by Chinese dictatorship Mei was continuously sharing her vitals and medical records with the state, so when she turned for help AI equipped doctors could instantly initiate multiple metaverse trials to determine which combination of molecules would prove most efficient in battling Mei’s cancer
Cases like this forced Western democracies to review their GDPR and privacy policies, promising a much more efficient targeting of the previously incurable diseases
The very same digital twin technology will be able to test weaponry, the endurance of buildings, run geopolitical scenarios and accurately predict the consequences of societal and business actions
To get to this world of digital possibilities, we need to bring our attention back to the creation of digital copies of our universe, finding the fastest possible processors, investing in quantum, computing and ideally, the blockchain privacy technology, which would give people comfort to share their personal data
FINALE
There can be many more interesting examples made about the technology enabled futures, and I invite the audience to acquaint themselves with such brilliant visionaries as Kai Fu Lee, Michio Kaku & Zoltan Istvan
Worth saying that all the above scenarios will be made possible only if we abandon our animalistic hatred and tribalism, that has ignited numerous regional wars around the world, and is threatening to evolve into a full blown World War
Technology enabled futures await us if we approach our lives from the mindset of abundance and not scarcity
According to Nikolai Kardashev there are 3 types of civilisations, from the planet that can access and store all the energy available on its planet, to the one that can harvest the energy of its universe
Earth is considered 0,7 on the Kardashev scale
All this despite the fact that the cost of solar energy dropped 82 % from 2010 to 2020, the cost of wind dropped 46 %, and Lithium ion battery storage cost has dropped 87 % from 2010 to 2020
Humanity has never been closer to clean energy than it is today
Still, we allow Russia and OPEC states dictate our future with their million years old fossil reserves
Humanity will reach abundance only and if we manage to destroy dictatorships, eager to profiteer from human suffering at the expense of our collective development and technological advancement
Let’s remember this. And invest in the Future We Deserve to Live In
