Intelligence Council Predicts 3D Printed Organs, Megacities, Brain Chips by 2030

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/superhumans-instant-cities/

by cyphersanctus • 14 years ago

56 45 14 years ago

wired.com

indiecore• 14 years ago

What did forecast 2010 look like from 1990?

oscilloscope• 14 years ago

AT&T forecast ads from 1993: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8

Apple, 1990: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlfTDlgAl_A

othello• 14 years ago

Global trends 2010 from the National Intelligence Council.

http://web.archive.org/web/20110519014210/http://www.dni.gov...

Surprisingly, the direct link no longer works, so I had to go through archive.org

Aardwolf• 14 years ago

I remember reading in 2000 that every home would have domotica in 2010.

Yeh, right. I think around as much homes have it today, as there were in 2000.

swalsh• 14 years ago

Honestly, not that far off... granted it seems to have more of a political perspective then technological: this is paragraph one from the section on Europe.

"First, European governments will be absorbed by the need to renegotiate the social contract, i.e., the entitlement programs of the social welfare state hammered out in the post-1945 period. This is not a choice but a necessity: a large, aging population sits atop a shrinking labor pool and declining birth rates, unemployment remains chronic, and growth rates are projected at 2-3 percent per year at best--acceptable by historical standards (as well as the standards of other countries) but short of public expectations. Labor market rigidities and lack of productivity growth will strengthen protectionist tendencies."

mattmanser• 14 years ago

Huh? Not that far off?

That's totally off. There's no renegotiation going on of the social contract.

hwallace• 14 years ago

Am I the only one who is pessimistic about a superhuman-capability future?

Regardless of the accuracy of the predictions.

Narretz• 14 years ago

We still know little about how memory works, and they speak of tweaking access times and recall? I doubt there will be a breakthrough by 2030.

c1u• 14 years ago

I can travel to almost any point on the planet in less than a day for the cost of a few days work. I can converse with billions of people instantly at almost zero cost. I have access to medical tech that makes it trivial for me to survive ailments that would have killed anyone in the last several million years. We can "see" hundreds of planets around other stars, and are finding more every day. These are just the first few that popped into my head.

Compared to all of human history, we are already superhuman.

Petrushka2• 14 years ago

I have the Washington Post from Jan 1, 2000. Below the fold is an article on what the future would hold tech-wise for a child born that day. By 2010, we were all supposed to be wearing wristbands with all of our medical information on it, so doctors would simply have to scan them to gain our history. We also wouldn't have cheap (meaning not thousands upon thousands of dollars) mobile computers with the ability to access the internet from anywhere until 2020.

I can't remember any of the others, but all of the predictions for around now (other then the smartphone one) are completely and totally off. All of these prediction things are bullshit, as most futurist ideas generally are. There's no accountability, because no one will remember the reports. It's ridiculous that the government pays people to write these things, and just as ridiculous that Wired publishes them.

I think SMBC put it best:

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?db=comics&id=1968#comic

psweber• 14 years ago

You really sucked the fun out of that.

Petrushka2• 14 years ago

There are so many awesome and fascinating things being made and discovered now. I don't see why you need to go and make some ridiculous predictions about the future to be inspired as to where technology is leading us.

rthomas63• 14 years ago

What is stopping something like the medical wristband thing? Nobody would wear a bracelet like that, but why not an RFID card? That seems like a great idea. What would it take to start something like that?

MichaelSalib2• 14 years ago

Security is a big problem. Do you want everyone who gets within 10 feet of you to have access to your complete medical history, name, social security number and insurance information? Then there's the fact that RFIDs can't send much data; you could have them send a UUID that allows doctors to look you up over the internet, but now your wristband is a universal tracking device that allows anyone to track your movements.

Beyond that, a medical history that can't be updated is pretty useless, but our fragmented healthcare system isn't able to agree on standards for electronic medical records or how to synchronize them across different providers. Actually, getting doctors to use EMRs will probably be the work of a generation.

pavel_lishin3• 14 years ago

HIPAA, for one. If you want to design, build or market anything that deals with patient data, you better build a hoop-jumping machine first.

Reluctance to change, for two. You have to convince most hospitals to change from whatever they have installed now to your system, or you have to make your system 100% compatible with the current hospital systems, with minimal changes.

duaneb3• 14 years ago

+ Privacy.

+ People don't know how good it would be until it's actually used, so adaption would be slow.

+ No real financial gain- health providers just add the cost of bureaucracy into the bill.

So yes, it would be cool/useful, but there's not exactly a huge need for it (and many potential problems).

MichaelSalib2• 14 years ago

Note that this doesn't solve a problem that providers have right now.

For people with serious medical conditions that need to communicate that to EMS, we have physical medalert bracelets that can tell healthcare providers that you have diabetes or epelipsy. That technology works even if your provider doesn't have power or reliable internet.

Most patient provider interactions don't require history transmission because you're at a scheduled office visit or your in emergency care at a facility that is part of your giant local health network. In those cases, providers can look up your name (that they can get from your wallet even if you're not conscious) in their database and find all they need. They don't have to worry about synchronizing data with arbitrary providers and trying to remap their ontologies or deal with lossy translations.

The number of cases where providers need fine grained history information for people that they've never treated before and they need it right NOW and can't afford to wait is...very small relative to the volume of patients treated. I mean, if you've been shot in the chest, the ER is going to focus on keeping you from bleeding to death rather than poring through a history to note that you're allergic to ragweed pollen, have slightly elevated blood pressure and fractured your tibia 8 years ago.

lifeisstillgood• 14 years ago

Firstly it's your data so the better question is really why don't I have a web page with my medical records encrypted on them and key sign my local doctors when he wants to update them

This is a much much better way round, but two things hold it back - well three.

1. Key sign? PKi? Wtf?

2. Doctors actually don't want many records to be available to the patient - it frankly compromises medical care (heard the phrase GOMER - Get Out Of My ER. Much diagnosis is still hunch and guesswork - and needs to be carefully phrased If patient will read it

3. We still think something centralised should track all our medical care when really something decentralised is much much better

sdafdasdfasdf• 14 years ago

Every futurist claim I've ever heard has overestimated human capability and underestimated the impact of other things they possibly should have seen coming.

alexakarpov• 14 years ago

mmhm, for one thing, I wonder why there's no mention of what's going to replace/augment the relatively cheap fossil fuels of today. And point at some massive current developments in that area.

cbennett• 14 years ago

Here is the actual report instead of just a summary, in case any one else was looking for it. To be honest i found the technical projections/forecasts to be quite spare on details (at least compared to the geopolitical ones; but I suppose that is to be expected)

http://www.acus.org/files/global-trends-2030-nic-lo.pdf

hcarvalhoalves2• 14 years ago

Everytime these predictions are made, the outcome seems to be the exact opposite. That said, in 2030 I predict:

- After toying with 3D printers for a while, they will go back to vat-grown organs

- With widespread Internet access, remote work being a reality and local energy generation, people will leave the big cities seeking better life quality in smaller, country-side cities

- There won't be brain chips

batgaijin• 14 years ago

I think predictions overdo the 'physical' improvements like hover cars.

I mean, it's almost 2013 and a majority of the population has general computers connected to the internet in their pockets, through which we can watch almost any movie or listen to any song. Try explaining that to someone from the early 80's.

Too bad the head of wired is a pessimist when it comes to the singularity; I think he's just as deluded as everyone else when it comes to accepting what exponential means.

pi18n2• 14 years ago

When the singularity happens, some douche will already have a patent on it and ruin it for everyone.

cygx2• 14 years ago

There won't be brain chips

Sure about that?

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/142797-brain-pacemaker-he...

jlgreco• 14 years ago

Hell, cochlear implants are pretty damn close already, and we are making progress on the optical equivalent. These technologies, plus 20 years of improvements to them, are really only a mere application away from giving the user augmented reality.

I think the only real question is will the economics of the implants permit "casual" usage.

TDL• 14 years ago

Interesting, the second point flies right in the face of the entire arc of written history. Humanity has been increasingly migrating to urban areas. I doubt that changes with the pervasiveness of the internet.

hcarvalhoalves2• 14 years ago

The problem is that those predictions are about taking the current trend line and extrapolating it ad infinitum, while nature and history shows us that most patterns are cyclical.

Just in the past 100 years, my country (Brazil) has seen people move from rural to urban to rural again.

purplelobster• 14 years ago

I wouldn't be so sure. If it becomes feasible to work remotely all the time, I would love to live in a smaller city or the countryside, and I'd be more free to live close to my family and friends. Right now, we move cross country and away from any friends or family we have, just for a new job. Rinse and repeat after 10 years. It can lead to a lonely existence, but for a highly specialized work force it's very necessary today.

reefoctopus• 14 years ago

People are already seeking better life quality in smaller, country-side cities. I recently bought a place in a mountain resort 2 hours outside of DC. Housing there costs 30% what it would cost in Montgomery County or Fairfax, it is insanely beautiful, and they have more reliable power/internet. I was told by my realtor, the home inspector, and a local bartender that there seems to be an influx of programmers moving to the area.

pavel_lishin3• 14 years ago

> people will leave the big cities seeking better life quality in smaller, country-side cities

"quality of life" is subjective. I've lived in the countryside, and while it's nice to sit on your porch and sip wine and watch the sunset, it's also nice to have a wide selection of nightlife.

DanI-S• 14 years ago

I love how our predictions of the future never account for the existence of poor people. That's why they're always so wildly off; the vast bulk of humanity are never factored into the equation.

While I don't doubt there'll be printable organs and brain-integrated silicon by 2030, the majority of people will not benefit, and the tensions brought about by escalating inequality will set progress back by years.

trurl• 14 years ago

Yes, my first thought was with rising healthcare costs whether even I'd be able to afford these fancy manufactured organs should I need them.

pi18n2• 14 years ago

I have nightmares about neural implants being available but out of my ability to pay for them. And I am fortunate enough to be able to afford food and shelter. Poverty is a serious problem that should be solved. Food, shelter, healthcare, and neural implants should be available to everyone.

dmix• 14 years ago

> escalating inequality

Worldwide poverty has been declining for decades. Costs of technology is declining at an ever rapid pace.

Income equality between the top bracket and the bottom != less access to technology for everyone

duaneb3• 14 years ago

There will always be poor people, but quality of life goes up for everyone. Just look at e.g. how many people own computers/TVs/Cell Phones compared to 20 years ago.

World wide (outside of my native US), I have less of an idea.

whileonebegin• 14 years ago

If you enjoy these kind of brain modification technologies, check out the book The Brain That Changes Itself, which discusses neural plasticity http://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Changes-Itself-Frontiers/dp.... This is the science that led to the cochlear implant and may lead to other brain-interface devices.

Also, the part about biohacks and bio-weapons, reminded me of the movie Prometheus.

charonn02• 14 years ago

I'm still waiting for my jetpack and flying car.

pavel_lishin3• 14 years ago

People can barely navigate in two dimensions; I think that self-driving cars are a necessary prerequisite for flying cars.

charonn02• 14 years ago

I was commenting more on the difficulty of predicting technological change than complaining about the lack of personal flying machines.

bitwize• 14 years ago

So a William Gibson dystopian nightmare. That's... nice to know.

Intelligence Council Predicts 3D Printed Organs, Megacities, Brain Chips by 2030

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