Raphael Thys
Tomorrow's World Future of Technology
Have you ever wished that your tablet could identify smells, or that you could upload the contents of your brain onto a computer? Perhaps you're holding out hope for purely automated, driverless cars
Just give it time, according to a BBC-compiled infographic about the future of technology. Predictions cover everything from automated transportation to human cloning and even a new ice age — based on data from IBM, MIT, NASA, and other sources.
Don't worry about missing the good stuff, though.
Based on the graphic's scale of "least likely" to "most likely" to occur, within the next 340 days, the Great Firewall of China will be knocked down, allowing the Asian country's residents to access global information currently blocked. China did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The data also suggests that Google will acquire Pinterest before the end of the year.
Expect the next five years to get even more exciting, as Facebook is overtaken as the largest social network by a mysterious force — a feat less likely, the BBC suggested, than robots becoming widely used farm hands.
The graphic points to a day in 2015 when the nation will come to accept and use a digital currency. But society likely won't be evolved enough yet to build a smartphone that allows users to touch another person through the device.
By 2022, when Apple will be selling the iPhone 15 and humans will be toting high-resolution bionic eyes, a successful demonstration of fusion power will have occurred, and the world will be on its way to pilot-less commercial flights (but that's only 25 percent possible).
The BBC starts losing confidence after the year 2050, at which time the 1 percent will be able to select elements of their offspring's genetic makeup and cars will be purely automated and driver-free. Hopes and dreams of building a NASA base on Mars or cloning the first humans carry a less than 3 percent chance.
In 100 years' time, could at least one artificially intelligent being boast the status of an entire corporation? Nah. Not with 100/1 odds, at least.
For more outrageous-but-possibly-valid predictions for the future of technology and our world, check out the full infographic below, complete with utopian and dystopian paths and the odds of these things coming true.
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Infographic: The Future of Technology