Where is technology headed as of today?
The 21st Century has brought about many changes, especially in technology. From powerful gaming consoles bridging the gap between game animation and reality, to the rise of A.I, Artificial Intelligence being used in more and more places to make human life easier and simple. Although these seem like big changes, they are not nearly as much as we thought it would be. For example, in the 60’s and 70’s many people such as authors predicted that by the year 2000, Mars would be colonized, diseases from bacteria and viruses will be eliminated, robots would be commonly and widely used, and that even weather manipulation would be possible. For a specific example, I would encourage you to take a look at the predictions of Former Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey published by The Futurist. All of these predictions show in a way that human advancement has not been quite the way we thought it would be. But if human advancement has not met its standards in the 21st Century, at what point will we reach these expectations? What will we be looking forward to in the future. Is technology going to go through a major change? Or will life be same for the majority of the population?
Although technology has not advanced quite the way we thought in the 60’s or 70’s, we have taken vital steps for entering the futuristic world we imagine. For example, Artificial Intelligence has become a reality, with automated rovers exploring the terrain of Mars, and human-like social robots like Sophia that are able to talk and express themselves like their creators. The main problem is, these inventions have not been accessible to the majority of people. We see the future as everyone having their own personal robots and flying cars, but that has not happened because A.I is not easy to acquire and can be very expensive.
In order for us to understand where technology is headed, we must take a look at the innovators, the leaders, and the people with the biggest influence on modern and future technology. The leader, to many, seems to be one rising man, Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla, an American electric car company, and SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. Elon Musk seems to be bringing the future that we have been dreaming about. He ignited the rise of private space companies and created a future for us to look forward to. In May 30, 2020, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket, taking astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. This event brang a new era of spaceflight. In addition to this, Elon Musk proposed the idea of underground tunnels with The Boring Company to make transit faster and put an end to traffic jams. Also, Musk’s plans to colonize Mars entices many people because of how near the time will be when humans will first set foot on Mars. He proclaims that humans will set foot on the Red Planet as near as 2024.
Musk is not the only person bringing the future to the world, Space agencies like NASA are proliferating in new innovations for space exploration and other billionaire entrepreneurs are also in the race for the future. One of them is Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. He has also began commercializing space with his company Blue Origin.
So, after all of this, you still have not answered the question, where is technology headed as of today? Is the future going to be indistinguishable from today or will there be major changes we have been longing for decades?
My opinion on this question is mixed, but I believe that we have taken the pioneer steps of the futuristic world. The beginning of the commercialization of space, new innovations from the leaders of our world bringing the future, and the rise of various types of A.I from helping humans do daily chores, to aiding in the exploration of Mars. I believe the future is in good hands and that we have built a strong foundation for it. The only setback is that it is not going to happen as soon as we think. I predict that the futuristic utopia we imagine will come true in about 50 years. The technologies of the future have been discovered, now we just need to make it accessible to everyone, and this is going to be the hardest part. Obviously, very few people will be able to afford, use, or experience the new things the future is offering. Another big problem we have not taken a look at is Climate Change or Global Warming or Pollution, all similar words describing how humanity might make our planet inhabitable in the first place. For the new world, we will have to prominently use clean energy and decrease Carbon emissions.
In the end, I strongly believe that technology is heading the right way, but it will take many new generations of innovative minds and many years of hard work to finally reach the technological world we want to reach today.