My view on 2044
As PC Pro’s Futures editor, I speak to futurists, tech inventors and cutting-edge academics, but it hasn’t dampened my natural cynicism for the more out-there predictions. Driverless cars, cryptocurrency, and AGI don’t convince me. Instead, smaller, incremental improvements are more intriguing. Bitcoin hasn’t helped me, but Monzo is genuinely life changing. Better batteries could mean electric cars; air pollution chokes us regardless of whether a computer or human is at the wheel. And helpful though a sentient robot butler would be, specialised AI could one day not only spot cancer, but develop a personalised treatment plan.
That said, 25 years is a long time in tech. It’s been only 12 years since the first iPhone, and most of us now have a smartphone in our pockets at all times. I recall the shrill screams connecting to dial-up internet; access is now not only superfast but nearly ubiquitous. TV used to be something we had schedules for, now Netflix et al mean we watch what we want, when we want it.
It’s hard to remember life 25 years ago, before the internet and Spotify and apps. But in some ways our lives haven’t actually changed all that much. We no longer head to HMV for music or tape episodes of our favourite shows to watch later, but we still commute to work five days a week and hand our pay to a bank. And although apps have nabbed some of our leisure hours, we still love music, movies and books as much as ever – if not more.
Predicting life in 2044 could be easy, if we follow that trajectory. Life will be mostly the same, with a bit more smart tech around the edges. Our commute may be in a driverless car, and our co-workers may be AI, but we’ll still work and play in a similar way. Or perhaps real change is coming. AI and automation could mean we no longer need to work five days a week, could lead to a real sharing economy with cars becoming part of public transport rather than private luxuries, and the digital and physical world could blend together, with implants connecting our minds to the internet.
There’s an axiom that the only way to know the future is to build it. We can make 2044 whatever we’d like it to be. Rather than submit to a dystopia, it’s time to use tech to make the world a better place. After all, the one thing we know about the future is we all hope to be there.