My utopia

Social networks were swarmed with Google's Ray Kurzweil's predictions about the near future. Once again it also caught my attention. While the tech guru has a more gadget-wise approach, I'm trying to give my own foresight based on more general terms. I was sticking with the original articles's dates and combined them with my own ideas. Let the reasoning commence...

2017: Memory implants

So much about not giving tech-predictions. Well, implants aren't a novelty and chips can be positioned in our body for medical reasons. Obviously, the breakthrough will come when data can be linked directly to our brain. Maybe '17 is a bit too early for that, but with the current pace of science and medicine research, miraculous things could happen in the coming years.

2018: Drugs are widely accepted and legalized both in sports and societies

Initially I wanted to say that professional athlete associations are publicly accepting the usage of certain performance enhancer products under strict surveillance. No more Lance Armstrong "scandals", no more complaints about "how the hell he did that, it's abnormal". Today, the challenge for drug researchers is about how to dodge the inspectors and tests; in a few years there will be a legal market for competition between providers. The other aspect is the widely legalized drug usage. It's already happening in some countries and states in the US as well so it's not a Nostradam-like prediction. Like it or not, but it would also decrease crime rate and would hopefully bring a relief in tight and grievous struggles such as the Mexican drug wars.

2020: Israel would play a prominent role in the greatest war of the decade

I mean, the decade starting in 2020. Yeah, we all hear about the ongoing struggles in the Middle East.  It's been a wasp hive lately, and it isn't getting any better. No, it won't be as lopsided as it was back in 1967 during the Six-Day War, but it will include several participants not from the region. And what is at stakes? It will either settle down the differences or shatter either Israel or Palestine. These two nations' strife is a microcosm of international politics of the post-Cold war era.

2023: Nuclear power emerges as the undisputed no.1 source of energy

Be it green or not, most people imagine our future energy based solely on renewable and non-dangerous sources. Wind and solar power plants, biomass and so on: there is serious lobbying everywhere for the green sources to take over. While oil is running out, nuclear power seems to give us infinite energy. But who wants to spend 2.5 times more money for solar power plants which produce 5 times less energy than nuclear power (2018 estimate)? The dangers of nuclear power are exaggerated under the magnifying lens of environmentalism, but time will show that there is nothing safer and more effective than practically having tiny suns on Earth. For more on the matter, click here.

2030: Man on Mars

Yes, we all heard about the Mars One project and as much as utopistic it sounds I believe people don't give enough credit to the idea of conquering the red planet in a few decades. Be it Mars One or some other intergovernmental alliance of tech companies/ research facilities, Mars is our next big step in exploring the the world outside of Earth since 1969.

2033: Contact

Let's shoot for the stars here- literally. We'll witness humanity's greatest milestone since Viktor Orbán was first elected back in '98: contact with extraterrestrial life. Okay, before you jump from your seats, I'd like to point out that extraterrestrial life could mean just some random microbes frozen on Saturn as well as 5-meter tall, 8-limbed predators hungry for human brains. We'll see. But our doings can't go unnoticed as we, as a race develop with such haste.

2040: New religion

Here, the prophet tells you this: there will be a new world religion emerging. It's not scientology (I don't believe in aliens since X-files was finished), nor creationism or any nonsense like that. Even I trust science will eventually take over/ blend with religion eventually, humanity isn't mature for that. And until then, a modern age prophet will appear somewhere. The age of strife and need always created an escape plan to unify the people; don't ask me about the details and whatnots, but it's coming.

If you are hungry for a more philosophical approach, check my post from almost a year ago. Click.