Future technologies
Surfing from Space
Space tourism has become a reality. Virgin Galactic has already booked flights with 330 people who want to fly into space. At the moment, the cost is $200,000 per flight, but it is expected that the cost will soon come down. It is estimated that by 2020 about 15,000 people will fly into space every year.
These advances will almost certainly give rise to new extreme sports and new stunts for the most adventurous to try.
By 2018, the daredevil (or a celebrity that wants to give her career a boost) will attempt to ride a surfboard from space, through the atmosphere, and then fly past a beach in California before landing on the ocean and then surfing back to the beach.
At the start of the flight, she will be wearing a space outfit but as she gets lower and the air becomes warmer, she can start removing the equipment. The world's media will watch and report on every move as she throws each piece away, and watch the pieces quickly burn up.
Using Nanobots
By 2020, miniature nanobots will be built to travel through your blood stream to anywhere in your body to repair damage. Also, larger nanobots will be used when you are sick. When you have an upset stomach, you will swallow a very small cherry tasting robot which will travel through your stomach taking video of the mess.
It will be set up like a video game, so you can control the exploring and the selection of images. Then you can replay the video to help a doctor diagnose your problem, or to prove to your employer that you really were sick.
At an Edmonton hospital, the Royal Alex, a blinking wireless pill is currently being used to take photographs of the inside of a patient. After fasting overnight, the patient swallows the capsule which then travels through the body taking two pictures per second. The data is transmitted to a computer.
Duplicated People
Over the next 20 to 50 years, people will be using robots to do most work. It will become harder to tell the difference between the human and the machine. All body parts will be replaceable. A computer will function like the human brain with the ability to feel. They will then produce human machines.
We will soon be able to create a machine duplicate of ourselves so we will appear to be alive long after we are dead. Maybe by 2070, a way will be found to transfer our mind (including our memories and thoughts) to the new body. Then we can choose to live for as long as we want.
Naturally, there will be a food problem as duplicates will be running around all over the place. Your duplicates will have to combine vitamins with something we have in abundance. The most practical choice would be garbage. Your most advanced duplicate will be designed to eat garbage like a goat and really enjoy it.
A Ring Tone Vehicle
In 2020, people will be driving the new battery powered vehicle which will run in silence. But the vehicle owners will soon start missing the lack of noise. Nobody hears them take off and nobody hears them drive by. People stop noticing their car. In the summer of 2010, worries were finally expressed that electric cars have a safety problem because they don't make noise.
Thousands of owners will complain about their quiet cars; it just doesn't feel like they own a REAL car.
The designers will add loud noises to the 2022 model. So, the driver can punch a button to get noise, like a ring tone. They will be able to select: a rocket sound, a flock of turkeys, a herd of elephants, a railway train, etc.