The world in 50 years
Underwater highways, hoverboard-based sports and holidays in space are some of the upcoming revelations which will be commonplace in 50 years' time, a new report on the future of technology has predicted. The report also predicts the mass-scale production of 3D-printed organs, implants to monitor our health and self-cleaning homes will be key parts of everyday life.
The predictions have been compiled by a group of academics and futurists, including TechUK president and co-chair of the Institute of Coding Jacqueline de Rojas, director of engineering and education at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dr Rhys Morgan and food futurologist Dr Morgaine Gaye.
The report was commissioned by Samsung to mark the opening of Samsung KX, the technology firm's new 'experience space' and retail store in King's Cross, London, which will host tech tutorials, health and wellbeing sessions and other classes.
Called Samsung KX50: The Future in Focus, it suggests that by 2069 transport will have been revolutionised - with underwater tube transport systems in use between the UK, mainland Europe and other regions, where high-speed pods transport travellers between some countries in less than an hour.
Flying taxis and buses will also be used in urban areas to cut congestion, while more long-distance travel will involve reusable rockets flying in the upper atmosphere and at high-speed, cutting travel time between London and New York to under 30 minutes, the report suggests.
TOP PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE
1 - Underwater highways - A subsonic tube transport system will be created as a sealed tube system that is travelled using pods, enabling connections between the UK and mainland Europe as far as Scandinavia in under an hour
2 - Underground skyscrapers - So-called earthscrapers, inverted skyscrapers, which burrow downwards for many storeys into the ground, enabling the withstanding of earthquakes.
3 - Self-Cleaning homes - At the press of the button, homes will 'self clean' when you leave the house or while you are sleeping
4 - Space hotels - Holidays to space, in which space hotels orbit the Moon or other planets, generating their own gravity
5 - 3D printing of organs - Providing replacements for people in need or organ transplants or to improve performance, giving night-vision or super-speed
6 - High street insect-burger takeaways - Insects at set to become one of our main food protein sources.
7 - Flying buses and taxis - We'll be stepping into the nearest available 'air taxi' as a high power drone-copter will fly us above the traffic to speed us to our destination
8 - Body implants that monitor our health and translate any language - A digital companion that gets to know us and our health over our lifetime, which keeps track of our health needs
9 - Quidditch-style aerial sport matches on hoverboards - We'll be cheering on our favourite sporting teams as they fly around the stadium on hoverboards, in Quidditch-style four-dimensional sport matches
10 - Interactive movies, physically taking part in what we watch via VR - When it comes to watching films at home, affordable, refined haptic suits that create sensations of touch, which will fool all five of our senses, allowing us to physically feel the film or video game.
Tim Collins