Life in the 40s.

A few questions about what life could be like in 2040-50:

1. Resources & Waste – What will things – e.g. food, clothing, buildings, tools – be made of in the future? How will people deal with resource depletion and waste from manufacturing and consumption?

2. Climate – Is dangerous climate change inevitable and if so how fast is it occurring? What will people in the future need to do in order to live with the unavoidable effects of climate change?

3. Genetics & Biotechnology – If we are manipulating genomes, what organisms might we be doing it to/with and for what purpose? What might the intended and unintended consequences be?

4. “Happiness” – Will the quality of life for most people in the world be better or worse or basically the same as it is now? What kinds of things might influence how satisfied future people are with the world they live in?

5. The Body – What are some new ways the human body might interact with technology in the future? How will people deal with these “posthuman” possibilities? Are there/should there be limits (cultural, moral, ethical) to how far we should go?

“The last human” from a 2005 episode of Doctor Who. A brain in a jar with a body composed entirely of skin stretched on a frame. The people standing on either side look human but presumably aren’t. From: Doctor Who Image Archive (http://www.shillpages.com/)

Links:

Resources & Waste: Designing a Zero-Waste City , U.S Census Data , Water Wars
Happiness (then and now): Future Shock (1972) a film by Orson Welles (part 3/5) based on Alvin Toffler’s book , Visions for a Sustainable Future
Climate Change: Bushfires & Climate , Tipping Point , Neo-Brutalism
Posthuman: Wikipedia , Accellerating Returns; Technological Singularity
The Internet: Jonathan Zittrain: “The future of the internet” , Greg Lynn: “New City”