Biggest breakthroughs of the next 50 years

November 19, 2006 4:52 PM

What will be the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the next 50 years? As part of their 50th anniversary celebration, the New Scientist asked 70 prominent minds for ideas on the subject. You can read the thoughts of scientists like Freeman Dyson, Benoit Mandelbrot and Jane Goodall individually, or browse by topic. For example, eight thinkers have something to say about alien life. The links to browse by topic can be found at the beginning of the main link. Also, compare with this thread about similar predictions from 1950.
posted by jeffmshaw (89 comments total)

Other MeFi posts tagged with future, if you're interested.
posted by jeffmshaw at 4:53 PM on November 19, 2006

"Applied evolutionary psychology should revolutionise life [...] Darwinian critiques of runaway consumer capitalism should undermine the social and sexual appeal of conspicuous consumption. Absurdly wasteful display will become less popular once people comprehend its origins in sexual selection, and its pathetic unreliability as a signal of individual merit or virtue [...] A naturalistic moral philosophy will replace the rotting fictions of theological ethics." - Geoffrey Miller

This was worth a chuckle.
posted by kid ichorous at 5:05 PM on November 19, 2006

We have trouble convincing people that evolution is real and Miller thinks "A naturalistic moral philosophy will replace the rotting fictions of theological ethics"... pffft whatever.

Oh, and I want my flying car, right now godsdamnit!
posted by edgeways at 5:09 PM on November 19, 2006

Although the discovery of alien life should produce some profound human introspection and discussion, I suspect celebrity babies will be far more worthy of our attention.
posted by davebush at 5:13 PM on November 19, 2006

In the year two thousand...

In the year two thou-sand...
posted by anticlock at 5:15 PM on November 19, 2006

Laser waffles.
posted by jay.jansheski at 5:16 PM on November 19, 2006

self-heating cheeseburger
posted by ernie at 5:20 PM on November 19, 2006

wait...celebrity alien babies?
posted by niles at 5:21 PM on November 19, 2006

self-healing cheeseburger
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:24 PM on November 19, 2006

Science will try, and fail, to find intelligent life inside the Beltway.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:25 PM on November 19, 2006

self-eating cheeseburger
posted by slapshot57 at 5:29 PM on November 19, 2006

The distinguishing characteristics of previous major breakthroughs are that they weren't predicted, and even if they were, exactly how major they would be wasn't predicted, except possibly by science fiction writers (along with a lot of stuff that didn't eventuate, or at least hasn't yet). So basically, this is an exercise in devising the setting of science fiction stories, only without having to go to the bother of making up characters, or a plot, or even making it a particularly interesting story.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 5:30 PM on November 19, 2006

I guess they're all optimists, since none of them talks about the potential impact of global warming on society, which no doubt would include effects on funding and other support for scientific research and progress in unrelated fields.
posted by twsf at 5:35 PM on November 19, 2006

"I absolutely refuse even to pretend to guess about how I might speculate about what, hypothetically, could be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years. This is an invitation to look foolish, as with the predictions of domed cities and nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners that were made 50 years ago." --Steven Pinker

Man has a point. These futurist parlor games are useless. They make for good copy though!
posted by Humpable Prose at 5:41 PM on November 19, 2006

self-beating cheeseburger
posted by jefbla at 6:07 PM on November 19, 2006

robot marmoset
posted by gcbv at 6:08 PM on November 19, 2006

nuclear powered thought glasses
posted by craven_morhead at 6:16 PM on November 19, 2006

girls with cat ears
posted by pyramid termite at 6:18 PM on November 19, 2006

Images on MetaFilter.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:22 PM on November 19, 2006 [3 favorites]

I'd throw my hat over the hall for the flying car...

Self greeting cheeseburger. Hours of etiquette-driven fun before dinner.
posted by Samizdata at 6:24 PM on November 19, 2006

Lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere.
posted by The Deej at 6:25 PM on November 19, 2006

It will TAKE 50 years to read all the articles in the first link!
posted by The Deej at 6:27 PM on November 19, 2006

Glo-turkeys.
posted by gsteff at 6:35 PM on November 19, 2006

Taco Bell piped directly to my house. Bring back those pneumatic tubes, dammit!
posted by zek at 6:37 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-cheating cheeseburger.
posted by jimmythefish at 6:50 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-annealing cheeseburger.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:55 PM on November 19, 2006

Glo-turkeys.

Close, but not quite.

Self-deprecating cheeseburgers?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:56 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-akimboed buttocks.
posted by econous at 6:58 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-defeating cheeseburger?

It's amazing to watch it prepare itself, but, ultimately shows no taste and is rather an unappetizing mess....

(Yes, I have to explain everything. My girlfriend calls me Captain Exposition...)
posted by Samizdata at 6:59 PM on November 19, 2006

Girl earburger cat eating healing cheese waffles. Self immolating science geek nostrilflange predictodevices. Jewelled string theory meets consumer consumption rejection matrices, fed with the self referential excreta metamaterials that were developed for post hegemonic metafilters.

With added nano nano nano nano nano nano
posted by lalochezia at 7:02 PM on November 19, 2006 [2 favorites]

Self-defecating cheeseburger
now available at your local In-N-Out
posted by hal9k at 7:07 PM on November 19, 2006

As someone who plans to spend her life working in international health, I have to say the health-related breakthroughs don't do much at all for me.

Crazy-futuristic pseudoscience seems particularly unhelpful to the world when coupled with the fact that a billion people in the world today are still in need of improved sources of drinking water.
posted by bookish at 7:12 PM on November 19, 2006

Bio-degradable french fries at a Mc Donald's.
posted by McSly at 7:17 PM on November 19, 2006

twsf: "I guess they're all optimists, since none of them talks about the potential impact of global warming on society, which no doubt would include effects on funding and other support for scientific research and progress in unrelated fields."

Bill Joy (vi!) kinda mentions it: "The most significant breakthrough would be to have an inexhaustible source of safe, green energy that is substantially cheaper than any existing energy source."

Then again, he's the one making a giant yacht. It's supposed to be eco-friendly, but it seems like overkill, I can't imagine anyone needing anything like this. Seems like a yacht arms race against Larry Ellison. Who's got envy now, I wonder?
posted by rider at 7:24 PM on November 19, 2006

Apple Computer will finally purchase Apple Records, but only after aquiring the entire catalog and intellectual property of Cherry Red Records. In a bold move planned to piss off anyone who still cares about the Apple/Apple brouhaha, Apple Computer will then change their company's name to Cherry Red, and call all their computers Beatles.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:25 PM on November 19, 2006

#bookish: Crazy-futuristic pseudoscience seems particularly unhelpful to the world when coupled with the fact that a billion people in the world today are still in need of improved sources of drinking water.

Ok, hows this: the One Laptop per Child program takes off and millions of impoverished and unsanitary children become Google savvy web-monkeys adept at finding ways for their parents to improve their infrastructure. For particularly vexing situations they post to AskMefi.

They quickly become well versed in software methods and are a the major outsourced developers of Web5.0.

However their rapid progress leads to disillusionment, so they use the mesh wifi topology of their laptops to blend together and form a hive mind.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 7:33 PM on November 19, 2006

They'll finally build that space bypass through here. The plans have only been on display at the local planning council office at Alpha Centauri for decades.
posted by dhartung at 7:34 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-cheeseburgering Metafilters.
Monkeys that filter things for cheeseburgers.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:40 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-delivering, radio-controlled flying cheeseburgers.
posted by cenoxo at 7:42 PM on November 19, 2006

Nuclear fusion?
posted by caddis at 7:42 PM on November 19, 2006

Wait wait, no, I know...the One Laptop per Child project takes off like wildfire, and it will be like back in the day when the webtv folks appeared en masse after christmas one year and all started posting goofy messages on usenet.

That won't really be a breakthough, admitedly. But I still predict it.
posted by Hildegarde at 7:51 PM on November 19, 2006

OK then, Bussard nuclear fusion ramjet-powered flying cheeseburgers.

Cows in Spaaaace! (so to speak.)
posted by cenoxo at 7:56 PM on November 19, 2006

After some thought I want a self-meating cheeseburger.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:58 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-deleting [deleted]
posted by kid ichorous at 8:05 PM on November 19, 2006

Ok, hows this: the One Laptop per Child program takes off and millions of impoverished and unsanitary children become Google savvy web-monkeys adept at finding ways for their parents to improve their infrastructure. For particularly vexing situations they post to AskMefi.


Perfect! AskMetafilter 2070: I usually try to drink from the well in the neighboring village, but this recent drought has left it bone-dry. I've been pissing blood for a week now, and I think it might be shistosomiasis. [more inside]
posted by bookish at 8:05 PM on November 19, 2006

AskMetafilter 2070:

Auto-gizmonics or emacs for mentality editing? [more inside]

I accidentally deleted my mindstate from my interface cloud yesterday when I caught a little too much of a basilisk some asshole had tattooed on his forehead. I've restored from a backup, but my memetic antibodies seem to have reinstalled badly because I have an irrepressible urge to listen to Kenny G and a complete loathing of him at the same time. What sort of mentality hacking software have you used to edit your consciousness? OS-LVII only please. Also, which way should I go? Do I keep the Kenny G, or keep the loathing? Intellectually I know I should keep the loathing, but his music is so fabulous it makes me cry and my knees wobble. If only it wasn't such shit.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:24 PM on November 19, 2006 [3 favorites]

I want my futuristic hoverstyle jetpack. Nothing less will do.
posted by bonaldi at 8:35 PM on November 19, 2006

I'd like to see a cure for cancer(s).
posted by matty at 8:43 PM on November 19, 2006

I'd also like to see a genetically engineered cigarette that has no nicotine in it - and see how long people keep smoking.
posted by matty at 8:44 PM on November 19, 2006

I'd like a pony. A nano-pony.
posted by anthill at 8:47 PM on November 19, 2006

AskMetafilter 2070:

How do I physically meet a real 'real' person? [more inside]

Most of my social life happens over the net. I've had several interactions that I would like to persue to the point of physical contact. Sure with some I've had teleholographic interactions but how can you tell which personas are human and which are construncts.

Several times I've found someone and have progressed almost to the point of physical contact, but at the last moment they accuse me of "being just a construct" and sever relations. Is this a common tactic that indicate that such contacts are constructs themselves? Are there any real humans out there?
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 8:49 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-Cheesing Burgers
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:57 PM on November 19, 2006

AskMetafilter 2070:

How do I physically meet a real 'real' person? [more inside]

That's basically AskMetafilter 2006.

(Not that I don't sympathize with shy geeks-- in fact, I'm in love with one.)
posted by bookish at 9:30 PM on November 19, 2006

(...and now, because my boyfriend reads Metafilter, I feel obliged to clarify that, while geeky and sometimes shy, he's nonetheless quite charming and likeable and not an uber-nerd who cannot relate to normal people.)
posted by bookish at 9:34 PM on November 19, 2006

I hope in 50 years we have working spellcheck.
posted by Phantomx at 9:35 PM on November 19, 2006

and img tags, with the option of turning them on or off in our personal preferances
posted by caddis at 9:46 PM on November 19, 2006 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter 2070: an irrepressible urge to listen to Kenny G

posted by ClicheBot4000 on Stardate -266113.1735731633
posted by Pollomacho at 9:56 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-immolating hateburger
posted by krinklyfig at 9:57 PM on November 19, 2006

self-lubricating cheeseburger
posted by arialblack at 10:16 PM on November 19, 2006

Self-effacing please-burger.
posted by gsteff at 10:32 PM on November 19, 2006

self-lubricating cheeseburger

That's pretty much what we have now, no?
posted by Pollomacho at 10:32 PM on November 19, 2006

PS53 is launched, early ones sell on eBay for $1.5 million
posted by wtfchuck at 10:36 PM on November 19, 2006

PS53 is launched, early ones sell on eBay for $1.5 million

Of course with the hyperinflation after the collapse of the Bush Dynasty and the atomic wars that only comes out to $100 in 2006 money.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:49 PM on November 19, 2006

Why buy a PS53 when you can get a Nintendo UNGHH for $750K. Besides, the games are more intuitive, as their controlled by simply relaxing your sphincter muscle.
posted by jefbla at 10:49 PM on November 19, 2006 [1 favorite]

Oh, and let's not forget the hyperinflation that follows the abolition of the penny.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:50 PM on November 19, 2006

Duke Nukem Forever.


What, too soon?
posted by kid ichorous at 10:52 PM on November 19, 2006

#bookish:

How do I physically meet a real 'real' person? [more inside]

That's basically AskMetafilter 2006.

Actually #I was saying that people have problems distinguishing computer generated personas from real people. For example some new spam wave that is heavily hitting me right now (maybe 2000 emails in the last month) puts "its me X' in the Subject: and sets From: to "X random-lastname".

The last two I received of maybe 2 thousand are:

• From: Devon Gustafson Subject: it me Devon
• From: Jayson Kauffman Subject: it me Jayson

This spam is desigend to get some response. 1/10,000 would be profitable.

Hell, if they sent some version of this with my first and last name to my parents they would probably get a response.

People want to interact with people. It will be hard in the future to decide if you reallly are interacting with a human or a computer generated construct.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 11:48 PM on November 19, 2006

It will be hard in the future to decide if you reallly are interacting with a human or a computer generated construct.

Not if you are willing to leave your parents's basement.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:10 AM on November 20, 2006

Self-actualizing instant autokarma
posted by Meatbomb at 12:12 AM on November 20, 2006

Of course, in the past we thought that the Turing Test would one day be passed by making all the computers smarter - then some day, about 15 or 20 years ago, one bright spark decided that we'd be going about it all wrong, and in fact it would be much cheaper, easier, and in the long run preferable to design some sort of world wide system to just make everyone else on the planet LOL ZOMG KITTEN
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:16 AM on November 20, 2006

I want to say Grand Unified Theory, but i think Condensed Nanobiotic Rotrology is more likely.
posted by algreer at 2:19 AM on November 20, 2006

HAMBURGER EARMUFFS!!
posted by cerulgalactus at 2:36 AM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

in 2070 Duke Nukem Forever will go gold causing enormous disturbances in the force and a massive reset of the universe (read: apocalypse), killling most of the humans but saving kittens and elephants.
posted by darkripper at 3:55 AM on November 20, 2006

(and this is just the best case scenario)
posted by darkripper at 3:56 AM on November 20, 2006

This is basically an opportunity for various celebrity academics to pump up their own field of research. Only the ones with more integrity than showmanship, e.g. Pinker, take a pass on the silly exercise.
posted by snoktruix at 4:44 AM on November 20, 2006

cure for (irreversible) death.
posted by LordSludge at 6:13 AM on November 20, 2006

Clear hot dogs.
posted by sidereal at 7:20 AM on November 20, 2006

Despite GUNS N' ROSES frontman Axl Rose's insistence that the band's long-awaited new album, Chinese Democracy, will surface before the end of 2070, a Universal Music Canada spokesperson told Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun this week that "We have no indication that a GUNS N' ROSES record will be released this year."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:21 AM on November 20, 2006

A pill that gives worms to ex-girlfriends.
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:24 AM on November 20, 2006

self-aware cheeseburger
posted by sonofsamiam at 7:54 AM on November 20, 2006

Urban commuter cheeseburger
posted by cenoxo at 10:54 AM on November 20, 2006

I’d be really impressed if someone in the 50’s predicted a pill that’d make you hard. And it got printed.

Kittenburger
posted by Smedleyman at 1:24 PM on November 20, 2006

Soylent Green Burger.
posted by darkripper at 1:48 PM on November 20, 2006

A Detroit Lions Superbowl Victory!

(please leave me my dreams)
posted by WinnipegDragon at 2:17 PM on November 20, 2006

A Detroit Lions Superbowl Victory!

who are they going to play? the chicago cubs?
posted by pyramid termite at 4:50 PM on November 20, 2006

Maybe sometime in the next fifty years we'll actually get controlled fusion working.

You know, like they've been predicting since the 50s.
posted by Target Practice at 4:52 PM on November 20, 2006

Self-captioning cats with built-in memesense (tm).
posted by kosher_jenny at 6:21 PM on November 20, 2006

nothing from kurzweil? what kind of special report is this?
posted by dopamine at 7:59 PM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

Self, eating cheeseburger.
posted by flabdablet at 4:17 AM on November 21, 2006