<h2>Road Ahead</h2>
Americans are not terribly optimistic about the United States&#8217; future.
In December 2018, Pew Research Center surveyed 2,524 American adults, asking them what they think the United States will be like in 2050. It recently released the <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/03/21/public-sees-an-america-in-decline-on-many-fronts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">results of that survey</a>, and the general consensus is that the U.S. is a nation in decline — though Americans do see some potential bright spots ahead.
<h2>Downward Spiral</h2>
According to the Pew survey, 60 percent of Americans think the nation will be less important on the global stage in 2050. Sixty percent also believe the U.S. will “probably” or “definitely” suffer from a terrorist attack as bad or worse than 9/11 within the next three decades.
A whopping 73 percent of respondents predict the gap between the rich and poor will be wider in 2050 than it is today, and 54 percent think the U.S. economy will be weaker. The vast majority — 82 percent — believe robots and computers will take over much of the work humans currently handle, and of those, 69 percent think the shift will be bad for the nation.
<h2>Silver Linings</h2>
Despite these pessimistic predictions on specific issues, 56 percent of respondents did report they are at least somewhat optimistic about America&#8217;s future.
And even though they might have <a href="https://futurism.com/futurists-economic-singularity">misgivings about automation</a>, 87 percent of respondents believe science and technology will have a positive impact in helping solve the nation’s problems —  including helping find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, which 59 percent are confident we&#8217;ll have by 2050.
Let&#8217;s just hope it&#8217;s these positive predictions that come true — rather than the grim ones.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/03/21/public-sees-an-america-in-decline-on-many-fronts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Looking to the Future, Public Sees an America in Decline on Many Fronts</a> [Pew Research Center]
More on automation: <a href="https://futurism.com/futurists-economic-singularity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Futurist Fear: &#8220;Economic Singularity&#8221; Could Kill Jobs Forever</a>

Citizens aren't very optimistic about the U.S.'s future.

Poll reveals Americans’ grim predictions for the US in 2050

Nation in Decline

A survey asking U.S. citizens to predict America's future reveals a great deal of pessimism, but not everyone thinks the nation is in a decline.

Poll Reveals Americans’ Grim Predictions for the US in 2050

They don't see much to look forward to — but science and tech are a bright spot.

Article originally published <a href="https://www.diamandis.com/blog/countdown-to-the-singularity">here.</a>
I asked the smartest people I know for their tech predictions for the next 20 years (2018 – 2038). What are the breakthroughs we can expect on our countdown to the Singularity?
I compiled 50 predictions in a document distributed to my <a href="https://www.abundance360.com/summit?__hstc=88394500.2d84ecd59eb528346d57f5864eeb35ac.1535391825368.1536078539839.1536080699499.5&amp;__hssc=88394500.1.1536080699499&amp;__hsfp=2848274340">Abundance 360</a> and <a href="https://www.a360.digital/offers/feyRwJoA">Abundance Digital</a> communities. If you’d like a copy of all 50 predictions, you can download them <a href="https://www.diamandis.com/countdown-to-the-singularity-predictions">here</a>. For fun, and context, here’s a dozen of those predictions.
<h2>2018</h2>
Quantum Supremacy Achieved: The first demonstration of a quantum computation that can’t be simulated with classical supercomputers is announced.
<h2>2020</h2>
Flying car operations take off in a dozen cities in the world.
The 5G Network unleashes 10 – 100 Gigabit connection speeds for mobile phones around the world.
<h2>2022</h2>
Robots are commonplace in most middle-income homes, able to reliably read lips and recognize face, mouth and hand gestures.
All toys are “smart” with built-in machine learning.
<h2>2024</h2>
The first private human missions have launched for the surface of Mars.
The first “one cent per kilowatt-hour” deals for solar and wind are signed.
<h2>2026</h2>
Car ownership is dead and autonomous cars dominate our roadways.
100,000 people commute by VTOL each day in each of L.A., Tokyo, Sao Paulo and London.
<h2>2028</h2>
Solar and wind represent nearly 100% of new electricity generation.
Autonomous, electric vehicles account for half of all miles driven in large city centers.
<h2>2030</h2>
AI passes the Turing test, meaning it can match (and exceed) human intelligence in every area.
Humanity has achieved “Longevity Escape Velocity” for the wealthiest.
<h2>2032 </h2>
Medical nanorobots demonstrated in humans are able to extend the immune system.
Avatar Robots become popular, allowing everyone the ability to “teleport” their consciousness to remote locations all over the world.
<h2>2034</h2>
Companies like Kernel have made significant, reliable connections between the human cortex and the Cloud.
Robots act as maids, butlers, nurses and nannies, and become full companions. They support extended elderly independence at home.
<h2>2036</h2>
Longevity treatments are routinely available and covered by life insurance policies, extending the average human lifespan 30 – 40 years.
<h2>2038</h2>
Everyday life is now unrecognizable &#8211; incredibly good and hyper VR and AI augment all parts of the world and every aspect of daily human life.
&nbsp;
Interested in exploring topics like this further? Join Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil as they discuss Transforming Humanity in the 21st Century and Beyond, live-streamed from Ray&#8217;s Google office on September 14th. RSVP<a href="https://www.a360.digital/p/ray-webinar-sign-up-diamandis-f-2018"> here.</a>
<hr />
Disclaimer: This guest post is in partnership with Abundance 360, and Futurism may get a small percentage of sales.

Countdown to the singularity [Affiliate]

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Countdown to the Singularity [Affiliate]

The biggest tech breakthroughs predicted over the next 20 years. 

<h2>Eye in the Sky</h2>
Geoscientists typically have to stay on earth to monitor things like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. However, a better, faster technique may be space-based: using satellites to observe dips and bulges in the Earth’s surface can reveal the pathways of underground magma streams and the position of hidden fault lines, and teach us how earthquakes modify the balance of the planet&#8217;s tectonic plates.
This technique could make more accurate predictions with more notice, and save lives.
The outer layer of the Earth&#8217;s crust is made up of tectonic plates floating atop a layer of molten rock, at most 250 kilometers thick. Plates sometimes move suddenly away from or against each other, <a href="https://futurism.com/nature-at-its-most-devastating-the-science-of-earthquakes/">creating earthquakes</a>, or in some places, causing liquid rock to <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/drones-sacrificed-for-spectacular-volcano-video/">spill onto the planet&#8217;s surface</a> through volcanoes.
Numerous threats like these exist around the world, and <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-still-cant-find-the-volcano-whose-massive-eruption-caused-a-mini-ice-age/">many aren&#8217;t monitored</a> because they haven&#8217;t erupted in some time, or because they&#8217;re in developing areas of the world. Others simply give off signals too subtle for us to notice here on earth: take Japan&#8217;s Mount Ontake, which <a href="https://eos.org/research-spotlights/what-caused-the-fatal-2014-eruption-of-japans-mount-ontake">erupted without warning in 2014</a> after years of minimal activity and killed 63 people.
<img class="wp-image-99552 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/09/volcano-2062877_1920-1200x801.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="801" />
Image Credit: skeeze/PixabayA global picture is now possible thanks to interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). This technique deploys radar devices mounted on satellites, and uses comparative images over time to visualize the average movement of the Earth&#8217;s surface. These measurements are extremely precise, to within a few millimeters.
In the past, gaps between measurements were substantial, but the European Space Agency (ESA) twin Sentinel-1 satellites <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Keep_an_automatic_eye_on_seismic_zones">are now in action</a> and dedicated to worldwide coverage via continuous InSAR measurements. A UK <a href="http://comet.nerc.ac.uk/" target="_blank">research consortium called COMET</a> will analyze the readings from the satellites.
<h2>&#8220;Era of Global Volcanology&#8221;</h2>
Geologists normally study the movement of tectonic plates and the hazards they cause by attaching GPS devices to rocks to track surface movements, by detecting vibrations with <a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/seismometer">seismometers</a>, and by measuring emissions of gases which signal the movement of magma below, such as sulphur dioxide. These traditional methods give a narrow, local view of a tiny fraction of Earth’s surface.
InSAR&#8217;s satellites proved their utility for geology after scientists were able to use InSAR images to monitor a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/abs/nature14111.html">volcanic eruption in Iceland</a> in 2014 and a 2016 <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6790">magnitude-7.8 earthquake in New Zealand</a>. In both cases, the subterranean paths taken before the events were surprising to scientists. This shows that geological hazards are preceded by more complex tectonic plate interactions than we&#8217;d previously imagined. It also proves that InSAR images can help us understand and predict them even when we&#8217;re not sure what&#8217;s coming. <figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/natural-disasters-science-supervolcanoes/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/02/Home-Thumb-1.jpg" alt="Natural Disasters: The Science of Supervolcanoes" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/natural-disasters-science-supervolcanoes/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
COMET and InSAR images are likely to provide surface deformation data for about 40 quakes annually. In contrast, historically we&#8217;ve had data for only a handful of earthquakes, some of which only repeat once every 10,000 years. While we typically produce maps of fault lines based on quake records, those records are incomplete; with this additional data, scientists are likely to discover hidden fault lines.
Geoscientists at COMET and other institutes are also using InSAR images to <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/creeping-earth-could-hold-secret-to-deadly-landslides-1.22485">monitor slowly-moving earth and mud</a>, which may suddenly speed up and create deadly landslides. Recent work on a landslide in China showed that Sentinel-1 images <a href="http://comet.nerc.ac.uk/sentinel-1-satellites-reveal-pre-event-movements-source-areas-maoxian-landslides-china/">could detect landslide signals</a> before the earth moved.
The COMET scientists plan to monitor a greater proportion of threats thanks to the coverage from this new technology, as well as process backlogged data. After that, they plan to develop an algorithm for parsing COMET data in real time, for a better early warning system.
While the system won&#8217;t work in every case, field work should help fill in the gaps. Altogether, this holistic approach may be ushering in what Matthew Pritchard of Cornell University in New York <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23531410-500-earths-pulse-how-to-predict-disasters-by-watching-the-surface/?utm_campaign=Echobox&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1504525404" target="_blank">told </a><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23531410-500-earths-pulse-how-to-predict-disasters-by-watching-the-surface/?utm_campaign=Echobox&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1504525404" target="_blank">New Scientist</a> is an “era of global volcanology.”

This data could soon be used to develop a better early warning system.

Satellites will soon predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from space

Earth & Energy

These satellites monitor changes in the motion of earth's surface, allowing geoscientists to predict earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions.

Satellites Will Soon Predict Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions From Space

The eyes in the sky can see underground magma streams and hidden fault lines.

Bitcoin is on an ever-upward trend lately. Today, the world&#8217;s first and most popular cryptocurrency is <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/price/">flirting with $4,500</a> in valuation. Bitcoin is now more than three times <a href="https://futurism.com/bitcoin-is-now-worth-nearly-three-times-the-price-of-gold/">more valuable than gold</a>., and, according to one expert, Ronnie Moas of <a href="https://www.standpointresearch.com/">Standpoint Research</a>, we are still only at the tip of the iceberg.
Moas <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/standpoint-founder-bitcoin-asset-class-will-grow-2-trillion-market/">spoke with </a><a href="https://www.coindesk.com/standpoint-founder-bitcoin-asset-class-will-grow-2-trillion-market/">CoinDesk</a> about his forecast for the cryptomarket. He predicts that all cryptocurrencies will be worth $2 trillion in the next 10 years, a significant bump from their current standing at $150 billion. Moas sees a direct parallel between the crypto market and the &#8220;dot-com boom&#8221; of the 1990s.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/the-entire-history-of-bitcoin-in-a-single-infographic/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/01/bitcoin_home_v1.jpg" alt="The Entire History of Bitcoin in a Single Infographic" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/the-entire-history-of-bitcoin-in-a-single-infographic/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
&#8220;I am not any more concerned with bitcoin being at a record high than Amazon or Google investors were concerned when those share prices jumped hundreds of percent and hit $100 and $200 many years ago. Today, both of those stocks are above $900. The question is not where we are at — it is where are we going? I do not think we are in a bubble.&#8221;
As for bitcoin specifically, Moas is predicting prices to continue to soar with value reaching $15,000 to $20,000 in the next three years.
Others, like Peter Schiff, an investor who predicted the 2008 mortgage crisis, see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as existing in a bubble and as a Ponzi scheme built on &#8220;just plain greed.&#8221; Still, there is no way to know which way this market will go as no one has yet invented a way to see into the future.
Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.

Ronnie Moas doesn't believe cryptocurrency prices represent a bubble.

Blockchain Distributed ledger technology , cryptocurrencies or bitcoin concept. Blue Hexagon six-sided polygon symbol on matrix coded background.

Future Society

Ronnie Moas spoke about his predictions for bitcoin and the entire crypto market. He foresees a major boost as opposed to a bubble burst.

Expert Predicts Bitcoin Will be Worth up to $20,000 in the Next Three Years

The entire cryptocurrency market could be valued at $2 trillion in just 10 years.

<h2>Will We Ever Cure Cancer?</h2>
Cancer is, without a doubt, one of the most dreaded diagnoses a person can receive in their lifetime. While there are many forms of cancer and their respective prognosis depend on a multitude of factors — such as the patient, the cancer&#8217;s stage, and available treatments — for the millions of people who will be diagnosed this year, the word &#8220;cancer&#8221; is still a frightening one to hear.
The American Cancer Society projected that <a href="https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2017.html">1,688,780 new cancer cases</a> will be diagnosed in 2017. People of all ages can be among those diagnosed with <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/types">one of over 100 different types of cancer.</a> But when we talk about cancer — especially when we discuss treatments or cures — it&#8217;s important to point out that cancer is not just one disease. Therefore, the likelihood that a single treatment could ever cure all forms of cancer is extremely unlikely.
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To frame the search for a cancer cure as being the quest for a single drug or procedure is approaching the task from within the wrong framework. Rather than developing a single cancer cure-all, many doctors are advocating that we focus instead on developing treatments that are disease-specific — and even patient-specific. This strategy is necessary because cancer can arise in different body systems, often several at the same time, and in different people with their own unique physiology.
Will such treatments ever exist? When it came to making predictions about when — if ever — we&#8217;ll have a cure for all forms of cancer, <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-we-have-a-cure-for-all-forms-of-cancer/">Futurism readers were pretty optimistic:</a> 25 percent think we&#8217;ll get there by the 2030s, 18 percent by the 2040s, and 16 percent think we&#8217;re right on the cusp — predicting a cure as soon as the next decade. About 10 percent of readers predicted that we&#8217;ll never cure cancer.
Bård Pedersen, a reader from Norway, commented &#8220;I do actually think that it will be possible in the 2020s &#8230; But due to paperwork, testing en [sic] other legalities it will not be available as legal treatment until mid 2030s.&#8221; While Pedersen was commenting on the situation where he lives in Norway, approval for new drug treatments is an arduous process around the world. In the U.S., regulation is especially tight and can pose challenges for researchers, medical professionals, and patients alike.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/how-crispr-works-the-future-of-genetic-engineering/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/01/Crispr-Cas-9.jpg" alt="How CRISPR Works: The Future of Genetic Engineering and Designer Humans" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/how-crispr-works-the-future-of-genetic-engineering/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
While developing many different and even personalized treatments may seem like a lofty task, it&#8217;s actually something we have done and are doing. CRISPR has allowed researchers to edit a mouse&#8217;s genome such that their immune cells are <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2017/crispr-immunotherapy">genetically engineered to kill cancer cells</a>. The clinical trials that have been completed thus far indicate it may be a good treatment option for patients with<a href="https://www.cancer.gov/types/myeloma"> a form of cancer called multiple myeloma</a>, a form of cancer that affects blood plasma cells.
Another mouse study that the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine published earlier this year used genetic engineering <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170501112615.htm">to target cancer fusion cells</a> — something that had never been done before. &#8220;It is really exciting because it lays the groundwork for what could become a totally new approach to treating cancer,&#8221; said the study&#8217;s lead author Jian-Hua Luo, director at Pitt&#8217;s School of Medicine&#8217;s High Throughput Genome Center, in a press release. These fusion genes — two genes that fuse together and produce cancer-promoting proteins — may play an instrumental role in many types of cancer.
<h2>What the Experts Say</h2>
While this research is promising, many cancer experts are still cautious about the future of the field. Monica Bertagnolli, chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology,<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-we-truly-cure-cancer/"> told Scientific American last year</a> that even if new treatments are developed and pass through the required regulatory hurdles, it still doesn&#8217;t mean they&#8217;ll work for every patient.
“Unfortunately, we see some patients don’t respond to these wonderfully new therapies and some patients that do respond initially eventually develop resistance to those therapies and so the tumor returns,” Bertagnolli said in the interview. “Obviously that’s in the way of curing cancer because we want a treatment that a patient will never develop resistance to.”
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Other experts who have devoted their careers to cancer research — like Barrie Bode, biology chair at Northern Illinois University — acknowledge that there are many possibilities in research to be excited about, but haven&#8217;t become so caught up in the excitement that they lose sight of the reality. When asked if he thinks there will be <a href="http://newsroom.niu.edu/2015/03/11/will-there-be-cancer-cure-in-our-lifetimes/">a cure for cancer in our lifetimes</a>, Bode said no, but added that &#8220;Some types of cancer might be cured — that’s happened already. But new pharmaceutical cures are rare. Over the next century, I’d say the chance is very remote that we will find a single ‘cure for cancer.’&#8221;
Bode&#8217;s commentary echoes that of many others, but that isn&#8217;t to say he&#8217;s entirely without faith that we&#8217;ll continue to make steady progress both in our understanding of cancer and developing more effective treatments. The search for a cure may not be as vital in the years to come as the commitment to developing treatment that can increase a patient&#8217;s quality of life, if not their life expectancy, too. Bode says treatments to come will be &#8220;informed by the science and technologies that are available so that cancer can be managed much like other diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.&#8221;
If groundbreaking research and clinical trials are to continue, it will need funding. <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/moonshot-cancer-initiative">The Cancer Moonshot initiative,</a> which was put into place under former President Obama and has former Vice President Joe Biden at the helm, was allotted $1.8 billion by Congress in December of 2016, to be used for the next seven years.<a href="https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/moonshot-cancer-initiative/funding"> Many goals of the program</a> are focused on the outcome for cancer patients that is the closest we have to a cure: remission. While cancer that has gone into remission can come back, over the last few decades research has allowed patients with many forms of cancer to live long by extending their periods of remission through treatment.
See all of the Futurism predictions and make your own predictions <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/">here</a>.

Sci-Fi Visions

"Cancer" is a collection of diseases that cause cells to divide uncontrollably — sometimes with deadly consequences. When can we put this devastating medical affliction behind us once and for all? Here is a timeline for when you can expect a cure for cancer.

When Will We Have a Cure for All Forms of Cancer?

About 10 percent of Futurism's readers predicted that we'll never cure cancer.

<h2>The Final Frontier</h2>
Our days on Earth may be numbered. Great minds have postulated that humanity must spread itself <a href="https://futurism.com/in-order-to-ensure-human-survival-we-must-become-a-multi-planetary-species/">across multiple planets</a> in order to avoid being entirely wiped out by one natural disaster. Physicist Stephen Hawking has gone so far as to predict such a catastrophe will occur on Earth <a href="https://futurism.com/stephen-hawking-humanity-only-has-100-years-left-on-earth-before-doomsday/">in the next 100 years</a>, which doesn&#8217;t give us much time to pack our rocket ships.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/living-off-the-land-a-practical-guide-to-settling-mars-red-planet/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/07/Living-Off-the-Land_home_v1.jpg" alt="Living Off The Land: A Guide To Settling Mars [Infographic]" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/living-off-the-land-a-practical-guide-to-settling-mars-red-planet/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
Will humanity be ready to colonize space before doomsday? We <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-the-first-human-space-colony-be-established/">asked Futurism readers</a> when they thought humans will colonize off-planet, and the results revealed quite a consensus. More than 70 percent of people who took the poll thought a colony will be established during the first half of the 21st century, and the decade with the most votes — a whopping 36 percent of participants — was the 2030s.
Satish Varma, a software engineer, explained why he voted for this decade. Varma wrote in his response that our technological advances in spacecraft design, artificial intelligence (AI), and bionics will be the driving forces that finally propel us into space long term. &#8220;Currently there are some promising advances in space exploration and artificial intelligence by companies like SpaceX, Google, and Tesla in a short time frame,&#8221; Varma wrote.
Varma&#8217;s observations are right on — <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-says-his-reusable-rockets-will-make-space-access-100-times-cheaper/">both SpaceX</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/the-age-of-space-tourism-blue-origin-successfully-lands-reusable-rocket/">Blue Origin</a> have recently reached significant milestones in developing reusable rockets, which will be key in making space travel economically viable. Google has recently developed an AI that can learn almost as fast as we can, making the technology much more promising for real-world applications, like <a href="https://futurism.com/google-created-an-ai-that-can-learn-almost-as-fast-as-a-human/">flying spaceships</a>.
<h2>What The Experts Have to Say</h2>
The technologies have enticed governments and companies around the world to take the idea of space colonization seriously. The two most popular targets for human occupation are currently Mars and the Moon. The Moon gets a little less attention these days, but <a href="https://futurism.com/colonize-moon-2022and-cost-less-aircraft-carrier/">scientists have estimated</a> that we could build a colony there over the pan of six years and for as little as $10 billion. The Chinese and European space agencies are <a href="https://futurism.com/global-superpowers-are-racing-to-build-a-base-on-the-moon/">carefully examining the possibility</a> of a Moon base, as such a resource would greatly reduce the cost of traveling to other planets — including Mars.
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On the Mars front, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced its intention to <a href="https://futurism.com/4-mars-2117-project-the-uae-joins-the-race-for-the-red-planet/">establish a settlement</a> on the Red Planet by 2117. Other nations are likely to beat the UAE in reaching this goal, however, as the U.S. government has tasked NASA with <a href="https://futurism.com/us-government-issues-nasa-demand-get-humans-to-mars-by-2033/">getting humans on Mars</a> by 2033, and China has set an <a href="https://futurism.com/china-announces-new-ambitious-plans-to-reach-mars-by-the-end-of-the-decade/">even more ambitions goal</a>: by the end of the decade. These government efforts align with readers&#8217; predictions.
But SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hopes to prove just how much more efficient private companies are than government bureaucracies. His plan, too, is to <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-has-a-new-timeline-for-humans-living-on-mars/">send humans to Mars</a> by 2020, but that isn&#8217;t his only goal. He wants to make travel to the Red Planet affordable, setting the price cap at $200,000 in<a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-just-published-his-plan-to-colonize-mars/"> his new plan</a> that focuses on establishing a self-sustaining space civilization rather than a simple exploratory expedition. Such an establishment will be paramount to the future of the human species, Musk said.
&#8220;History suggests there will be some doomsday event, and I would hope you would agree that becoming a multi-planetary species would be the right way to go,&#8221; Musk said <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-mars-elon-musk-plans-saturn-v-rocket/">at a press conference</a> last year. &#8220;I want to make Mars seem possible&#8230; like something that we can do in our lifetimes.&#8221;
With all these efforts to get humans off world over the course of the next few decades, it seems like a good bet a Martian colony is not only something this generation could see, but something it will.
See all of the Futurism predictions and make your own predictions <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/">here</a>.

Between the government plans and private interests racing to colonize other planets, experts and Futurism readers agree: it's not long off.

Off World

Experts predict humanity may face a civilization-threatening disaster in the next century. Will we be ready to live off-planet when it comes?

When Will the First Human Space Colony Be Established?

Our days on Earth may be numbered. 

<h2>Competition for Condoms</h2>
Setting aside the issue of cost and insurance coverage, these days there are many options for birth control — for women, that is. Since <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/a-brief-history-of-the-birth-control-pill/480/">the first birth control</a> for women went on the market in 1960, scientists have come up with <a href="http://www.birthcontrol.com/">a variety of</a> pills, inserts, and implants women can choose from for contraceptive purposes. Men, on the other hand, are much more restricted in their options.
<figure id="attachment_88657" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/Male-pill.jpg" alt="When Will the First Male Contraceptive Pill Be Publicly Available?" width="400" height="261" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: bark / Flickr</figcaption></figure>
Many are <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2011/03/28/why-i-want-a-male-birth-control-pill/#.WVnJT4jyu00">calling for more options</a> for male birth control, both as a way to both give men more control over their fertility and to lessen the burden on women to deal with the responsibility and side effects of contraceptives by themselves. However, innovation in this area has been slow, and <a href="https://futurism.com/male-birth-control-study-shows-96-efficacy/">a recent attempt</a> was not very promising. <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-the-first-male-contraceptive-pill-be-publicly-available/">We asked Futurism readers</a> when we can expect a version of &#8220;the pill&#8221; for men.
Apparently, very soon. Almost 80 percent of respondents believe a birth control pill will be available for men sometime during the 2020s. Reader Alejandro Baquero-Lima wrote he thinks the 2030s might be a little more feasible to ensure any kinks in the pharmacology will be worked out. &#8220;The male body is very different to that of the female body,&#8221; Baquero-Lima wrote. &#8220;Therefore, the contraceptive will have to make sure to react accordingly. But it will be coming.&#8221;
<h2>What The Experts Have to Say</h2>
Baquero-Lima is right in that scientists have found designing contraception for men a challenge. &#8220;Men make 1,000 sperm every second,&#8221; said John Amory, a male reproductive specialist at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, in <a href="https://www.seeker.com/male-birth-control-pill-whats-the-hold-up-1765057652.html">an interview with Seeker</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s proven to be a lot more difficult to turn that degree of production off compared to one egg a month.&#8221;
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But that hurdle hasn&#8217;t stopped researchers from pursuing potential contraceptives for men. One promising form of <a href="https://futurism.com/a-new-10-male-contraceptive-is-99-effective-after-just-one-shot/">birth control in development,</a> put in place by an injection, is 99 percent effective for more than 10 years after a single shot. Researchers have also recently discovered that two known compounds might <a href="https://futurism.com/a-molecular-condom-could-be-the-future-of-male-contraception/">act as &#8220;molecular condoms.</a>&#8221; These projects and others in the drug-development pipeline have made Stephanie Page, professor of metabolism and endocrinology at UW, optimistic that we may see a birth control pill for men in about a decade.
“There are a number of targets that are being actively pursued: sperm motility, sperm-egg fusion, and various aspects of sperm development,” Page said in <a href="http://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/hard-to-swallow-when-will-the-male-pill-arrive/">an interview with Endocrine News</a>. “Thus, the 10-year benchmark that we have talked about for a few years now looks more promising than in the past.”
See all of the Futurism predictions and make your own predictions <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/">here</a>.

Experts and Futurism readers agree that it's not far off.

Researchers have designed numerous options for women to control their fertility, but men are woefully limited in their options for birth control.

When Will the First Male Contraceptive Pill Be Publicly Available?

Women have had "the pill" for almost 60 years. 

<h2>Technological Revolution</h2>
Quantum computers are making an entrance, and it&#8217;s a dramatic one. Even in its infancy, the technology is <a href="https://futurism.com/primitive-quantum-computers-already-outperforming-current-machines/">outperforming the conventional competition</a> and is expected to make <a href="https://futurism.com/nist-study-quantum-computers-will-make-current-cryptography-obsolete/">the field of cryptography</a> as we know it obsolete. Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize several sectors, including the financial and medical industries.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/meet-powerful-computers-world/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/12/supercomputers_home.jpg" alt="Meet The Most Powerful Computers in the World" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/meet-powerful-computers-world/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
Quantum computers can processes a greater number of calculations because they rely on quantum bits (“qubits”), which can be ones and zeroes simultaneously, unlike classical “bits” that must be either a one or a zero. The company D-Wave is <a href="https://futurism.com/a-new-wave-of-quantum-computers-d-wave-to-ship-a-2000-qubit-quantum-computer-by-2017/">releasing a version</a> of a quantum computer this year, but it&#8217;s not a fully formed embodiment of this technology. So <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-quantum-computers-be-consumer-products/">we asked our readers</a> when we should expect to see quantum computers available as consumer products?
Almost 80 percent of respondents believed we will be able to buy our own quantum computer before 2050, and the decade that received the most votes — about 34 percent — was the 2030s. Respondent Solomon Duffin explained why his prediction, the 2040s, was slightly more pessimistic than those of the majority.
<blockquote>In the 2020s, we will have quantum computers that are significantly better than super computers today, but they most likely won&#8217;t be in mass use by governments and companies until the 2030s. Eventually toward the end of the 2030s and early 2040s they&#8217;ll shrink down to a size and cost viable for consumer use. Before that point even with the exponential growth of technology I don&#8217;t think that it would be cost efficient enough for the average consumer to replace regular computing with quantum computing.</blockquote>
Quantum computers are indeed currently out of the price range of the average consumer, and will likely stay that way for a few years at least. The <a href="https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/1/25/14390182/d-wave-q2000-quantum-computer-price-release-date">$15 million price tag</a> for the D-Wave 2000Q has a long way to drop before it makes it to a Black Friday sale.
<h2>What The Experts Have to Say</h2>
But the technology is rapidly advancing, and experts are optimistic that we will soon see a bonafide, functioning quantum computer in all of its glory. In fact, an international team of researchers wrote in a <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prx/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevX.6.031045">study published in Physical Review</a>, &#8220;Recent improvements in the control of quantum systems make it seem feasible to finally build a quantum computer within a decade.&#8221;
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Andrew Dzurak, Professor in Nanoelectronics at University of New South Wales, said in <a href="https://www.cio.com.au/article/444610/quantum_computers_will_commercially_available_20_years_scientist/">an interview with CIO</a> that he hopes quantum computers will be able to advance scientific research, for example, by simulating what potential drugs would do in the human body. However, Dzurak said he expects it will take 20 years for quantum computers to be useful enough for that kind of application.
“I think that within ten years, there will be demonstrations of modelling of certain chemicals and drugs that couldn’t be done today but I don’t think there will be a convenient, routine [system] that [people] can use,&#8221; Dzurak said in the interview. &#8220;To move to that stage will take another decade further beyond that.”
Dzurak also expressed his doubts that quantum computers will be very useful to the average consumer since they can get most of what they want using conventional computers. But D-Wave international president Bo Ewald thinks that&#8217;s just because we haven&#8217;t imagined what we could do with the technology yet. This is why D-Wave has released a <a href="https://github.com/dwavesystems/qbsolv">new software tool</a> to help developers make programs for the company&#8217;s computers.
&#8220;D-Wave is driving the hardware forward,&#8221; Ewald said in <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/01/d-wave-turns-open-source-democratize-quantum-computing/">an interview with Wired</a>. &#8220;But we need more smart people thinking about applications, and another set thinking about software tools.&#8221;
See all of the Futurism predictions and make your own predictions <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/">here</a>.

Colorful glowing futuristic hardware chip

Quantum computers are rapidly developing, but when will we be able to add one to our Christmas lists? Here is a timeline for when you can expect to see quantum computers on the shelves of your local tech store.

When Will Quantum Computers Be Consumer Products?

This technology will allow us to do things we could only dream of before.

<h2>Turning Back the Biological Clock</h2>
Throughout the course of human history we&#8217;ve developed marvelous means to protect ourselves from illness and injury: ailments and afflictions that once commonly took lives are now a thing of the past, are easily treatable and preventable through modern medical science — and some scourges have been downright eradicated. The one thing we have no seemed to get a handle on – that will ultimately be fatal for humans even if specific diseases are not — is time. Our centuries-long quest for the fountain of youth has led us from myth to magic and now, into the science lab where researchers are unlocking the mysteries of aging — and perhaps getting closer to not only stopping it, but reversing it. <figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/reverse-aging/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/10/reverseaging_home.jpg" alt="4 Scientifically Proven Ways to Help Reverse Aging" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/reverse-aging/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
Through DNA, researchers have been able to identify the <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-uncover-genes-that-may-help-combat-aging-and-disease/" target="_blank">genes responsible for aging</a>. The genes that are the culprits in human aging can then be manipulated using advanced technologies like CRISPR, <a href="http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/resetting-aging-clock-science-age-reversal/" target="_blank">with remarkable success</a>. Others are <a href="https://futurism.com/young-blood-combat-aging-thanks-just-one-protein/" target="_blank">using &#8220;young blood&#8221;</a> to revitalize the old. Some are harkening back to the legends of our ancestors, who also attempted to devise ways to address the problem of aging: today, researchers are developing anti-aging treatments based on everything from <a href="https://futurism.com/5-story-research-shows-that-cannabis-can-restore-memory-and-could-reverse-the-ageing-process/" target="_blank">cannabis</a> to <a href="https://futurism.com/a-bacterium-could-be-the-key-to-an-anti-aging-pill-for-humans/" target="_blank">a bacteria native to Easter Island</a>.
In recent decades, science and technology has advanced so rapidly that, while human beings may still be inevitably aging in the interim, the prospect of solving the problem of aging is closer in reach than it&#8217;s ever been before: back in December of 2016, researchers at the Salk Institute successfully <a href="https://futurism.com/the-telomere-effect-teaches-lessons-on-anti-aging/">reversed the process of aging in mice</a> and predicted that they would be ready for <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/12/15/scientists-reverse-ageing-mammals-predict-human-trials-within/">human trials within ten years</a>. The research at the Salk Institute not only made the mice look younger, it extended their lifespan by an average of 30 percent. This was similar to findings from research by the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing and the University of Washington back in 2015 which found that through deleting particular genes in yeast they could extend the organism&#8217;s lifespan by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/deleting-genes-could-boost-lifespan-by-60-per-cent-say-scientist/">up to 60 percent</a>.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/hospice-1821429_1280-600x400.jpg" alt="[Still Writing] Prediction: By When Will We Successfully Reverse Aging?" />
<h2>What The Experts Have to Say</h2>
The science at work not just in this altered course of human aging, but the natural course is well, is epigenetics. Throughout life, our genes can be altered in a number of ways; often by things we&#8217;re exposed to as a result of our environment (pollution, for example) or lifestyle (like cigarette smoke). As our genes change, so do our bodies —and so do we. Whether it means we develop a condition for which we had a genetic predisposition all along, or we are acquire one our bodies are not able to recover from, these epigenetic changes provide clues as to why, and how, these processes take place. They are also, then, where we are most likely to find the answers we need to stop or reverse them altogether.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, an expert in gene expression at the Salk Institute, put it rather frankly when <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aging-is-reversible-at-least-in-human-cells-and-live-mice/">he spoke to Scientific American:</a> “Aging is something plastic that we can manipulate.&#8221; The question for researchers was how to do that — and the answer, it turned out, was through transforming adult cells back into an earlier state; a much earlier state. Embryonic, in fact. At this stage, cells possess the capacity to differentiate into any type of cell in the body, which has made them the focus of stem cell research.
At Harvard University, Dr. David Sinclair and his team of researchers determined that an anti-aging compound called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) was found more frequently in younger mice than older ones. NAD+ is an important part of how our DNA repairs damage — which can occur for a multitude of reasons, including being a somewhat natural part of the cellular division process. The magical DNA-repair compound, PARP1, responds to levels of NAD+ in the body: the higher the NAD+, the more PARP1. Younger people, like mice, have more and our levels decrease as we age — meaning it becomes harder for our DNA to repair itself. That, in turn, leads to aging, illness, and all the other physical inevitabilities of humanhood.
With that in mind, and following the logic behind it, Sinclair and his team gave older mice more NAD+, and soon the older mice began to look younger — biologically, anyway.<a href="http://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/"> Sinclair explained the findings to TIME</a> back in March, saying that after the treatment, “We can’t tell the difference between the tissues from an old mouse that is two years old versus a young mouse that is three to four months old.&#8221;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/mouse-2204339_1280-600x400.jpg" alt="[Still Writing] Prediction: By When Will We Successfully Reverse Aging?" />
<h2>&#8220;The Gravity of Life&#8221;</h2>
Sinclair&#8217;s work throughout his career as a molecular biologist has been focused on aging — which he calls &#8220;the gravity of life&#8221; — and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/this-serious-scientist-is-working-on-an-anti-aging-pill--and-taking-it-himself/2015/08/17/07628214-3179-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html?utm_term=.fa6c26589576">as he told The Washington Post</a> in 2015, he&#8217;d like to apply the research he&#8217;s lead at Harvard to the development of a drug — an anti-aging pill, in fact. That could conceivably make the possibility of turning back the biological clock closer than ever for those of us alive (and therefore aging) today. Futurism polled readers about when they believed we&#8217;d be able to reverse aging, and nearly 40 percent thought we&#8217;d be able to <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-we-successfully-reverse-aging/">achieve it between 2030-2040</a> — but nearly a quarter of readers thought we may never be able to. Or, at the very least, that it may be impossible to predict: &#8220;Anything past the year 2030 is most likely unpredictable,&#8221; responded <a class="reply-author" href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-we-successfully-reverse-aging/">Afan Ahmed</a>, who pointed out &#8220;If our current predictions of Artificial Superintelligence are on par, then we should have achieved this by 2029.&#8221; But even if it&#8217;s impossible to predict, that doesn&#8217;t mean its impossible to achieve: &#8220;Giving it one full year to enhance and optimize itself, it can supercharge humanity beyond our wildest dreams in 20 years at most. So yes, achieving immortality is quite literally within our grasp.&#8221;
See all Futurism predictions and <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/">make your own predictions here.</a>

Throughout the course of human history we've developed marvelous means to protect ourselves from illness and injury.

Up close photo of a senior woman's hands being held

Health & Medicine

Turning Back the Biological Clock Throughout the course of human history we’ve developed marvelous means to protect ourselves from illness and injury: ailments and afflictions that once commonly took lives are now a thing of the past, are easily treatable and preventable through modern medical science — and some scourges have been downright eradicated. The one thing […]

When Will We Successfully Reverse Aging?

Researchers are unlocking the mysteries of aging.

<h2>Decade of Discovery</h2>
In the Milky Way alone, there are an <a href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/how-many-stars-are-there/" target="_blank">estimated 300 billion stars</a> that host about <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/8-8-billion-habitable-earth-size-planets-exist-milky-way-f8C11529186" target="_blank">9 billion habitable</a>, Earth-size planets. Could some form of alien life have taken root on any of these planets? Projects like <a href="https://www.seti.org/">Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)</a> have scoured the skies for signs to answer this question, and we <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/when-will-we-discover-some-form-of-alien-life/">asked Futurism readers</a> when they thought these efforts would finally be successful.
The poll shows that more than half of responders believe we will discover extraterrestrial life in the first half of the 21st century, and the decade that received the most votes (about 27 percent) is actually the soonest — the 2020s. This was the prediction of Michael Barker, who wrote, &#8220;Technology is seriously Sci-fi these days. If an alien so much as farts in space in the next decade, we&#8217;ll be able to hear it. In all seriousness. The sensors we have today are very broad in their capability, and are very versatile.&#8221;
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/alien-or-natural-strangest-sounds-signals-detected-from-space/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/04/Homepage-Thumbnail-7.jpg" alt="Alien or Natural: Strangest Sounds &amp; Signals Detected from Space" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/alien-or-natural-strangest-sounds-signals-detected-from-space/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
While little work has been published detecting bodily sounds from other planets, our ability to look for different signs of life is rapidly advancing. Examples of our improved technology include the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-james-webb-space-telescope-will-utterly-transform-our-view-of-the-universe/">James Webb Space Telescope</a>, which is seven times stronger than the Hubble telescope, and the equipment used for the <a href="http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Initiative/1">Breakthrough Listen initiative</a>.
The initiative is conducting a 10-year survey for signs of life from the 1 million stars closest to Earth using the most powerful instruments available. The Breakthrough website claims that their spectroscopic equipment &#8220;could detect a 100 watt laser (the energy of a normal household bulb) from 25 trillion miles away.&#8221;
<h2>What The Experts Have to Say</h2>
In fact, Breakthrough Listen researchers have already <a href="http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/10">published 11 &#8220;events&#8221;</a> they believe could have been caused by aliens. Other interstellar signals like <a href="https://futurism.com/harvard-scientists-say-fast-radio-bursts-could-be-evidence-of-alien-life/">fast radio bursts</a> have some scientists, Douglas Vakoch, director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute, thinking that we may be on the verge of confirming the existence of aliens.
&#8220;[T]he chances are getting better with every passing year,&#8221; Vakoch said in <a href="https://www.space.com/31662-alien-civilizations-when-make-contact.html">an interview with Space.com</a>. He added that &#8220;within the next decade, we may well discover we&#8217;re not alone in the universe.&#8221;
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But the extraterrestrial life we discover may not be an advanced civilization, many experts believe. Astronomy researcher Chris Impey said in <a href="https://futurism.com/expert-well-find-alien-life-in-the-next-10-15-years-but-it-wont-be-intelligent/">an interview with Futurism</a>, “I put my money on detecting microbial life in 10 to 15 years, but not at all detecting intelligent life.”
While the increasing sophistication of our technology has many astronomers optimistic about our prospects of discovering alien life, this is of course contingent on whether there is indeed alien life to find. That, and the possibility that we may have wrong ideas about how aliens will communicate are strong reasons for caution, argues Michael Michaud, a member of the <a href="https://www.iaaweb.org/">International Academy of Astronautics</a>.
&#8220;There is no way to predict when contact will take place,&#8221; Michaud said to Space.com. &#8220;The only generalization I can offer is that expanding ways of searching while continuing to send out our own signals — both intentional and unintentional — may make contact more likely. Until we have solid evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, we must live with uncertainty.&#8221;
See all of Futurism predictions and make your own predictions <a href="https://futurism.com/predictions/">here</a>.

Humanity is diligently searching the skies for signs of alien life through efforts like SETI and the Breakthrough Listen initiative, but when will we finally find what we are looking for? Here is a timeline for when you can expect a confirmation that we are not alone in the universe.

/Predictions

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