DNA Gene Editing [Image via vchal/Shutterstock.com]
Gene Editing Will Bring Back Extinct Animals
Hypothetical Timeline:2030 to 2040
Gene Editing has managed to make some massive breakthroughs in just the last 5 to 10 years alone. Many expect that it’ll only improve. CRISPR happens to be the leading gene-editing tech, but this won’t be long-term. Only until someone develops something even better. Right now, however, we can actually do a lot of impressive editing for humans as well as animals. That is why many expect gene editing to lead to the return of some specific extinct animals.
[Image via AmeliAU/Shutterstock.com]Dinosaurs are often referenced, but no one wants to see a “Jurassic Park” issue. On top of that, even if we managed to get everything 100% correct about them, it is unlikely they’d be as large. During their era, we had a really high level of oxygen, allowing all animals to be quite large. That level won’t exist in their comeback, but this is how the future might look. An era of extinction reversals. The question is, would we want gene editing to develop mythological creatures like the unicorn too?
You might be surprised to learn that one day, we might not have as much need for doctors as we do today. While the field of nurses will likely not reduce by much, medical doctors overall won’t be as needed. Technology is currently underway that will allow a person’s body to be completely scanned. It will then show specific health issues, which will tell the person what’s potentially wrong with them. Yes, this is how the future might look for the world of medicine, people!
[Image via User12683362/FreePix.com]The only issue is that you do not want it to be like an MRI or X-Ray. We’d need it to be radiation-free. That makes things a bit harder, but not impossible. These scans can be done from your birth all the way into adulthood. It’ll keep up with your development, health issues, and much more. A system could likely tell you what is wrong with you, or doctors could be given enhanced images to tell them. You can then be given improved, accurate counsel on what to do next and medications to use.
Self-Driving Vehicles Will Completely Replace Cabs/UBER
Hypothetical Timeline:2035 to 2050
You’ve likely heard a lot about self-driving cars by now. They are a staple in science fiction yet they are important to how the future might look too. Places like Google have been developing them and even have one on campus to drive people around right now! The issue is that this would need to be something you could use anywhere. Funny enough, it’s actually quite easy to do, but it’ll take a long time. The way to do it is by putting microchips on the roads, obviously in a protected box of some sort.
[Image via Ubisoft]The self-driving car would then be able to know where it is going based on the chips. It is likely that we’ll see these in major cities first. Then, they will slowly go into smaller towns. Since Google also owns Google Maps, it will likely be the industry leader here. By the way, putting chips on the road is cheap. They cost about a penny each and can be replaced with ease. It’s also likely self-driving cars will put cabs as well as UBER and other ride-sharing companies out of business eventually.
While you should not expect the type of robotic enhancements that of those in Cyberpunk 2077, you can expect robotic enhancement in other forms. Moreover, “robotic” might not even be the best term. Some scientists are trying to utilize nanobots as a potential asset to the body that can replace hands, feet, and even entire arms and legs. So far, people have been able to use robotics in this territory but nowhere near as much as they could.
[Image via Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com]Nanobots can form around to fit the exact sizing a person happens to be. They might also be capable of even forming to look almost like the real thing. They’d also be enhanced enough to connect to the body and brain to work exactly like a lost limb, or even better. On top of this, if the look is still too obvious, your own body tissue could be used to cover them. If that’s not enough, nanobots alone are no risk to the body. Therefore, healthy enough to not cause any problems long-term.
Organs Will Be Grown In Labs, Rather Than Taken From Other Humans
Hypothetical Timeline: 2040 to 2060
Years ago, a group of scientists made the first-ever lab-formed bladder. It was then used to replace a problematic one in a patient, which turned out to be successful. Lab-made organs like this are a huge part of how the future might look. As everyone knows by now, every nation has a “Transplant List.” This will one day be a thing of the past, as people will need to remove perhaps a cancerous lung and can then replace it with a lab-made lung.
[Image via Singularity Hub]This lung will be formed using their exact tissue, blood type, etc. That ensures the body will not reject it, which sadly happens more than we’d like. This won’t occur with lab-made organs, however. The big organ that will make all others possible is the Kidney. Once scientists can form a full healthy kidney in a lab that lasts long-term, every other needed organ will be a breeze to form. Plus, the organ needed the most on transplant lists is always the kidney anyway. This would save millions of lives!
You read that right, your DNA will be capable of storing data. Researchers were able to electronically write data into the DNA of living bacteria in January 2021. This was a huge concept, as the idea they had was that it would be completely future-proof. You would no longer need a hard disc, flash drive, or even a memory card. Plus, your DNA happens to be a very useful storage sector. First, you can actually keep information safer and it would even be hard to hack since it’s not on a server.
[Image via Pikisuperstar/Freepik.com]If that was not enough to convince you, your DNA is 1,000 times denser than any known hard drive man has ever created. You could store the equivalent of 10 full-length digital movies within the volume of a grain of salt using your DNA. Imagine how much the rest of your DNA could store! Since your DNA is clearly central to human biology, readers and DNA writers will become cheaper as time goes on, and even more powerful along with it. We could see this as soon as a few years from now!
