Since we’re all mandated to home and communicating mostly by internet, we can easily see the future coming true this century as far as work, education, commerce, religion and major life events like weddings and funerals. We are advised to keep to ourselves, wash our hands, leave our face alone and deal with this sudden turn of lifestyle and livelihoods. And if we are the very lucky and not facing an occupational layoff, some of us are probably really liking telecommuting. The freedom! The cost savings in gas. No more getting up early just to drive 20 or more miles in traffic to work in an office. There are more positives than negatives. In short, we are in the midst of a work and life revolution. We knew it would happen this century. So here we all are, thrust into a brave new world.
Novels like 1984, movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Sleeper and TV shows like Twilight Zone have filled our collective psyche with fantastic ideas about how human life could be in the future, namely the 21st century of which we have been living rather lackadaisically for 20 years. One prognosticator foresees a great divide among the few wealthy and the masses of dire poverty with no more middle class; fundamentalist religions gain a stronghold as the masses will not pursue higher education which teaches the ability to think for oneself; and along with strict religion will be more authoritarian governments and the need to do away with free thinkers by executing teachers and writers. Government and life worldwide will be dystopian. And microchips will be the norm. Cash and coins will have no place in a bank card society linked to a chip under the skin. Sounds plausible, huh? Iris scanning will replace biometric fingerprinting, and paper mills will go the way of the horse and buggy.
Here’s my take on predicting future life this century, even if I may not live long enough to see some of it come true:
Bidets replace the traditional American toilet: About time. Toilet paper will go the way of film. Though unintentional, Americans have revealed the need for an immediate conversion. We’ll get used to it. Those who use them already tell us we’ll prefer it.
The internet will be more like the public library: Everything online will be noted upfront as fiction or nonfiction prior to one reading or viewing. No more messing with people’s minds, leaving people to ‘believe what they want to believe.’ Newspapers (certainly called something else soon enough) will be verifiable, substantiated fact-based journalism. Opinions will be tagged as such. No more mixing news with views. Free speech will be tamed by the young generation or the next who tired of not knowing the truth. The truth will prevail, though in nations whose leaders are not omnipotent.
Work at home online: We’ve been forced to get a taste of this, trying it out for a couple of months or longer. When the virus blows over, perhaps most people will continue working from home. Business owners already see how the old 20th century business model is impractical and unnecessary, and they’ll certainly want to continue reducing costs like office space, electricity, water/sewer, garage parking, taxes, etc. New employees will train themselves if jobs are mostly online. Factories will continue to pursue robotics, leaving more workers to figure out other ways to earn a living. That $20,000 a year living payment proposed by Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang is looking plausible now instead of unemployment benefits and for many eventually no money for months or years.
Online education: Students of all ages will learn online and at home or wherever they want like a park or coffee shop or group of friends. They already are doing this, though constricted to home, and today’s elementary to high school and college students have been studying online for years even while in school. Few teachers will be necessary, and only the most outstanding and charismatic with a natural gift to communicate with various age groups will succeed. The days of classrooms, boredom, discipline issues, bullying, and school shootings will become a few chapters in the history of American education.
Goodbye brick & mortar buildings: Former malls, shopping centers, business buildings and skyscrapers will be converted to much-needed housing for low-income families to average earners and higher. No more homeless. No more just and only building state-of-the-art condos for the well-to-do among us. In fact, realizing our communities nationwide need more hospitals, the buildings are ready to fill.
Home gardens and community farms: Everyone will be encouraged to plant seeds to grow their own produce. If they have land, they will be encouraged to grow larger crops. More people will be vegetarians and turned off by the thought of eating meat. That transition may be far into the 21st century when we’re all dead and gone.
Driverless cars: Next year is projected for driverless trucks, the big rigs that haul heavy cargo and manufactured products stored in huge warehouses. The auto industry has made clear their goals after electric cars, or during the ongoing conversion, will be self-driving automobiles perhaps as early as 2024. That won’t make me no mind. I prefer a computer-operated vehicle to an emotionally frazzled human driver any day, and I would bet on far less wrecks, injuries and deaths. A computer can analyze dozens of situations simultaneously while our human brain operates at fullest capacity when performing one task at a time.
Home gyms: Exercising alone or in a virtual class will continue to be preferable, as we’ve already seen advertised during Christmas 2019, and gyms were first to be closed due to the coronavirus spread.
Personal safety cameras: Everyone will wear tiny cameras the size of jewelry, like cool fashionable ear clips and necklaces, that will keep them safe and digitally record danger such as assault, carjacking, robbery or murder. Police will be able to digitally access the wearable cameras for clues to solve crimes.
Hologram computers, internet, keyboards: We’ve seen this advertised, so it’s here. People like weightless, if not invisible, tech.
Bio chips for health records, credit, banking: Despite the biblical warning to beware the mark of the beast in your hand or forehead, the microchip is coming now. We live in cities that require pets be chipped, a tiny metal or plastic bit just under the fur. A computer wand reads the data. At first, a change this controversial and creepy will be an option but within a generation or two will become the norm. The wallet will go the way of the crapper.
Addiction cures: They’re already here. You just need to ask about it.
Home healthcare replaces nursing facilities: There isn’t a person who would prefer some way to care for our elderly incapacitated loved ones rather than place them in a nursing home. Home healthcare will be a booming business with excellent wages and families in need subsidized by the government. Nursing homes will be a thing of the past. Future generations will not understand why Americans used to institutionalize their elderly and incapacitated loved ones. For generations the issue has been severity of illness along with financial ability, which the latter will be resolved by the restructured government budget.
Robotic maids: This cannot happen soon enough. They’ll be included with the sale of every home and other housing, even available for rental.
So, until the future comes and while we’re still stuck carrying on an old 20th century lifestyle, we can dream of possibilities. Already we can order online anything (except toilet paper). The internet has become our good friend. We already rely on it, whether in the palm of our hands or carried around in a shoulder bag. Humans easily adapt to change especially when we see the new method as beneficial, whether economical or not. In the near future, the older generation of you and me will be suspicious at first—as is a natural human inclination. But we can’t say we weren’t warned our entire lives. Let us be gracious witnesses, eager participants remaining calm and optimistic during the changing of the guard.