How computers will change the world by 2056

Computers with superhuman intelligence, machines that can react beyond their inputs and the prospect of robotic helpers will be with us by 2056, leading scientists have predicted.

To mark 50 years of New Scientist magazine, the world’s most eminent scientists were invited to gaze into their crystal balls to see what the next half century will bring planet Earth.

ICT advances were tipped to enhance our understanding in a range of areas, to eventually prove extraterrestrial life forms, eradicate sexual violence and offer an endless supply of human limbs.

In total, 70 scientists cast a critical eye over the future, and though some forecasts may sound overoptimistic, “we probably have not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead,” NS said.

In the realm of technology, and if the scientists are right, within the next 50 years humans will use devices to detect and interpret the emotions of animals, causing a global revolution.

Professor Daniel Paul, of the University of British Columbia, explained: “This [device] would first work with primates, then mammals in general, then the other vertebrates including fish.

“This would cause, obviously, a global revulsion at eating flesh of all kinds, and we would all become vegetarians.”

Within the same time, the advance of biology systems and computers will allow the embryo to become fully “computable,” meaning doctors will be able to predict its entire development.

Professor Lewis Wolpert, of the University of London, even believes it will be possible to “understand the basis of development abnormalities and how they could be corrected.”

Biology’s nearest bedfellow Chemistry will continue to be illuminated by computers, said Oxford University’s Professor Peter Atkins, as a technology smart enough to record DNA and enzymes.

“The challenge then will be to use this detailed knowledge of the mechanisms of natural life and our ever-increasing skill at controlling reactions to build synthetic life,” he said.

Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says at present, information processing is mainly based on manipulating electrons in two dimensions.

By 2056, “We'll augment our power by bringing in light and electron spin as information carriers within three-dimensional, self-assembling structures.

“After that machines with superhuman intelligence will become common,” he predicted.

Supporting the idea that machines will become intelligent beyond their defined inputs and outputs is Rodney Brooks, director of MIT Computer Science and AI Laboratory.

“In the next 50 years we can solve the generic object recognition problem,” he said.

“I am confident we will come up with at least partial solutions. When we do, the possibilities for robots working with people will open up immensely.”

Some of the predictions gaining press attention yesterday failed to have ICT at the core, though computers would be the modus operandi, or at least, play a significant part, in realising or recording the anticipated breakthroughs.

Better scientific know-how from brain activity during sex and orgasm will offer better understanding of sexual pleasure and problems, such as diseases, according to Beverly Whipple.

The secretary general for the World Association for Sexual Health believes discovery will lead to sexual health being globally accepted as a fundamental human right.

She added: “Sexual violence and abuse will be eliminated, universal access to sexual health education will be promoted, and the spread of sexually transmitted infections will be halted.”

Ms Whipple tempered her optimism saying it was somewhat of a “hope”, unlike Professor Freeman Dyson, of the Institute for Advanced Study, who declared:

“The biggest breakthrough in the next 50 years will be the discovery of extraterrestrial life.”

His forecast was supported, independently, by two eminent professors, including Chris McKay, of the NASA Space Sciences Division.

“In the next 50 years we may find evidence of alien life frozen in the ancient Martian permafrost, perhaps dead but biochemically preserved,” he said.

“We may find it on the surface of Europa. We may find it spewing out of the geysers on Enceladus. The most bizarre thing would be to find life on Titan, growing in liquid methane. There is even a chance we will find alien life forms here on Earth - what some have called a shadow biosphere.”

By 2056, Earth will be hosting a series of organ farms – where, according to Bruce Lahn, of the University of Chicago, an endless supply of human organs will be grown.

“One organ that is probably off limits, though, is the brain,” he said.

“Very few people would want to have their brain replaced by someone else's, and we probably don't want to put a human brain in an animal body.”

However attitudes may change, as people will be around for longer than ever before, according to Richard Miller, of the University of Michigan.

”It is now routine, in laboratory mammals to extend lifespans by about 40%,” he said.

“Turning on the same protective systems in people should, by 2056, be creating the first class of centenarians who are as vigorous and productive as today’s run-of-the-mill sexagenarians.”

Meanwhile, Steven Pinker of Harvard University implied he was above such a ridiculous guessing game, saying he wouldn’t be drawn into making a 50-year prediction.

“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.”

There is credit to his argument: Sir Harold Spencer Jones at the launch of the Sputnik, in 1957, said: “I am of the opinion that generations will pass before Man ever lands on the Moon and that should he eventually succeed in doing so there would be little hope of his succeeding in returning.”