Friday Farsight

Do recreational drugs have to be "vices" — addictive and poisonous — or might we create mind candy that is perfectly healthy?

And, if drugs lose their stigma, might they also lose their mystique? Does personality become just another quality we manage like our weight or sleep?

Read the full prediction here: Healthy, Affordable Alcohol Replacement

Your eyes are the universe perceiving itself. Are we part of a cosmic mission of self-discovery? Will our distant progeny command the process of universe creation?

Or, on this timescale, are we just a slow, squishy "substrate" about to become obsolete?

Read the full scenario report here: Fate of Intelligent Life V4

They might only want to play Chinese Checkers. They might want to eat your head. When AIs start associating with each other... which will it be?

And, will we really let this happen?

Read the full predictions here:

- First AI-only Society

- First AI-Only Society in the Solar System

George Carlin once said, "A house is just a place to keep your stuff." In the future, the house will *be* the stuff, and when it's time to move, no need to call a moving truck because the new house will morph itself to whatever designs you send it.

In a world made of matter that morphs, you'll have just what you want whenever you need it. But will any of these objects feel special? Or will we yearn for the permanence of real objects: thoughtful purchases that memorialize the thought, family heirlooms, the unique works of human hands?

Ultimately, does the white noise of programmanle matter become the cheap concrete of the slums while only the rich can afford truly meaningful environments?

Read the two predictions that informed the episode:

• Basic Programmable Matter
• General-purpose Programmable Matter

Express train to the stars, or pointless megaproject?

For decades, nerd wisdom has assured us that a space elevator would be a leap -- or at least a climb -- into the space age. But given the rapid advance of reusable rockets does a highly theoretical megastructure make sense?

And how in the world do you build something that is 35,000 kilometers tall?

Read the full prediction: First Space Elevator Constructed

Kind of like artificial butter, but for the soul.

When these beauties arrive, will they cure the loneliness epidemic or sever the most intimate natural connection between human beings? Will they bring Heaven on Earth or the end of civilization? Also, can I pay by credit card?

Read the two predictions that informed this episode:

• Commercially Available Artificial Romantic Companions
• Commercially Available Robotic Romantic Companions
  

Don't tell the tech bros, but The Singularity -- that moment when future shock exceeds our understanding -- may be farther away than we think, or it may not even happen.

Why? Well, tune in to hear our own self-improving AI superhosts Biff and Betty pick apart this controversial concept while maybe, just maybe, breaking a few hearts.

Read the full prediction: The Technological Singularity

Democracy is in decline, if you believe the statistics, and the headlines.

Sounds like fake news, but what do the numbers say? The trends in public opinion, technology, economics? Are Darwinian forces decimating the social machinery of the print age?

Read the full trend article here: Neoliberal Democracies (Number of Countries)

Visiting another star system may cost hundreds of billions of dollars and take lifetimes to accomplish.

Will we do it? If so, will we be transformed more by the images sent back, or by the civilizational effort to build and launch this first interstellar spacecraft?

Read the full prediction: First Interstellar Probe Flyby of an Exoplanet

We know plastic is bad. Great masses float on the oceans, tiny specks lodge in our brains. Why don't we just stop using it? Are we just too lazy? Or are there fundamental limits to what can be replaced, and when?

Read the full prediction: Plastic Becoming Obsolete as the Dominant Material