Paul Szoldra, Tech Insider
Predicting the future is fraught with challenges, but when it comes to technological advances and forward thinking, experts working at the Pentagon's research agency may be the best people to ask.
Launched in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is behind some of the biggest innovations in the military — many of which have crossed over to the civilian technology market. These include things like advanced robotics, global-positioning systems, and the internet.
It's pretty likely that robots and artificial technology are going to transform a bunch of industries, drone aircraft will continue their leap from the military to the civilian market, and self-driving cars will make your commute a lot more bearable.
But DARPA scientists have even bigger ideas. In a video series from October called "Forward to the Future," three researchers predict what they imagine will be a reality 30 years from now.
Dr. Justin Sanchez, a neuroscientist and program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, believes we'll be at a point where we can control things simply by using our mind.
"Imagine a world where you could just use your thoughts to control your environment," Sanchez said. "Think about controlling different aspects of your home just using your brain signals, or maybe communicating with your friends and your family just using neural activity from your brain."
According to Sanchez, DARPA is currently working on neurotechnologies that can enable this to happen. There are already some examples of these kinds of futuristic breakthroughs in action, like brain implants controlling prosthetic arms.
Stefanie Tompkins, a geologist and director of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, thinks we'll be able to build things that are incredibly strong but also very lightweight. Think of a skyscraper using materials that are strong as steel, but light as carbon fiber. That's a simple explanation for what Tompkins envisions, which gets a little bit more complicated down at the molecular level.
She explains:
"I think in 2045 we're going to find that we have a very different relationship with the machines around us," says Pam Melroy, aerospace engineer, former astronaut, and deputy director of DARPA's Tactical Technologies Office. "I think that we will begin to see a time when we're able to simply just talk or even press a button" to interact with a machine to get things done more intelligently, instead of using keyboards or rudimentary voice-recognition systems.
She continues: "For example, right now to prepare for landing in an aircraft there's multiple steps that have to be taken to prepare yourself, from navigation, get out of the cruise mode, begin to set up the throttles ... put the gear down. All of these steps have to happen in the right sequence."
Instead, Melroy envisions an aircraft landing in the future being as simple as what an airline pilot currently tells the flight attendants: "Prepare for landing." In 2045, a pilot may just say those three words and the computer knows the series of complex steps it needs to do in order to make that happen.
Or perhaps, with artificial intelligence, a pilot won't even be necessary.
"Our world will be full of those kinds of examples where we can communicate directly our intent and have very complex outcomes by working together."
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