What’s the future going to be like?

By Shevlin Sebastian

One gets the feeling that while India is changing, thanks to its youthful population, its politicians have not. They are still stuck in tribalism, the caste system, fueling antagonisms and hate, focusing on temples, mosques, and churches, and ignoring the more important things of life.

They may not know it, but all religions have a finite date, even though it is difficult to believe. During the time of the Pharaohs, the Egyptians worshipped the sun god Ra. Now Egypt is an Islamic country.

Christianity is 2000 years old. But it is already in terminal decline in the West.

The truly powerful religions last between 2000 to 5000 years, and then they are gone. New religions and new ideologies will come up, especially now, as we are on the cusp of vast technological change.

Drones and robots are going to take over our lives. Many robots will look like real human beings. They will dress, walk and talk like us. So, on the street, you will not know who is an actual person and who is not.

Robots will gobble up jobs, especially done by labour. No labourer can replace 1000 tiles of a floor in a mere one hour. And there is no need to pay a salary and give other benefits. The robots will work 24/7 for years together until their parts fall into disrepair.

Which job will be safe? Nobody knows for sure. You already have robot dentists. Robots can read the evening news and write daily news reports. They can sweep the floor and lift heavy loads on to trucks. They could become doctors, engineers, or chartered accountants. Or as waiters in restaurants and security guards. And they can provide emotional sustenance, too. You can tell your problems, it will listen sympathetically and provide answers.

There are going to be robot women whom you can make love to. What will that do for marriage? Men mostly marry to get an easier access to sex. Now what? Will marriage collapse as an institution? Recently, a Chinese man married his robot woman. He is not the only one.

See the link: https://www.buzzworthy.com/meet-men-married-robots/

Will the state produce children in artificial wombs? Would they tinker with the DNA to produce perfect children? All criminal genes are edited out.

Those who have superior firepower and lakhs of robots can invade other countries and capture them for the host country.

There is talk of a world government. The nation-state will be decimated.

It sounds unreal, but it could be true.

Computer tycoon Bill Gates said the biggest danger of the 21st century will be from bio-terrorism and climate change.

We are already experiencing a type of bio-terrorism with the coronavirus.

So, a man can take a virus, put it in a small bottle, get a tourist visa, go to the enemy country, release the virus and create havoc.

No Army is required for this.

In case an Army is required, millions of robot soldiers will be at the ready.

As for climate change, in the future, 600 million Indians are expected to suffer from extreme water shortage.

Where are the solutions? What are the politicians doing about this? Maybe they will tell the people to get solace by staring at the Grand Vista.

Oceans are going to overwhelm coastal cities in less than a hundred years thanks to melting glaciers. So, goodbye to Tokyo, Mexico, Shanghai, Melbourne, Sydney, Mumbai and thousands of other cities. Check out ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ by American journalist David Wallace-Wells. It will give you chills as you flip the pages.

The heat has become so intense that migrations have begun northwards in several countries. All this is explored in social scientist Sonia Shah’s book, ‘The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move’. Sonia says that even insects like butterflies are on the move, looking for cooler climes. Agriculture will no longer be sustainable. Food will be made in laboratories and in farms located inside buildings.

And what is the mobile phone doing to the brain? I met a Hollywood producer who came to Kochi who said that in the future, a movie will be ten minutes long. Babies who are born today and go straight to the mobile phone, with its endless distractions, will no longer have the patience to sit through a two-hour movie.

Surely, this heralds the end of the book also.

One gets the feeling the politician, sprouting a brain-washed but outdated ideology, will soon be swept away by the tides of human history.