What’s a piece of technology you’re convinced will exist in 20 years?
When I think about technology that will exist in twenty years’ time, I find myself in a curious position. Many of the things I confidently predict already seem to be arriving. Smart watches have led to smart rings and smart glasses. Artificial intelligence has moved from answering questions to holding conversations, creating images, writing stories and helping us make sense of our own lives.
Some technologies, meanwhile, will simply endure because they already solve a problem elegantly. I suspect the bicycle, the pop-up toaster and the electric kettle will still be going strong in 2046. They are hard to improve upon.
As for genuinely new developments, I think AI will become embodied. Today’s chatbots are essentially language models. In twenty years, many of them will have personalities, memories, voices and perhaps physical forms. Some will exist as lifelike avatars on screens, others as domestic robots or android assistants. We will choose them as we currently choose pets, cars or mobile phones: according to purpose, appearance and temperament.
I once imagined controlling technology with my tongue, only to discover that engineers had already developed such systems for people with disabilities. That experience has made me cautious about predicting the future. Inventors are usually ahead of me.
What I feel certain about is that the boundary between memory, imagination and technology will continue to dissolve. At present I use AI to recreate dreams in words and pictures, and to bring episodes from my teenage diaries vividly back to life. The process still requires considerable effort and interpretation. In twenty years, I expect much of that work will be automated. A dream spoken aloud over breakfast could become a short film by lunchtime. A diary entry might instantly generate realistic scenes, voices and environments. We will be able to walk through memories, explore alternative versions of events and share experiences with others in ways that today feel closer to science fiction than reality.
Whether that proves a blessing or a distraction remains to be seen. But if I had to place a bet on one technology that will certainly exist in twenty years, it would be machines that help us capture, reconstruct and relive the stories of our lives.
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