Technologies of the near future that were predicted in books and movies

As technologies of the near future, let's take as a basis the projects that are currently being actively worked on: the first prototype has been demonstrated or the know-how has already been created, but has not yet become widespread and has not become part of our daily lives.

Bionic implants and chips embedded in the human brain

Prediction

Let's turn to William Gibson's "Neuromancer". This mid-1980s work is part of the "Cyberspace" trilogy and is written in the cyberpunk genre. According to the plot, one of the heroines has a number of organs and tissues replaced with bio-implants. The girl did this intentionally to gain extraordinary abilities. In William Gibson's story "Johnny Mnemonic" (a film of the same name was made based on this work), a criminal corporation used the brain of the main character, into which a special implant was implanted to store and transmit valuable information. For them, he essentially served as a living flash drive.

Implementation

Elon Musk's company Neuralink has received permission to implant neurocomputer interfaces into the human brain. The subjects are people with loss of motor activity. The Neuralink project aims to establish interaction between the human brain and external devices and ultimately solve their physical problems, overcome social isolation, and treat psychophysical disorders.

The first subject, a man paralyzed below the shoulders, learned to control the computer cursor with his mind after the operation. To date, a brain implant has been installed in the second patient. By the end of this year, the company plans to conduct 10 similar operations. Elon Musk himself stated that the first trials of this technology applied to humans have yielded good results.

In fact, something similar has been done for quite a long time by a number of companies. Elon Musk is by no means a pioneer in this. Neuralink's work in this direction has received such wide publicity thanks to the popularity of the billionaire and the great interest of the mass media in his personality. Chips and various devices have been implanted in the human brain or spinal cord for several decades. Of course, this is done only for medical purposes.

Metaverse

The concept of the metaverse has been in the air for several decades. It is a virtual space, an exact copy of our real world, in which people will interact with each other through digital avatars. This technology will expand human capabilities in terms of work, education, interpersonal communication, business development, and promotion of their services. On virtual platforms, it will be possible to sell and buy digital and real goods, work in a virtual office, go to the cinema or to a concert of a famous performer, attend classes in a virtual classroom, and much more.

Prediction

In fiction, the idea of the metaverse was first described in the novel "Snow Crash" published in 1992. Its author, British science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, who himself is an IT specialist, presented his vision of the future in the book. In it, all political power is concentrated in the hands of megacorporations, and people are detached from reality and live in an illusory virtual world where many desires are fulfilled. The American futurist Matthew Ball delved into this issue the most. He published the book "The Metaverse: How It Will Revolutionize Everything".

In 2011, Ernest Cline's science fiction novel "Ready Player One" was published. According to the plot, the picture of the future looks like this: most people are below the poverty line, the social infrastructure is destroyed. However, the inhabitants of the Earth are distracted from reality and spend most of their time in the game metaverse "Oasis". Interest in it is also fueled by the fact that the creator of the game world has hidden an Easter egg and three keys to it somewhere in its vastness. Whoever completes the quest and finds them will inherit the colossal fortune of the founder of "Oasis".

Seven years later, in 2018, a film of the same name was released.

Implementation

To date, many companies own technologies that, by one criterion or another, fall under the concept of a metaverse. Game developers are improving their games, developing their functionality to a similar level. Examples include: The Sandbox, Decentraland, Roblox. In them, you can buy and sell virtual land plots, create content. And in Fortnite, in addition to this, some performers hold concerts. To date, the virtual platform has been used by: Travis Scott, DJ Marshmellow, Billie Eilish, and others.

A number of corporations have their own virtual spaces for collaboration, such as Microsoft. Cloud services for organizing Microsoft Azure, according to the employees themselves, are a real metaverse. This year, Meta launched the Horizon Workrooms application, which is nothing more than a virtual coworking space.

Many companies have their own digital stores. For example, Gucci released the first pair of virtual sneakers. They can be tried on, of course, only in the digital space on your avatar. McDonald's and other fast food chains are going to open virtual restaurants. There is more to come. Meta Corporation head Mark Zuckerberg announced that by 2031 his team will create a three-dimensional Internet. In the new version of the global network, according to Zuckerberg, we will be able not only to receive information, but also to experience it.

Predictive Analytics Systems in Forensics, Pre-Crime Theory

Law enforcement agencies in different countries are already using neural networks to solve committed crimes. It also makes sense to argue that in the near future AI technologies will be used for prevention and suppression of possible illegal activities. We know that in a number of countries, law enforcement officers widely use surveillance cameras installed in places of mass gatherings, for example, to prevent terrorist attacks. What if intelligence agencies go even further and use AI to analyze human activity on the Internet, aiming to identify potential criminals before they commit illegal actions.

Prediction

This idea has also been considered by science fiction writers. Back in 1956, Philip K. Dick's short story "The Minority Report" was published, which takes the reader to the future year of 2054. According to the plot, the law enforcement system of the future uses a method of punishing criminals before they commit a crime. However, for analysis, not computer technologies are used, but people with extrasensory abilities are involved. The science fiction writer's story was made into a film in 2002, and in 2015, FOX released a TV series of the same name.

The creators of the series "Person of Interest" by Bad Robot Productions, which premiered in 2011, came much closer to this topic. According to the plot, two IT specialists developed a program called "The Machine" in the series. It analyzes surveillance camera recordings, people's activities on social networks, phone call records, tracks banking transactions, and, by conducting deep psychological analysis of personality using special algorithms, predicts crimes. Initially, this project was aimed at identifying terrorist threats, but it turned out that the development is also capable of identifying potential murderers. The government refused to take into account the second function of The Machine and began to use it only in the fight against terrorism. However, one of the creators of the super technology, Harold Finch, along with former CIA agent John Reese, having access to the data provided by the AI program, began to prevent ordinary criminal offenses.

Implementation

Today we can observe the first examples of creating such technologies. Employees of the South Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) have developed a neural network called Dejaview, capable of predicting crimes. The AI program studies early video recordings, comparing the behavior of real criminals with the behavior of people in public places. According to the results of the first studies, Dejaview predicted several crimes with an accuracy of more than 82%. The commercial version of the program is scheduled to be launched at the end of 2025.

Authors of books and screenwriters of films do not aim to predict the future by making an accurate forecast. They make it clear that technology can change the face of humanity, and these changes are not always positive. Such innovations often provide additional opportunities for fraudsters to commit their criminal actions, serve as a tool for blackmail and pressure on individuals, and also as a lever of control over citizens in authoritarian states. In short, it exposes many human vices. The technologies themselves, of course, are not evil. This is the main plot conflict of such literary works - the struggle of the protagonist with villains who possess the technology, or with human vices, in case it is available to everyone.

Writers and screenwriters do not say that the development of technology will inevitably lead to the harmful consequences they describe. The authors only express their vision of the problems that this or that side of progress may lead to. Therefore, when creating something similar, representatives of the scientific elite should take into account possible risks.