Why We'll Take Longer Baths in the Future

However, as an interesting counterpoint, it will be almost impossible to maintain a perfect record because everything you say and do and everywhere you go will be monitored and recorded. Secrecy will be history, in the future. People, products, and corporations will therefore be assumed guilty until investigated. This will eventually give rise to the idea of ethical bankruptcy, which will be a clean slate for reputations.

If none of this appeals to you, we will also see the appearance of disappearance. In the future, people will pay professionals to help them disappear. This will be difficult due to the level of electronic surveillance but not entirely impossible, especially for younger people already familiar with the concept of using multiple identities on the Internet or for older people who have never existed online. For the rest of us, saddled with credit cards, GPS-embedded mobile phones, and biometric identity cards, it will be just another fantasy.

Many of the institutions and other anchor points in many people's lives, especially in developed western societies, have already vanished or had their reputations eroded to the point where people no longer implicitly trust them. The family, the church, government, business, science, and even the local bank manager have lost or are losing their ability to unite or be trusted. This cynicism and antipathy will continue in the future. People will focus even more on themselves, and a culture of self-reliance -- the do-it-yourself society -- will emerge. People will live in isolation bubbles and won't trust doctors, hospitals, or pharmaceutical companies, so self-diagnosis and self-medication will become commonplace. In 2050 smart software packages will be available to identify what's wrong with you, and websites like Genes Reunited will offer genetic histories enabling people to anticipate hereditary diseases and defects. You will also be able to hire or purchase robotic surgeons to perform operations in your own home or office.

At this point, you are probably thinking that most of what you have just read is wishful thinking; more science fiction than science fact. My response to this is simple. Make a list of what exists now and what you are able to do now that didn't exist or couldn't be done fifty years ago. Now add a multiplier to take into account the fact that technology tends to advance exponentially, and you may start to see that the future really is 'out there'.

Having said this, many of the things around today will still be around tomorrow. The basics won't change much. Our basic hopes and fears will be the same. We will still want to be acknowledged. We will still want our time on Earth to have made a difference. We will still want to achieve something, and we will still crave respect. We will also still want to know whether our collective existence is anything more than a cosmic accident.

Like Joyce Vincent, alone in her London apartment, we will still want to love and be loved.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

This article is the first chapter from Future Files: A History of the Next 50 Years by Richard Watson, who advises organizations on the future, focusing on innovation and scenario planning. He is the author and publisher of What's Next, a quarterly report on global trends, and is a columnist for a number of magazines, including FastCompany.com.