What will Technology Look Like 1000 years from now? - Future Tech - Part 26.

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Technology is embedded in the lives of almost every human on earth. But what would that technology look like in 1'000 years?

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To answer this question, we need to take a look at where we have come from to where we are now to try and predict what technology would look like in the year 3017.

Throughout history, mankind has used some sort of technology to improve there lives, from the bow and arrow to make hunting easier to smelting to craft tools with. It is in human nature to improve ourselves and our lives beyond what we currently know.

You hear historians and anthropologists talk about the different ages of man, the stone age, the copper age, the bronze age, the iron age... each specific to the type of materials used during that era of time. Currently we are in what is known as the Space age, although I feel that statement is a little to far fetched as we have only ever travelled as far as the moon, the title should be ''The Technological Age'' as we are becoming more and more reliant on technology in our every day lives, just as stone was during the stone age, bronze during the bronze age and so on.
Historians also use the term ''revolution'' when talking about history. The industrial revolution of which we have seen 1st, 2nd and 3rd industrial revolutions, Textiles, Steem Power, Iron Making and we are currently in the 4th industrial revolution which comprises of Machine tools. Along side this we are also witnessing the birth of the technological revolution with the birth of computers which can now control said machine tools autonomously, like the self driving car for instance. This is where we stand today and it has taken almost 500'000 years to get to this point.
However, each subsequent leap in technology forms has taken less and less time, compared to the 300'000 years to go from stone tools to copper, it has taken us only 300 years to go from the first steam powered engine to our current state of technology.

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From banking systems, the internet, to smartphones and quantum computers, we can say we are very advanced technologically, but on a cosmic scale we are not even close to a type 1 civilisation.

Dr. Nikolai Kardashev is an astrophysicist and Dr of physical and mathematic sciences from Russia. In 1963 he came up with a scale that measured how far advanced civilizations could be on a technological level that are millions or billions of years ahead of our present state, the scale was categorized originally into 3 types based on the amount of energy gathering and consumption.

Type I could store all the energy its planet received from its star.
Type II could harness all the energy from its star using the theoretical Dyson Sphere.
Type III could control the energy within its own galaxy.

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Currently we are placed at 0.004 on that scale, as we are only just starting to utilize the energy from our sun in place of fossil fuels. But how far could we advance in the next 1000 years?
I will look at a few key technologies that we use today. Communications, Travel, and Energy use/storage.

- Communications.

Today we rely heavily on the internet for most of our communications. Hand written letters are being replaced by emails and packages are now starting to be delivered by drones. So its fair to estimate that in the future, the postal service will mainly be delivering packages of goods rather than a means of communication.
There are currently plans in the works by several big companies, to replace the land-line based internet with a wireless satellite infrastructure that would supply connectivity to every human on earth at speeds of upwards of 1Gb/s. In 1000 years, we may still have a similar orbiting infrastructure, but using much fewer satellites and much faster connection speeds, in the region of 1Zb/s (Zettabyte per second) that's a million, million times faster. That same satellite system would have to provide connections to upwards of 15 billion people, all expecting a 1Zb/s connection speed.
This of course is possible thanks to quantum computing power which is estimated to be 2'000'000 times faster than today's 2000 electron quantum computers available today. And that one computer is more powerful than all the super computers in the world combined. So sending an email, streaming your 3D film or games live will all take place with nearly zero lag time with a ping of less than 0.0001ms.

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- Travel.

Today we are seeing the birth of the autonomous car, planes that can land without a pilot and new experimental propulsion drives like the EM drive and fusion drive for space travel.
The aeroplane replaced sea ships as the primary form of travel to other countries that could take weeks, now we can hop on a plane to the other side of the world for a weekend break. In 1000 years, it will be a mix of turning back the clock and moving forward as you will be able to take a trip into space to either a space station or Mars, maybe beyond, but it may take weeks to travel to Mars, but is better than months with current tech.
On earth a system of overland or underground hyperloops will be available to all major cities and towns, with speeds upwards of 1200mph, allowing you to take a day trip from London to Sydney, instead of the current 18 hour flight time.
Autonomous vehicles will become common place for local or short journeys. These would obviously be voice activated, but it is possible that they could even be controlled and told where to go with your mind thanks to advancements in human augmentation.
Traffic injuries will be next to zero as the machine part of this new system will be able to detect if someone is in danger and act accordingly, preventing injury.

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- Energy Use and Storage.

We currently rely heavily on Batteries to store all our power, from hydro plants, to nuclear, coal, wind and solar. All the energy is transferred to a battery until it is needed. These batteries are huge and take up vast amounts of room. With the development of carbon nanotubes and graphine, it was discovered that they are capable of storing huge amounts of energy but at a fraction of the size of a lithium iron one. So it is safe to say that in 1000 years, all batteries will be replaced with ones made from carbon nanotubes. Imagine your smartphone that could run for a lifetime on one charge, if your battery inside was made from carbon nanotubes, that is exactly how long it could stay charged for. This would come in handy for small electronics in the future and thanks to Nikola Tesla's work being re-discovered, it will also be possible to wirelessly charge that same device while on the move.
By the year 3017, it is likely that all fossil fuels will have been used up and we have to resort to renewable energy in its place, this is where we would take a big step up to becoming a type 1 civilization, solar power and wind power will be the primary source of energy and by this time, it is estimated that we would be half way to becoming a type 1 civilization at 0.5/6 on the Kardashev scale, half of the energy the earth receives from the sun will be collected and stored. But if we had huge solar farms, it could also heat the earth up, so the same satellites that is used for our communication needs could also act as large space based solar energy farm that can transmit the energy wirelessly to ground stations and sent out to the grid.
Today computers use up much less energy now than those that we made 50 years ago, so it is also safe to say that in 1000 years, energy consumption of such devices will be far less and also be more efficient.

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This is all conjecture and theoretical, but it does serve to prove that if mankind was to put aside its differences and concentrate on the future, anything can be possible. But sadly there is no cure for stupidity and small mindedness.

Thanks for reading.