The World in 2030

The World in 2030 275
By 2030 the super-rich will have access to therapies
and technologies that will allow them to extend their lives
significantly; they will have the ability to rejuvenate their
bodies and to enhance both their minds and their physiques.
Will they take these opportunities? Of course they will and,
over time, a new form of super-human elite will emerge. But
they won’t find that they have exclusivity. The ever growing
middle-classes will also be able to afford these treatments.
And then there are other forms of sentient being who will
soon be sharing the planet with us.
Robots
Since the 1950s film-makers, science-fiction writers and
futurologists (not the good ones) have constantly predicted
that intelligent human-like androids are just about to arrive
and become our willing slaves. But it just did not happen
and, today, few people populate their imaginary future
with robots.
But after what has seemed like an interminably-long
gestation period, robots are soon about to enter our society
in force. We are getting so close that governments have even
started to consider whether robots will need ‘rights’ in the
way that humans do. Should robots have the right to exist,
to privacy and other rights that humans take for granted?
Should robots be allowed to ‘marry’ and should humanrobot
partnerships be given legal status? Such proleptic
thinking has been criticised, as The Guardian reported in
April 2007: