The World in 2030

316 The World in 2030
new forms of entity are almost certain to get together and
some futurists are already talking about sexual and romantic
attachments between humans and computer personalities.
Whatever the relationships between augmented humans
and their robot companions, it is clear that much longer
life-spans are almost certain for us and, particularly, for our
children. In his 1993 paper ‘The Coming Technological
Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era’ Vernor
Vinge makes the following observation about extremelongevity:
A mind that stays at the same capacity cannot live
forever; after a few thousand years it would look
more like a repeating tape loop than a person. To
live indefinitely long, the mind itself must grow ...
and when it becomes great enough, and looks back
... what fellow-feeling can it have with the soul that
it was originally? Certainly the later being would
be everything the original was, but so much vastly
more. 548
But before peering into the longer-distance future it is
worth taking a reality check about the likely nature of life
in 2030. The vast majority of people in the world at that
time will still be struggling to make a living and feed their
families. Technology development and globalisation (if that
globalisation has been ethically and sustainably pursued)
will have lifted many additional millions of people out of
abject poverty, but for most humans on the planet life will
be conducted much as it is today, albeit it with far better
communications and improved healthcare.