[00:03.37]2001
[00:06.20]In less than 30 years' time the Star Trek holodeck
[00:09.53]will be a reality.
[00:11.13]Direct links between the brain's nervous system
[00:13.66]and a computer will also create full sensory virtual environments,
[00:18.31]allowing virtual vacations like those in the film Total Recall.
[00:22.55](1)
[00:26.09]and cars with pollution monitors
[00:28.07]that will disable them when they offend.>
[00:30.90](2)
[00:32.45]equipped with personality chips,
[00:34.78]computers with in-built personalities
[00:36.99]will be regarded as workmates rather than tools,
[00:40.52]relaxation will be in front of smell-television,
[00:43.84]and digital age will have arrived.>
[00:46.88]According to BT's futurologist, Ian Pearson,
[00:50.77]these are among the developments
[00:52.52]scheduled for the first few decades of the new millennium
[00:55.66](a period of 1 000 years),
[00:57.87]when supercomputers will dramatically accelerate progress
[01:01.00]in all areas of life.
[01:03.12](3)
[01:04.66]the work of hundreds of researchers around the world
[01:07.38]to produce a unique millennium technology calendar
[01:10.96]that gives the latest dates
[01:12.58]when we can expect hundreds of key breakthroughs
[01:15.10]and discoveries to take place.>
[01:17.52]Some of the biggest developments will be in medicine,
[01:20.44]including an extended life expectancy
[01:22.77]and dozens of artificial organs coming into use
[01:25.80]between now and 2040.
[01:28.22]Pearson also predicts
[01:29.25]a breakthrough in computer-human links.
[01:31.97]"By linking directly to our nervous system,
[01:34.39]computers could pick up what we feel and, hopefully,
[01:37.81]simulate feeling too
[01:39.78]so that we can start to develop full sensory environments,
[01:43.41]rather like the holidays in Total Recall
[01:46.04]or the Star Trek holodeck," he says.
[01:48.86](4)
[01:50.77]is only the start of man-machine integration:
[01:54.19]"It will be the beginning of the long process of integration
[01:57.82]that will ultimately lead to a fully electronic human
[02:01.26]before the end of the next century.">
[02:03.88]Through his research,
[02:04.80]Pearson is able to put dates to most of the breakthroughs
[02:07.92]that can be predicted.
[02:09.84]However, there are still no forecasts
[02:11.85]for when faster-than-light travel will be available,
[02:15.28]or when human cloning will be perfected,
[02:17.90]or when time travel will be possible.
[02:20.62]But he does expect social problems
[02:22.92]as a result of technological advances.
[02:25.74]A boom in neighborhood surveillance cameras will,
[02:28.97]for example, cause problems in 2010,
[02:32.30]while the arrival of synthetic lifelike robots
[02:35.12]will mean people may not be able to distinguish
[02:37.84]between their human friends and the droids.
[02:40.96](5)
[02:44.09]that controlling and operating them
[02:46.01]will result in the breakout of a new psychological disorder
[02:49.83]--kitchen rage.>
