My Crystal Ball 2013

Article = none , personal experience.

I suppose it is a hobby of everyone to try to tell the future and guess where the world is going.  This is my latest shot at it.

First : What is the crystal ball made of. 

Or , what technologies do I think will affect the world ?

• 3D Printers. They're down to 1300$ , and only getting cheaper
• Nasa's Pizza 3D Printer. Doesn't exist yet , but they have commisioned the creation of a 3D printer that makes pizza's for the astronaughts up in space.
• Artificial Intelligence : Emily is getting smarter. Who is Emily ? The voice system when you cal bell canada , that computer that answers , and can understand what your saying. If your accent isn't too heavy.
• The Internet. Pretty certain it's not going anywhere.   
• Cheap Sewing machines. down to 88$ for an electric one. They can't go much farther down , all that can happen is more features

So what do I see in the future with these four things ?

I see Star Wars.

I see Uncle Owens farm , a small family riding herd on their robots , cleaning and maintaining them while the robots go out and do all the farming.  I see simple clothing , loose pants and tops , made by automated machines. I see spare parts for the robots being made by "3D Printers" which will likely be called something else by then.

I see very few formal "jobs". I see the return of the craftsman , making his goods via commanding robots to do it and just maintaining the robots. I see a small family getting work maintaining the electrical grid , or the internet grid , for a small city block. I see people processing farmed goods into goop of some kind for the 3D food printers. I see other people making and recycling plastics for the other 3D printers. I see 3D printers for metal parts.

I see people making the electronic guts of various devices. Some guy might specialize in the internal workings of a cell phone , for example , and sell that. People will buy it , and print out their own case for it. And just slip it inside.

I see work needs to be done (usually by robots) in electrical power, in internet infrastructure, in construction, in food growing and preperation, in transport, in elevators, in all the "essentials" that we cannot do without. (Hmm..don't forget robot maintenane in the list , dang things will be everywhere) I see people overseeing small companies with robots doing the work. And they just watch monitors and give the robots hints.

I see children coming of age, and as a going away birthday present they get a couple of robots of their own before being sent out on their own to make their way in the world. Much like today you give them a microwave or vacuum cleaner or some such.

I see all the cooking and cleaning being done by robots, I see most of our "manufactured goods" being made at home , with no need to buy things, just more and more plastic or metal goop for the 3D printers.

I see a lot of "Luxury" shops. Restaurants. Bars. Coffee shops.  People don't need a restaurant they can cook for themselves, but still they will go out and congregate with other people. There will be small fancy clothing shops , but no big super stores for cloths (or foods) since the robots back at home will make the "cheap" stuff. Store bought cloths and food will be Luxuries, not neccessaties.

I see a world full of people who mostly just maintain and repair their own personal robots as a primary skill , and as a secondary one other thing (farming , electronics, making cell phones or computers, etc) . I see large corperations will vanish because the economies of scale theory is dead in the water with 3D printers. Well , most corperations. Oil Companies are here as long as the oil lasts, we need the electrical power. And after that the nuclear reactor plants and the hydro electric companies are probably with us forever.

And police. There will always be a-holes out there who need to be locked up. That's just human nature.

And thats , in general , my vision of the future. Other than adding a few more professions that will never go away , that's it. People running their own little companies, bossing around their robots who make stuff both for their own internal use, and to sell and bring in a little cash to pay the electric bills.