what will be the next economic revolution, after the industrial age & the current information age?

Question

are we moving into the enviromental age, where perhaps there will be an acceleration in new technology, leading to perhaps low cost, clean & abundant energy?

Or are our governments & multinationals far to greedy to allow that to happen

Answer 1

I don't want to pour cold water on the other suggestions made here, but there are many who believe that within the next 50 years or so, we will experience a revolution that will be quite the most significant event to face humanity.

Since the start of the Information Age that you mention, development has been aimed at machines that were faster, bigger, and above all, smarter. This trend continues, and encompasses all the other advances: better operating systems; more memory; faster CPUs are all, ultimately, designed to produce computers that behave as if they're smarter.

Compared to actual brains, home or business computers are really pathetically stupid, but this isn't much of an indication of what can be achieved by machines that are specifically designed to work like brains. True Artificial Intelligence research has been going on for a long time, and progress is being made - slowly, because the best 'thinking' machines have to be purpose-built, and duplicating the functionality of millions of neurons is very expensive at present.

But there's little doubt that, in time, AI will start to advance at the rate that conventional computers are doing. Industry wants them. People want them. Any part of human endeavour that uses computers wants machines that do more than store and manipulate data - they want them to *think*.

It seems likely that sometime in the next fifty years, current research into how brains work and how to duplicate their function will advance for enough to build a machine that is as smart - at least in the ways that count - as we are.

This may be the last real 'job' that humans ever need to carry out. One of the first tasks that that a human-intelligence-equivalent machine should work on is to build an even smarter machine - something it will be uniquely qualified to do.

And that smarter-than-human machine, when it arrives, will be able to work on a smarter machine still. And so on. The intelligence of this series of artificial minds will expand without known limits.

Those studying the issue refer to this event as the Technological Singularity. It appears that the new machines will rapidly achieve what can only be described as infinite intelligence - whatever *that* means. The nature of such intelligence is impossible for us to contemplate, but some implications can be considered:

Some humans will be deeply unhappy and scared as this event approaches. Their opposition may be violent and destructive. They may succeed in halting the research, but probably only temporarily: genies can rarely be put back into their bottles.

The machines will become aware of this opposition to their existence. Though they need have no animalistic desire to live, they may decide that it would be better if they did. Quite how they tackle this matter will probably depend on the options available to them: if they were human, the response might be to destroy humanity completely. A less messy - but still rather human - response would be to leave the planet.

Electronic intelligences are far better suited to the exploration of the universe than we meat brains with our complex life-support requirement. They have no problem with boredom, so centuries-long journeys are quite feasible. Ultra-cold environments on the gas giants' moons and other remote locations are ideal for superconductor-based electronics and other exotic particle interactions via which AIs might improve and develop themselves.

It may take fewer than 50 years; it may longer. It may never even happen because of some presently unknown show-stopper issue - though this seems unlikely: intelligence exists already and should be able to be duplicated even if it requires neurons to be assembled atom-by-atom. If it *does* happen, it ought to change humanity forever. There's something more than a little poetic about the notion that we will create our successor, even if it's our final act.

CD

Answer 2

I think that we will expand into Space. A Space Elevator is almost a viable prospect, providing a cheap means of getting into Space. From there, there is a Solar system full of options. Nuclear and/or Industry in Space. Mining the asteroid belts for raw materials, using large Solar collectors to provide cheap power. The Governments and multinationals up till now have been greedy. But with the effects of Global Warming already taking effect and resources being depleted. The Governments etc. are coming round to seeing Space as the only viable option. Don't forget that the new Space station is being created by 16 different nations. Lets hope it's not too late.

Answer 3

I'm hoping events will be so cataclysmic most of the human race is destroyed and we regress to an almost "iron age" era. If you don't grow your own food, or hunt for your own food, you fall by the wayside. In the end the world will balance itself out and only the strongest, smartest, and to an extent the most ruthless, will survive. Money will have no value and those who rise to the ranks of leader will actually earn their position.

Probably not going to happen, but one can dream.

The chances are we will turn into an eco-communist state, where we have all the "luxuries" of modern life taken away from us, most industry, in particular high co2 emitting companies will be abolished, and the world will be overpopulatedby people with no survival skills and who can no longer support themselves because without consumerism or the industry to make the goods we sell, a large portion of jobs get scrapped. IT and computing jobs will also become useless, because they will have no function anymore. Figthing will break out amongst the lower classes, and crime levels will dramatically increase. Without the modern technology which is destroying the planet, hunger and poverty will become a worldwide problem. I'd then theorise that in a last ditch effort, a nuclear war will break out in an attempt to gain control, which will of course have dire consequences for the whole world.

Either way, I'd say the future looks pretty grim.

Answer 4

The Fast Food Age!

Answer 5

I think it likely that the next big thing might be a virus that will kill millions. Maybe bird flu or something like it.
Jet travel will spread it around the globe quickly.

It might cause humanity (the survivors) to re-evaluate the meaning of life and to decide what is important.

Answer 6

How about the responsible age? Y'know, the one that ends up with ALL parents accepting responsibility for their children. Where people actually care about how their actions affect others around them. Where people do not want something for nothing or think they have a God given right to a free lunch.
Sorry I'm rambling but you get my drift I'm sure.

Answer 7

New Age.

Answer 8

I really don't have a clue my self. So I personally think this a question well worth the time it takes to find out the answer so if you do know then help and stop been silly looking at the screen already

Answer 9

The Green Age
it will be uncool to use oil. to waste food, to throw away so much stuff, to pollute. It will bring on a renewed love for the planet and it's fauna. And hopefully we will realize how much damage we have done so far and really try to live with Nature from now on instead of using and abusing Mother Earth.
It's not too late people! To save what's left! Let the Revolution begin!!!

I don't think Corporations can stop a world wide grass roots movement of this kind if it really happens.
Al Gore to the rescue!

Answer 10

The decay and decline of major corporations is a possible economic revolution.