The Challenge
After I posted Episode #52 to Medium (yes, I sometimes post my episodes there), a reader posed a fascinating question to me:
He invited me to predict what the next 20 years would bring.
That’s a fabulous writing assignment for any technologist, so I just couldn’t resist. I started answering his challenge and then… stopped. I realized that I wanted to write my full thoughts here for my newsletter subscribers first.
My Medium followers can wait.
The Ground Rules
I’m not a fortune teller and I don’t play one on TV (although, I do play other roles if you’re interested). Therefore, my plan is to take an informed look at current trends, compare them to historical trends, and combine those two ingredients to help me predict possible future trends.
Maybe you know a better approach that involves ingesting ayahuasca or psilocybin, but I have a toddler at home, so I’ll need to pass on those approaches for the moment.
Also, it’s far too broad a world to do a deep dive on every possible topic in one piece. Therefore, I’m breaking this series down into three different episodes that will cover the following topics & categories:
Energy & Transportation (this episode!)
Medicine & Science
Food & Longevity
Each of these three installments will focus on both general and specific predictions, so let’s dive in.
Predicting The Future Of Energy
Reliances on “legacy energy” like coal, oil, and gas will shift dramatically in the next twenty years to renewable energies like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro. This shift will occur for two, principal reasons:
The technology required to capture renewable energy is far cheaper than that of legacy energies.
The growing realization and impact of climate change.
