The year is 2021, please comment up on how you think technology not yet commercialized will impact daily life. Specifically how will travel (by auto and aircraft), healthcare, and recreation change?

travel

• personal small flying craft will not be the norm
• in a lot of the world, internal combusion engines using oil will be the most common mode of transportation
• we will still be running out of oil
• the percentage of cars that are not exclusively internal combusion engines using oil will be at least fifteen times higher than current levels in North America; no vehicles will have lower milage than the highest-milage cars of today
• bicycling and public transit will become the norm in most urban areas, with cars largely prohibited in city cent
• public and private transit (buses, light rail, airplanes, and the odd ferry) throughout the world will communicate seamlessly and be much more efficient. planning a route from toronto to sao paulo won't be any much more difficult than a route between two houses in toronto
• the variation in transportation methods will be broader, as more types of vehicles (many bicycle and scooter types, with and without motors, up to various cars, trucks, etc.) and practices (vehicle shares, etc.) exist
• airships (dirigibles) will be used for transport much more than they are now, although they won't be used much for transporting people
• both the vehicles and the infrastructure (roads, road signs, etc) will become much "smarter". vehicles will all have navigation systems (gps, data), unless the devices that people carry around with them handle this capability
• people will be amazed at how unsafe driving or being around cars was in 2006. by online services that route traffic (and make it faster), cars and roadways designed for better safety both structurally and via sensors that detect and correct for problems, not to mention the speed and quality of emergency attention
• while people will be able to control all vehicles (mandated by law), cars and trucks will drive themselves in many places, allowing people to do other things. while they may be capable of driving through most situations, this will be limited legally due to our (somewhat valid) concerns about safety. generally the density of other cars, pedestrians, etc. will determine this.
• as practically everyone will own a bicycle-type vehicle, they will be fashion symbols and have many modifications and accessories (eg electronic)
• the biggest transportation problem in north america will still be urban sprawl
• the variety of aircraft will be greater, although planes that can carry more passengers and go faster than today will exist, but those metrics won't be that much higher on average
• the very reasons for travelling will have shifted (not necessarily decreased), as the online world means that practically anything *can* be done anywhere. humans are a social species, however, and there will still be plenty of in-person interaction
• lot of traveling to meet people met online etc

healthcare

• better healthcare
• disparity between problems of developed and developing world will continue
• knowledge-sharing will be considerably faster
• the average person will have access to all the same medical information that healthcare workers do, although their superficial knowledge (knowing about a study that concluded yesterday, but not why the body needs iodine) will annoy doctors
• more diseases will be cured/lessened, but there will be no "single cure for cancer"
• replacement for damaged/lost parts will be much improved, from artificial hearts and blood, perhaps actual organs based off our own DNA, prosthetics
• write more stuff here

recreation

• still have books, music, movies, games, etc. including forms which are more immersive and/or interactactive than today's
• the sheer amount of material produced will be many times what it is today (increasing far faster than population)
• types
  • about 60% of media is product by <= 6 people
  • aboug 35% is made by large groups of people that have never met
  • the rest is produced by larger companies
  • all of whom make some money (or other forms of credit)
• people still go to movie theatres
• everthing is digital... although printed material exists (easily) on-demand

A Look into 2021: Travel, Health Care, and Recreation

Fifteen years into the future: in earlier centuries this wouldn't have meant that much, however looking at the pace of change today, fifteen years is a long time. Just like today, the youth of 2021 will look with surprise and wonder at what life was like back then – what was different, and most significantly, all the things that are ubiquitous to them that won't even exist for five or more years. On the other hand, most things in 2021 will still be the same as today. The worldwide disparity between rich and poor nations and individuals, for one. Much of our infrastructure, such as houses, sewers, etc. will be largely unchanged. The biggest changes will be technological and social/cultural. The first ten years or so of the world wide web will be regarded as the early years, when people were still trying to figure out what to do with it.

Some people might be surprised to know that in 2021, we will still be running out of oil. While non-petroleum energy sources will be much more common than they are today, the total world energy consumption has gone up such that the rate of oil usage is higher than today's.