Top 10 Forecasts

The World Future Society’s “Top 10 Forecasts” for the coming decade and beyond:

1. Cash will become illegal in the future for all but very small monetary transactions. By 2050, no paper money with a value of more than $10 will remain in circulation. Restrictions on the use of cash, chiefly paper money, would provide one cheap and effective method of crime prevention.

2. “Electronic immigrants”--people who telecommute via computers to work in another country--will be the new global workers of the future.

3. Robots with human intelligence will be common within 50 years. Such artificially intelligent robots may one day possess levels of intelligence far greater than that of humans.

4. Physical restraints such as prisons will become unnecessary in the future with the availability and widespread use of electrical and chemical implants that will allow 24-hour-a-day control of individuals’ behavior.

5. Future furniture will be “smarter,” able to communicate with householders and move about the home. Voice-commandable robotic tables and chairs are already helping some elderly and handicapped people to live at home rather than in institutions. Nonhandicapped people may also desire robotic furniture that obeys commands.

6. The greenhouse effect may cause Canada’s population to surpass that of the United States as U.S. citizens emigrate to warmed-up areas of Canada, attracted by favorable living and working conditions.

7. Replacing defective genes with healthy substitutes will be a common medical practice by the first decade of the 21st Century.

8. “Smart” cars with built-in computers will integrate navigation systems with collision-avoidance systems and controls that adjust the speed of the car of the distance and speed of the vehicle being followed. Eventually, automatic chauffeuring systems will be added that will do all the driving.

9. There will be an increase in two-generation geriatric families during the 1990s--adult children in their 60s and 70s caring for parents in their 90s. This could lead to changes in everything from redesigned houses to slowed-down traffic lights.

10. Future gardens will have artificial plants that can be programmed to change colors--or even species--with the seasons. The increased use of realistic imitation plants--which don’t require soil, water or weeding--for outdoor landscaping could outrage purists, divide communities and lead to new types of zoning laws.