Future Life on Earth

Future Life on Earth

2008, Science  -   54 Comments
7.39
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Ratings: 7.39/10 from 46 users.

Future Life On EarthWhat will our future look like? Floating cities, flying to work and traveling in cars capable of operating underwater? And how will technology advance to make use of our natural resources to help feed our growing population in such areas as food, water and electricity?

The era of smog-filled skies will be over, because fewer of us will be driving cars. There will no longer be the use for cars and roads as we’ll be piloting environmentally friendly personal vehicles between cities and under the seas. And we will never be lost again thanks to GPS-driven virtual mapping. Then again, with teleportation we will not need to travel at all.

And, best of all, we’ll all have more time to enjoy the astounding advances of our near future, because we’ll all be living longer. A lot longer. Find out what we can expect to see in the future in this well produced documentary.

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David Harding
David Harding
8 years ago

This felt like an executive sales pitch. Smarmy, soulless and plastic and held no surprises or wows. Plus, I will never contemplate buying a citroen.

Michael Winkler
Michael Winkler
8 years ago

yeah right. I am all for technology and have always been fascinated by futurism. However they never mention 1 time the basic laws of thermodynamics. you can neither create nor destroy energy. The idea that every person, in 10 years it is estimated we will have over 9 Billion people on the planet. Clean drinking water, free energy, unlimited food, no reliance on fossil fuels. Forget about it. This is a great story, but a pipe dream. Yes some of it will most likely come to fruition. However they never mention that we live on a finite planet so all the micro-electronics to say create energy from foot traffic have very rare earth minerals that have to be mined. There are only a few places on the planet where many of these rare earth minerals exists, mostly in China. Not to throw a wet blanket on this utopian dream, however I see a much different future where the wealthy will become fewer and the poor will become more abundant. Technology, sure it can certainly help, but the idea that we will simply walk away from fossil fuels is near impossible in an industrialized society. They only focus on fossil fuels for energy consumption. They do not talk about fossil fuels are used to make just about everything in the world, whether it be fertilizer for food, oil and gas to drill and extract all the metals and rare earth materials that make up our industrial society. Sorry I am ranting here. This is truly one of the worst documentaries I have ever seen. Why could it not be more balanced. Oh one last thing, everyone traveling either by their own jet, underwater vehicles, etc. Give me a break. Just look up some of the futuristic commercials or documentaries on YouTube from the 1950's, you will get a laugh. But now it is a serious matter as we are getting close if not past Peak Oil and once we can no longer produce the energy needed to sustain growth, game over.

grimberge
grimberge
11 years ago

Terrible doc.

Wooden Boy
Wooden Boy
12 years ago

@Annie Don't fear the future and don't given to the "skin bag" complex. The computer your reading this on, is just as natural as the eyes your using to see it. The same universe that spawn the earth and bald talking monkeys (us), produce the silicon in your computer and the neurons in our brains that create the idea we then build. It's all completely natural.

@Greg Bennett and the guest who agreed: Living longer lives will not be as much of a dystopian prospect as you may think. Getting old will be different to how it is now, due to improved health care and living standards. And as far as working longer most studies point to the fact that we will all be working fair less, due to the exponential growth or AI and robotics. Boredom too will be a laughable trait of the past, once we can realize our creative ideas into virtual reality computer systems.

Take it easy

love

totalfatcat

Annie
Annie
12 years ago

Omg I wish I was living in the beginning of 20 century! This unnatural doctors-robots, electronic devices everywhere that could spy you, travelling by internet to diferent countries,getting drunk with 3D hologram fake person. That technical progress will lead to entire enslavement of normal human being . It will leave no challenge to us

Annie
Annie
12 years ago

Omg I wish I was living in the beginning of 20 century .That unnatural doctors-robots and electronic devices everywhere that could spy you ,traveling by internet to different countries, getting drunk with 3D hologram person ,that`s really sucks!! That technical progress will lead to entire enslament of normal human being.

Marco Sánchez
Marco Sánchez
12 years ago

I stopped the documentary at the submersible sports car...

Greg Bennett
Greg Bennett
12 years ago

LOL @ chelsea, you're funny. Death is a normal part of a biological structure yes but if everyone held your point of view, no one would reproduce or strive for survival (like any other organism that has been birthed on this earth).

And with the development of technology, one day we may not need a body at all, we could create our very own "matrix". Reality as we know it in the digital realm where our minds reside. That way we can enter and exit reality as we please, leaving you're precious planet earth in balance. But embracing death would definitely prevent that idea from happening.

david
david
12 years ago

Go to a children's hospital and go try and spit bullshit like that to a dying kids family. Grow up and wait till you have more then 12 years of life experience before you post again until then smoke another one cheech.

david
david
12 years ago

Your right Chelsea King, why don't you embrace death with wonder and curiosity and kill yourself, were pretty crowded here.

Chelsea King
Chelsea King
12 years ago

everything dies.. are sun, earth, and us will die. we can only prevent death for so long and in doing so can put a strain on are bodies and earth. y do people hav to b afraid of death? or c it as a bad thing? y not embrace it with wonder and curiosity? because its guna happen anyway...its the only thing we will never b able to stop and im glad.

Chelsea King
Chelsea King
12 years ago

I dont agree with preventing the earths storms. People need to die and since we cant kill eachother then the earth can do it for us. Theres to many people on earth. Cancers, diseases, earths storms, are all a natural proccess for keeping species numbers down and were fighting to prevent all this is not going to solve anything except create more problems and were taking us, plants, animals, and earth down with us.... Humans are a disease and cancer to this earth.

Manas Murthy
Manas Murthy
12 years ago

Absolute bullshit!! Foam and concrete based islands that support buildings ....that is probably the world's most unsustainable building method. The embodied carbon of such an endeavour is beyond imaginable.

Dan Flynn
Dan Flynn
12 years ago

Just more creepy, top-down, flapdoodle. I don't want to get on an elevator that thinks it knows what floor I want to exit. All this just amounts to control and the narrowing down and homogenizing of our life options.

Evoll
Evoll
12 years ago

Instead of creating more for the rich and better living for those who already have enough !! why don't we think bout the majority that need to survive today!!!!!!******** This docu is more like a science fiction movie not considering the actual reality of today!! Conflicting of NWO and Newer NWO lol!... Instead of adapting to the environment/nature like animals that we are, we are constantly adapting the environment/nature to us, and nature is resisting and will continue resist. You think these floating units are stable enough to hold against tsunami's ? this is diffidently not the future of life!!

"I don't know how WW3 will be fought, but I know that WW4 will be? fought with sticks and stones"

Albert Einstein

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
12 years ago

some of these things sound great but right now we are living on a planet in which 1 in 4 people have no electricity. Almost as many do not have access to modern healthcare or clean drinking water. And fresh water looks like its running out! Watch BLUE GOLD WATER WARS

Sabin Russell
Sabin Russell
12 years ago

global warming is a natural process
humans did not cause it we are speeding it up

Soul
Soul
12 years ago

They did not mention food sources management, forest management, resources management and waste management. And also about over population... this film is a baby plan for everyone by private entities.

We will have pollution crisis, resources crisis and population crisis in the future.

diana c
diana c
12 years ago

Of course that not everything that has been shown in this video will come to be reality. Of course not. However, watching this video and reading the comments below has given me 'food for thoughs', and that's all that this is. At any rate, it is fun to see what a 'possible' future might be and what current scientists are working on. No doubt that all that I saw in this video will influence the future in some way, be it a very minor one. Everything that we do is a cause for evenets to occur. Everything influences our fufture and the future of others. Cause and effect.

Matt Kukowski
Matt Kukowski
13 years ago

Jetpacks? That could easily kill you with only a milimeter mistake? A personal plane for 'only' 400 grand $$ ? (So, Wallstreet wages?) Floating cities is true, because global warming is happening and can not be stopped. 'Gaia, James Lovelock' ... look it up.

These are all 'boy toys' that are only a distraction as Earth becomes the next Venus (so hot with green house gases that it kills all life). Again look up 'GAIA, James Lovelock'.

Unless we do population control, figure out how to reflect sun light ( due to the lack of north/south polar ice caps melting ) and get off oil and consumerism and greed... all these 'boy toys' are simply so far fetched and missing the point that we are organic creatures and not metallic machines and we are 100% connected to the Earth and it's Biosphere.

People just do not get it! We are well on our way out. Earth (remember your ENVIRONMENT? ) dictates the rules. Ego's and technology == disaster!

James Lovelock predicts that only 1 billion people will be able to survive the next 100 years.

alan
alan
13 years ago

having watched this, i think i will value my 'shortevity' all the more.

kellyanne
kellyanne
13 years ago

this is just someone's imagination on how the future will be, because NO ONE can tell us what the future holds.

adrianxw
adrianxw
13 years ago

Doubling our life span without some form of population control sounds like any number of disasters waiting to happen.

M
M
13 years ago

Kool doc ... should be titled ... future toys for the ELITE.
I love the way it constantly refers to 'we' .. I quickly realised that this 'we' is the ULTRA RICH masters of the planet. This is what they will play with when they depopulate the peasantry.

gothnate
gothnate
13 years ago

The one thing in this documentary that kind of upset me was the talk about the water purifier. There is no doubt that the purpose of the purifier to provide clean water is a noble gesture. However, even in deplorable conditions where clean water is scarce, simply boiling water is a step in the right direction.

I believe TEACHING those people how to purify their own water source will be much more beneficial to them as opposed to relying on a machine to do it for them. Even using the simplest methods, one could desalinize ocean water to provide drinking water.

The "inventor" of that purifier uses common misinformation tactics to sell a product. Saying that clean drinking water will cost more per gallon than oil, barring the complete discontinuation and use of oil, is a fallacy and completely irresponsible.

Danielle
Danielle
13 years ago

This is the scariest, saddest, most dehumanizing thing that I have ever seen!!

rockysbeats
rockysbeats
13 years ago

im up for everything me, bring it all on!so what if were controlling the weather and increasing our health and prolonging our life span, We are Gods now! its awesome and this is only the begining :)

lazibonz
lazibonz
13 years ago

moore's law is dead

PC812
PC812
13 years ago

I think some people on here are a bit technophobic. Check out the documentary on Six Degrees of Separation, which talks all about network science. A lot of what's being talked about on here fits in with that as well. We could very well be on the verge of a revolution that will alter our lives as much as the Industrial Revolution altered the lives of our predecessors -- except this time it will be a Humanistic Revolution.

Some people who are commenting here, such as hairy, seem to think that the technology as it exists now is the limit to its development. Remember that planes didn't start off with jet engines and the potential to fly across the world, nor did the Model T come equipped with full atmosphere control, GPS, and all the other perks. These technologies were developed and perfected over time. So yeah, an underwater car that can only travel 2 mph (and it was 10, try to pay closer attention) isn't that fast now, but at the rate technology advances, that speed will increase. Especially since trends show that as time goes on, technology evolves at a much faster rate.

And Keith, of course what's made for millionaire types today forecasts what things will look like tomorrow. Remember the days when only the rich could afford computers? Or cell phones? And now even elementary school students are able to walk around with cell phones far more advanced and far cheaper than the ones corporate executives carried around in the 80s. You have a lot to learn about the history of technology.

ak1ra
ak1ra
13 years ago

Good doc, some great options for our survival. Although there is a couple of things that seem out of place. If all of these advances were to happen, some would pretty much cancel each other out. For example, the projected presence would make it easier to not have to travel, so the travel advances would take a hit. The piezoelectricity mats as flooring in homes would be nice. Granted at the moment you couldn't us it to power your entire home but perhaps when the technology is refined it may be possible. I also love how they worded the pricing on a private jet, $2 million vs $400,000 is a nice drop but how many of us can spend $400,000 on anything? I was wondering as I watched the scuba car if they remembered what happen to the Amphicar made in the 60's? I think the medical advances,water purifier and the city farms have the most promise. The potential good they could do is enormous but only if it is made available to the masses and not whoever has the most money.

Henry
Henry
13 years ago

TO all admins. Thank you very much for all of these informative docus. I have fell in love with your site since day 1. I hope you guys keep up the good work.

I Pay You. You Program Me.
I Pay You. You Program Me.
13 years ago

BIG BROTHER!

Lalita Panwar
Lalita Panwar
13 years ago

ABOUT FUTURE

Hardy
Hardy
13 years ago

Thanks for the recommendation, will try to find it.

Phil
Phil
13 years ago

(probable..)

Phil
Phil
13 years ago

if your interested in a more probably picture of the future pick up a copy of The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil

Phil
Phil
13 years ago

if you think that this is even close to a picture of the future, your probably thinking of evolution in very linear terms. how long did it take for dna to first organize and start changing, or rna for that matter? then for organisms to come to land, then to evolve to man, and now, how long has it taken for technology to advance to where it is? the rate of evolution has always been, and by all indications will continue to be exponential.

it is short sighted to think that humans, or at least humans as we know them, will continue to be "at the top of the food chain" so to speak. take a look at the rate of paradigm shift in each stage of evolution, what i am talking about will become more obvious.

what makes humans so special that you feel you can only emotionally connect with them, and not the technological children that people will bring into being? we should embrace technological advancement, it is simply a step in the long and beautiful process of information, matter and energy organizing itself into more complex and intricate forms.

technological progress is just as natural as biological evolution, and should be treated as such- if anybody can explain how technology came about in an unnatural fashion, please do so. the only thing unnatural is (by definition) the supernatural, something that does not exist.

to the approaching knee of the curve, i say welcome!

hairy
hairy
14 years ago

A jet that sips 55 freaking gallons an hour? Sips??? The average car gas tank is an 8 gallon tank.

That's like filling your gas tank full 7 times!! Ok so say you were driving cross country, the average car get 30 mpg, take 55gallons times 30 mpg equals 1650 miles your car would be able to travel, on that much gas. That jet goes 500 mph it sips 55 gallons per hour..so 500 miles vs. 1650 miles??

I doubt that technology ever takes off! A scuba car that goes 2 mph under water?? I can swim faster, and what road leads straight into a lake or a river? Are we getting smarter or dumber? Could you imagine what it must feel like to pop out of the water and the cruise down the road in a convertible at 65 mph...soaking wet? can you say cold? People are dumb!

Jess
Jess
14 years ago

Keith:

you are totally right, especially about the smart dust. walls that know my name....just doesnt sit well with me.lol. as much as the intentions may be good, we all know what can happen with the best of intentions.

cheers

Keith
Keith
14 years ago

This is a pretty lightweight sensationalized documentary. The fact that an inventor is making underwater toys for millionaire types does not in any way help forecast what future travel will look like. I also thought the water purification was interesting. Indeed if they are at all right about the smart dust concept, that's pretty scary stuff. Kind of makes me want to throw my computer away and live like Robinson Crusoe on island...start over with the concept that human to human relationships matter far more than what supposedly cool stuff we can dream up technologically. This last century has seen no end to scientific and technological arrogance. At least some of our geniuses have had the wisdom and perspective to regret their contributions like Eintstein when he realized what some of his work led to with nuclear weaponry. We create all this stuff, and just assume that the better and politer parts of human nature will win out and it will be used for good or "convenience" as opposed to being manipulated and causing harm. I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but progress isn't everything. I think we would do well to focus on why we are destroying our planet and each other instead of inventing elaborate bandaids and cool toys to make life like a video game. But that's just me.

Jess
Jess
14 years ago

I agree with Dean Morrice and sadhikar. as much as technological advances are exciting in theory or in movies, realisticly, it is kindof really frightening. atleast partially. especially with how already, you see that people do not know how to communicate normally without texting or emailing and the like. human interaction is infintely important. but, on the other hand, this documentary brings up some interesting useful technologies, such as purifying water, or creating energy by walking, or, you know, preventing asteroids hitting us.. phew, one more thing i dont have to worry about...
Alot of interesting stuff here, worth watching through.

sadhikar
sadhikar
14 years ago

Honestly, I am really anxious about all these technological advances for the future. The fruit of technological innovation has all the demerits. As we go to technological advances, it has lead to social isolation. As more people spend their time on computers and doing their own things, people often feel depressed and unhappy. The irony is with technological advnaces with dizzying speed, the bond between humans have drifted apart. There is less apathy but more selfishness and self-centred interests.

Dean Morrice
Dean Morrice
14 years ago

hmm this one I found a little patronising. 4/10

Brad
Brad
14 years ago

Thanks for the no-nonsense access to some great docs.