The science journal Nature recently came up with a list of emerging game-changers. None of these are currently on the engineering radar. Engineers and decision makers might want to keep an eye on these "known unknowns" - all may sound like excellent Hollywood scripts, but they could also create broad opportunities and challenges for engineering.
- Runaway climate change - Is it possible that we have already passed a point of no return and that Earth's atmosphere is tipping rapidly into an inhospitable state?
- Significant cognitive enhancement - Ethical dilemmas akin to doping in sports could start to extend into daily working life; an arms race in the neural "enhancement" of combat troops. Prediction - - advances by 2025 could make the Terminator franchise look dated.
- Rogue deployment of geoengineering - Technology is now being developed to manipulate the climate; a state or private individual could use it unilaterally. This could be a great undated Bond film!
- Costs of living longer - Medical advances are prolonging life, but long-term palliative care is expensive. Covering the costs associated with old age could be a struggle. In my opinion, this is a "known-known" - already happening. Our current budget debates and battles fundamentally revolve around some form of this issue. This will never be a Bond movie.
- Discovery of alien life - Proof of life's existence elsewhere in the universe could have profound psychological implications for human belief systems. Invest in CNN if this happens - Anderson Cooper will cover this for 100 straight days.
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