Remember talking to your parents and discovering that they did stuff as kids that we would never be allowed to do today? Like riding in the car without a seatbelt, or breaking thermometers so they could play with liquid mercury? I have no doubt that my kids will someday look back on my life and think “how did your generation survive?!?” So I made a list of 6 things that are going to be obsolete in 20 years, and that my kids will find ridiculous.

Fossil Fuels & Internal Combustion Engines

When you think about the fact that internal combustion engines are basically hundreds of explosions per second, happening about a meter away from your body – yeah, they sound pretty terrifying. With fossil fuels on the decline and electric and fuel cell vehicle production ramping up, the internal combustion engine will likely cease to be in mainstream non-commercial use within the next 10-20 years.

There will still likely be a place for fossil-fuel-powered engine in specific industry applications – Royal IHC notes that many large seagoing vessels will require internal combustion engines as there aren’t any practical alternatives, however it is likely that these will eventually be replaced too.

Recent advances in nuclear fusion are showing that this may be the next big disruption in energy generation, making fossil fuels a thing of the past. Given the environmental impact of fossil fuels (and the health risks for anyone with breathing challenges), this can’t come soon enough.

Driving Our Own Cars

I mean…this is fair. I don’t even trust most humans to do a decent job of driving their cars. Living in Toronto where there are multiple collisions every day and traffic is a nightmare, it’s really tempting to think about what a future of self-driving vehicles might look like. I can imagine our kids looking back and thinking “you used to be allowed to drive several tons of metal at ridiculous speeds, and tons of people DIED in car crashes, and you were all just OKAY WITH THIS???”

Yeah, I feel the outrage too, kids. The future is coming.

Using a Keyboard, Mouse and Computer Screen

The future of our interactions with technology won’t include keyboards and mice, and likely won’t even include screens by the time my kids (currently 2 and 4) are adults. We already interact by voice with most of the technology running our smart house, and I’m starting to use voice recognition for a lot more than just telling Alexa to turn my lights on.

Looking further ahead, it’s likely that we will control technology using our voice or brain-computer interfaces (BCI) which are already functional in lab settings. We will likely see information projected onto our eyes using glasses or contact lenses – or projected directly into our brains. The line between humans and technology will blur – in fact, I don’t believe we are headed towards an AI singularity; I believe we are headed for an AI-human convergence.

Standardized Medicine

While standardized medicine has been the gold standard for many years, our kids will likely think it quite cute that we used to treat everyone the same way. Genetic testing is already making its way into medicine, and the role of AI and patient digital twins will make personalized medicine even more accessible. Our kids will access care that is specifically tailored to them, and likely tested on a digital version of themselves before they receive treatment.

While I don’t know if we will ever cure all diseases, I am hopeful that this will greatly improve quality of life for a lot of people.

Long Distance

You might think that today’s generation has their noses stuck in their phones all the time, but let’s be honest, ALL of us have our noses in our phones most of the time. People on average spend more time socializing online than they do in person, and as digital tools better support realistic face-to-face interactions in the virtual world, I predict that this is going to increase. I already have coworkers spread across Canada and the US; friends across North and South America, Europe and Australia; and I work with clients from all over the world. Geography is less of a barrier now than it was 50 or 100 years ago, and in another 20 years it may not matter at all.

The metaverse is a buzzword right now to be sure – but virtual worlds that connect people are not new. I started playing World of Warcraft with friends in university, and a number of us from all over North America played together. I ride my bike on Zwift with friends from Europe and across Canada – people I would rarely ride with otherwise. New proximity audio provides depth to online spaces, allowing for better control over who you interact with. I am so excited for this one so I can have regular virtual coffee with one of my very close friends who lives on the other side of the world.

Cash

Who uses cash these days?!? Especially since Canada is lucky enough to have email money transfers and I can buy all the stuff I want from Facebook marketplace without ever going to the bank…buying things with cards is the new normal, and in 20 years we probably won’t even use cards. I’m still skeptical of biometrics for identification (what happens if someone steals your biometrics? You can’t exactly change your fingerprints like you can a password), but I do think that things like Apple Pay will evolve to the point where we don’t carry payment devices at all.

Speaking of which, cashiers will likely be a thing of the past too. So what will our kids do for part time jobs in high school? Well, they will likely be working in caring or technology roles which are not easily automated (such as caregivers and whatever the future of coding is), rather than service roles like cashiers and salespeople.

What does this mean for the future of tech?

Not only is our technology changing, the trust we put in technology compared to humans changes more towards technology every year. I am looking forward to exploring the topic of our trust in technology in a future #TechTuesday post – but for now, I’d like to know what YOU think kids will think is ridiculous in 20 years! Tell me in the comments or send me a message.