What the futuristic city of 2040 will look like

You push your head to the side, scrolling through the holographic pages of the morning news as your pod catapults down the frictionless tube on your morning commute.

This snapshot of the future shows three or four very real technologies that should be part of everyday life by 2040.

You will discover a cacophony of modern peripheral technologies. which are most likely to transform it into the urban life and landscape of the future. Finally, we’ll take a look at one of the coolest CGI images. about such a future city that demonstrates many of these technologies and what this future city could be like. Be sure to check out this picture at the bottom of this post!

Antigravity and hovering

One area of advanced science that is always ripe for hoaxes and scammers is antigravity. Over the years, there have been hoaxes ranging from a video by Canadian John Hutchinson showing an assortment of objects he claims he can hover over (although no one else can replicate the experiments) to the HUVr «hoverboard» hoax perpetrated by people on the Funny website. or Die.

The dream of flight is what led to the invention of airplanes, but people continue to dream of traveling the Earth unencumbered by the resistance of the earth. False things aside, is there any science that supports the idea that one day there will be vehicles that can hover above the Earth and provide travel from place to place without the need for paved roads?

You may be surprised to know that the answer is yes. Hovercraft technology has come a long way since Chris Cockerell invented the first water-based hovercraft concept in 1956. Today, this technology is on the verge of becoming mainstream in the form of a new hoverbike by Aerofex, which has promised first-generation SUV sales in 2017.

According to Discovery News, the bikes will retail for around $85,000 and will have the ability to rise up to 3.7 meters off the ground. The use of powerful ducted fans to allow land travel without roads has been a dream for hovercraft enthusiasts for years, and appears to be on the verge of commercial availability.

That’s fine and good for someone with a spare eighty-five grand and some flat terrain to swim on, but what about ordinary travelers and transport of the future? Well, one sign of the future direction comes from Toyota, which just announced in June of this year that the company is exploring the concept of cars that can hover above the road (or above the water).

future car

Who knows exactly what technology Toyota will use to achieve this, but it looks like hovercraft technology is similar to a hoverbike.

The news comes from Bloomberg’s Next Big Thing conference, where R&D chief Hiroyoshi Yoshiki answered an interview question in which he acknowledged that Toyota was indeed looking into the concept.

“We studied the flying car in our most advanced research and development area. [Зависает] slightly away from the road so that there is no friction or resistance from the road.”

The fact that the first commercial hoverbike is slated for 2017, and a major automaker has already admitted that it is looking for ways to get its machines in the air, it’s entirely possible that in 15 to 20 years there could be flying cars over the globe in the skies. cities.

Aircar rest areas

Just like the infrastructure needed for gasoline-powered cars to run on paved roads over the past few decades, the evolution of cars into an on-board variety will require its own infrastructure.

The investment in and creation of this infrastructure is likely to be driven by huge public demand for these new vehicles when they arrive, especially if they are cheaper to run, provide faster and more efficient travel, and eliminate the need for further Earth destruction. with an ever-increasing number of paved roads.

The kind of infrastructure needed to support these airborne vehicles includes skyscraper rest areas where vehicles can enter and land at various levels. A variation of modern «air traffic control» towers with such towers installed in the center of large urban areas to control air traffic by informing drivers at what height and direction air traffic is allowed in the area. Most importantly, gas stations – likely large portals – will need electric-powered vehicles to drive through for wireless charging. .

recharge-portal

Toyota is also leading the way in wireless electric vehicle charging innovation. In February of this year, Autoweek announced that Toyota had begun testing a system that allowed electric vehicle batteries to be charged simply by parking the vehicle on a platform.

It’s not that hard to imagine how an electric power hovercraft just slides into a gas station, pays for a quick recharge, and waits a certain period of time for the hovercraft batteries to recharge.

high speed rail

Of course, just as road travel will make huge strides over the next few decades, so will public transportation. In particular, the concept of transport with evacuated pipes (ETT) is likely to become more commercially viable when the cost of traditional fossil fuels makes gasoline and electric public transport systems too costly to use.

Tube-transport

The ETT concept is impressive though probably most efficient for long distance travel. The way it works is that the superconducting maglev train is inside vacuum tubes. The electric motors accelerate the train to top speed, and then the train—thanks to zero air resistance—just goes over 4,000 miles per hour without using much power at all.

Once the train arrives at its destination, the deceleration process can actually be designed to take energy from the decelerating train and nearly recover the energy needed to speed it up. The train will have no moving parts, so there is very little maintenance. The highest cost of the system is likely to be the pumps and maintenance needed to keep the pipes evacuated. However, this cost is likely to pale in comparison to the rising cost of fossil fuels.

Robotic cityscape

Another exciting technology that could have a significant impact on the future of urban life is robotics. More recently, Andre has described some of the most advanced robots. that currently exists today. These robots can move and act like humans in many different ways, and in some cases they can even do more work at a higher quality.

So, how will robots change the urban landscape?

People often worry about the world where robotic artificial intelligence is. worry about artificial intelligence. worry about takes on certain human roles such as law enforcement and crowd control. However, according to Professor Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics at the University of Sheffield, this is the future we will face.

In his article titled «2084: A Big Robot Is Watching You», Sharkey explains that in 30 years, robots will be almost entirely doing surveillance, security and law enforcement work because they keep real people out of harm’s way.

«They keep the police out of harm’s way in an increasingly dangerous world of armed criminals, gangs and terrorist organizations.»

While police patrols of robots may roam the streets, the biggest change in society in the next couple of decades will be robots that will start to enter the house — like pets.

Pets provide a sense of security and friendship to many thousands of people around the world. For some, having a pet is on the same emotional level as having a child. But is such a connection with a robotic animal possible? Early indications imply that this is the case.

One example of this is a robot called Bandit, which was used by researchers at the University of Southern California to treat stroke victims. Principal Investigator Eric Wade told PS Magazine that patients have begun to contact Bandit.

“People will try to hug robots. We go out to nursing homes and people ask, «When is the robot coming back?»

Robots like the Bandit are being used to provide therapeutic support to patients in a variety of ways, from lifting the spirits of lonely, introverted people to teaching autistic children how to communicate. In some cases, people became so attached to the robot that they even kissed it.

Of course, Bandit is more of a humanoid robot than a pet, but the same phenomenon has been seen when humans interact with very robot-like pets.

For example, the PARO robot made in Japan.

This is just a next generation robotic toy, similar to many available on the market today, except that PARO can react to being caressed by moving its head and tail, and even turn to look in the direction of travel.

According to PS Magazine, the same human reaction to PARO was observed, almost identical to the reaction to a bandit. PARO was created in 2003 and has sold thousands of units, and has become the leading therapy robot pet — especially for the elderly.

In fact, one study at a nursing home found that some patients believe robotic animals are real and have even started talking to it as if it were a real live animal.