The New York Times has a fascinating interactive post on where you, the reader, can submit snippets on what you expect to happen in the field of computer in the near (and distant) future.

Here are some predictions I see, as of current viewing (readers can vote the prediction up or down in terms of when they think the event will happen):

2015: The price and availability of computers will be such that more than half of the world’s people will have one.

2017: Mobile web browsing on phones surpasses desktop browsing.

2019: Irrefutable evidence will show that computers consistently make more accurate diagnoses than specialists in all branches of medicine, including psychiatry.

2023:  The most common forms of cancer will be treated with a personalized therapy based on genetic sequencing. A patient’s therapy will be retargeted every six months as a result of resequencing the cancer to track its inevitable evolution.

2029: Your entire medical history from birth till death will be collectively combined in one universal system and available to all your different doctors.

2035: Most people will own and use a Personal Life Recorder which will store full video and audio of their daily lives. This will be a fully searchable archive that will radically augment a person’s effective memory.

2041: Cash will become illegal, replaced with electric currency. [Bizarre prediction!]

2071: Humans will be able to implant their dogs’ brains with a neurological device such that the images of what the dog is thinking appear on a special contact lens the dog owner is wearing.

2106: Medical advances will permit the first human to live for a period of 200 years or more.

2154: Humans will become so integrated with electronics that more people will die from computer viruses in a year than from biological viruses.

2180: Old knowledge will not have to be learned; only new knowledge will need to be created. Learning will become obsolete. All known knowledge will be contained on a super computer. Individuals can download all known knowledge pertaining to any subject directly to the brain as desired.

2225: Artificial Intelligence is awarded full citizenship.

2283: Abundance happens. Digital and physical sciences produce abundance so great that wealth becomes meaningless as a difference between people.

2416: Thought-based communication surpasses spoken and typed communication.

What do you think is the coolest prediction from above? Which one is unlikely to happen in the next 400 years?

If you have a New York Times account, you can submit your own predictions. You can vote up/down predictions without an account. It’s a fascinating experiment!