(Future concept housing to deal with pollution, food shortage and over population, is often inspiring and does wonders in dispelling dystopian notions of a horrible future. Source: Futuristicnews.com)

A dystopian future: rampant overpopulation, starvation, pollution and widespread poverty. What else can be expected in a scarcity-driven economy? Why do so many consider the future this way? Why is it so feasible to the modern mind that resources will dissipate, bringing suffering and malady – especially given how radically our ‘resource needs’ have changed over the course of human history. It can all be traced to a study done during the early 70's.

(The Immortal DNA strand hypothesis could be the gift that keeps on giving – or splitting, whatever.)

Sci-fi sequel sounding titles aside, 2050 is the year we could manage immortality, according to Ray Kurzweil (if the name sounds familiar – his insights on The Singularity informed a previous post of mine).

Regenerating cells, nanobot reconstruction, transferring consciousness, cell-reversing enzymes – each can be conceived of now, but the ‘devil is in the details’. We could even have regenerative stem cells (cells that keep on dividing themselves – which, if emulated, means we’ll be slower versions of X-Men’s Wolverine.)

Organic computing has been growing behind the scenes for a few years now – computers that are constructed by us – but organic (I promise that, despite the title, this article isn’t about growing computers inside wombs). We’re talking computing power that doesn’t use silicon microprocessors or complementary-metal oxide semi-conductors (not that I can find any that can tell the time, as of yet).

(Organic computers taken a bit far - that woman, standing there? A computer replication. Eureka, Season 3).

(Dirty energy is what we Earthlings use every day (even our clean energy is dirty somewhere along the line).

It takes about 2.5 seconds for light to hit the moon and return to earth (a lunar laser ranging experiment says so), meaning we have a massive chunk of mass floating around our planet not being used for anything constructive besides night-sky decoration. Sure, we land on it every now and then to practice planting flags and picking up rocks - but that's hardly helping us deal with our main problems back here on Earth, is it?

Now, things like healthcare, education, social disparity and ethics have already been touched upon (by me). What are some other salient faults that could be addressed?

(Pic kind of related. A Space oddessey for all!)

Today marks the day that I hang up my gamification hood and crossbow, not that I don't  still think it's great and going to be an integral part of our future, but because it's a bit of a slow evolving field. I'm setting my sights slightly further down our collective timeline - the future is bright, bring on the future.

This is the first post in my Futurewatch series, where I'll be finding and writing about both futuristic breakthroughs as well as emerging ideas about what will be possible in the near, not so near and rather distant future.