The Robots Are Coming

Ever wondered what life will be like in 30 years’ time? With robots taking over and devices controlling our daily existence, Genevieve Gannon discovers the future looks vastly different to the world we know.

- Genevieve Gannon

Dawn breaks one morning in the year 2050. An elderly woman lays in her nursing home bed, unable to get up. The door opens and a clinically white android machine wheels to the bedside to check her blood pressure and heart rate, which are being monitored by sensors in her pillow. The computerised carer then gives the woman her breakfast, a perfectly nutritionally balanced parcel of food “printed” by a food generator that has been receiving data on her nutrient levels. Noting all is well, the machine gently lifts the woman’s body from her bed. Outside, a driverless car waits to take her to visit her family.Of course, none of this is real – yet. However, therapeutic robots, tailored foods, and driverless cars – perhaps drone-like flying cars – are closer than we think. Robots can already perform delicate surgeries and are used in the treatment of mental health patients. Robots that care for the elderly, diagnose disease, suture wounds, wash our bodies and clothes, cook food and manage our lives could soon be as unremarkable as traffic lights.

Some say we’re on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and networked devices are poised to transform society the way steam power once did. Experts predict that by 2020 more than 200 billion devices will be connected to the internet and responsive to speech.

“The front door will answer you. The flower pot will answer you. Every device will be networked,” University of NSW Artificial Intelligence Professor Toby Walsh says.

The world is likely to be completely transformed by 2050.