Scientific and technological progress is changing the way of human production and life significantly.,
In the next 10–15 years, scientific and technological progress will change the industrial structure and global economic growth, and will profoundly change people’s lives, according to an article published on Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The article, with the title of “Visions and Scenarios of People and Science and Technology Development to 2030,” indicates that the development of science and technology (S&T) will present new trends and characteristics. Scientific and technological progress is changing the way of human production and life significantly. “On one hand, it impacts all industrial forms and changes the global industrial structure, directing the global economic growth. On the other hand, it profoundly changes people’s needs for food, clothing, housing, and transportation as well as the ways of meeting these needs. People-centred scientific and technological progress will become the main theme of the times,” says the article.
The article describes human-based vision from the following five aspects: life, work, health, information, and safety, and puts forward some social development trends, visions, specific scenarios, and key technology groups.
The authors believe that the production activities that meet the needs of food, clothing, housing, and transportation will be largely mechanized, automated and intellectualised, which will enable people to enjoy life more easily and happily.
“The application of new technologies has changed the concept and ways of human life. People’s increasingly high requirements for healthy and comfortable quality of life have led to the upgrading of products and services. Entertainment will experience a multi-terminal and diversified trend, and the electronic entertainment industry will usher in a new wave of development. Besides, in the future, energy demand is increasing, oil and gas extraction capacity is improving, renewable energy prices are decreasing, and nuclear energy use is growing. The synchronization between physical human and virtual human will be challenges, and virtual human with strong learning ability, will challenge physical human in technology, safety, ethics, growth, and learning,” the article mentions. “People will enjoy excellent, practical, affordable, and personalized products and services, use clean and efficient energy, and build a beautiful natural environment. Human will coexist with machines to create a convenient and comfortable living environment,” it continues.
About the vision of future work, the article points out that human labour and work will mainly be focused on the creative field, and the people-centred concept will be embodied as S&T supporting the creative activities. It says that the connotation of work will be redefined as the relationship between people and work will change.
“Specifically, self-employment will be more convenient; task outsourcing and freelancers will increase; the work environment will be supported by energy-efficient high-speed data processing. Digital technology will support the new industrialization, drive the development of the Internet of Things and robotics platforms, and set standards and norms for new forms of industry and labour organization. Intellectualization and automation will promote personalized manufacturing to become a trend, and the large market scale and market return density will provide sufficient profits,” the article reveals. Furthermore, “The trend of online celebrity and the fragmentation of work will give birth to autonomous working methods and intelligent, green and adaptive industrial forms.”
In terms of future human health, the article says that people’s disease prevention, control and treatment are expected to be realized in a timely and effective manner through ubiquitous monitoring and nursing of physical conditions. The accelerated aging of population leads to more and more patients with chronic and epidemic diseases and the increasing incidence of emerging infectious diseases. So, the surge in the demand for healthcare brings new opportunities for healthcare service development. The progress of medical technology will contribute to a new health system and improve the quality of life, and life and health may become the leading industry in the future. “As the life expectancy of human beings is prolonged, the advanced medical system can maximize the independence of the healthy life of the elderly. With the advancement of medicine, an accurate treatment system for incurable diseases, an infectious disease prevention system, and an intelligent human health management system will be built,” the article predicts.
The article also believes that the information behaviours and social forms of people will change dramatically, as manifested in the increasingly rich contents, acquisition of knowledge and skills, and instant perception and interaction. Many devices will be connected to the Internet and generate massive data, and block chain technology will make the Internet more open and transparent. The development of S&T will break through the biological limits to improve the cognitive and analytical abilities of human beings, which will promote the updating of the content, ways, and forms of education. Learning is no longer necessary for survival, which will gradually blur the role boundaries between teachers and students and generalize the places of knowledge learning. Social media will continue to change people’s access to information and obscure the bound between producers and consumers.
Tags: PrnasiascienceTechnology
