Predictions: Late 2015 and Early 2026

back in 1998 when I was only 12 I made a prediction which I still stand by to this day. Here is the original prediction, which I posted on timetravelportal.com (no longer exists). I very rarely make predictions but when I do they always seem to come about.

Late 2015
By this time we will have the computing power to render graphics with near photo-realistic quality in real time in a wide range of desktop and mobile computers, at this time the birth of mainstream virtual reality begins to take place. By this time almost everyone knows about and can access virtual reality if they choose. It is still however early days but anyone with a brain can figure out that this is growing at an exponential rate, more and more people see it's usefulness past gaming, porn and films.

Computing won't have changed much by this date, people still use keyboards, mice and game controllers in some form. Users will also be able to use their webcams to control their movements in games however this is still rudimentary. Displays are now almost exclusively flat screen and use liquid crystal technology with much higher resolutions than todays cathode ray tubes. The internet will become far more widespread and much faster than it is today with speeds close to 100Mbits as standard.

Computing and technology is in almost every household, with even the older generations learning to accept and adapt to this 'new' world as it provides a great escape to the worsening global crisis and ever decreasing wages and increasing stresses of life in this age.

Recently I have had another prediction, this one is again mostly about virtual reality and computing as that is my main interest. Here it is, and I hope unlike timetravelportal.com that this forum will still be here by that date in some archive somewhere or even still active!

Early 2026
Computing in this age will be almost invisible to most, however many more will use it and it will be so everyday and apart of peoples lives that people don't even realize it. Everything is connected and transferring data or information from one device or place to another is as simple as 'swiping' or 'throwing' the thing you wish to send to it's destination device. A lot of things are activated by voice and touch, such as your fridge telling you what would be best to fill it with. It would then order the food for you.

The internet connects everything now such as people, cars, household items and even pacemakers. People even in the most remote of areas able to receive a fast connection. Connection speeds are no longer advertised or measured in Mbps, but rather signal strength and indeed the idea of an internet service provider in the home or small business is slowly fading into obscurity. computing is mostly in the cloud now but high quality virtual environments still require powerful chips to be seen in their full visual glory.

Virtual and augmented reality play an enormous role and is the most visible side of computing progress in this age. Virtual reality is almost real life like, users can control their avatars and interfaces with their minds (by using electrodes or small devices that read signals from the brain and convert those into instructions.) I didn't get the full picture on how this works but it was pretty amazing. Resolution is, believe it or not still an issue in this age. Not so much screen resolution as we know it today but as fidelity and realism in virtual worlds. Unfortunately it is still fairly easy to tell that you are in a virtual environment, however this virtual environment covers your entire field of view and has no sort of perceivable lag or bugs. If a person from 2015 could see VR in 2026 they would be absolutely blown away by the realism and interactivity of these worlds.

Augmented reality (seeing virtual test and objects imposed ontop of the real world) is also very popular, and ties in with virtual reality in many ways. Many people in this age having augmented reality glasses by default much like the last generations with their smartphones.

The virtual worlds have (and details on this are a little hazy so bear with me) become sort of one place, where users can connect or 'jack in' as it's called now into others worlds. People can create their own virtual worlds a bit like how in 2015 people could create their own websites. There are many public virtual worlds, some with objectives and goals, some are experiences. One such experience that I could see clearly was a number of users stuck on a large ship being stalked by aliens, another was a lot more simple and seemed to be geared towards younger children where they were in a sort of infinite green meadow sat in a circle being tought math by a virtual teacher. Search engines are now 'hubs' that allow you to find virtual worlds or libraries of information.

It seemed archiving and preservation is much more important in this age and the public virtual world/web was continuously backed up and protected for future generations to see. It seemed a very fast growing number of people worked in these virtual worlds creating things for others such as clothes, styles, themes and objects although anyone could create virtual objects easily some were very skilled it at and made a lot of money quickly. Virtual teaching is another big hit just starting to become big and widely known about.

Keyboards and mice are now almost obsolete, although a shrinking number of die-hards still choose to use them due to old habits dying hard or mis-trust of brain readers.

Here is a predicted timeline of virtual reality milestones in the next 13 years

2013 - Oculus Rift development kits ship out to developers, creates a huge interest in the gaming industry with the big names investing!
2013 - Some of the final Oculus Rift consumer version specs get announced
2014 - Much awaited Oculus Rift consumer version releases and makes a huge splash, marking the official birth of Virtual Reality, many games are supported with many more adding support
2014 - Second Life finalizes their Oculus Rift supported viewer and creates a release candidate and soon after officially releases their viewer. People are still not that interested due to high costs of land, overly strict policies and ongoing legal issues
2014 - A new virtual world/cyberspace is finally announced to the world, it is currently under development with regular updates.
2014 - Sony release their own virtual device, with Samsung and Apple announcing their own headsets
2014 -The new virtual world/cyberspace is opened into alpha/beta testing, it is created with people being able to host and modify their own servers/worlds. This has a slow but definite and steady start!
2015 - The new virtual world released last year begins to pick up traction fast.
2015 - The Oculus Rift has sold tens of millions of units and it has proven to be a huge success, but the headset is not without issues
2015 - Samsung, Sony, Apple and many others release many headsets, some far exceed the Oculus Rift's capabilities.
2015 - Oculus Rift start to leak out news about their next Oculus Rift, far surpassing their previous unit, it releases either at the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016
2016 - The virtual reality/cyberspace 'killer app' has become very, very popular and is now on par with Facebook's popularity in the year 2008
2017 - Virtual Reality has become big enough for display makers to create specialized displays for headsets. resolution among other things gets a huge bump!
2018 - As graphics improve the virtual world/cyberspace thing has also been improving, due to advances in graphics technology realism continues to improve without rest.
2020 - This year marks a huge advancement in brain electrical signals being reliably read, they are shown off at various technology conferences and trade shows.
2022 - Brain readers are included in some models of VR headsets, proves at first to be a bit fiddly and has many bugs, but these quickly get fixed. This becomes popular over night much like the Oculus Rift did a decade ago.
2024 - the next generation of vr glasses get released, these now appear more like sunglasses than the headsets of the past. Due to advances in display technology the screens can be made clear, to see the real world at a moments notice without taking off the glasses.
2025 - New ar/vr glasses become super affordable and into the price range of even the budget conscious consumer. Many different units get made to cater for different styles and tastes with optional accessories.
2025 - Due to the convenience and ease of use computing and even phone interfaces now move into ar and vr
2026 - VR has become so popular amongst both the young and the old that vr/ar addiction has become a big problem among some groups, however due to the worsening global crises, stresses, loneliness and the food shortages of this age that many don't question it.
2028 - The desktop, the laptop, the smartphone and other such interfaces begin to see a very rapid decline in use as people move in droves to ar and vr interfaces, allowing much greater control and faster workflows.
2029 - Many companies either drastically change or go out of business due to the rapidly changing market, many new companies are successful.
2030 - virtual reality is now as widely used as Facebook was back in 2012, with billions rather than millions using it. Due to it's small size, very cheap price and anywhere/anytime accessibility even people in poor developing countries now have full access to ar and vr.
2030 - There are still many more challenges facing virtual reality, such as the ability to physically move your arms/legs/body without your limbs moving but instead moving your virtual ones with the appropriate haptic feedback and when you move feeling like you are actually moving, This is the main focus of the next decade. This along with smell and taste are among the last obstacles of fully 100% immersive VR.


Figured I'd post this here and see what people think. I'd love to hear some of your predictions of the near future or even your timeline predictions.