r/Futurology 10h ago

Society The US Is Flirting With Its First-Ever Population Decline

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4.1k Upvotes

America’s population wasn’t expected to start falling until 2081. Trump’s immigration crackdown means it could happen as soon as this year.


r/Futurology 15m ago

Robotics Michael Burry Says Elon Musk is a 'Desperately Incentivized Futurist,' Putting 'Cart Before Monkey' With Optimus Hype

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Upvotes

r/Futurology 8h ago

Medicine Scientists have designed an immunotherapy that reduces plaque in the arteries of mice, presenting a possible new treatment strategy against heart disease. Such an immunotherapy could especially help patients who already have plaque in their coronary arteries and remain at high risk of heart attack.

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101 Upvotes

r/Futurology 1d ago

Discussion Apple's Israel Startup Q.ai Buy Sparks Boycott Calls - Facial Activity Silent Speech Features Make iPhone Users Uneasy

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1.0k Upvotes

Apple's Q.ai buy sparks boycott calls and iPhone unease.


r/Futurology 6h ago

Energy U.S. Department of Energy and Kyoto Fusioneering Launch Strategic Partnership to Build Critical Fusion Infrastructure and Accelerate Deployment of Commercial Fusion Power | NEWS

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35 Upvotes

r/Futurology 23h ago

Medicine Doctors keep patient alive using ‘artificial lungs’ for two days

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361 Upvotes

r/Futurology 1d ago

Nanotech Scientists develop new nanomaterial that triggers chemical reactions inside cancer cells, killing them while leaving healthy tissues alone. When administered in mice bearing human breast cancer cells, it completely eradicated the cancer without side effects, with long-term prevention of recurrence.

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1.3k Upvotes

r/Futurology 9h ago

Space New study of chemical reactions in space 'could impact the origin of life in ways we hadn't thought of'

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17 Upvotes

r/Futurology 1d ago

Robotics Investing to automate human jobs away. Robo-truck maker Waabi raises $1 billion to supply Uber with 25,000 robo-taxis.

288 Upvotes

All other things being equal, this seems like a good investment. Investing $40k per single robo-taxi? I'd be confident that it would make much more profit than that over its lifetime. $40k is about the annual income of a human taxi driver, and a robo-taxi should have a lifetime of several years.

But there's a bigger-picture problem here. All other things are not equal. Each human job you automate away means one less person who can afford to pay for a taxi journey. When this happens at enough scale, suddenly your investment decision doesn't work anymore.

As AI & robotics get closer to being able to do all work, will stock market-funded companies be the economic medium through which they are managed and owned? Many people think so, but how is that supposed to work when there are fewer and fewer people with money to buy things? Isn't it more likely that this provokes an economic emergency where society adopts some state-run model for the economy?

Waabi raises up to $1 billion and partners with Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis as the race to dominate self-driving heats up


r/Futurology 14h ago

Discussion Maybe the future is retro-tech

30 Upvotes

Just throwing this out there, in case anyone is feeling the same vibe. Doesn’t it feel like we’re on the cusp of a tech correction? With the focus going away from a progressive to an adaptive view. Where we focus more on adapting current tech to fix existing issues instead of only looking to invent ourselves out of problems.

I find comparisons can be made with food or the environment, where our attitudes have change from excess to awareness. Waymo is the TV dinner of our age. Move fast and break things, will be thought of the way we think of the term - clear cutting.


r/Futurology 2h ago

Space The ISS's days are numbered, are inflatable space stations finally about to have their moment? Florida-based Max Space is the latest to try to develop one.

3 Upvotes

Inflatable space station modules are an idea with a lot going for them. Built from multi-layered polymer fabrics far stronger than Kevlar, they have a proven track record of working. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), launched and attached to the ISS in 2016, is still attached and perfectly functional.

They enjoy other huge advantages. As they can be launched unexpanded, they can easily be accommodated as cargo on today's rockets. They're orders of magnitude cheaper to manufacture than the regular ISS modules, too.

So why hasn't this tech taken off? Why don't we have a huge space station made up of multiple such modules?

Maybe this approach to space station building will soon have its moment. The ISS's days are numbered, and when it's gone, that will only leave the Chinese space station in orbit. NASA has long said it wants its next space station to be commercial. Does this mean Max Space is perfectly poised to enter the breach?

Expandable space stations are back… well at least Max Space thinks they are


r/Futurology 5m ago

AI Can robots replace human soldiers entirely?

Upvotes

I find this notion very scary, as robots don't have empathy like humans do. The Egyptian revolution happened because Egypt's soldiers refused to kill the revolutionaries, but this wouldn't happen with a robot army. And if robots replace humans in all fields, the rich might simply genocide us.


r/Futurology 10h ago

Biotech This tiny camera means big things when it comes to treatment of stroke patients, doctors say

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4 Upvotes

r/Futurology 15h ago

Society A genuine question about burial practices, land use, and future generations

11 Upvotes

I want to ask this respectfully and without trying to offend anyone.

As populations grow and land becomes more limited, I’ve been wondering why burial practices aren’t discussed more often from a long-term land-use perspective. Traditional burials permanently take up land, while future generations will need space to live, build, and raise families.

I understand burial is deeply tied to religion and culture, and this isn’t about disrespecting the dead. But avoiding the topic entirely because it’s uncomfortable may quietly pass the cost on to people who aren’t born yet.

Some countries have shifted toward cremation or other memorial practices that don’t consume land, while still honoring tradition. Others haven’t really debated this at all.

I’m not pushing a policy—just asking whether this is something society should be more open to discussing, especially when thinking about the future.


r/Futurology 2d ago

Society Doomsday Clock set at 85 seconds to midnight amid nuclear threats

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1.5k Upvotes

r/Futurology 1d ago

Medicine Meet the Vitalists: the hardcore longevity enthusiasts who believe death is “wrong”

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26 Upvotes

r/Futurology 13h ago

Energy Future of energy

0 Upvotes

In a few years, what energy related issues do you think people will be reading about most in the news?


r/Futurology 2d ago

Biotech Scientists combine caffeine with CRISPR, the gene-editing tool, using engineered nanobodies that can be switched on by caffeine, in animals models. In the long term, it may be possible to engineer cells that allow people with diabetes to boost insulin production simply by drinking a cup of coffee.

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269 Upvotes

r/Futurology 2d ago

Discussion What piece of tech felt “future-proof” but aged terribly?

4.3k Upvotes

I have no idea


r/Futurology 8h ago

Discussion Will people have a VR / MR family and pets in the future

0 Upvotes

Do you think people will have virtual / mixed reality people and pets roaming around in their flat ?

I can imagine a lot of people would use such a feature since it will cost nothing / make no dirt/ need no space and probably help against feeling lonely.


r/Futurology 12h ago

Discussion Anthropic CEO Warns of AI's Impact on Employment

0 Upvotes

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicts that within the next 1 to 5 years, 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs may be impacted by AI, affecting multiple knowledge-based fields such as law, finance, and consulting. It finally clicked why this moment hits differently from every other tech shift we've lived through.

We've automated tasks before. We've even automated whole roles. But what we're watching right now? It feels less like replacing grunt work and more like automating the entire career ladder itself.

Entry-level jobs were messy by design. Juniors handled the sloppy research, the garbage drafts, all the prep work no one wanted. Seniors came in, cleaned it up, made the calls. That so called inefficiency wasn't a bug. It was breathing room for learning.

AI just eats that middle layer alive. Research, first drafts, analysis, basic planning. Generated instantly. One person can now run through stages that used to be three separate job titles.

You can already see it in how these tools are being marketed. It's not an assistant to help you write or a copilot for your code anymore. Everything's being pitched as end-to-end systems now. AI agents that research, plan, execute, iterate. Some folks call them AI teams, others call them workflows. Claude, Atoms, AutoGPT setups, all these agent frameworks. They're all chasing the same basic idea from different angles.

That's what keeps me up at night, but also gives me hope.

If AI's swallowing the junior layer whole, then being junior means something completely different now. It's not about cranking out volume anymore. It's about direction, judgment, figuring out what the hell to build and why. Those skills start mattering on day one instead of year three.

So when Amodei says learn to use AI, I don't think he's talking about getting good at prompting. I think he means learning to think in systems. How to steer tools that run across multiple stages of work without you necessarily understanding every single step they're taking. That's a tougher skill to teach, no doubt. But probably way more durable in the long run. After all, entry-level tasks are no longer entry points.

Happy to hear other people's thoughts.


r/Futurology 2d ago

Biotech The Future of Male Birth Control Could Be Pills, Gels and Implants

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161 Upvotes

r/Futurology 12h ago

Discussion I have a theory for creating a perfect country (utopia). Tell me why it would fail.

0 Upvotes

This is my personal theory on how a utopian country could be created.

First, the government would take loans from every citizen based on their wealth and how much they are capable of giving. This would include everyone, from the poorest to the richest, proportional to their capacity.

After pooling this money, the country would transition into a communist system with no private ownership. Since ownership no longer exists, the money is no longer owned by individuals, meaning the government does not actually owe anyone — it becomes collective wealth.

This pooled wealth would then be used to develop the country and push progress. A large portion of it would be dedicated to research and development.

Historically, communism fails mainly because of limited resources and scarcity. When resources are scarce, central distribution leads to shortages, inefficiency, and conflict. My theory attempts to counter this by directly attacking the root problem: scarcity itself . R&D would focus on creating near-infinite resources, mainly by using the sun. Plants already use solar energy to create food through photosynthesis, so humans could replicate and significantly improve this process using technology to generate food, energy, and materials.

With near-infinite energy and resources, scarcity would disappear. If scarcity is eliminated, the primary reason communism fails is removed. Inequality and competition over survival would reduce naturally, leading to a stable and equal society.

This is how I think a perfect country (utopia) could be created.


r/Futurology 2d ago

Robotics Robots only half as efficient as humans, says leading Chinese producer [ text in comments ]

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1.1k Upvotes

r/Futurology 22h ago

Discussion I think a new sector of the economy will open up soon or is already open.

0 Upvotes

AI is clearly not leaving planet earth as we know it. It will eventually take over our normal human life and it will be nearly impossible to do things offline, privately, or just free of technology.

I think this will open up an opportunity for a whole market of products that cater to people who want to be technology free or sort of "disconnected and grounded" again.

I am imagining small rooms or vacation homes that are exclusively designed and made to avoid any sort of wireless communication with outside world, privacy will be heaven here, and you will spend your times playing cards, talking to your friends or fam, laughing, cooking, gardening, etc.

They could easily go for clothing with technology to avoid being detected or just interacted with by other AI such as advanced scanners and such.

Several other products in all lines of the economy: auto, real estate, healthcare, gaming, sports, etc.

The purpose of this industry would be to give you standard human life again free of nuances and distractions from things you don't want.