Paulo Coelho

“To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, we are embarking on a publishing milestone: collecting the visions of the 100 greatest innovators, artists, scientists and visionaries of our time in the world’s first 3D-printed book – Genius: 100 Visions of the Future.”

Early in 2017 I got an invitation that really moved me: together with 99 of the most outstanding scientists, politicians, philosophers, artists (you can see their names here), I was invited by the Einstein Foundation  to write a 250-word essay on how I see the future. I could choose any time frame and any subject I feel confortable with.

The book, printed in 3-D and, as far as I know, has only one copy, was finally released. Below you find how I see the world the year 2067…

1] BOOKS

• National Libraries will become museums. No more local libraries.
• Bookstores will continue to exist, but as we see art galleries today – limited to the elite. Printed books will be very, very expensive, and normally printed on demand.
• Philosophy will go back to its original pre-Socratic form – aphorisms.

2] WALLS

• Countries will erect electronic walls to control immigration.
• Affluent people will leave cities, moving to the countryside to live in protected (walled) condos.
• Artificial Intelligence will have a major role in everything – hiring, procreating, supplying, medicine, enforcing law, etc.
• Significant decrease of birth rate.

3] THE END OF NUCLEAR TABOO

• A major world war starts in SE Asia before 2020 that will see the use of nuclear bombs. From this moment on, every major –or rich – country will go nuclear.
• Cities will become obsolete as they are easy targets, occupied by homeless people and controlled by the Government, as they will become a hub of drug distribution.
• Wars will be first used as a geopolitical expansion, but as the price will be exorbitant, countries who win will abandon this expansion and retreat to their walled territories.
• Cyber armies will be the hard power. Conventional armies will shrink and used only against poor countries and riot control.
• The UN will cease to exist, and no other mechanism will substitute it.

4] THE CALIPHATE

• Artificial borders created after WWI will disappear,  and a common religion (Islam) will give birth to the biggest “country” in the world.
• Significant increase of birth rate

(NOTE: due to space limitation, I could not cover all the issues I consider important- like global warming and local genocides, for example. AND I SINCERELY HOPE THAT I AM WRONG, but I’m afraid I’m not. )