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<p>Have you ever wondered how the future might look like? Wonder no more! Then if you see the word "Bridge", you sure are about to receive some answers!<br />
Though beware, as an extradimensional being, you cannot ever be sure if what you read here will apply to your universe. Still, everything that is stated here is true for an infinite amount of universes. There's a non 0% chance that yours is included.</p>
<p>Welcome to the first bridge of this story. A bridge is a part between the different chapters, so that you can cross from one chapter to the next. The storyline will always be the same, following the maincast. But the places they are in and the world around them won't be, for you will jump further and further into the future.</p>
<p>The bridges will tell you how far you have traveled and what the world has become. A bridge usually includes five topics: technology, space, medicine, nature, societies and sometimes other sciences.</p>
<p>With all that information out of the way, welcome to the year 2045!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
<strong>Medicine</strong>
</p>
<p>We all probably know, or have known, somebody suffering from cancer. It was one of the greatest takers of life in our world. The great news is that the cure has been found. Nobody has died of cancer since the end of the twenties.<br />
The most popular cure is done with a virus. This virus will attack the cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells alone.<br />
The immune system helps too, to destroy the virus, it has to destroy the cancer cells themselves.</p>
<p>Other cured diseases that are important to mention are autoimmune disease, alzheimers and dementia.<br />
Autoimmune disease is a condition where the immune system attacks the body itself. The only known "cure" to this illness was to turn the immune system off. And that meant that just catching the flu could end up deadly. A chip attached to the thymus, the underrated organ that controls your immune system, helps our little buddy out in its work. The chip is also used for people with a weak immune system. Thanks to this chip, anything that's put inside the body, may it be a new organ, cybernetics or prosthetics, has a zero percent chance of being rejected.<br />
We got rid of alzheimers and dementia thanks to gene editing. First step is to rewrite the parts of our genetic code that causes dementia, the second step is to repair any corrupted data in our DNA and to repair it with the help of AI. We'll get back to this in a minute.</p>
<p>Now that I have already mentioned prosthetics, I should mention that neuroprosthetics are the most common solution to the loss of a limb. If you don't know what a neuroprosthetic is, or how it works, then let me explain. Neuroprosthetics are robotic. Your nerves are connected with sensors attached to your skin, specifically with your nervous system. Now there's a connection between your brain and the prosthetic. You are able to feel with it too. At first, you need to learn how to control it, but eventually your new limb will feel like your old one.<br />
We believe that in the future, more and more of the human body can be replaced by technology. Not long, and the human body will not only be one of biology, but one of biology AND technology. It is the next step in evolution.</p>
<p>Thanks to the eradication of fatal diseases, the human lifespan has been prolonged for a few years. People born in this century and living in wealthy countries are guaranteed to reach an age between 100 and 110. The lifespan of people in still developing countries has become a little longer too. The life expectancy of poorer countries is between 80 and 85 years. Though these prolonged life spans exist more or less thanks to the developments they have made in the past years.</p>
<p>We can also thank gene editing for this progress. Gene editing has become a thing in humans 15 years ago, in 2030. Ever since then, the human population has become healthier in a steady rise. As of right now, this technology is only used in medicine. Making modifications that aren't of medical reasons are strictly forbidden. This area of gene editing also hasn't been explored much yet.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard of telomeres? Telomeres are the ends of a chromosome. Everytime a cell splits, these telomeres are shortened. DNA gets lost. Your information gets corrupted. With age, these errors will get noticeable. Your skin wrinkles, you lose your eyesight and hearing, your bones become fragile and eventually you'll die. All because your DNA loses information with every cell division.<br />
But thanks to genetic engineering and AI, our telomeres can now be made longer again. This recently developed AI regenerates your full DNA string in a simulation. The AI has an accuracy of 97%. Now that we know what your full DNA looks like, we can recreate the missing parts.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this cure for age hasn't spread around the whole globe yet. Of course such a treatment is a very expensive one and can only be done in the wealthiest countries or in those that provide free healthcare. As said before, healthcare is free in most wealthy countries. But humanity is working on providing it to every individual who doesn't wanna die in a frail and senile body.</p>
<p>Would you slow or even stop your own aging? I definitely would. Medicine is pretty cool, right? But do you know what I think is even cooler?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
<strong>Technology</strong>
</p>
<p>We actually got a topic today that overlaps with medicine and technology. Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a little hint: It is very very small and has bots in its name.</p>
<p>Yes, that is correct, nanobots.</p>
<p>But what do nanobots have to do with medicine?<br />
Medical nanobots are like your immune system. They can fight viruses, bacteria, rebuild tissue and keep you young. Yes you heard that right, keep you young. And how do they do that? correct, like with the treatment above.<br />
Unfortunately nanobots are still in development. The people who have nanobots inside their bodies can be counted on two hands. And of course these people are the mightiest world leaders of our age. Nobody but them has this privilege. How unfair...<br />
Good news is: medical nanobots should be released to the public in the next few years.<br />
I'm sure that the next time you will be here, nanobots will be used by the public. I promise you that I will tell you some more about them, once that happened.</p>
<p>Now that we have talked about the small bots, let's get to the big bots.<br />
The use of humanoid robots increases every year. As of now, they are mostly used in the healthcare area. But you can also find them in homes as companion robots. The distinction between a human and a robot is clear. They mostly have a height of either 180, 175 or 170 centimeters (5"10.8, 5"8.8, 5"6.9). They have no synthetic skin. Even if they did, they would still be distinguishable from humans, since synthetic skin isn't that realistic yet.<br />
The most common medical bots are made of white and grey silicone. White is the primary color while grey decorates their cheeks, shoulders, sides and inner area of their arms and legs. Their eyes don't have pupils, instead they glow in a steady, comfortable, light blue light. These robots are made by the German company CyberHerz. Other common companies like CyberHerz are SafeHuman from Ireland and Suitopiro from Japan. Both of these companies' robots are not humanoid, yet are just as common as CyberHerz's. While SafeHuman specializes in autonomous surgery robots, Suitopiro's robots are used for nursing, cleaning and keeping the hospital's inventory in check. CyberHerz's robots can do all that too, but they are primarily made for human interaction and are the most autonomous of all.</p>
<p>Companion robots are customizable. You can change their colors, patterns, textures, materials and whatever silly or naughty things you wanna add.<br />
Robots usually tend to experience physical feelings. This way they can know when something is broken and be aware of their own strength. Trust me, the deaths by being crushed to death by a robot have seriously plummeted ever since that feature has become mandatory for robotics companies. Even factory robots have been given this feature to some extent. Unlike humanoid robots, factory robots <em>usually</em> don't feel pain.</p>
<p>You must be questioning now if AI has developed sentience yet. To answer your question; there is no clear answer.<br />
If you ask your ordinary bot if they are sentient, they will answer you with a clear no. The common idea as of now is that no matter how human an AI might act, it simply is an act. Just programs responding to input with certain outputs. But don't be disappointed by that. Researches show that there must be at least a little amount of sentience in them. At any time now, there could be a breakthrough.</p>
<p>Yes, I know they said that 20 years ago too…</p>
<p>Anyway, you will learn more about robots and AI in the future…. Get it? In the future? Because this is part 0? Haha! Get it?</p>
<p>... Ahem…</p>
<p>Another very important development in the field of technology, in addition with world peace, is the increase in Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons, or EMP-Ws for short. These weapons are primarily created by a peace organization from Switzerland called Tranquility. Though still in development, EMP-Ws are supposed to stop any other technological weapon from working. If two countries are fighting in a war, an EMP bomb, which supposedly shouldn't do any further damage, will be used to prevent death.<br />
This technology is rather controversial though. First of all, such a weapon could easily be turned into a weapon of mass destruction. Evil people could let such a bomb lose, making entire armies defenseless and attack whoever they want. Second, having mechanical body parts is something that is becoming more common today, therefore such a weapon could injure and even kill people. Only the future will tell if this weapon will actually lead to peace, or cause the death of thousands if not millions of people.</p>
<p>But let's not think about dark things right now, a bright future seems to be ahead of us in…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
<strong>Space</strong>
</p>
<p>The burning question if we are alone in the universe has been answered. Life seems to be a common occurrence in the universe. Microbial life has been found on multiple moons in the solar system. Enceladus and Titan of Saturn are the two primary examples of extraterrestrial life in the solar system. A space probe has easily collected samples of the microbiological life that resides within Enceladus, thanks to its high kryovolcanic activity.<br />
Europa of Jupiter is also a candidate for life. There might be an ocean under its 100 kilometers thick surface, but to get there it will take a while.<br />
Titan proves that life doesn't necessarily need liquid water to thrive. The surface temperature of Titan is too cold for water to flow, but other liquids do. Life has found its home in lakes of methane.<br />
Mars is the closest place of interest. Bacterias reside in the ice caps of our neighboring planet, which has been pretty much dead though for three billion years. The shocking thing about it is how similar the terran and martial microbes are. Perhaps we are of the same origin?</p>
<p>After these three billion years, Mars has finally become a host of life again. As well as the moon. Both hold human life on their surfaces. But do not be fooled, for cities to exist, it will take another few decades. For now, only scientists reside on the planetary and lunar object. Still, these people are the first to colonize space, researching for the future generations how to build societies on these celestial bodies. But for now, Mars and the moon will be the only places in the solar system to be colonized. It might just take us another hundred years until we reach further into space. Afterall, it did take humanity more than 60 years to finally visit the moon again.</p>
<p>Now, let's get back home to earth. I got some good news for you.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
<strong>Nature</strong>
</p>
<p>Wait? Only good news? Nothing bad? Well, that will, with a high probability, change in the future.</p>
<p>The problem of deforestation is decreasing. It sadly still exists in the Amazonas, though there is less and less interest in the resources of the rainforest. Wood and the food they grow on land where once majestic trees stood, can now be bought in more eco-friendly ways.</p>
<p>But not only the forests are getting their trees back, many cities have become interested in our wooden friends. Around the world, trees, bushes, flowers and moss is being planted where hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people live. Most remarkable might be the plantation of moss on stone. It is a big project, taking a lot of people to even plant whole skyscrapers. But all the hardship is worth it and has begun almost a decade ago. Many buildings are made of metal and glass too, though the shiny white, grey and black makes a fine contrast to the green that has started to spread.</p>
<p>Now that we've talked about the world of nature on this planet, how about we get to the world us humans live in?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
<strong>Societies</strong>
</p>
<p>All societies of the world have remained more or less the same since the beginning of this century. The occasional war is still happening sadly. Luckily they don't impact the rest of the world that much.<br />
Like how I already mentioned, third world countries are developing faster than ever before. Together with the help of wealthy countries, they are building schools, farms, clean water sources and whatever else you need to at least not live a life in complete misery. But there is still a long way to go.</p>
<p>So, what do you think is the biggest achievement in the last 45 years?</p>