Not if, but when

ARE MATERIALS ELECTRIC? DATELINE:

Plans for retirement DATELINE:

Confronted by an ageing population, Japanese ingenuity has spawned

robot nurses, power

body frames (to restore strength and mobility)

and automated care

homes. But by 2050 Japan’s median age will still be 53 (up from 50 in 2025) and 42 per cent of its citizens will be over 60. So plans are reportedly afoot to move Japan’s elderly to giant, offshore, purpose-built “care cities” in less wealthy parts of South-East Asia. Cambodia (median age 22 in 2025) could be an ideal location for low-cost care cities.

2030

Robot nurses will soon be able to pick people up and respond to human touch

The butcher, the baker… DATELINE:

What jobs will be needed in the future? A recent survey for the UK government identified (human) body-part maker, nano-therapist and pharmer(to grow medically augmented crops) as three of the most striking. But as sea levels rise and oil runs out, we’ve increasingly fallen back on traditional skills to supplement unreliable technology. Candlestick-maker may yet be the most important job of all.

2040

gary rimmer sends back a postcard from the future

Piezoelectric (PZ) materials turn movement into electricity. PZ insoles might harvest energy from walking to charge a smartphone. A biocompatible PZ chest implant could power an insulin pump by using the movement of breathing. The world’s first flexible, biocompatible, electrically efficient PZ was developed at Princeton University back in 2010. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, meanwhile, they’re building minute nano- piezoelectronics—for example, a hearing implant powered by sound waves. Woven into washing hung out to dry? They’re an instant wind farm.

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