Suits with a digital history of their every thread, giving us blockchain proof that no child labour was involved. Shared flying cars that can be ordered up as easily as an Uber. A demonstration rocket capable of flying passengers from London to Dubai in 29 minutes (although it may take a while longer to get the safety right).
These are just some of the innovations that await us in the next decade or so, according to Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. It does not end there. The authors of The Future Is Faster Than You Think go on to describe a world in which nanoscale motes will float through our bloodstream, collecting data. Drugs will destroy the “inflammation-producing zombie cells” believed to cause ageing. Ten to 12 years from now, we could reach “longevity escape velocity”, extending our lives by a year for every year we live.
And yet here we are in 2020, banned from travelling to the next town — never mind Dubai — ravaged by a virus that we are struggling to understand and seeing the elderly die while tended by medics desperate to find basic protective clothing, let alone any with a digital history. The techno-optimism of this book has collided with the humbling reality of Covid-19.