Technology Timeline

The timeline below shows when various technological advances were achieved. Unless otherwise stated, this does not necessarily imply that they became widespread at the same time. Most tech advances take 15-30 years to go from laboratory result to consumer product. Interpret these dates to suit your campaign.

2020 - 2029

 * Ubiquitous advertising, even in walls of private apartments, offsetting rent
 * AI PDAs (specialized/expert AI)
 * Location-based reminders via PDA
 * AI advertising, personally interactive ads, blink or speak to answer or ignore
 * All TV is streamed downloads, but the word "TV" or “tele” is still used
 * Ditto radio, which is called "audio"
 * AI Storytelling and Storygames
 * Wearable Media
 * Augmented Reality in shopping districts and recreational locations
 * Screenless Displays
 * Contact Lens Displays
 * Smart Drugs
 * Smart Toys
 * Smart Appliances
 * Smart toilets (medical scanners), beds, refrigerators & bathroom scanners
 * Synthetic Wombs
 * Online death shrines with 3d holo or AI replicas of the deceased
 * Facial recognition scanners control access to stores and public venues
 * Superbacteria, regular public disease and bacteria alerts; quarantine policies

2030 - 2039

 * Reputation Economies rival fiat currency economies
 * All common devices interact: the “IoT”
 * Citywide networks of Sensors, Processors and Transceivers
 * Objects monitoring your every move
 * 3DTV, holorooms & VR: private or multi-person, interactive holo-movies, telepresence (holocommunication)
 * Augmented Reality is commonplace
 * Realtime Language Translation
 * Virtual Reality & Unreality
 * VR Lifeforms
 * Haptic Suits
 * Embodied Avatars
 * Mass Combination Transit systems (a train of cars which connect/disconnect)
 * Maglev trains ~1000MPH
 * Personal Fabricators. 3D printing. Designing is harder than building.
 * Oil Wars
 * HR Automation – Proactive Employment
 * Modular Smart Grids
 * Photovoltaic Glass
 * Self-Healing Materials
 * Molecular Assemblers
 * Responsive Antibiotics
 * Powered Exoskeletons
 * Solar-powered microsheets and embedded micro cells in buildings, surfaces, fabrics, etc
 * Flexible electronics, Stretchable electronics
 * DNA used for datastorage (700 TB/g)
 * BotClouds
 * Robot Domestics (personal AI)
 * Robot Nurses (elderly & in-house care)
 * Robot Soldiers (battlefield AI)
 * Robot Surgeons (physiological AI)
 * Contact Lens Displays
 * Biometric Sensors
 * Implanted GPS systems
 * Organ Printing
 * Stem-cell Treatments
 * Hybrid-assisted Limbs
 * Cloned ("cultured") Meat
 * Solar Energy Pods
 * Soylent Foods
 * Towercologies
 * Street and artistic experimentation with pseudo-ESP systems and brain-nets
 * Composite metal foams (CMFs) permit new types of vehicular & body armor.

2040 - 2059

 * Global population begins to decline
 * All cars on major roads are under satellite control, most are driverless
 * Retinal Displays
 * General Purpose Service Robots
 * Remote Presence used in industry, communications & entertainment
 * Ocean barriers against sea level rise
 * Plastic outweighs fish in the oceans
 * Farming Islands
 * Water Wars
 * Desalinization Systems
 * Antibiotic Resistance
 * Anti-aging Drugs
 * Medical nanotech commonly used
 * Regrown replacement body parts (bone, skin, blood, muscle, organs)
 * Smart Dust: nanos sprinkled on body (hands) to allow systems control
 * Neural implants for mental treatments
 * Neural implants for augmentation of cognitive abilities
 * Brain-implanted cyber systems
 * Artificial Photosynthesis
 * Space Lifts
 * Asteroid Mining
 * Space Tourism
 * Space-based Solar Power
 * Wireless Electricity
 * Utility Fog (global cloud)
 * Interplanetary Internet
 * Nanosuits: controlled by soldier = intelligent armored exoskeleton

2060 - 2079

 * Quantum Computers
 * Thought-controlled devices
 * Self-directed learning computers
 * Programmable Matter
 * Transatlantic Tubeway
 * Exocortex
 * Arcologies
 * Aqualogies
 * Space Elevator
 * Solar Sails
 * Orbital Colonies

2080 - 2099

 * Dream Recording
 * Generalized AI
 * Climate Engineering
 * Designer DNA (outlawed?)
 * Orbital Colony gains independence

2100+

 * Limited Antigravity
 * Colony on Mars
 * Antimatter
 * Underground Cities
 * Colony on Titan
 * Millions of people live off-Earth