#FutureReport: Experts Predict How (& Where) We’ll Be Living in 2116

A group of scientists, architects, and urban planners attempted to answer the question in a new report that forecasts the ways our species will live a hundred years from now. Commissioned by Samsung, the SmartThings Future Report, told Architectural Digest what the type of products we might be using in 100 years.

“…3-D–printed furniture and food, the technologies that will help us as we grow older, like homes equipped with medical equipment, how we will work (the use of holograms to work remotely, reducing the energy demands of commuting), what we will do in our leisurely time (commercial flights to space), and of course, where we will be living.

And where will we be living? With the rising population and effects of climate change, the experts predict that buildable land could become an increasingly rare commodity. Which is one reason they are looking to the sea for housing opportunities, including underwater communities and floating ones, the latter of which will follow the waves to the best climates throughout the year.

And what about future Earth-dwellers who want to stay on land? Advances in building materials (including carbon nanotubes, which have the potential to be 169 times stronger than concrete, and diamond nanothreads, which could replace steel cables with a resistance 100 times greater at one-sixth the weight) could make super skyscrapers a viable living option. What’s more, by using robotic arms and drone technology to erect these skyscrapers (the latter being a technology currently being tested by Google), whole cities could exist within a series of vertical mega-skyscrapers.

The authors also predict that in a century’s time, we will have the technology to routinely travel to such places as the moon, Mars, or even Earth-orbiting hotels. Ultimately, looking even further than the year 2116, the experts contend that if Earth becomes overpopulated or unsustainable for other reasons, the ubiquitousness of space travel means our species will have the technology needed to sustain life on different planets.”

Far out!