Mark Zuckerberg hosted a Q&A session on his social network last Tuesday where he took on questions from a huge audience, including the likes of Stephen Hawking, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arianna Huffington. During the session he stated some mind-bending predictions for the future, some of which are already shaping up in front of us. More than anything these statements by Zuckerberg positions Facebook more than just a social network. Read on to find out more about what Mark Zuckerberg said!
1. Virtual Reality
There is a lot of hype surrounding Oculus which is scheduled for a release in 2016. For now many people assume it’s a new gadget to enhance the gaming experience but Facebook didn’t buy it for $2 billion just for this. Mark Zuckerberg believes Oculus will be “incredibly powerful as a communication medium”. Facebook envisions Oculus as a tool to allow people to experience anything, the ability to travel anywhere and be with someone. In the future, people will be able to use Virtual Reality to share experiences with each other in the same way as we share pictures these days.
“We’ll be able to capture whole 3-D scenes and create new environments and then share those with people. People will still carry phones in their pockets, at least for the next 10 years,” he said, “but they’ll also be wearing augmented-reality glasses to assist them on an everyday basis.”
2. Telepathy
This is perhaps the wildest and the most far-fetched of all the predictions. According to Mark Zuckerberg, the future of communication is telepathy. We are at that point where technological advancement is at its pinnacle and our communication experiences are getting better day by day. Zuckerberg believes that at some point in the future we will have surpassed smartphones and would be advance enough to talk with each other using our minds.
“One day, I believe we’ll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology,” he said in response to a question regarding what’s next for Facebook. “You’ll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you’d like. This would be the ultimate communication technology.”
At this point you’re probably thinking how is this even possible? But it is! There are several scientists who share Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a future with telepathy. Scientists today are working on a technology that would allow people to nod or blink and their gestures would be translated to a yes or no message that can be sent to other people.
3. Superhuman Abilities
During the Q&A, Stephen Hawking asked Mark Zuckerberg about the big questions in science that intrigue him the most. Zuckerberg response was that he’s interested in questions about people. He was interested in understanding how our minds work, how we can eradicate all diseases and how we can reach superhuman intelligence and immortality.
All these questions are not entirely futuristic. Many Artificial Intelligence scientists believe, that the medical and health industry is ripe for change and that machine learning and data analysis can play a huge impact on the future of medicine.
4. Laser Beams
Mark Zuckerberg has long expressed his interest in providing Internet to people all over the world. Facebook’s non-profit organization Internet.org, a step towards free Internet, was launched in Pakistan recently.
“As part of our Internet.org efforts, we’re working on ways to use drones and satellites to connect the billion people who don’t live in range of existing wireless networks,” he said. Facebook is working with laser communications that will in near future be able to beam the internet from the sky. This will not only make Internet available to all but also increase the speed.
So while you ponder on the how and when, scientists at Facebook are working to bring these technologies to you in the near future!
