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If you are intrigued by this timeline for the 21st century, you may want to see further information on The Futures of the Human Race, the book from which the predictions are taken.

2009	The first global Internet 'black-list' service is adopted	Most major ISPs, social networking and other major sites agree to form a central, free data-base of 'bad' individuals and their e-mail addresses, moderated by an ICANN appeals process.
2010	The first electricity-generating leaf demonstrated	Photo-voltaic coatings can supplement and partly replace photo-synthesis, generating electron flow in sap channels
2011	The Doha Round is completed at the WTO	Against expectation, and after the French were bought off with the opening of the 'Paris Round', the WTO brings off a triumph.
2012	The first sentient robot demonstrated	Sentient in that it passes the 'Turing' test of being indistinguishable in cognitive terms from a human
2012	The IMF and the World Bank become agencies of the WTO	The market and charities have taken over their roles in exchange rate management and developing country financing
2013	The Internet black-list is matched by a global white list	Iris-recognition increasingly ensures that secure verification is attached to outgoing e-mails; ISPs check mails against both white- and black-lists before transmitting them.
2013	The first entirely robotic military campaign is waged in Afghanistan	Air strikes, ground attacks, occupation and prisoner capture are conducted entirely from remote electronic command bunkers by US forces.
2014	Remote cognitive control is achieved via a bionic implant	A wireless transmitter connected to brain tissue can be used by the owner to control a remote device
2015	WIPO transferred to the WTO from the UN	The WTO already provided dispute resolution for WIPO; this move tidied up the situation given the galloping importance of IP in trade terms.
2015	Formation of the World Association of Professionals	The demands of international business and expatriates caused professionals to group together to lobby for supra-national standards and judicial mechanisms.
2015	Formation of the Global Court of Governance Auditors	A UN-linked body which is responsible for tracking, measuring and policing the transparency of international governance organizations such as the WTO, the IMF etc; as a treaty body, its law supervenes national law.
2015	Invention of the magnetic gravity brake	Allowing the controlled descent from orbit of a vehicle; both the vehicle and the planet must have significant magnetic content
2016	BP-Gazprom announces 1 trillion dollar year	Despite the oil price falling below USD200 for the first time for five years, the firm is now larger than all but seven national economies.
2016	Machine translation perfected	About 100 written and spoken languages can be translated at machine level; direct sensory input of translated language not yet possible
2017	Expansion of the EU to 40 members	Turkey, the Ukraine, European Russia, Belarus, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and four north African countries join.
2017	The International Standards Organization joins the WTO	Another obvious piece of global tidying up.
2017	Planting of the first commercial-scale 'electric forest'	With immense investment driven by environmental alarm, the electricity-producing leaf was very rapidly commercialized, along with other alternative energy sources, many based on nano-technology.
2018	Goldman-HSBC takes over Argentina's pension system	Political reality finally catches up with economic theory as more and more countries contract out their pensions systems lock, stock and barrel.
2018	Formation of the World Environmental Agency, affiliated to the United Nations	A global environmental treaty, at last.
2019	The Global Code of Internet Conduct is signed	All major ISPs, ICANN and other Internet governance bodies implement a series of sanctions for offenders against Internet rules of conduct, including temporary or permanent exclusion.
2019	Electronic tablets overtake paper for delivery of news and literature	Early versions, from 2008, were clunky and expensive, but within 10 years only poorer nations were clinging to traditional print/paper technology.
2019	Bio-electronic memory enhancement brain implants become freely available	Private operations to install them had become routine in the previous five years, but it was no longer socially acceptable to deny them to poorer people. They are reckoned to add 20 points to IQ.
2020	The first artificial chicken leg marketed	Growing resistance to farming methods and the development of 'animal rights' opened the way for artificial food technology.
2020	Universal adoption of KISS technology	Kontent Identification and Subscription System, used to control access to and the rewards from Intellectual Property; an Open Systems Standard
2020	The world is tariff-free	The Paris Round concludes after nine years; every country is now a member of the WTO.
2020	Establishment of the World Commercial Court	Alongside the WTO, but independent, the WCC (modelled on the ECJ) incorporates pre-existing WTO Dispute Resolution Panels and a range of commercial competencies taken over from national court systems.
2021	Rusal-RTZ signs a 20-year contract to govern Botswana	Small countries, especially those dependent on natural resources, have begun to realize that large corporations will do a better job than local politicians
2020-2030	Establishment of permanent Moon and Mars bases	Nations (the USA and China) in competition for just about the last time
2021	The conversion of cinemas to live performance venues becomes a significant trend.	People still like to go out, and advanced multi-lingual cinemas retain some appeal; but for most purposes entertainment is better at home.
2021	The first installation of a high-capacity bio-electronic channel to supplement the corpus callosum in a living human being	Many adverse brain conditions can be ameliorated by improving communication between the hemispheres; and even in 'normal' people better internal brain communication has many advantages.
2022	The first bio-electronic self-replicating assembly demonstrated	This technology was to become the cornerstone of humanoid robot development, and in time, inter-stellar expansion
2023	A global income tax system is established	Universal residence-based income tax introduced; all other international taxation abolished; corporation tax abolished; national taxes limited to VAT and carbon taxes
2023	Global charity programs offer a subsistence promise to every human being	Public opinion forces rich people and countries to use their accumulated surplus wealth to be proactive in providing support to the poor, alongside mandatory micro-finance programmes to encourage responsibility.
2023	Primitive humanoid robot brains developed	At first humans could control remote assemblies and accept sensory input from them; only later came the true 'inhabiting' of remote brains
2024	The World Court Of Human Rights is established	The EHCR and the IAHCR (Americas Court) merged with Asian and African equivalents as a UN-affiliated body
2024	The first time a truly global political party fights and wins a national election	The Greens, of course, who now have a majority in the US Congress; many other successes followed for them and for the Shareholder and Business parties
2025	The 'babelfish' cochlear implant commercially available	Although machine translation was already effectively perfect, it is far more convenient to receive lexical content directly into the brain
2025	A global Code of Conduct agreed for humanoid and other robotic brains	Remote Cognitive Representation (new name for 'robot', RCR for short) technology evoked strong reactions from conservative forces.
2025	The last major war takes place	An exchange of nuclear weapons killed more than 8 million people throughout the Middle East
2026	'Brain-wave' identification becomes standard	Access to KISS and other major Internet systems requires positive identification of your dynamic brain-wave pattern; together with ever-stronger sanctions, deception is becoming a vanishingly small problem.
2026	NAFTA and the FTAA merge with Caricom	The assasination of Hugo Chavez in 2025 after 20 years of dictatorship unlocked the door to regional governance
2027	'People Power', expressed through the Internet, becomes stronger than nationalism as a legislating force	After the Middle East nuclear war finally discredited nationalism as a guiding principle of human governance, informed 'people-power' became too strong to resist
2027	The first partial cognitive version of a human brain uploaded into a bio-electronic assembly	This development eventually allowed the 'inhabiting' of a remote humanoid robotic brain (RCR) by a human; 2-way communication between the two remained imperfect for many years
2028	A global governance treaty is signed by all nations and global institutions	In another reaction to the Middle-East war, the powers of national and global governance institutions were shaply delineated, much to the benefit of global organizations
2029	Canine and feline robotic pets become available	And, in due time, a bewildering variety of other types of non-human companion
2030	The first global, universal electronic opinion poll	Something like 95% of humanity has access to the Internet, and governmental organisations, whether global or national, are increasingly influenced by electronic opinion polls
2030	Discovery of quantum transmission	The key invention (in a Chinese laboratory) needed to allow inter-stellar travel. Certain mass-less elementary particles were discovered to exist outside the laws of relativity and can be used to transmit data instantaneously; massy receiving and transmitting devices are needed, however.
2031	The last school closes in California	Education is delivered through privately organized Internet 'colleges' according to international curriculi; groups of pupils may meet 'in the flesh' for sporting and other purposes. It will take another fifteen years for the whole world to become school-free.
2032	The US military is disbanded	All military operations are now robotic and are conducted under contract and under UN supervision by commercial organizations. More or less as it was in 1600, apart from the UN.
2033	A definitive list of recommended embryonic improvements is adopted	Pre-fertilization correction of genetic coding for scheduled diseases is mandatory; many other improvements, both physical and behavioural, are offered on a voluntary basis.
2034	Income tax averages 13%	After ten years of competition for residents between nations, average rates have fallen by 50%, although local VAT and carbon taxes push up the total average take to 27%
2035	Artifical food wins all 25 categories of the annual Taste Olympics	In fifteen years, the artifical food industry has gone from being a vilified niche business to a dominant position in food production.
2036	Li-Google-Warner launches the World Image Library	Every image humanity has ever created is its boast, free and open-source; but commercial use must be paid for, through KISS of course
2037	The first Non-Human Olympiad	The world of sportertainment rapidly adopted robotic competitors
2037	China's GDP equals that of America	But there are still four times as many Chinese as Americans. All told, only 15% of the global population of 8 billion exists below the poverty-line, and charity-based funds, topping US$2 trillion, support many of them.
2038	The first experimental Remote Cognitive Collective (RCC) demonstrated	Objections to technological advancement of humans have largely evaporated by this time; attention focuses more on agreeing the protocols that would be necessary if multiple human psyches co-inhabit one collectivity (RCC)
2039	Printing on paper becomes extinct	Newspapers and books still exist, but they are delivered exclusively electronically to computers or digital paper, or, increasingly, by wireless to bionic memory modules in the brain.
2040	The Human Charter is adopted globally	A combination of rights and responsibilities against which individuals and their relationship with authority can be judged; human rights in isolation had come to be seen as meaningless.
2041	The Euro adopted as a world currency	Because the Americans and the Chinese, still bickering after 30 years, couldn't agree to step down, the Euro was the only feasible alternative, and in point of fact had become the dominant world currency in terms of assets
2042	Vocalization is abandoned as a standard feature of humanoid robots	The vocal apparatus is one of the most expensive parts of a robot, and now that direct brain-to-brain sensory communication is universal, there is no need for the auditory channel of communication.
2043	The last cinema in the world closes, in the Gambia.	Most of them had converted to live performance venues, but the trend to socialization in Remote Cognitive Collectives (RCCs) works against places of public entertainment.
2044	Humanoid robots enter general use	After the Code of Conduct was signed in 2025, the agreed-upon freedoms for humanoid robotic development were rapidly exploited
2045	The last country (the US) hands control of its money supply to a private company, Deutsche-BOC	Banks began to tender for national financial governance contracts in the 2020s, and by 2040 almost all money supply was controlled privately, in the market, as it had been until approximately 1900
2046	Average IQ measured at age 11 reaches 180	After 2033, parents almost never refused embryonic enhancements for intelligence
2047	The last visa boundaries are abandoned	Anyone can go anywhere, but KISS knows where you are! Biometric identification, through the Internet, of course, is unbreakably secure
2049	The last working farm in the world, in Zimbabwe, shuts down.	Domesticated animals no longer exist, although their genomes are retained for inter-stellar use.
2050	A Global Genetic Gathering is formed as a Remote Cognitive Collective (RCC)	As a delegate body with 387 members (the number of nations), technology was just up to the task of holding a 387-participant discussion in a virtual humanoid consciousness space (RCC)
2050	First interstellar missions launched	The hardware was still a bit clunky, so that only 40% of the speed of light could be achieved; by 2060, this had risen to 70%.
2051	A universal agreement is reached on the boundaries of robotic and bionic development	The onrush of remote humanoid cognitive technology (RCRs and RCCs - robotic brains) and genetic transformation made it very necessary to agree on ground rules for permitted degrees of human and non-human variation
2053	Electric forests cover 78% of the land surface	Visually identical with their predecessor 'natural' forests, the electric forests provide ample power and offer amenity besides. Some act as reserves for bio-diversity, but most species remain only as recorded genomes.
2055	The first full human brain ('eclone') operates remotely in a bio-electronic assembly	The host human can transfer full cognitive operation to the eclone - but there are problems with 'maintaining state' so that eclone and host brain remain cognitively identical
2056	Schism in the Roman Catholic Church as a majority of members merge with a non-denominational Buddhist world grouping	Only a few, mostly older people retain belief in God; but understanding of the need for individual morality has never been so pervasive.
2057	Income tax, which had fallen to 5%, is abolished	National governments, left with only a few local responsibilities, no longer require external help. A 1% levy on KISS transactions is more than enough to fund international governance.
2058	The World Union is formed as a governmental agency	The World Union is a democratic body, based on universal direct voting; but there still is politics, working through intermediate Remote Cognitive Collectives (RCCs) which crystallize points of view.
2059	A universal 'tariff' is agreed for individual activity	Concepts of 'work' and 'leisure' are outdated - no-one has to work - but it's necessary to measure the 'worth' of human activity of various types, still in terms of money.
2060	The World Union becomes a Remote Cognitive Collective (RCC) itself	The World Union is a democratic body, based on universal direct voting; but there still is politics, working through intermediate Remote Cognitive Collectives (RCCs) which crystallize points of view.
2061	The last charities fold, their job done	Accumulated human wealth endows every child at birth with a living wage, but there are unresolved problems over individual responsibility and inheritance.
2062	First stellar colony established	After 12 years, the first succesful colony was established at a distance of 7 light years
2064	Lifetime individual 'accounts' become mandatory	It doesn't matter what you do, but you must do something, and KISS maintains your account with humanity. There are sanctions for persistent deficits.
2063	Money is abandoned for most transactions in favour of 'credits'	Everyone can have anything they want, up to the limit of their account balance, and all inter-personal transactions are recorded through KISS; the Euro/credit exchange rate is set by the market. Inheritance remains an issue.
2070	Eclones commercially available	From this time onwards, it was possible for people to switch back and forth at will between different representations of themselves, whether to independent robotic humanoids (RCRs) or in Remote Cognitive Collectives (RCCs) or just as e-clones; but back-up remained cumbersome and imperfect
2075	Newspapers and other forms of packaged verbal information no longer exist	Only children and old people use words; most communication is non-verbal, and information is normally obtained through RCRs.
2080	Introduction of real-time, universal issue voting	RCC technology now allows an effectively infinite number of people to participate in a decision-making process based on a multi-level cognitive step sequence which agglomerates opinions and forms a consensus - usually almost instantaneously
2084	Individual IQ at age 11 has reached 230	But people increasingly live their lives in collectives (RCCs), where the breadth of consciousness and cognitive abilities are an order of magnitude greater than in an individual brain
2085	The Japanese Earthquake	2.8 billion unbacked-up human original bodies are lost
2095	Real-time eclone back-up perfected	People can now exist as eclones, using 'current-state' RCRs and RCCs for interaction with the world and other people
2096	Money is finally abandoned	Virtual living is so much more attractive than physical 'legacy' living that real-world assets no longer have significant value - they are free to all.
2099	The tenth inter-stellar colony is founded at 28 light years' distance	The colonies are now providing a significant outlet for people who find Terran life too insipid. Although their bodies may remain on Earth, their e-clones and RCRs 'live' in space
2099	The global population stabilizes at 20 billion	Most people spend most of their time electronically, and in many cases dispense with their original bodies altogether

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