30 Insane Scenarios About the Future That Might Actually Happen

NO, YOU WON’T HAVE A ROBOT BUTLER

Weren’t we all supposed to have robot butlers or maids by now? Even David Eagleman, the neuroscientist and writer, is disappointed. “I predicted that 20 years ago, when I was a sanguine boy loving Star Wars, and the smartest robot we have now is the Roomba vacuum cleaner,” he says.

Even though he’s holding out for robot assistants, “I won’t be surprised if I’m wrong in another 25 years. Artificial intelligence has proved itself an unexpectedly difficult problem.”As for fears that robots will soon steal all our jobs, Wired magazine isn’t too concerned. As they reported last year, “the problem we’re facing isn’t that the robots are coming. It’s that they aren’t.” Unless…