The Tuesday Diversion: What Will We Know in 50 Years?

As part of their 50th anniversary issue, the magazine New Scientist asked "over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists" for their predictions of the next 50 years' greatest scientific breakthroughs.

Remember, these are serious guys, not given to flights of fancy, especially for attribution in a serious journal. But some of the answers are very cool. Ray Kurzweil predicts we'll have a computer that passes the Turing test, and Freeman Dyson, one of my favorites, says we will discover extra-terrestrial life. (That'll be bound to make some heads explode.)

You can see the issue here.

In coming decades will we: discover that we are not alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness? Routinely have false memories implanted in our minds? Begin to evolve in new directions? And will physicists finally hit upon a universal theory of everything? In fact, if the revelations of the last 50 years are anything to go on - the internet and the human genome for example - we probably have not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead of us.

So, what do you think will be the greatest scientific breakthrough in the next 50 years? Medical/genetic breakthroughs that will easily allow us to live into our 100s? Finally harnessing solar power on a global scale? Let us know.