Despite this, such exercises can be both entertaining and useful for looking at how to meet the challenges of tomorrow, so they're anything but a waste of time. For the Samsung KX50 report, which was released to coincide with the opening of the new Samsung KX exhibition at Coal Drops Yard, London, the company called on President of techUK, Jacqueline de Rojas; Director of Engineering and Education at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Rhys Morgan; food futurologist, Morgaine Gale; digital health futurist, Maneesh Juneja; Specialist Advisor to Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art, Dale Russel; and leading futurist, Matthew Griffin to pen essays on their take on the world 50 years from today.

Eoin Treacy's view

There is a good chance that by 2069 we will familiar with fusion technology, artificial intelligence predicting out every move and catering to our needs and a global population that is well past its peak expansion.

The contrarian view is this kind of articile is a linear progression of the current trend and the reality is likely to be very different than expected. Having the confidence to project 50 years forward deomstrates a willingness to ignore current challenges which is often a Late Cycle Activity in markets. 

It is the demographic change more than anything else that is likely to shape the world in the next century. Most of the new people born will be in Africa. When the global population peaks the law of diminishing returns kicks in so the drive to enhance the productivity and consumption of each individual gets kicked into overdrive.

Life is still cheap in the world today because we have millions of new people being born every year. However, population decline is completely different. There will be nowhere to export manufacturing to and fewer people to consume the products made. That means the individual consumption of each individual has to rise. A technology assisted life which could stretch for well in excess of a century as medical practices improve.