What will Southampton be like in five decades time?

11:00am Sunday 9th September 2007

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By Sarah Jones »

HOLIDAYS to the moon, robots to do your housework and work meetings held on exotic virtual islands.

No, this isn't from the pages of a sci-fi fantasy, but an expert's vision of what the future holds for Southampton residents in five decades' time.

"The future of the planet and everybody on it is going to depend on computing and IT.”

Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Southampton University

Life as we know it is going to change in a big way, and Southampton University Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Nigel Shadbolt, thinks he can offer a glimpse of the shape of things to come.

Imagine a world where you don't need a driving licence because your car will navigate itself around the centre of Southampton.

Or where your robot undertakes house-cleaning tasks in the background while you chat to your colleagues on a large screen from your front room.

In his role as President of the British Computer Society (BCS), Professor Shadbolt looked into his crystal ball with fellow leading academics to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the organisation.

The experts got together to predict what life will be like in the city in 2056 - the year of the BCS's centenary.

The results suggest that the Southampton resident of the future will live in a hi-tech multimedia world, where the boundaries between work and home will blur.

For example, the society predicts that information will be displayed using laser technology on surfaces throughout the house.

Computer screens will double as multi-media centres, which play music and conduct video conferences by voice command.

Housework will be carried out by home robots, which will also look after ageing relatives.

The growing trend of working from home will affect almost everyone, with meetings held in virtual rooms or even on an exotic computer-generated island to save on carbon emissions.

Cash will be a thing of the past, with residents buying exclusively over the Internet, leaving the High Street as a place to visit and "experience" goods and services.

And a popular place to go on holiday will be the moon, due to an explosion in the availability of space travel.

According to Prof Shadbolt, his industry is on the cusp of one of the most momentous periods in the evolution of computer technology.

"The future is incredibly exciting for information technology (IT) professionals and computer scientists," he said.

"It is important that we equip ourselves as a nation with the skills needed for the information age that is the 21st century.

"The future of the planet and everybody on it is going to depend on computing and IT."

However, that does not mean that people are better informed about new developments in technology or what it will mean for their present day-to-day lives, according to the professor.

"As future technology becomes commonly accepted - satellite navigation for visually impaired people or voice-activated e-mail, perhaps - it becomes invisible', or at least taken for granted."

Herein, he believes, lies the challenge.

"When the BCS was set up in 1957, computer science was in its infancy and had limited appeal to a select group of people.

"Now we have the dual task of communicating with our members but also informing the public at large about the issues that surround IT use," said Prof Shadbolt.