What YOU Think About Science, Risk and the Future

In recent months, we’ve been posing questions to iluli’s YouTube followers, and hundreds of you have been voting. What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 20 years? What era would you choose to time-travel to? Would you live in a moon base made of mushrooms?!

While some questions may seem a bit “out there”, these informal polls have provided a fascinating snapshot of attitudes towards risk, innovation and exploration. 

Time Travel: Curiosity vs Survival

When asked where you’d go if granted a single time-travel trip, the results split sharply:

• The far future – 42%

• Ancient civilizations – 23%

• I wouldn’t risk it – 24%

• Dinosaur era – 10%

The most popular choice – the far future – suggests a deeply embedded assumption: progress continues. Despite today’s global worries about climate change, geopolitical instability and AI spelling the end of humanity, many people are still clearly prepared to take a punt that the future will be a better place to live than the past.

That isn’t a naïve assumption. In the past 100 years alone, global life expectancy, literacy, food security and technological capabilities have all improved dramatically. The world of today is safer, richer and more advanced than ever before. When you consider the advances in mobile phone tech alone in the past 20 years – from whiling away the hours tackling Snake II on your Nokia 3310, to having access to the entirety of human knowledge in your pocket – the mind boggles at how technology will have transformed our lives by 2050. Let alone 2100. 

But just as revealing is the fact that nearly a quarter wouldn’t go at all.

@TriaMilia explained their reasoning behind sitting it out:

Quick trivia, our immune system is incredibly complex and fragile, which means, if we go to the past, we'll be probably condemning many lives with an unknown disease for them and of [sic] we go to the future, we would probably get sick very quickly. It's better not to risk it.

@unknown81000 would be excited to go – but not in person:

Physically NO, but if only my memories and my mental present self is sent back waaaaaaaaaay back like my childhood then F*** YES

Surprisingly – to me at least – only 10% of you would choose to travel back to the age of the dinosaurs. Perhaps seven (!) Jurassic Park films have finally convinced us that co-existing with long-extinct apex predators – even briefly – is not advisable.

Mushroom Moon Bases?!

Now, one for the fun guys (sorry!)... You're offered a spot on the next lunar mission. Would you feel safe staying in a base made of mushrooms?

• Maybe, but I’m bringing a tent just in case – 38%

• Yes, I trust the science! – 32%

• No way, I’ve seen too many sci-fi movies – 30%

A whopping 70% of you would, but with varying degrees of confidence. The majority would bring a tent along – just in case – while 32% said they’d trust the science. As @elliottstokes3917 commented: “Mushrooms are friends"!

It may sound more like a fever dream than genuine rocket science, but – as I explore in the latest iluli video – NASA really is experimenting with the idea of growing fungi-based habitats on the Moon.

@victoryjamz added: “I'm gonna be honest I wouldn't trust anyone trying to send me to the moon regardless but that's just me.”

A totally reasonable response, especially given that almost one in three of you opted for “No way, I’ve seen too many sci-fi movies.” 

The Biggest Breakthrough: Expect the Unexpected

Another poll asked what you thought would be the biggest breakthrough of the next 20 years:

• Something no one expects – 57%

• Superintelligent AI – 24%

• Human life extension – 10%

• Commercial space travel – 8%

The overwhelming winner is uncertainty itself. Which makes sense. In a video last year, we looked into the science of predicting the future like a “superforecaster” – an elite bunch who time and again are able to forecast global events more accurately than the markets and experts. But even they acknowledge that trying to predict anything more than five years out is essentially just guesswork.

Almost one in four of you opted for “superintelligent AI”. This is unsurprising, given how rapidly large language models have evolved recently (the subject of another iluli explainer video).

Few of us had even heard of ChatGPT four years ago. Now it has become an essential tool for more than a billion people who regularly consult it – and the likes of Gemini, Claude, and Grok – for everything from holiday planning and health advice to writing our emails and undertaking an ever-growing proportion of our work tasks.

But just how intelligent is superintelligent? Will the finite processing power of our bog-standard human brains soon be surpassed by a form of artificial intelligence that can do everything better than a human can? Those in the know are worried enough about the prospect to call for its development to be halted. But others are more optimistic about the opportunities it might bring.

@playboicarti_vamp commented:

Super intelligent AI literally can aid in getting the other 2 [human life extension and commercial space travel]. Also the models we have currently are superhuman. We are constantly pushing what it means for these models to be called AGI. This has to be the most incredible and yet scary time in the history of mankind.

@motherbeanmtb6473, on the other hand, thinks advances in agriculture will prompt the biggest change:

I think breakthroughs in agriculture will be the key. Outdoor field work has pretty much evolved to its peak efficiency, but if we could put a crop in a facility and grow it entirely robotically we will almost rid the need for human labor in agriculture, which frees up so many hands and minds for other innovation.

A couple of years ago, we released a video about futuristic farming covering just that: how internet-connected devices are making farms radically more efficient. Here in the UK, the majority of farms now use satellite and drone technology to monitor crops, and AI tools to improve yields.

Life extension and commercial space travel ranked lowest, despite substantial investment. Both could be seen as advancing incrementally rather than sudden breakthroughs. Even so, the notion of jetting off to a Center Parcs on the Moon for half-term 2045 would feel like a pretty big deal.

Rapid technological progress has reshaped everyday life in just a few decades, and these YouTube poll results suggest most people expect the pace to continue. While the distant future remains impossible to predict, one thing seems certain: science and technology will be at the heart of it.

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Enjoyed this article? If you're curious about what's next, explore how to predict the future, dive into what you need to know about ChatGPT, or discover innovations in futuristic farming.

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