December 15, 2024
GEN ST 297 | Future-ish | Autumn 2024
The Autumn 2024 GEN ST 297 seminar students were very engaged with innovations happening in their respective fields of study. The seminar included two students taking the course a second time. Hot topics were AI, healthcare, and design.
Seminar Scenarios
The Autumn 2024 seminar students chose to look at the nexus of healthcare & space infrastructure with a focus on key areas of academic and professional interests that they brought to the seminar. The four scenarios of future states over time for this synthesis are shared below.
Scenario 1. (5-10 years from now). Healthcare on Earth and Beyond.
Virtual healthcare pods are being developed for space travel and space stations. Telehealth clinics are also now used for astronauts and space travelers that are in space for long periods of time or permanently. AI becomes less energy intensive and expensive so is accessible to many more small businesses, organizations, agencies, and communities. AI is being used to help design interiors for space ships and communities on the moon and Mars. Mathematical methods are used to study data from space stations to help build better infrastructure in space. The UW Department of Mathematics has played a major role in this development, working collaboratively with the College of Built Environments and UW Astrobiology. At home devices help with dental care with data from the devices going back to the clinic for dentist and AI review. AI is used to help manage and optimize nutrition for astronauts and space travelers.
Scenario 2. (25-50 Years from Now). Wellness on and off Earth.
AI is being used to brainstorm and design new inventions related to living in space short- and long-term. Permanent structures are being built on the moon and mars. Multiple schools and departments at UW continue to play a key role in built environments for spaceships and space stations. AI helps optimize interior design and layouts for optimal mental health on Earth and in space. AI is part of even small health and wellness devices, such as health monitoring rings that people wear. Dental devices can be controlled remotely. AI allows for more and earlier diagnoses of medical and dental health issues. Planning for space travel helps advance recycling and waste reduction on Earth. Quantum computing is now the standard across many industries.
Scenario 3. (100 Years from Now). Role Model Robots.
Personal AI bots have become common and help with physical and mental wellness. Healthcare design and construction have been revolutionized by all the learnings from humans beginning to travel and live in space and on other moons or planets. All roles in dental care can be controlled remotely, such as cleanings, medications, x-rays, and oral surgery procedures. Human dentists still supervise remote dentistry, but it does allow dentists on Earth or in other locations to assist humans anywhere. Domestic robots are used to optimize homes for health and wellness, especially in aspects of art, furniture design, and broader interior design. Robots are becoming better at self-care, wellness, and maintaining sustainable communities than humans are. Many advances in new forms of agriculture are being used on Earth due to the innovations learned in space travel and off-Earth living, including in lab-grown and printed foods. The longest bridge has been built from Sumatra to Borneo and uses technologies first applied in building space stations on the Mars.
Scenario 4. (250 Years from Now). Lessons from Space & Robot Retreats.
The UW School of Dentistry is instrumental in developing technologies to restore all parts of human dental health (teeth, jawbones, etc.) using 3D printing, lasers, and gene editing. Technologies developed for floating communities in space help with major advances on Earth related to reuse or recycling of water and many materials. Advances in solar power allow for the phasing out of fuels in space travel travel. Rooms and larger structures can be recreated in off-Earth built environments using AI and 3D printing making humans feel more at home while away from Earth. On Earth, there is new technology that allows for communities to develop on or near mountainous areas, including floating structures that are not impacted by earthquakes. Robots are now fully sentient and have their own communities. Robots also now have their own distinct personalities resulting from their own ‘lived’ experiences, although they can also learn from other robot’s lived experiences. Robots are filling most of the jobs in medical and dental clinics on Earth and over twenty moons and planets. There are only a few cases in which robots have developed robot-only communities, retreats, and vacation destinations because they are so disillusioned by humans not living up to the values they espouse.