An expert has advised that now is the time to start making scientific research plans with the post-2050 era in mind, as significant scientific changes are expected, such as superintelligence conducting most research in place of human researchers, Mars exploration becoming routine, and the commercialization of nuclear fusion energy drawing near.

On the 31st (local time), the international academic journal ‘Nature’ highlighted a range of predictions from futurists, scientists, and other experts about scientific research in 2050.

Nick Bostrom, a world-renowned futurist and Swedish philosopher who studies artificial intelligence (AI) and the future risks to humanity, told Nature, “By 2050, it is highly likely that all scientific research will be conducted by superintelligent AI, not human researchers.” He added, “Some humans might still conduct scientific research as a hobby, but they will not make any substantial contributions.”

Richard Watson, a futurist at Imperial College London and Cambridge University and author of books on future trends, remarked, “Five-year goals tend to be stuck in the present, preventing us from seeing the big picture, while goals set for 20 years or more can easily become science fiction.” He advised, “To prepare for the future, it is best to set systematic and interdisciplinary research goals with a 10-to-15-year horizon.”

Guy Brasseur, an atmospheric scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany, predicted that the global average temperature will exceed 2°C above pre-industrial levels around 2040, heralding more severe climate change than we anticipated.

According to Brasseur, extreme climate change will render current debates about the severity of global warming and who is responsible for it meaningless. Nations will instead focus on devising measures to reduce it.

Brasseur believes that by around 2050, interest will grow in ‘geoengineering’ methods that artificially curb global warming, such as injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to block sunlight from reaching the surface. He said that if climate change becomes uncontrollable by 2050, the possibility of some countries or companies independently resorting to geoengineering to solve global warming cannot be ruled out.

Brasseur warned, “Some countries may take unilateral geoengineering measures based on the judgment that they can solve their own problems, without considering the impact on other nations.” He added, “Such artificial interventions could change rainfall patterns and have a cascading effect on other climate factors like atmospheric circulation and extreme weather events, potentially worsening the situation.”

He also noted, “Currently, many people fear immediate problems like food, security, war, and peace much more than the climate.” He stated, “If humanity fails to respond effectively to climate change, the world will likely face warming exceeding 3℃ above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.”

The year 2050 is an important milestone in the science and technology industry and an attractive deadline for those looking to set goals and attract investment. For example, space agencies typically plan on a 10-to-15-year basis because missions can take decades to conceive, approve, design, build, and launch.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has already solicited project ideas from the research community to be pursued by 2050. Submitted ideas include an orbital antimatter detector, a mission to bring back samples from the ice of a comet, and landing a robotic probe on the surface of Mercury.

The United States is preparing for active Mars exploration after 2050. Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated the goal for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to send humans to Mars well before 2050. Elon Musk claims that ‘SpaceX’ could send an uncrewed spacecraft to Mars around 2026 as part of a plan to send people there in the 2030s.

There is also an opinion that technology to support safe space travel needs to be developed in preparation for a future where space travel becomes more common. Emilia Javorsky, program lead for the Future of Life Institute, a U.S. think tank, said, “Space exploration is primarily led by engineers—aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers—and they are greatly underestimating the biological challenges.” She added, “The dangers of space radiation and the long-term effects of microgravity must be considered.”

AI could transform the scientific research process into something very different by 2050. Alex Ayad, co-founder of the London-based market research and foresight company Outsmart Insight, predicts that there will be a growing number of ‘unmanned labs’ where autonomous systems powered by robots and algorithms study biotechnology problems around the clock with no human intervention.

Bostrom predicted, “Artificial general intelligence (AGI) will emerge by 2050.” He added, “Through AGI, we will be able to answer most of the questions that humanity is interested in and that can, in principle, be answered by science.”

Another prospect is that the combination of quantum science and advanced cosmology research could lead to significant progress in understanding the universe by 2050. Professor Juan Carlos Hidalgo of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Cuernavaca emphasized, “When quantum technology and space observations converge, we will be able to explore realms that have been inaccessible until now.”

Professor Hidalgo is developing ultra-sensitive quantum sensors based on the Nobel Prize-winning technology for generating attosecond laser pulses. These sensors can detect extremely faint changes in magnetic and electric fields arising from the spin of single electrons and atomic nuclei. He explains that integrating such sensors into gravitational wave detectors could allow for the identification of very small celestial objects, such as hypothetical primordial black holes, beyond current observational limits.

Primordial black holes are celestial objects presumed to have formed shortly after the Big Bang. It has been suggested that they could account for a portion of the mass not currently observed in the universe. Hidalgo said, “When combined with other cosmological data, such observations could provide crucial clues to uncovering the nature of dark matter and dark energy.”

He predicted that such discoveries could become the foundation for a new theory to replace the widely accepted standard model of cosmology. The existing standard model is facing limitations to its explanatory power, as observational data published in 2024 revealed a discrepancy between its predictions for the universe’s expansion rate and actual measurements.

Professor Hidalgo also expressed an optimistic view on nuclear fusion energy, a technology long derided as being ’30 years away.’ He assessed that it is highly likely that fusion technology will reach a mature, pre-commercialization stage by 2050. Hidalgo emphasized, “The progress in the field of fusion over the past five years is far greater than the combined progress of the previous 50 years.”

Of course, according to Nature, the dramatic scientific progress of the past 75 years has been the result of broad public support for research, but it is uncertain whether this trend will continue. The spread of populism and a global atmosphere demanding immediate solutions to problems are becoming increasing obstacles to making the case for the value of basic research, which requires years of patience and accumulation.

In particular, with public spending cuts continuing due to economic recessions, coupled with political pressure that questions the social value of science itself, researchers may face the burden of having to constantly justify their research expenditures.

As a result, an analysis suggests that government research investment is likely to lose its precarious balance between pure and applied research and gravitate toward fields that clearly align with short-term political goals. For example, in countries with rapidly aging populations, investment in medical research aimed at preventing and treating chronic diseases is likely to expand. However, a pointed-out limitation is that technological progress alone does not automatically guarantee such outcomes.

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