It's impossible to know what innovations the next 50 years will bring, but Americans think they've got a pretty good idea. The Pew Research Center this week published survey results that show great anticipation for a period of profound scientific change.
Overall, most Americans anticipate that technological developments will have a net positive effect on society; almost one-third, however, believe scientific changes will lead to a worse future.
The optimists mostly pin their hopes on incredible inventions, like custom organs grown in a lab (81 percent), or computers that will create art indistinguishable from that made by humans (51 percent).
The science-fiction ideas of yesterday, however, do not look like they will become the consumer products of tomorrow: Less than 40 percent of people expect teleportation technology, and only one in three believe humans will have colonized planets other than Earth by the year 2065.
"But at the same time," senior Pew researcher Aaron Smith said in a report, "there are widespread concerns about some controversial technological developments that might occur on a shorter time horizon."
More than half of Americans worry about health developments, like allowing prospective parents to change their children's DNA, or that robots could become the primary caregivers for the elderly or poor.
A majority of people have even more immediate concerns, voicing their disapproval of personal and commercial drones flying through U.S. airspace, as well as wearables or implants that constantly display information about their environment.
Would you get into the passenger seat of a self-driving car? The public is evenly divided about whether they'd like to test the new technology.
On the other hand, 72 percent of folks would not be interested in getting a brain implant to improve memory or mental capacity (a daring 26 percent said they'd be up for it).
In partnership with Smithsonian magazine, Pew surveyed more than 1,000 adults between Feb. 13 and 18, and found that either Americans have been watching too many '80s movies, or the Back to the Future trilogy really nailed it.
According to the results, the three most common futuristic inventions people would like to own or use include flying cars and time travel. The thirdhealth improvements that extend human longevity or cure major diseaseswasn't exactly in Doc Brown's wheelhouse.
Check out the Pew Research Center's detailed findings online. And take a look at PCMag's roundup of Technology That Should Exist By Now in the slideshow above.
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