2025 predictions: 30 years ago, sabi pipo predict di year – e come true? – BBC News Pidgin

For 1995, di BBC Tomorrow World programme bin decide to predict wetin di world go look like 30 years later, for 2025.

Di show, wey no longer dey broadcast, bin feature one of di most famous scientists of di age, Prof Stephen Hawking, wey predict say: “By 2025 we fit expect big changes.”

Di programme team bin agree, dem suggest some world-shaking innovations from hologram surgery to space junk gel.

So, wit di help of some experts – and di benefit of 30 years of experience – make we take a look at how much of today world wey Tomorrow World successfully forsee.

For 1995, di world wide web bin just dey really take off – development Tomorrow World think go bring future trouble.

Dey bin predict “business barons” and banks go take control of di internet by 2000, establish “supernet” wey dem restrict access to.

Dat, in turn, go cause hacks, viruses and even riots.

Verdict – Di internet don remain – mostly – open, and no riots but little doubt dey say actions of hackers don cause misery for many pipo.

One tin wey di programme no predict be di role of di nation state hackers.

Cyber security dey highly important for govments and companies, and pipo wey dey suspicious of banks don champion cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Di programme bin reason say space mining go become a lucrative industry, wit companies dey dig out asteroids near Earth for precious metals.

Di show bin also suggest say space junk go become problem so tey e no go dey safe for astronauts. Di answer – ogbonge foam gel to slow down waste dem.

Verdict – Well, no super foam gel and di problem of space junk na serious one. Also no space mining industry – but dat fit change.

Futurist Tom Cheesewright na optimist about mining beyond our planet.

“Di potential riches no fit dey calculated and di technology dey entirely within our reach,” e tok.

Tomorrow World bin predict say by 2004, UK hospitals go pass one law to publish league table of surgeon success rates. Di top surgeons go den become so popular, and so well paid, e go make no sense for dem to travel to patients.

Instead, patient holograms go dey sent to dem and di surgeon go operate wit use of “spacial gloves”. For di patient end, one robot go perfectly mimic di movements of di surgeon.

Verdict – Dey no get am exactly right but robots dey help wit surgeries.

Di programme bin feature one man of di future (wey wear VR headset), im wife and one young girl inside wetin appear to be modern-day London.

For one section, di floating head of one woman come out of one “smart speaker” to tell di man say e don be one year since im holiday to “Indo Disney.” She encourage am to take anoda holiday through “shuttle to Bangalore” – wey go only take 40 minutes.

Verdict – Ultra-fast travel feel as far away as ever, but holograms, smart speakers and VR headsets dey become ever more common.

For anoda place inside di programme, dem bin give us a vision of di future of banking.

E bin feature one woman wey dey go bank, to complain say humans no dey , and den withdraw 100 “Euro marks.” Di bank den give her di money afta e scan one chip for her arm.

Verdict – Banking don indeed become more and more automated. And though to pay through microchips inside di human body na reality, oda technologies – mainly fingerprint and face scanning – dey much more widely used.

Gardeners World star Monty Don na one of di presenters on dat Tomorrow World programme 30 years ago. Im segment bin predict big come-back of British woodlands thanks to genetic engineering and multi-storey agri facilities, wey lead to di return of animals including di brown bear.

As e bin reflect on am now, e tell BBC News say part of di programme dey “utopian” and “naive”.

To look towards di next 30 years, e dey pleased say di current generation of young pipo dey “much more sensitive to climate change” and think say pipo go dey grow more of dia own food by 2055.

E add: “Tomorrow World by definition dey towards di way mankind fit change and improve di world, whereas wetin we don really learn since den na say mankind get one habit to make tins worse, particularly environmentally, and we need to work wit nature rather dan try modify and control am.”

Vivienne Parry na anoda presenter on di prediction show, and front one section about medicine.

She remember how she film am- and di rather limited visual effects of di day. “I bin need to stay very still. I bin get one set of glasses on wit one little camera attached wey dem bin stick on my face through one big blob of black sticky stuff.

“Na dis fantastically hot day, and dis black stuff bin start to leak down my face and I no fit move. Someone from make-up bin come along wit one long cane wit cotton wool on di end to comot am.”

Vivienne don dey involved wit Genomics England since 2013, and highlights of some of di predictions from di 1995 Tomorrow World about genomic sequence don come true, as she work on one research study to help diagnose and treat genetic conditions.

Futurist Tracey Follow think say di 1995 programme get a lot of big ideas right, but miss two of di biggest themes of di last 30 years – di spread of big tech and social media.

By 2055, she think say many pipo go dey “cognitively connected” – one hive mind of humans and technology through servers, wey go help in di sharing of ideas.

“Brainstorm go literally dey brainstorm, where you fit share ideas by thinking dem.”

Tom Cheesewright think say two of di most exciting prospects for di next 30 years go be materials science and bioengineering.

In materials, di creation of devices wey dey even stronger, lighter and thinner fit change di world, while bioengineering – marry wit tight regulation – get di power to transform medicine and tackle “some of di biggest challenges humanity dey face – decarbonisation, clean water, food”.

So wetin you think di world go look like in 30 years?

Whatever your answers be, e go dey wise to listen to wetin Prof Hawking tok to Tomorrow World three decades ago.

“Some of dis changes dey very exciting, and some dey alarming. Di one tin wey we fit dey sure of na say e go dey very different, and probably no be wetin we expect.”