Timeline (New Generation)

2018

 * A major earthquake hits California.
 * East Africa's largest ever infrastructure project.
 * The Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe arrives at 1999 JU3.
 * Completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project.
 * The Transbay Transit Center is opened in San Francisco.
 * The NHS begins high-energy proton therapy in England.
 * Enterprise-grade SSDs reach 128TB of capacity.
 * InSight touches down on Mars.
 * The CHEOPS telescope is deployed to study exoplanets.
 * Crossrail opens in London.
 * Polio has been eradicated.

2019

 * Personal genome sequencing enters the mainstream.
 * 3D printing becomes a mainstream consumer technology.
 * The New Horizons probe arrives at Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU 69.
 * James Webb Space Telescope is launched.
 * The first mission to a gas giant using solar sail propulsion.
 * The first prototype Stratobus is launched.
 * Launch of BIOMASS mission.
 * Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system is fully operational.
 * Computers break the exaflop barrier.
 * Bionic eyes with high resolution are commercially available.
 * A vaccine to treat melanoma.
 * Connected vehicle technology is being deployed in a number of countries.
 * Automated freight transport.
 * US copyright begins to expire, starting with all works from 1923.
 * LEDs dominate de lighting industry.
 * Jordan opens its first nuclear power plant.
 * The City Circle Line opens in Copenhagen.
 * The East Side Acess subway extension opens in New York.
 * British troops leave Germany.
 * The final collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf.
 * Independence of Bougainville Island and New Caledonia.

2020

 * So-called "blue ocean events" becomes commonplace.
 * The Euclid Space Telescope is launched.
 * Uganda is an oil-producing nation.
 * America's power shift is destabilising the Asia-Pacific region.
 * Generation X is reshaping global politics.
 * Internet use reaches 5 billion worldwide.
 * The 5G standard is released.
 * Texting by thinking.
 * Complex organ replacements grown from stem cells.
 * The first stem cell therapy for congestive heart failure.
 * A cure for malaria.
 * Progress with longevity extension.
 * Genetically engineered "super" bananas.
 * Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games.
 * Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) has been significantly exoanded.
 * Completion of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link.
 * The UK has expanded its offshore grid connections.
 * Smart meters in every UK home.
 * Mercury pollution has been greatly reduced.
 * Glacier National Park and other regions are becoming ice-free.
 * Britain's new aircraft carriers reach full operational capability.
 * 30,000 drones are patrolling the skies of America.
 * Mars 2020 rover mission.
 * The first test flights of NASA's Quiet Supersonic Technology.
 * England's Coastal Path is open to walkers.
 * Expo 2020 is held in Dubai.
 * The PlayStation 5 is launched.

2021

 * The Euclid Space Telescope reveals new insights into dark matter and dark energy.
 * The ExoMars rover touches down on Mars.
 * June 17th:
 * Greenland moves towards full independence.
 * Water crisis in southwest USA.
 * The world's largest insect swarm re-emerges.
 * Five-year survival rates for breast cancer are approaching 100%.
 * Male birth control pills ar entering the market.
 * The world's first artificial kidney.
 * Launch of the Terrafugia TF-X flying car.
 * The first Arabian mission to Mars.
 * The maiden flight of Ariane 6.
 * India's first manned space flight.
 * A rapidly changing workforce.
 * Wireless electricity is reaching critical mass.
 * Traditional microchips are reaching the limits of miniaturisation.
 * Completion of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge.

2022

 * The next generation of London Tube trains.
 * India becomes the most populous country on Earth.
 * The ITER experimental fusion reactor is switched on.
 * Germany phases out nuclear energy.
 * Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics.
 * Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup.
 * China's first space station is complete.
 * The European Extremely Large Telescope is operational.
 * The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope begins full operations.'
 * Japanese probe to a Martian moon.
 * New Horizons completes its study of the Kuiper Belt.
 * The AIDA mission arrives at Didymos.
 * The Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE) is launched.
 * Water is becoming a weapon of war.
 * Global reserves of antimony are running out.
 * Nanotech clothes are growing rapidly in use.
 * Poland begins exporting the PL-01 stealth tank.
 * Collision of two stars in the binary system KIC 9832227.
 * Driverless hover-taxis are operational in Dubai.

2023

 * A tipping point for block chain.
 * The Aerion AS2 supersonic jet enters service.
 * First crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft.
 * Mars sample return mission.
 * Asteroid sample return mission.
 * Launch of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).
 * Laser-driven fusion energy makes progress.
 * The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is operational.
 * The Type 26 Global Combat Ship enters service.
 * Turkey its 100th anniversary as an independent republic.
 * Completion of the London "super sewer".
 * Brain implants to restore lost memories.
 * Borneo's rainforests have been wiped from the map.
 * Driverless high-speed trains begin operating in France.
 * Completion of the Stad Ship Tunnel.

2024

 * Five-years survival rates for Hodgkin's lymphoma are approaching 100%.
 * Vladimir Putin steps down as President of Russia.
 * Open-source, 3D printed clothes at near-zero cost.
 * The Thirty Metre Telescope is fully operational.
 * Completion of the Square Kilometre Array.
 * Total solar eclipse across North America.
 * Paris hosts the Summer Olympic Games.
 * The first probe to fly into the Sun's outer atmosphere.
 * Lunar Mission One drills into the Moon's south pole.
 * Bio-electronics for treating arthritis are in common use.
 * Carsharing has exploded in popularity.
 * Wind turbine drone inspection is a multi-billion dollar industry.
 * Starlink reaches full capacity.

2025

 * The European Spallation Source (ESS) becomes operational.
 * Gene therapy for deafness.
 * Breast tomosynthesis is in widespread use.
 * Unemployment is soaring.
 * Small modular nuclear reactors gain widespread adoption.
 * Manned missions to the Moon.
 * Mouse revival from cryopreservation.
 * The threat of bioterrorism is peaking.
 * Hypersonic missiles are in military use.
 * Some of Britain's most well-known animal species are going extinct.
 * A billion of human genomes have been sequenced.
 * Human brain simulations are becoming possible.
 * 3D-printed human organs.
 * China is becoming highly urbanised.
 * Vertical farms are common in cities.
 * Solid waste is reaching crisis levels.
 * Kivalina has been inundated.
 * Completion of the East Anglia Zone.
 * The UK phases out coal power.
 * The Giant Magellan Tellescope is fully operational.
 * The first test flight of the Skylon spaceplane.
 * The first manned flights from Russia's new spaceport.
 * Contact with the Voyager probes is lost.
 * High speed rail networks are being expanded in many countries.
 * A comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. airspace system is complete.
 * Railguns are in use by the U.S. navy.
 * The global crowdfunding marked reaches $100bn.
 * BepiColombo arrives in orbit around Mercury.
 * The final Avatar movie is released.

2026

 * The United States is struck by the most devastating earthquake in its history.
 * India's reusable launch vehicle is operational.
 * The PLATO observatory is operational.
 * A synthetic human genome is completed.
 * Aquaculture provides the majority of the world's seafood.
 * The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is operational.
 * The International Linear Collider is completed.
 * 3-D printed electronic membranes to prevents hearts attacks.
 * Youthful regeneration of aging heart muscle via GDF-11.
 * New treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
 * Rising sea levels are wreaking havoc on the Maldives.
 * Global reserves of indium are running out.
 * Construction of the Sagrada Família is complete.
 * Robotic hands matching human capabilities.
 * The FIFA World Cup is hosted jointly in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
 * Mars Science Laboratory is shutting down.
 * Expansion of London's Heathrow Airport.

2027

 * The BRICs overtake the G7 nations.
 * Light-duty hydrogen fuel cell vehicles reach 1 million in annual sales.
 * Tokyo and Nagoya are connected by high-speed maglev.
 * Carbon sequestration is underway in many nations.
 * The Venera-D mission arrives at Venus.
 * The asteroid 1999 AN10 makes a close approach.
 * The Europa Clipper arrives in orbit.
 * The autopsy report for Elvis Presley is made public.

2028

 * Completion of the deep Space Gateway.
 * Launch of the European ATHENA X-ray observatory.
 * China builds the world's largest particle accelerator.
 * Printed eletronics are ubiquitous the UK population 70m.
 * British newspapers are going out of circulation.
 * Launch of the ARIEL spacecraft.
 * Delhi becomes the most populous city in the world.
 * Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympic Games.
 * Total solar eclipse in Australia and New Zealand.
 * Resurrection of several extinct species has been achieved.
 * The International space Station is decommisioned.

2029

 * Rhinos are extinct in the wild.
 * Human-like AI is becoming a reality.
 * Heavy automation of supermarkets and retail environments.
 * Intelligent advertising.
 * Mass application of gene drives on mosquitoes.
 * Global reserves of silver are running out.
 * Lake Chad disappears from the map.
 * Madagascar's radiated tortoise in extinct in the wild.
 * Phase 1 of the California High-Speed Rail line is complete.
 * Jupiter's Great Red Spot is disappearing.
 * The wreck of the Titanic has decomposed.

2030

 * All television becomes Internet-based.
 * The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) conducts its life-searching mission.
 * Global population is reaching crisis point.
 * Desalination has exploded in use.
 * "Smart grid" technology is widespread in developed nations.
 * The USA is declining as a world power.
 * An interstellar message arrives at Luyten's Star.
 * Depression is the number one global disease burden.
 * Child mortality is approaching 2% globally.
 * The Muslim population has increased significantly.
 * Full weather modelling is perfected.
 * Orbital space junk is becoming a major problem for space flight.
 * Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) reaches the Jovian system.
 * The UK space industry has quadrupled in size.
 * The Lockheed Martin SR-72 enters service.
 * A new generation of military helicopters.
 * Hyper-fast crime scene analysis.
 * Half of America's shopping malls have closed.
 * Emerging job titles of today.
 * Cargo Sous Terrain becomes operational in Switzerland.

2031

 * India has begun phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
 * Much of Bangkok is being abandoned due to flooding.
 * Global reserves of lead are running out.
 * Perennial wheat and corn are becoming profitable.
 * Web 4.0 is transforming the Internet landscape.
 * Stem cell pharmacies are commonplace.
 * Married couples are a minority in the UK.
 * Chocolate has become a rare luxury.

2032

 * The majority of UK homes are rented.
 * Britain's ash trees jave been wiped out by a fungal disease.
 * Leatherback sea turtles are on the verge of extinction.
 * China's space station is deorbited.
 * 4th generation nuclear power.
 * One-third of Saudi Arabia's electricity comes from solar.
 * Terabit internet speeds are commonplace.
 * Britain upgrades its nuclear armed submarine fleet.

2033

 * Crewed mission to Phobos.
 * Mining operations in the main asteroid belt.
 * Peak phosphorus is reached.
 * Hypersonic airliners are entering service.
 * The final phase of Britain's HS2 rail link is completed.
 * Holographic wall screens.
 * Lung disease in China has killed over 80 million by now.
 * Five-year survival rates for kidney cancer are approaching 100%.

2034

 * Service robots number a billion worldwide.
 * The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is launched.
 * Switzerland phases out nuclear energy.
 * Caribbean coral reefs are in danger of being wiped out.
 * Unification of Benelux.
 * Coastal erosion has destroyed hundreds of UK homes.
 * A major supermoon occurs.

2035

 * The High-Definition Space Telescope (HDST) is operational.
 * The Very Large Hadron Collider is operational.
 * Millennials are enjoying an inheritance boom.
 * Lion populations in Africa have declined by half.
 * World tin reserves are running out.
 * Distributed propulsion systems are revolutionising air travel.
 * Self- driving vehicles dominate the roads.
 * Holographic recreations of dead people.
 * Robots are dominating the battlefield.
 * London's population exceeds 10 million.
 * Norway's underwater suspended tunnels are completed.
 * The global airline fleet has doubled.

2036

 * Ectogenesis is transforming reproductive rights.
 * Transhuman sports competitors.
 * Hepatitis C has become a rare disease in the U.S.
 * In-vitro meat is a mature industry.
 * Alzheimer's disease is fully curable.
 * Detailed probing and mapping of the Kuiper Belt is underway.
 * Lemurs are on the brink of extinction.

2037

 * Total solar eclipse in australia and New Zealand.
 * The U.S. Air Force introduces a new stealth bomber.
 * America's sixth-generation fighter jet enters service.

2038

 * Establishment of the first manned lunar bases.
 * Older computers are at risk of experiencing major software malfunctions.
 * The New Horizons probe is 100 AU from the Sun.
 * Capital punishment has greatly declined in use.
 * Teleportation of complex organic molecules.
 * The FIFA WOrld Cup trophy is replaced.
 * The space industry exceeds $1tn worldwide.

2039

 * The final collapse of the European Union.
 * Russia is a global food superpower.
 * Full immersion virtual reality.
 * The world's first trillionaire.
 * Manufacturing jobs have largely disappeared in the West.
 * Australia's national symbol, the Koala, faces extinction.
 * Five-year survival rates for leukaemia are approaching 100%.
 * Extreme heatwaves are commonplace in the U.S.

2040

 * The Arctic becomes free of sea ice.
 * The first definitive evidence of life beyond Earth.
 * Swarm robotics are reaching the nanometre scale.
 * The RAF Typhoon is phased out and replaced by the Tempest.
 * India's economy is rivalling that of China and the U.S.
 * Fusion power is nearing commercial availability.
 * Deep ocean mining operations are widespread.
 * Less than two thirds of the original Congo jungle remains standing.
 * Virtual telepathy is dominating personal communications.
 * Biorepository and genomic information systems are transforming healthcare.
 * Pollen counts have more than doubled.
 * Tobacco has been largely eradicated.
 * Life expectancy for cystic fibrosis reaches 70.
 * Breakthroughs in carbon nanotube production.
 * Submarine exploration of Titan.
 * China's HSR network has been greatly expanded.
 * Completion of the Northeast Corridor high-speed rail route.

2041

 * Global average temperatures haves risen by 2°C.
 * Annual deaths from cardiovascular disease have reached negligible levels in the U.S.
 * Oil spills in the Niger Delta have been cleaned up.
 * Orbital solar power is commercially feasible.
 * Supercomputers reach the yottaflop scale.
 * Completion of the W350 tower in Tokyo.
 * Cases of lung cancer have spiked in New York.

2042

 * Global population reaches 9 billion.
 * White people are minority in the USA.
 * NASA Uranus mission.'
 * The Diary of Anne Frank enters the U.S. public domain.
 * The City of Trees project is completed in Manchester, England.

2043

 * The Ross Sea has lost 50% of its summer ice cover.
 * Slovenia closes down its only nuclear power plant.
 * The Changé-3 lander is shutting down.

2044

 * Japan experiences a major volcanic eruption.
 * The majority of primate species disappears from the wild.
 * The works of J.R.R. Tolkien enter the public domain.
 * A tipping point for permafrost melting.
 * The last veterans of WW2 are passing away.
 * A transglobal highway and rail network has emerged.
 * Five-year survival rates for bowel cancer are approaching 100%.

2045

 * China's space program is rivalling NASA.
 * Humans are becoming intimately merged with machines.
 * Homosexual discrimination has declined substantially.
 * Air accident fatalities have been eliminated.
 * The Chūō Shinkansen high speed maglev route is complete.
 * Gulf Coast cities are being abandoned due to super hurricanes.
 * Apollo 12's third stage returns to Earth.
 * Total solar eclipse in the USA.
 * The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is retired from service.

2046

 * Japan's population falls bellow 100 million.
 * The UK state pension age has risen to 70.
 * Carbon pricing is ubiquitous worldwide.

2047

 * July 1st:
 * "One country, two systems" is renewed in Hong Kong.
 * Fully autonomous, intelligent military aircraft.
 * Unmanned probe to 2060 Chiron.

2048

 * The Antarctic Treaty comes up for review.
 * King Crabs are infesting Antarctic marine ecosystems.

2049

 * Major extinctions of animal and plant life.
 * The Dead Sea is drying up.
 * The effects of heat stress on labour capacity have doubled.
 * The Fakushima disaster is cleaned up.

2050

 * Humanity is at a crossroads.
 * Nearly half of the Amazon rainforest has been deforested.
 * Wildfires have tripled in some regions.
 * Traditional wive industries have been severely altered by climate change.
 * Fish body size has declined by nearly a quarter.
 * Hi-tech, intelligent buildings are revolutionising the urban landscape.
 * Smaller, safer, hi-tech automobiles.
 * Major advances in air travel comfort.
 * Continent-wide supergrids provide much of the world's energy needs.
 * China completes the largest water diversion project in history.

2051

 * The U.S. population reaches 400 million.
 * An interstellar radio message arrives at Gliese 777.
 * Britain holds its centennial national exhibition.

2052

 * The biggest supermoon of the 21st century.

2053

 * Genetically engineered "designer babies for the rich.
 * Australia becomes the first country to eliminate cervical cancer.

2054

 * Rainfall intensity has increased by 20%.

2055

 * Glacier volume in the Everest region has declined by half.
 * Spaceflight has taken a leap forward.
 * The vast majority of countries have achieved democracy.
 * Global population is reaching a plateau.
 * Traditional media have fragmented and diversified.

2056

 * Breakthrough Starshot obtains images of Alpha Centauri.
 * Global average temperatures have risen by 3°C.

2057

 * Handheld MRI scanners.

2058

 * A billion human brains can be simulated in real time.
 * The Beatles' music catalogue enters the public domain.
 * A radio telescope is built on the Moon.

2059

 * The end of the oil age.
 * Mars has a permanent human presence by now.