Say goodbye to your car park.
Michael McQueen, a Sydney-based futurist, has released a new book, How to Prepare for Now for What’s Next, that documents the world’s rapid evolution, and predicts the multitude of changes that will take place globally in the next decade.
McQueen also gives plenty of tips to us Aussie’s on how to ‘future proof’ ourselves, whether it be in our careers or in the languages we learn.
So, let’s take a look at what things we should expect to disappear in the next few years:
47% of professions might disappear
According to McQueen, almost fifty percent of our current jobs will disappear with the introduction of more tech. He says this is nothing new as a similar transition took place with production lines in the 1900’s. To ensure you’ve still got a steady income, McQueen suggests focusing on jobs where you can be ‘human’ – those roles where you need empathy, creativity, and instinct – all things that can’t be replicated by technology.
Car parks will be a thing of the past
We’ve all been following the development of driverless cars, and despite their recent setbacks, McQueen believes that they are the way of the future. He states that when they become common place, the look of our cities will change completely.
“Parking is a nightmare — it makes more sense for the car to drop you off and go home or go into an Uber-style pool of other cars and earn you cash while you’re at work,” he said.
iTunes will be gone by 2019
McQueen has stated that sources have “pointed to a plan to completely terminate iTunes music download sales by early 2019”.
Credit cards will be obsolete
As we all know, we’re using our cards less and less with the invention of Apple Pay, however McQueen believes even that will soon be replaced. According to the futurist, Square’s Pay by Name system will be how transactions are completed in the future. The technology detects when a known mobile phone is in range, identifies that buyer, and shows the buyers face on a screen. The cashier can simply confirm the identity and proceed with the transaction.
You won’t be on hold for hours with a call centre
The tech company Gartner estimates that artificial intelligence will be responsible for 85% of customer service roles by 2020. They believe that the interaction will take place mainly through chatbots.
You won’t need to learn foreign languages
A translation earpiece is currently in development that translates languages in real time and feeds it into the wearers ear, and doesn’t need to be connected to WIFI or Bluetooth. This kind of tech already exists in other forms, so this won’t be too far away.
No more filling up at petrol stations
McQueen believes that electric cars will “demise the need for petrol”, therefore our servo on the corner will cease to have a purpose.
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Words by Kate Stevens
Images via Unsplash
