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The following ideas hold the possibility of getting in on the ground floor of some next Big Thing.
Alas, because these ideas, by definition are cutting edge if not downright futuristic, most are research-oriented, which tend to require an advanced degree.
Psychology
In that this is Psychology Today, let’s start with psychology-related predictions.
Parsing mental illness. Terms like depression, schizophrenia, and autism will likely come to be seen as catch-alls for many different diseases and etiologies. DNA and more macro biological analyses such as neural circuits will enable more precise diagnosis and, in turn, more effective treatment. Of course, such approaches to research will also facilitate precision medicine in the physical health domain.
The U.S. will likely provide health care to all, without regard to whether a person is paying into the system, the so-called “Medicare for All.” That will demand major cost-control. Blood, urine, cheek-cell-DNA and imaging tests are far less expensive than, for example, internal biopsies and exploratory surgeries, so the aforementioned kinds of research will likely be well-funded, further increasing job prospects in this field.
People choosing a career related to precision medicine may well help dramatically improve how disease is prevented, diagnosed, and treated.
Gender-fluid and contractual romantic relationships. Sexual binarism is being replaced by sexual fluidity, in which people can vary in time and degree of homo- versus heterosexuality, monogamy versus polyandry, etc. Also, the lifetime marriage has, de facto, long given way to shorter relationships, to wit, the 50% divorce rate among those who pledged fidelity “until death do us part.” Of course, some of these shorter relationships will remain ad-hoc: from quick hook-ups to living together at will. But many people’s desire for security will increase the use of contracts that specify the commitment's length, nature of fidelity, financial obligations, and intent regarding children. These new forms of commitment will impose challenges. So some of today’s marriage-and family counselors might morph into specialists in gender-fluid couples and/or in new contractual arrangements.
AI romantic partners. Half of “’til death do us part” partners part, and many who stay together do so less for love than “for the kids” or because of inertia, or to avoid a painful, expensive divorce. Atop that, it seems that relations between the sexes have worsened, acceleratingly so in the past few years. This seems more a trend than a pendulum swing, so as technology improves, the AI-driven romantic partner as portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie Her and in actual incarnations such as Emma will advance much further. I can envision careers in purveying such partners as well as in counseling people regarding issues that derive.
Weed Wegrets. The “Weed, Whee!” euphoria over the legalization of recreational marijuana is already starting to give way to the realities of what has occurred in the five years since legalization in Colorado as well as the acceleratingly frightening research from unbiased (e.g., university medical school) researchers. As with alcohol, desperate family members will do what they can to help their weed-vitiated loved ones. So counselor types who specialize in substance abuse will likely find themselves with plenty of clients.
Beyond psychology
Online education 2.0. The field of education has had the motility of an iceberg. But the edu-berg is starting to feel the heat from online education in which students aren’t limited to the one or two instructors at their one institution who’s teaching that course at an acceptable time. Another source of heat is the low-cost modules on the student’s or employee’s topic of interest.
Online education still suffers from low completion rate, which is largely a function of attempting to port standard education online. But future iterations will be far more immersive, simulation-centric, individually paced, and, to accommodate our ever more diverse society, instantly translated into many languages—Ask your live professor to do that! Online Ed 2.0 will be used not only in higher education and in employer-provided training but as an ever larger part of K-12 education. For example, algebra, seen as a needed gateway course for the college-bound is too often taught by teachers who better in math than at teaching that difficult and potentially dry subject—Quadratic equations anyone?
I’m particularly intrigued by the idea of such world-class online courses in ethics. Ethics courses have long been required but too often yield A’s in the course but F’s in real life.
Another topic that cries for transformation is a course on the meaning of life. Reduced income and employment opportunities will require more people to live a not-materialistic lifestyle. A transformational course in living a meaning-centered life could be essential to ensure citizen happiness and to reduce violent social upheaval.
I see large demand for developers and teachers of online 2.0 courses and trainings.
The centrality of data science If knowledge is power, data is nuclear power. Ever improving, AI-driven data mining will increasingly automate and boost the quality of researchers’, lawyers', physicians’ and yes, psychologists’ efforts to unearth actionable recommendations for example, identifying biomarkers that lead to earlier diagnosis and more personalized treatment. Too, data science will enable us to better predict likely sources of terrorism and detect attacks, for example, using biosensors. Data science careers should remain hot but true data scientists have high-level skills in programming, math, and statistics as well as possessing rigorous analytical ability, for example, the ability to see promising datasets in the mountain of data.
The robots are a-comin. Robotic surgery is old news: For example, a surgeon in the U.S. can perform surgery on a patient in Africa. Farming is growing ever more robotic. A current innovation: Robots can now “see” when tomatoes are at the perfect ripeness for picking. The coming decade will see more-automated vehicles. Some activists are fighting automation, worried about the loss of jobs. Other people put their heads in the sand. Still others decide to pursue a career in robotics: “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
The nuclear option. Solar, wind, and geothermal provide insufficient energy, so there’s a growing consensus that nuclear need be part of the energy mix. That consensus is driving increased investment (including from Bill Gates) in the development of safer, less expensive, more compact nuclear power. Long-shot prediction: nuclear+solar-powered vehicles, maybe even one-person aircraft that will replace the car, obviating the increasingly nightmarish commutes. Nuclear engineers should find an (ahem) explosion of jobs.
Communal microhousing. The widely predicted decline in good employment will increase pressure to provide lower-cost housing. That’s why we’re seeing a boom in rental apartments and a decline in prices of upscale houses. That will likely accelerate, culminating in microapartment buildings with few-hundred square-foot homes that squeeze the most from each square foot: loft beds, pull-out stoves, etc. The microapartments will likely be in large enough buildings to justify communal dining and perhaps health and social services. Psychological types could find a niche in helping people deal with living in small communal quarters.
Mass-customized clothes. The daunting traffic and parking and often even more time-consuming mass transit will boost online shopping. Clothing has typically remained in brick-and-mortar stores’ bailiwick but we’re already starting to see efforts to enable you to upload a photo of the part of your body for which you want clothes, pick a style and color, (or answer a questionnaire per StitchFix), and a clothing manufacturer will custom-create and mail your item to you. No more searching for needles in haystacks: the color, style, and size you like. You'll get just what you want, delivered to your door. Companies developing mass-customized clothes should thrive.
Next-gen entertainment. This will be ever more important because of the likely significant increase in un- and underemployment caused by automation, offshoring, and just-in-time hiring. One likely breakthrough in recreation is what I call the immersion room. In public venues and as costs decline, in homes, immersion rooms will allow people to interact as though in a jungle, in outer space, as a blood cell coursing through the human body, etc. Those rooms’ walls, ceiling, and floor will be videoscreens and the environment in which the person moves will yield reactions from holographic 3D-images. Less dramatic but still vastly entertaining yet more portable and inexpensive will be sunglasses-sized VR headsets with earbuds molded into the headset's arms. Psychologically oriented people may be employable on development teams.
AI-generated hit pop songs. Artificial intelligence already can incorporate common threads in platinum-selling lyrics and music, and at least one industry insider believes that, within five years, 80 percent of top-40 hits will be at least AI-assisted. This may be bad news for songwriters but increase the chances of listeners loving a song.
Apart from high-tech entertainment, with more people working less than full-time if at all, they’ll want to fill their time by attending longer festivals: perhaps weeks long, inspired by the likes of week-long Burning Man. Festival planning will continue to be a growth industry.
You
If I were starting over now, I’d prepare for a career as a researcher developing an intelligence “pill.” Intelligence can be used for good or ill but as long as the intelligence “pill” were ethically distributed, I’m excited about its potential: A more intelligent populace is foundational to everything from curing disease to creating more useful products to spawning better leaders.
Of course, more important than what I’d do is whether any idea in this article intrigues you enough to do at least a bit of research into it?
I read this aloud on YouTube.
This is part of a series on suggested careers.
