ESL Conversation Topic – 30 Future Technologies

Pair work - Choose one of the inventions below and tell your partner what you think about it. Together, brainstorm as many advantages and disadvantages as you can think of.

Group work – Speak about the advantages and disadvantages of each future technology. Decide as a group which inventions are the best. Choose 5 technologies.

1. Remote controlled surgeries (human surgeons control robotic surgeons from hundreds of kilometres away).

2. Domed cities (urban areas under a roof).

3. The end of cash.

4. Driverless cars.

5. 3-D printers.

6. Cryogenics.

7. Harvesting human organs in a lab.

8. Controlling desktop with fingers without contacting the screen.

9. Eye tracking (the process of watching where a person is looking – used in neurology, medicine, adverts, market research and web design).

10. Colonising a new planet.

11. Insect-sized robot spies.

12. Choosing the physical and mental attributes of your offspring.

13. A pill that contains all your nutritional needs – no need to eat food any more.

14. In vitro meat (meat grown in a lab).

15. Agricultural robots.

16. Bioplastics (plastic made from renewable sources such as corn).

17. Computer chips in every person.

18. Microbotics (miniature robots).

19. Biometrics (measuring and analysing biological data such as human body characteristics such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns for authentication purposes).

20. Home fuel cell (generates electricity and heat in private households from natural gas).

21. Mechanical limbs that allow the paralysed to walk.

22. No more paper.

23. Cloning.

24. Solar-powered aeroplanes.

25. Space tourism.

26. The sunscreen pill (a tablet you take that protects your eyes and skin).

27. Cloning techniques that bring animals back from extinction, e.g. the woolly mammoth

28. Portable laser pens that can seal wounds.

29. Computers that think like humans.

30. Light Peak technology (a method of super-high-data-transfer, over 100 Gigabytes per second).

31. Energy from a fusion reactor (a machine that can contain a reaction that occurs at over 125,000,000 degrees).

32. Tube transport systems (like on the cartoon Futurama).

    
    

    Credited source: http://matadornetwork.com/life/24-incredible-new-technologies-youll-see-by-2021/