4 Jobs from the Future!

Fifteen years ago, a web designer probably had eight hairy legs and an appetite for flying insects . Doctors, on the whole, didn't spin much. Disk Jockeys were terminally uncool with their flashing disco lights and shonky old records. But in the decade since, web developers, spin doctors and superstar DJs have built the online world, transformed politics and revolutionised popular music.

So, what new careers does the next century promise? Here are some ways your descendants will make a living...

1) Careers in Genetic Modification

In February 2001, the Human Genome Project published its final results. The molecular instructions folded into the DNA of every cell were decoded to reveal around 30,000 distinct genes. This achievement, which took well over a decade, was the biological equivalent of a moon landing. An enormous effort is now underway to figure out which part of the whole process each gene moderates in a living, breathing, growing body. What fits where and why, even in the simplest cell, is far from fully understood. However, it's certain that dramatic growth in all branches of life sciences will occur as other species' genomes are unravelled alongside our own. What will these advances mean for people who just want to earn a living, honest or otherwise? Let's see...

As it stands, genetic modification remains taboo in most developed nations. The European Union in particular has strong reservations about allowing the cultivation of GM crops or the raising of GM livestock. There is a partly justifiable fear of the unknown. Previous scientific revolutions have had unexpected consequences - DDT poisoning, dioxins, nuclear waste and ozone depletion are just some of the unintentional outcomes we can blame scientific myopia. What if genetic modification lead to the temperament and strength of the Pit Bull Terrier becoming associated with the leathery wings and echo-location of the giant bat? There would be chaos as baying flocks of flying dogs descended on unwitting picnickers. This scenario and other nightmares that include metal-digesting bacteria or a race of super-babies have halted genetic progress.

Over time, the prospect of unleashing doomsday chimaeras will subside. The use of iron was once taboo in many ancient societies, including the Roman Empire. Superstition about the new material meant farmers were reluctant to use iron ploughs in case their crops failed; priests refused to handle iron knives in their sacrifice and circumcision rituals. Eventually the taboo was forgotten, iron was accepted and blacksmiths were welcomed into society. Once ruled safe and fair, universal application of GM technology should ignite an economic boom as new organisms are introduced. Farmers and gardeners would have a vast new range of custom-made plants to experiment with; certain chefs would become famous after inventing fantastic new recipes from entirely novel ingredients, tweaked for flavour and nutrition; thousands would build careers as they researched nature's new parameters. So, we can expect a future free of starvation, pollution and crime, right? If only it were so simple...

2) Criminal genetics

In the 1980s there was a panic over so-called designer drugs; in the 1990s, much of the world was awash with cheap drugs that made thousands of young people dance without stopping at all-nighters held in fields, clubs and abandoned warehouses. This century, rogue biologists will spread drug-producing genes throughout the biosphere and become the greatest challenge to the current law-enforcement system.

Gangs of self-taught genetic engineers will isolate the relevant gene systems from cannabis plants, coca leaves, opium poppies and magic mushrooms to create new, potent, technically legal crops. Domestic versions of the genetic recombination tools used by the first genetic pioneers will make future generations very rich. The spread of this powerful technology will disturb many in our own generation with its ecological-ethical objections to genetic modification. In the early days, we can expect to hear reports of stealth-pharmacists combining genes from the marijuana plant with those of the orange tree, potato or carrot. Chemicals similar to ecstasy might be produced in the urine of laboratory mice, bottled and then gulped down by eager clubbers. And as the modified pollen spreads, innocent vegetable gardens across the land might become overwhelmed by a veritable psychopharmacopoeia of mind warping fruit and vegetables.

A later development will be the alteration of human bodies for the same purpose. An individual might be persuaded to undergo procedures that convert the gut into an internal biological factory. Every morning, a tightly bundled bale of potent cannabis might be squeezed out; the kidneys could be re-engineered to ooze pure opium; ribs, once removed and pulverized, might supply a powdery mixture of bone dust and cocaine. Whether the laws of the land apply to what goes on behind the borders of one's own skin will have to be settled - can habeas corpus really include habeas cannabis ? Before the century is out, there may be thousands of walking, talking, border-crossing human drugs factories roaming the earth, earning enormous fortunes wherever they go by selling their modified metabolites.

3) One Million Ministers - the Rise of Telepolitics

The result of the 2005 and 2001 British General Elections were nearly carbon copies of the 1997 result. There were few surprises to liven up a dull campaign and as it turned into just another mild soap opera, less than 60% of voters bothered to stay tuned in long enough to register their vote at the end of the series. The predictable result was another massive victory for the ruling Labour Party and a deeper burial for the Conservative Party. It was a mudslide rather than a landslide.

There's little reason to believe that the decision to stay at home on polling day will become less common. Voter apathy will reach new levels as trust in politicians and the political process nose-dives. Democracy may appear to come close to death as it withers from the roots upwards. Eventually, after a series of farcical elections, the people may decide to ignore politicians completely, only tolerating them as members of a historical society, little different from the groups that re-enact Civil War battles.

However, an alternative government will have to replace those based in Westminster or Washington. Funding of hospitals, infrastructure, foreign policy decisions are problems that will remain long after traditional government has gone. The once apathetic, passively helpless masses will need get to grips with technology that has the potential to empower them and ultimately replace hierarchical governments. Those who decide to take part in the new decentralised system will be paid for their efforts - the more hours people spend running the (thankfully highly-automated) country, or their tiny plot within it it, the more they will be rewarded with tax breaks and performance-related payments. Being a telepolitician will be a lucrative career for thousands of the most dedicated and capable citizens.

4) The Inventor Bubble

Just as everyone wanted to become an Internet entrepreneur in the final years of the 20th Century, an Inventor craze will sweep the world in the early part of the 21st. The sudden availability of a family of cheap technologies such as 3D Printers, easy-to-use design and manufacture software, amateur biotechnology kits, new materials, limitless computer power and improved education will lead to a wave of innovation and invention.

It could be an invention like the combined supersonic submarine/flying car that will fire everybody's imagination. Perhaps designed and built in Somerset garage by someone called Dave Scoggins, who will become a multi-trillionaire, the supersubmaerolux will permanently revolutionise transport. Dave will do all his preparatory research on the Internet and then combining the results with his own innate creative genius and manufacturing skills, Scoggins will grow the vehicle's outer layer from the material mussels use in their shells, combine it with Russian supercavitation technology for a high speed underwater capability and adapt ideas taken from America's Son of Star Wars project. The promise of flying and diving from Taunton to Tokyo in under and hour, using water as fuel, for less than £1000, will make it the greatest commercial success in history.

And so, everyone who can afford the basic kit will jump on the homespun invention bandwagon. It will be very reminiscent of the dotcom bubble economy as hopeful inventors and inventrixes hawk their strange, clicking, whirring polyhedral wares, all carved from the same amber grey material supplied by MicroBox ®, the largest manufacturer of 3D printers and software. The sharpest businessmen will claim whole families of shapes and devices as their own. It will be impossible, for example, to use a cube, pyramid or even rhombicuboctahedron in one's creation without paying a licence fee to the owner (which will usually be the MicroBox Corporation ® or one of its subsidiaries).

Most people will be content to knock together clumsy machines using the standard shapes in the vague hope that they'll prove useful and popular gadgets. This approach will be scorned as 'dribbling'. The smarter inventors will come to realise that function is the root of a success, and sell millions self-assembling bookshelves, self-shelving books and artificially intelligent floor fittings. Within a few years, every home will be equipped with its own factory that micro-fabricates the latest consumer gizmo using plans downloaded from the network. The only problem for inventors will be securing payment as a future equivalent of Napster allows the unscrupulous to download pirate copies of any object, for free...