I'll be 56. My kids (hopefully) would have graduated from college. I aim to have been the greatest dad ever. We would have traveled the world together, started a band together, written a few web/mobile app together, etc., and always be there for them when they needed me.
We, the family of five, went bicycling along Vancouver's waterfront today. It was a cold sunny day. We rode something like 12km, made several stops, had lunch and looped back to where we started.
It would be nice to be able to do the same thing, with the same people, in the same place, on this same day in April, 30 years from now.
Which sort of illustrates the cliché that it is not the destination that one should aim for but the journey.
I'll be in my early 70s. "Still in good shape" sounds great. Maybe "inhabiting a robot duplicate with my brain regularly backed up".
Also "a famous enough artist to crowdsource a decent living with my art". Which I think is a threshold I may be thoroughly over in about a year. In 30 years, barring accidents, I'll have finished the next two graphic novels I have planned for the next 6 or so years, done whatever the hell the next three multi-year projects are, and taken some cool vacations.
I'll be approaching 60 in 30 years. At that point I would like to be out of the tech industry at least 20 years.
I love technology, I love creating things and working with others to create cool things, but I'm sick of everything surrounding the tech industry these days. The politics, the media, the "culture" critics, etc. I'm not even 30 but I've become extremely cynical about the industry we work in.
At 60ish I'd like:
- to have a large historical home and some land in the south of England or France, with a lot of animals / pets on site.
- decent passive income and pension to support my being able to do things I'd like to do in terms of hobbies and leisure.
- children and perhaps grandchildren to have great experiences with and maintain my sense of youth.
I'm hoping to get another 20 years or so out of my programming career, though. I think I can do it, though I'm pretty unsure on my strategy for working for a traditional company in my 60s and might have to do consulting or some similar kind of piece-work.
Space! Assuming we solve the problems of death and aging (I'll be getting pretty old by then...probably still alive and in pretty good shape, if my rate of aging thus far is any indicator), I'd like to be colonizing another planet. But, 30 years might be optimistic for that. I can dream big, anyway.
I'll be at my 57. I would love to build a vintage home in the far south of India and maintain the agricultural lands that I own. I would love to do anything myself without anyone's help. And I don't want to be a coder by that time but I would love to teach others by that time. I would have explored at least 50 countries by that time and also might have finished my second book.
Best case scenario: Retired, living in the beach or a mountain somewhere.
Worst case scenario and much more probable: Too old to continue working in the ageist tech industry and too old to start again, I'll be working a low-wage job trying to make ends meet.
That would put me at 55. I intend on not having to worry about money by that age. I will likely have a few rental properties. Ideally, living somewhere warm where I can exercise for free (eg. swimming in an ocean or a public workout area). Enough income generated from investments to take a yearly vacation. If programming still exists, I would still do that as a hobby. Writing trading algorithms for fun, gambling with slightly better odds. Teaching is also appealing to me, not necessarily in academia, but maybe if I get good at a martial art over the next 30 years.
As someone closer to 55 than 25, allow me to let you know just how fast those decades are about to fly past.
I'm 44 now.
When 55 is thirty years away, it seems like "not having to worry about money" is a realistic goal. When it gets closer, you start to notice that most people still do have to worry about it, all their lives.
The only difference is that you get better about being at peace with the idea, and letting life be good even if you do have to look at your bank balance regularly.
The one practical piece of advice I'd like to offer, if I may be so bold, is this. If you want to live a life like that in 30 years, make sure that every day you ask yourself "what can I do today to get me one step closer to my goal?"
Fortunately this is impossible. You cannot copy a running program. You can keep a brain alive in a jar forever (the hardware the software runs on), but you can't transfer running software from one machine to another.
You must not have heard about VMware or VMotion, it's their killer app. There are alternatives from other hypervisors, but I believe VMware was the first to do this.
What if the brain could be replaced incrementally with synthetic neurons using some sort of nanotech? Is it the same mind when it's done? This is a variant of the old Ship of Theseus paradox[0].
Another question - can the "program" of the mind be stopped, then resumed?
While I can't say for sure where I'll be 30 years from now, I feel like it is better to dream big than to give up while I'm still young. With that in mind, I'd love to be helping to get us off of this rock before we accidentally sterilise it - even better if I can do so before 30 years passes.
In 30 years I will be 52 Years old. I aim to help as many people as I can with my project. As a goal, I will reach out to 6 billion users or more by 2045. I also wish to see my algorithms running in future robots for the greater good of mankind.
I'll be 54, my game engine (side project) hopefully gonna turn into very mature one, my research hopefully can have actual practice that can help people in specific way, and hopefully I'll still alone in the corner of my room.
Post 30 years from now, I would have lived a major fraction of my life span. I would like to see myself in good health. I would like to travel and enjoy with my family and friends. Perhaps, I would regularly write on my blog.
wow,this is stretching my imagination very far,I will be 67,I only wish one thing ,made enough money to have a home in planet Mars and healthy enough to live there
Assuming the creation of AI went smoothly, virtually all jobs would be obsolete due to AI, society has transitioned to basic income, and I'd be trying to wrap my head around the latest discovery from our AI friends.
It'll be like we are kids again, watching the AI's going about their grown up business.
Where do you aim to be 30 years from now is an interesting question because our industry seems pretty committed to the belief that there is no place for people 30 years older than us.
