Technology in 2050: will it save humanity – or destroy us?

Amid the calamitous effects of climate change, artificial intelligence could make the difference between a livable future or a dystopian one

Futurism is a mug's game: if you're right, it seems banal; if you're wrong, you look like the founder of IBM, Thomas Watson, when he declared in 1943 that there is room in the world "for maybe five computers".

David Adams knew these risks when he wrote about the future of technology in the Guardian in 2004 - even citing the very same prediction as an example of how they can go awry. And from our vantage point in 2020, Adams certainly did a better job than Watson. When he looked ahead to today, he avoided many of the pitfalls of technology prediction: no promises about flying cars nor sci-fi tech such as teleportation or faster-than-light travel.