Life Beyond 2035: AI, Work, and the Future of Human Connection
When we imagine the world of 2035–2050, it’s tempting to dream up sci-fi milestones—Dyson spheres, nanobots, cures for every disease. Yet the reality might be both stranger and subtler. Humans will still gather over lunch, compete for status, and care deeply for their children and elders. But the technological landscape around us will be almost unrecognizable.
The rate of change is accelerating in ways our current mental models struggle to capture. The rise of AI is not just a shift in tools; it’s a fundamental reordering of how companies, professions, and entire economies function.
The Fortune 500 in Freefall
History tells us that incumbents fall slowly. But in the 2030s, expect the Fortune 500 to churn faster than ever before. The companies that fail to adapt to AI will fade quickly, while new players will scale to massive size at unprecedented speed.
Software will lead this disruption. Why buy a SaaS product when you can simply describe what you need to an AI agent and have it generate custom software instantly? The “physics” of software businesses—distribution, pricing, lock-in—will be rewritten.
By 2040, even the physical world may catch up. Supply chains, manufacturing, and energy will eventually be reshaped by AI-driven automation, though at a slower pace than software.
Which Jobs Survive?
Today, we already see AI doctors, therapists, structural engineers, chip designers, and salespeople. By 2035, most intellectual professions could be 80% automated. But some roles may endure not because AI can’t do them, but because people won’t want it to.
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Teachers: A brilliant AI tutor may outclass a human in knowledge, but many students will still crave the connection, encouragement, and accountability that only a person can provide.
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Caregivers: The drive to connect with other humans is deeply biological. Parents and children, elders and their families—these relationships won’t be outsourced to machines.
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Status-driven roles: Humans will continue to compete for influence, recognition, and cultural relevance, even in a post-scarcity economy.
That said, expect AI to become the better investor, marketer, or analyst. Entire fields of “knowledge work” will be upended.
Acceleration in Research
One of the most profound changes may come in science itself. AI won’t just help with research—it will do research.
Already, researchers use AI to draft code, suggest experiments, or refine hypotheses. As these systems improve, the line between human and machine contribution will blur. Imagine a loop where an AI proposes a hypothesis, tests it, learns from the results, and iterates—all at machine speed. That’s not a distant dream; it’s emerging now.
This acceleration could lead to breakthroughs in:
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Drug discovery – A single researcher with 50,000 GPUs could discover billion-dollar therapies.
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Energy – Fusion, new materials, or radical improvements in battery storage.
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Physics – Where existing data might already contain answers, waiting for intelligence sharp enough to uncover them.
Deflation, Abundance, and the New Economy
AI will be massively deflationary. Food, healthcare, and education could become abundant and nearly free. The real question: where will all the excess wealth go?
Humans will likely channel their ambition into “status games.” Priceless art, luxury experiences, even galaxies for sale—these may become the trillion-dollar industries of the future. GDP growth will explode, even as everyday necessities plummet in cost.
Global Equity and Access
Despite fears of concentration, AI’s benefits may spread faster than any prior technology. Billions already use ChatGPT for free; soon, everyone will have access to world-class medical advice, education, and software.
The real bottleneck may not be models, but compute. If access to GPUs becomes the new oil, governments will need to step in to ensure broad availability and prevent runaway scarcity.
The Role of Government
Governments won’t build AI, but they must set the rules. Expect major debates around:
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Access to compute (who gets to use it, for what)
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Regulation (guardrails without stifling innovation)
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Distribution of benefits (ensuring global equity)
By 2028, AI policy may dominate national elections.
The Next Trillion-Dollar Opportunity
Here’s a counterintuitive insight: the next trillion-dollar company probably won’t be another AGI lab. It will be the business that emerges because AGI exists—just as Google wasn’t another chipmaker, but the company that thrived once cheap compute and broadband arrived.
Investors chasing “the next OpenAI” may be looking in the wrong place. The real prize is in what comes after.
A Future Both Familiar and Unfamiliar
By 2040, we may have cures for cancer and fusion-powered cities. But we’ll also still want a pat on the back from a real person, not a chatbot. The biological programming of humanity is stubborn; our drives for connection, recognition, and meaning aren’t going anywhere.
The future will be faster, stranger, and more uneven than we expect. But if history is any guide, technology won’t just enrich a few—it will uplift billions.
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