July 23, 2014 10:24AM 

# Inventions to Eagerly Await 

By Stephanie Rugolo 

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Humans are progress seekers. Those with an entrepreneurial drive use their intellect to invent novel solutions to our problems. Sometimes, their solutions alleviate widespread suffering and let us live better than kings of centuries past. [Thomson Reuters](http://sciencewatch.com/sites/sw/files/m/pdf/World-2025.pdf) released just such a list of welfare-enhancing inventions to expect by 2025:

Dementia, Alzheimer’s, cancer drug-induced deaths, and Type I diabetes should afflict far fewer individuals by 2025. See below that cancer–one of the most common causes of death in several countries–is already on the decline (with a graph made on [Human​Progress​.org](http://HumanProgress.org)):

![Media Name: 7.22_1_lung.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/7.22_1_lung.png?itok=g6ozcIW6) 

Solar energy should be in widespread use by 2025. Consider this prediction in combination with dropping carbon dioxide emissions per dollar of GDP and flattening overall emissions in developed countries:

![Media Name: 7.22_2_co2.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/7.22_2_co2.png?itok=IfFvOLFC) 

GMOs and lighting advances (for year-round crop growth) should make food shortages and food price fluctuations rare by 2025. We already know that food prices in the United States are dropping as food becomes more abundant:

![Media Name: 7.22_3_wheat.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/7.22_3_wheat.png?itok=rovz6lje) 

Digital technology should be ubiquitous–even in Africa–and lightweight electric cars and planes should become more common by 2025. We already know that internet users and air passengers are quickly increasing:

![Media Name: 7.22_4_net.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/7.22_4_net.png?itok=rSp7MoA9) 

Quantum teleportation (i.e., “Beam me up, Scotty!”) will be tested by 2025. (Unfortunately, [Human​Progress​.org](http://HumanProgress.org) doesn’t include data on teleportation—yet.)

##### Related Tags 

[Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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