Fifty things, actions, and services will disappear from the list of future things. And they'll do it faster than you think. Not "maybe," not "probably." They'll definitely disappear. The steering wheel of your car will become illegal in many cities. Banknotes will be outlawed in much of Europe. House keys will be as old-fashioned as telephone tokens. Thomas Frey, one of the world's most authoritative futurists, has catalogued 250 elements destined for extinction (he says in the next twenty years, but we'll be more cautious about this). We've selected the fifty most impactful of these future things. Those that will truly reshape our lives. The transformation has already begun, and most people haven't even noticed.
Transportation: When Driving Becomes Nostalgia
The transportation sector will undergo the most radical transformation. China aims to have 80% of electric vehicles with level 4 autonomous driving by 2040, while analysts predict over 33 million fully autonomous cars will be on the road in the same period. What will disappear from the future?
Steering wheels in new cars – Banned in most urban areas, optional only in rural areas.
Driving licenses for those born after 2030 – No longer required or issued in many jurisdictions.
Service stations in urban centers – Converted into electric charging hubs or demolished to make way for residential development.
Traffic lights at most intersections – Replaced by vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.
Parking in the center – Converted into parks, housing, and urban gardens.
Car ownership among urban youth – Robotaxi subscriptions, on the other hand, dominate.
Traffic police for violations – Automated systems handle all enforcement.
Car insurance as we know it – Transferred entirely to manufacturers and fleet operators.
Commuting as distinct from work – You work while traveling independently.
Parking meters and parking fines – No longer necessary with autonomous dropoffs and pickups.
Money and transactions: the extinction of cash
Physical money is already disappearing in Sweden and other Nordic countries. By 2050, the transition will be complete across the developed world. The repercussions? Enormous.
Cash in developed nations – Illegal or so rare as to be collectible.
Credit cards with printed numbers – Fully biometric or smartphone authentication.
Bank branches in most neighborhoods – Reduced by 80-90%, they exist only for services for the elderly.
Personal or business checks – Completely obsolete except in rare legal contexts.
Bank transfer fees and delays – Real-time settlement becomes the free standard.
ATMs – Not necessary when cash doesn’t exist.
Tips to service workers – Automated, included in the price, or replaced by service bots.
Tax preparation services for most people – AI manages automatically with almost zero errors.
Work and office: the end of the standard
The pandemic on the relationship between presence and home, we've said it to each other often, has only accelerated already inevitable trends. According to the International Monetary Fund, the introduction of AI will increase labor productivity growth by 1,5 percentage points per year, while Goldman Sachs estimates that 300 million jobs will be altered or replaced by AI over the next ten years.
The working day from 9 to 17 – Asynchronous work norms dominate most industries.
Daily commute to the office – Only 2-3 days a month for social connection.
Email as primary work communication – Replaced by asynchronous AI-mediated tools.
Performance evaluations conducted by humans – AI provides continuous feedback and evaluation.
Administrative Assistants – AI handles planning, travel, and correspondence.
Expense reports – Automated acquisition and approval.
Most middle management positions – AI coordinates teams, humans provide vision and culture.
Resumes and cover letters – Skills verification and hiring through AI matching.
The concept of “working hours” – Global asynchronous work makes this term meaningless.
Shopping and retail: the invisibility of commerce
Weekly shopping will become invisible, managed by autonomous delivery systems that monitor consumption and automatically replenish supplies. The surviving shopping centers will be converted into mixed-use developments and experiential centers.
Cashiers and queues at the checkout – Fully automated scan-and-go anywhere.
Shopping centers (most of the remaining ones) – Converted into residential and experiential buildings.
Clothing stores with in-store inventory – Showroom only, next day home delivery.
Grocery shopping as a weekly task – Autonomous delivery makes it continuous and invisible.
Impulse purchases at the checkout – Disappeared along with the cashiers.
Size labels on clothes – Personalized body scanning becomes standard.
Bonus track; by 2040, as you know, virtual reality will reach 16K per eye with displays virtually indistinguishable from reality, while new digital assets like AI emotional profiles and cognitive models will become as valuable as physical property. Shopping without augmented reality will be as unusual as shopping without the internet is today.
Communication and social life: the end of friction
Frictions in human communication are systematically eliminated through AI mediation. Misunderstandings, barriers, lost connections: all engineered away.
Phone numbers – Replaced by identity-based calls.
Telephone answering machines – AI automatically transcribes, summarizes, and responds.
Spam calls (Perhaps) – AI screening makes them impossible.
Language barriers in communication – The real-time translation is perfect.
Losing contact with people unintentionally – AI automatically maintains weak ties.
Home and everyday life: invisible automation
The smart home becomes invisible, anticipating needs and eliminating manual tasks without requiring conscious interaction.
Physical keys – Biometric and smartphone access anywhere.
Light switches – Replaced by voice command and presence sensors.
Thermostats to be adjusted manually – AI automatically optimizes.
Do the laundry and wash the dishes yourself – Automated household appliances (and robots type X1 Neo) manage completely.
Shopping lists – AI tracks consumption and automatically orders.
Future Things, the Point of No Return
These fifty "disappeared" people from the future are bold predictions, but not vague. They are transformations already underway, driven by fundamental efficiency gains that make resistance futile, to use the Borg phrase from Star Trek. The necessary technology exists; it just needs mass deployment. And that will come faster than most people are ready to accept.
The world of 2040 will be as alien to us as ours would be to someone in 1985. The difference: our transformation will happen more rapidly, with more disruption, across more domains simultaneously. Most of what we consider permanent is temporary. Most of what we think we understand about "how things work" is already wrong. We simply haven't realized it yet because the old systems are still working.
But functioning and thriving are different things. The VHS player worked fine, all things considered, even in 2005. It was simply obsolete. The future things we've listed are in the same position today. They work, but they're already dead: they just don't know it yet.
