Here's what humanity may be like in 1,000 years

Humans have changed dramatically in our 200,000 years of existence. We've gotten taller, we live longer, and we're smarter. We've built giant cities, domesticated animals and plants, and created and destroyed ecosystem.

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And the technology we build is progressing at a blistering pace. And that pace keeps picking up.

Things like flying cars, sophisticated artificial intelligence, and quantum computers may emerge from science fiction into reality in less time than we think.

humans in 1000 years
YouTube/ASAP Science

Now ASAP Science has partnered with National Geographic's new Breakthrough series to create this video imagining what the humanity might look like in 1,000 years.

It's hard to wrap the mind around how far advanced we'll be by then, but here are some of the most mind-blowing changes that might happen:

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We'll be part human, part machine.

terminator genisys
Paramount

Humans are already implanting devices in their bodies to make themselves more connected to technology.

There's an entire community of people called body hackers that have implants that allow them to do things like unlock doors with the swipe of their hand, play music only they can hear without earbuds, and control small electronics.

But in a 1,000 years this tech will be much more advanced. Tiny electronics attached or implanted directly in our bodies could make our immune systems stronger and help fight diseases, programmed nanobots could revolutionize surgery, and brain implants could make us smarter and even capable of instantly downloading skills like in "The Matrix" or accessing the internet with just our thoughts.

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We'll have superhuman genes.

superhero
Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Right now researchers are perfecting a gene editing technique called CRISPR that could soon allow us to engineer healthier and stronger humans. We might be able to insert genes for things like stronger bones, higher pain tolerance, and lower cancer risk.

Even some natural mutations could take hold. We might spontaneously develop a new eye color like fuchsia, or develop new abilities, like extra sensitive hearing or vision, the video suggests.

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We'll all look the same.

triplets
Flickr/Allan Foster

Scientists are already working on ways to genetically edit embryos, so parents might one day be able to select certain traits for their children. Most will likely want their children to be healthy and physically attractive, so the human race might become eerily genetically similar.

But these "designer babies" could create a huge problem. If we're all too genetically similar, then a single super-bug that preys on a common genetic weakness could potentially wipe out a large portion of the human race.

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We'll have super-fast computers.

qubit prototype, quantum computer, IBM
IBM

Our appearance won't be only thing that changes. Our technology will likely take a huge leap forward in 1,000 years if Moore's law — the idea that a computer's raw processing power doubles every couple years — holds true.

We'll eventually see computers that can solve nearly unsolvable problems — problems so complicated they would take today's computers decades to solve.

We don't know yet how we'll reach that technology, but quantum computers are one possibility.

We might also develop computers that will perform as quickly as and even "think" like a human brain does. These computers would be able to speak, listen, and remember and given their speed, it's possible we'll be able to program them to be artificially intelligent, possibly even smarter than humans.

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We'll have buildings that can assemble and disassemble on command.

Instead of building things brick by brick, we could create networks of tiny, nearly invisible robots that can link together and form any shape.

It's a concept called utility fog. In an increasingly crowded world, your house could assemble when you come home, and then disassemble when you leave for work to make room for something else.

Right now utility fog is an idea that remains firmly in the science fiction realm, but we are making a lot of progress on nanobots. In the near future they could be used in medicine to precisely deliver drugs inside the body or even fight off cancer cells. The oil industry is planning to use them to scope out untapped oil and gas reservoirs underground. Futurist Ray Kurzweil thinks we might be able to use brain nanobots to back up our thoughts and memories.

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We'll live somewhere beyond Earth.

mars colony
NASA

As the world gets warmer due to climate change, food supplies gets tighter with a growing population, and people become too genetically similar, it wil be absolutely critical to establish settlements beyond Earth if we want the human race to survive.

Big thinkers like Stephen Hawking, and businessmen like Elon Musk have made it clear that exploring the cosmos and setting up a human settlement on another planet should be a high priority right now.

In 1,000 years we'll probably have a thriving civilization on Mars, the Moon, or maybe even another planet beyond the solar system. We've already discovered billions and billions of planets outside our own solar system. There are 40 billion Earth-like planets in our own galaxy alone.

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We may defeat death.

computer chip brain
iStock

Tech advances will also mean we'll get better at fighting off disease and death rates will drop. Wealthy entrepreneurs like Sergey Brin and Larry Page have already invested in research that is attempting to slow and eventually stop the aging process.

This is potentially a big problem since the growing global population is already straining resources. What will happen if people start regularly living past 100?

One way to solve the problem is uploading our minds to a computer. We wouldn't require food or most other resources — all we'd need is a power source and we'd essentially become immortal and only use a small amount of resources.

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You can watch the whole video below, and the trailer for National Geographic's Breakthrough:

 

 

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