In a move that gives “getting a leg up” new meaning, a new government report out of Britain shows that in 20 years some of the most popular jobs could include space pilot, quarantine enforcer and, interestingly, body part maker. 

 

British government recently hired a research company called Fast Future to compile a list of new career paths that may emerge in the decades to come. As reported by The Guardian, the list entitled “Shape of Jobs to Come” predicts that advances in science and technology could make for career paths that are presently unknown to the current work force.

 

Fast Future asked a network of "futurists and future thinkers" to consider potential science and technology developments before suggesting specific jobs. Rohit Talwar, chief executive of Fast Future, deems this necessary for an accurate portrayal of future careers. As he told The Guardian, "Technology is advancing so fast and industries are changing so fast that what looks like a solid job today disappears tomorrow." And it’s not just about technology. Talwar states, "Students coming out of university now could easily have eight to 10 jobs in their lifetime, across five different careers.”

 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown agrees. According to Brown, "A priority for this government is to prepare Britain for the economy of the future and to make sure our young people can seize the opportunities that innovations in science and technology will bring."

 

And just what are the jobs of the future? Reports are that traditional roles within medicine and farming are expected to rely much more heavily on the use of computers and robots, while “careers in social work are predicted to align with the continuing increase in popularity of social networking sites.” This could lead to jobs in space tourism, should a deadly virus or the onset of climate change affect the rate of people going into space. This also may lead to jobs as quarantine enforcers and climate change reversal specialists

 

The Fast Future study predicts the creation of new limbs and organs will become a common occurrence. This means that body part makers will be in demand. Extra limbs would naturally improve invaluable to the military and amputees, but it also could prove handy in a more mercenary arena. As Talwar explained, "If you're spending £80m on a footballer and for £2m you can have a couple of spare legs, then you're going to do it," he told The Guardian. "The level of medicine will probably tell you very accurately when their legs will fail, or what kind of strains they're likely to suffer from. So you might say as a preventative measure, rather than three months' recovery let's have an artificial limb ready so we can replace their leg and have them back playing again within a few days or weeks."

 

In other words, as it is possible for our future athletes to be part cyborg, there will certainly be careers in making them so.

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