reprinted from Business Section of news.com.au

“I CAN’T wait to be a transhumanist designer when I grow up,” said no child, ever.

That might not be the case for long if futurist Morris Miselowski is right. He predicts the job could become as common as a teacher or builder in the years ahead.

The renowned futurist, who has spoken at TEDx, thinks the workforce will change drastically in the next 35 years, with 60 per cent of us doing jobs that don’t exist.

More: Five jobs that will disappear within five years

Most will arise from technology and the human body, dedicated to improving our health and extending human life, according to Mr Miselowski.

“In the last 150 years we have doubled our life expectancy in Australia, we’ve done that without the technology that [is now in place]” he told news.com.au.

Here are his predictions for the top 10 jobs in 2050:

• Nano medic — Someone who works with medicine on a molecular level using tiny robots to investigate problems in the body and solve them from the inside out.

• Memory augmentation surgeon — Someone who understands how thoughts are stored in the brain and may have the ability to restore memories for people with dementia and alzheimers.

• Body part maker — The logical extension of all those kidneys, hearts and livers being made by 3D printers at the moment.

• Transhumanist designer/engineer — Despite the sci-fi title, Mr Miselowski sees this as a human resources role concerned with understanding the capacity of robots and humans, then acting like an “orchestra conductor” to harmoniously get the best out of both of them.

• Gene programmer — We can already do this to an extent, but research may provide the ability for a full-time programmer to manipulate genes and prevent disease.

• Brain augmenter — OK this one really does sound bizarre, but Mr Miselowski said it’s a role that would work by manipulating parts of the brain to avoid phobias and reduce disease. But only for good mind you, only for good.

• Spaceport traffic control — If Richard Branson is already planning the first bunch of space tourists, think how many people will be travelling there in 30 years. This is basically a glorified traffic cop.

• Weather controller — Bear with us on this one, but Mr Miselowski said in 30-40 years time we’ll have a much better idea of how weather patterns are caused, with people dedicating to finding ways to manipulate it that could have potentially huge implications for food crops or natural disasters.

• Ethics lawyer — To protect privacy and debate ethics of all this possibility. “Because we can is not a good enough reason, to me,” Mr Miselowski said.

• Domestic robot programmer — Much like a plumber or a tradie, this could be the person you call when something goes wrong with your smart home or domestic robot.

Before you scoff at it all as a bit far-fetched, Mr Miselowski said many of these jobs are the natural extension of technology we already have in place.

They’ve also been publicly made high-profile goals of companies like Google, whose engineering director Ray Kurzweil has written a book The Singularity, outlining how man and machine could merge to become immortal.

Russian millionaire Dmitry Itskov is also working on the 2045 Initiative to build an avatar with a human brain, where one’s personality can be transferred at the end of their human life.

Mr Miselowski said the nature of the workforce will change as well with less of the structured 9-5 working day and Saturday/Sunday weekend than we have been used to.

“Our kids will most probably live to 120 and 150 in relatively good health. They will definitely work into their 80s but they will not work 9-5 the way we understand today.”

Instead, more jobs will focus on output rather than being in an office for a set number of hours with time off wherever possible.

“We work whatever hours are required to make that reality, our time off might be a Tuesday afternoon …. I don’t think the notion of the weekend will be very important.”

Despite the major changes, he expects things like family, having time off, the ability to learn and receive medical treatment will remain crucial.

But with technology making companies more powerful, essential human questions need to remain at the heart of major decisions.

“It has to come back to human hands, we need to be careful.”

What do you think the job landscape will look like in 2050? Continue the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ | @Victoria_Craw | @MrFuture

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