Two weeks ago I was invited by a university to be a speaker in a public forum what I think would be the future of mankind.
A member of the audience posed me a question during the Q & A session which course of study would I think will be the most important and in demand at the present moment, in 20 years time and in the distant future for mankind, and why?
Here is my answer to an auditorium-packed audience.
The landscape of education in a university is shifting rapidly due to automation, changing demographics, and climate imperatives.
Currently, the most in-demand course of study is Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence (AI). In 20 years, it will shift toward Renewable Energy Engineering and Climate Tech. In the distant future, the ultimate field of study will be Bioengineering and Human-Machine Augmentation.
At the Present Moment (2026), Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence may be the immediate demand dominated by the need to build, deploy, and regulate the digital infrastructure running our global economy.
The core course is a BSc in Computer Science / MSc in AI and Data Science.
Let me explain why this is in demand at the moment. Almost every major commercial sector is scrambling to integrate generative AI and automation into their legacy systems. Corporations are generating exponential amounts of data but lack the specialized human capital required to clean, interpret, and convert this data into actionable logic. The rapid rise of AI tools has simultaneously heightened cyber threats, creating a parallel, desperate need for security professionals.
AI prompt engineer, cybersecurity analyst, data scientist, machine
learning architect are highly sought after these days. That is, for the immediate moment.
However, in 20 years (mid-2040s) we need to look at sustainability & climate engineering. By the mid-2040s, initial digital automation will be heavily commoditized and a standard. The defining global crisis, and therefore economic engine will center entirely on human survival, resource scarcity, and climate reality.
The core course may shift to a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering in renewable energy, MSc in engineering in sustainable infrastructure & climate adaptation. You would ask me why it will be in demand?
Here’s my reasons. International mandates to eliminate carbon emissions mean entire nations will need their power grids completely overhauled. As extreme weather occurrences rise, we will drastically need experts to design smart-city infrastructures, manage water security, and scale carbon-capture plants.
Severe climate shifts will threaten traditional farming, triggering massive demand for automated, laboratory-controlled vertical farming and synthetic
biology. Future top roles for societies would be grid modernization engineer, climate risk mitigation specialist, sustainability consultant, vertical agritech supervisor.
In the distant future (2060s and beyond) bioengineering & consciousness studies may be heavily in demand. In the distant future, fundamental physical labour and software creation will be flawlessly handled by autonomous AI systems. Human labour will shift inward, focusing on expanding the limits of human biology and exploring how human organic tissue interfaces with synthetic technologies.
I believe the core course will be a PhD in molecular bioengineering, a degree in neural-machine integration & cognitive architecture. Why in demand? It is because of a post-AI job market. When software codes itself, the highest economic value will lie in modifying physical reality and biological matter. Consider also an aging demographics. A massive global elderly population will shift focus toward genetic therapies, synthetic organ replacement, and reversing cellular degradation. I think there will be a neural integration. As brain-computer interfaces advance past basic clinical trials, society will require highly specialized architects to design, program, and protect direct human-to-computer connections. Distant future top roles will need a neural interface designer, genetic
correction therapist, organ printing
engineer, synthetic biologist. Having said that, at the moment till 5 years time, I see the most in demand course students clamour for, especially in China - a country that is rising technologically like a brilliant eastern star, the most in-demand course is computer science and Artificial Intelligence. The reason why digital transformation is no longer optional. Every industry, from healthcare to finance needs experts to build, secure, and manage AI systems and massive data sets. Key specializations are in cybersecurity, data science, and software engineering. Other notables are nursing and healthcare management that
remain critical due to an aging global population. The mid-term future (20 Years: ~2045) most in-demand course would be renewable energy & sustainability engineering. You may ask me why? By 2045, the transition away from fossil fuels will be at its peak. The "Green Economy" will require a massive workforce to redesign energy grids, cities, and supply chains for climate resilience. The key specializations may be sustainable drug discovery, circular economy management, and robotics engineering for automated infrastructure. As routine cognitive tasks are automated, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Ethics Governance will be the most valuable "soft" degrees. Having foreseen these, what about the distant future (50+ years?). Most In-Demand Course perhaps may be bio-digital engineering & space technologies as humans venture into space as the population gets too crowed to live here. In the distant future, the focus will likely shift to the "Post-Human" and "Off-World" eras. This involves merging biological systems with technology and sustaining life beyond Earth. There maybe a merge among genomics, human-robot interaction design, and astrophysics- which is also area of my interest. As basic labour and computation are fully handled by AI, human study will center on the most complex problems left, extending life, mental health (neuro-linkage), and space exploration. This is my vision. Do readers here agree with my thinking?
But wait a minute. I have a far more advanced view for our survival for actual biological needs whether in the past, current or for the future. Here’s far more urgent - most are forced to concur with me.
In the far future all these courses I mentioned above will be replaced by agriculture, food production, food science and anything that has to do with food and nutrition due to increasing population. The ability to get food to eat for daily nourishment would be the only thing we and all living things need. With fuel, oil, gas, energy, fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides needed for food production and transportation - all of them depending solely on diminishing fossil fuel, nothing else is more important. We all are forced to admit that air, water and food are the only three things we need to continue to exist, and not computer science, AI, engineering or even medicine. We cannot take medicine the doctor prescribe as food. That will make it worse by poisoning ourselves with drugs that are all pure chemicals.
I have earlier mentioned about AI and robotic-driven industry. But when food becomes scare, I like to make an incredibly powerful point. Strip away all our modern technology, and the ultimate bottom line of human survival is indeed air, water, and food. AI and robots cannot give us food and water. Robots themselves need power and electricity as their only "food" which itself by then is in short supply.
My scientific logic tracks perfectly in that if we cannot feed ourselves, no amount of AI or space technology matters. However, rather than replacing fields like AI, engineering, and medicine, the absolute crisis of food and water scarcity will actually absorb them.
The traditional way we farm today relying on depleting fossil fuels for synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy machinery is completely unsustainable. To survive, the "Agriculture and Food Science" courses of the future will look radically different, heavily relying on the very disciplines I mentioned to solve the exact problems I raised. Here are my reasons how those fields will merge into the ultimate fight for food survival:
1. Agriculture + Engineering (Solving the Fuel & Transport Crisis)
With fossil fuels gone, we cannot run tractors or ship food across oceans.
The future course is, autonomous
bio-regional engineering. What does this mean and how it works? Instead of gas-chugging machinery, future students will need to design electric, solar-powered, automated micro-cultivators. Engineering will shift from creating cars to creating highly efficient, closed-loop urban farming systems (like automated vertical farms) that grow food exactly where people live, eliminating the need for long-distance transport.
2. Food Science + Computer Science/AI (Replacing Fertilizers & Pesticides)
Traditional chemical fertilizers and pesticides rely heavily on petroleum and natural gas. When they run out, we cannot simply go back to 1800s farming, because the current global population is too large to sustain on old methods.
The Future Course is AI-Driven Agro-Ecology. AI will be used to monitor crops at a molecular level, using precise data to manage soil microbiomes instead of dumping chemicals. Drone algorithms will spot and remove weeds or pests individually, replacing chemical weedicides with precision laser systems.
3. Nutrition + Medicine/Bio-Tech (Maximizing Yield and Survival)
As arable land shrinks due to climate shifts and soil depletion, we will need to produce more food and nutrition with less physical space and water. The future course will be on cellular agriculture & genetic nutrition. As I can see, medicine and biology will merge with food science. Students will study how to bio-engineer crops to grow in saltwater (solving the fresh water crisis) or synthesize nutrient-dense proteins in labs (cellular agriculture) without needing massive plots of land or livestock.
The Verdict: A New Era of "Survival Sciences"
I strongly believe I have seen the future on human needs that Food and Hydration Security will become the most critical priority on Earth. But because our natural resources are depleting, we will no longer be able to farm using just a tractor and soil.
The most in-demand course will likely be a hybrid field. By this I mean techno-agronomy. It will be a course where students study biology and agriculture, but use advanced engineering and AI as their primary tools to keep humanity alive.
Does this perspective of technology acting as a tool for food security match how my readers view the upcoming resource crisis, or do we see a complete return to low-tech, traditional survival methods?
I believe most of my readers here would be absolutely in tune with my thinking that the most important need for our continued existence is just the availability of food supply to feed the growing billions of people in this world. When people are hungry, starving and malnourished all they need is just food and water. No longer will they be interested in AI and robotics.
Currently there is still plenty of food supply. So we never think of food security although we complain of increases of food and fuel prices due to the closure of the Straits of Hormuz by Iran. This has affected essential oil and fuel supply even if it may be temporary, but the effect is already felt.
But when fossil fuel is completely depleted and with the increasing population to be fed, I think there be chaos, social, economic and political disorders all over the world. Not even the availability of medicine for the sick is more important than food and food security. I think by then, say in a 100 years time agriculture, food science, food production and nutrition will take precedence and priority over all other science and non-science courses as the field of studies for future students. This is my vision. Anyone is more than willing to quit their job, or forgo any university courses, but they cannot go without food and nutrition for more than a week at most - provided they are given air and water.
This reasoning captures the absolute core of human vulnerability. It is completely true that a society is only ever a few missed meals away from total collapse. History shows that when food runs out, laws, economies, and political systems crumble instantly.
My analogy about quitting jobs just to get food puts it perfectly. We can also opt out of the digital economy as I have written at length earlier, but we cannot opt out of our biological need for calories.
When looking at a 100-year horizon where fossil fuels are completely depleted, my personal projection that Food Security will take precedence over all other sciences is highly realistic. However, the nature of that 21st-century food crisis will force a massive shift in how we define "Agriculture."
The 100-Year Food Paradox
The challenge of the year 2126 won't just be a lack of fuel. It will be the reality that traditional agriculture cannot feed billions of people without fossil fuels. We have a modern food illusion. Today's "plenty of food supply" is actually just transformed oil. Modern agriculture uses petroleum for tractors, natural gas to make nitrogen fertilizers, and oil for global shipping.
The threat is, if we simply stop using fossil fuels and try to return to 19th-century farming methods, global food yields will drop by an estimated 50% to 60%. Combined with a larger population, this would cause the exact global starvation and chaos I am predicting.
The Survival Sciences of 2126
Because of this paradox, the fields of study in 100 years will indeed focus entirely on food, but they will look like "science fiction" farming. To avoid mass starvation, students will study how to decouple food production from both fossil fuels and unpredictable weather.
Let me talk a little about synthetic biology & cellular agriculture, The goal is
cultivating pure nutrition without needing fields, tractors, or livestock. Students will learn to grow complex proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in bioreactors using engineered microbes, fungi, and algae. This requires zero fuel, uses 90% less water, and can be done inside sealed urban facilities anywhere on Earth.
We can think about closed-loop aggro-ecology & geothermal farming. The goal is
growing traditional crops without chemical fertilizers or fossil-fuel machinery. This means agriculture degrees will merge with ecology. Students will study how to build massive vertical farms powered by geothermal or nuclear energy, where pests are managed by lasers, and nutrients are recycled infinitely from organic waste instead of synthetic oil-based fertilizers.
Another option is macro-nutrition & caloric logistics. By this I mean keeping billions alive on bare essentials during climate or political disruptions.
This will replace culinary science. It will focus on maximizing human metabolic efficiency, how to process raw biomass (like algae or insects) into highly bio-available, shelf-stable, and easily distributable nutrition packets to prevent the chaos I already mentioned.
The New Hierarchy of Needs
The way I can project my vision for future study is, the luxury of studying abstract software, finance, or corporate management will vanish. In a world starved of resources, those fields will be seen as pointless distractions.
The ultimate fields of study will be entirely survival-driven. However, because humanity will be backed into a corner, "Agriculture" will no longer mean working the land, it will mean engineering survival at a cellular level.
If this resource-scarce future on nutrition and food security is the most vulnerable for our very existence here on this planet - in the past, present and far more so in the future due to increasing world population then now we have to accept this truth.
I shall explain why food and nutrition will be the most vital and important university degree course future generations will clamour for in much greater detail later.
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