Keywords

FormalPara Interviewees

David Rodin

Moran Sol Broza

Serj Tankian

Michele Wucker

Yan Yanovskiy

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time—Abraham Lincoln

Fig. 1
An illustration represents a man in the foreground wearing a V R headset, with an interior view of a venue on the left and graphical artwork of cars and other components on the right in the backdrop.

Future of entertainment. Original Photo: Opera House Graz, Austria; Illustrated by: Astghik Kyurumyan, used with permission

Full size image

1 What Entertainment Is Expected in the Future?

New technologies with an incredible rate of change in the culture and entertainment industry are coming into our lives. The entertaining descendants of one generation become old-fashioned for people, and the thirst for “bread and circuses” flows in a man's blood from the earliest times (Fig. 1).

The global entertainment and entertainment industry are impossible without immersion in virtual reality (VR). The first rudiments of existence appeared in Ancient Greece, when ancient theatrical performances were transferred to another world, forcing the actors to experience and live life.

Since then, many centuries have passed, and leisure has become extraordinarily high-tech and a medium for predicting futuristic entertainment based on observed technologies. The entertainment industry will be based on enhancement, the novelty of sensations, and the realism of perception.

Cinematography and cinemas: directors and camera operators of our time unanimously choose that the cinema of the future belongs to VR systems. Scriptwriters and artists assume that reality will create a fantastic space where a person can grow up anywhere without leaving home, change the plot and outcome among any actors and scenery, and participate in the dialogues of a new cinema format.

Stereoscopic cinema in 3D is becoming obsolete. Volumetric films are no longer impressive, and attendance is gradually fading away. However, a new technology actively developed in Russia since the 1970s, the HD hologram, can revive 3D cinema (Johnston, 2006). Holographic cinema differs from VR systems because the viewer does not need glasses or sensors. The image is born in experimental conditions; it can be viewed from different sides, bypassed, or come close. Western investors actively used the experience of the outstanding Soviet inventor Vitaly Komar, who left a substantial scientific legacy to develop holographic image technologies (Taylor, 1985). The Korean Hyundai Motor Group has designed a kinetic screen that contains thousands of pulsating cubes. A complex mechanism from blank walls settles and forms projections—various images and patterns. The result is impressive: The panels move along with the plot, showing additional effects (Hu Se, 2021).

Another cinema technology of the future developed in Korea is the new generation ScreenX screen, which projects the image at 270°. Thanks to three screens, the viewer gets a wide viewing angle, wholly immersed in the ongoing events. To shoot a scene of such a film, it is necessary to use three cameras simultaneously, located at different angles and subsequently forming a 270° image.

Music: our expert futurologists predict a “synthetic” future for music. In terms of technology, music is a flow of information, and combinations of sounds will be made completely new, leaving a feeling of unforgettable and beautiful sound. Musical compositions will be created based on psychoacoustics, combining different frequencies for different effects on the human psyche. Music can both lull and give a feeling of euphoria.

The musical instruments that give rise to futuristic music already exist. Among them are sensory guitars; silicone synthesizer Seaboard with “smart” keyboard; biophysical musical instrument Xth Sense, which reacts to the smallest contractions of human muscles with the help of two bandages with sensors on the hands; Tesla coils that send electrical discharges at the right time to form a certain sound; and other developments. The most spectacular and impressive instrument for today's richness of tones and timbres is the ReacTable touch table. It is called a full-fledged music station of the future.

Lyrics and musical works will be written by neural networks, first conducting a program analysis and conditions for creating a future composition for popularity.

Concerts will be very different. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, we can connect for concerts, not only in concert halls. The world has already practiced the first holographic performances—for example, the concert of the deceased Michael Jackson (Feeney, 2014). However, this kind of hologram is not like the HD holograms of the future. “Holographic concerts,” so popular in show business, are a 2D projection of a pre-filmed video onto a film screen installed at an angle of 45° to the viewer. Such a catch is not noticeable to a person from the auditorium and completely passes for a show of the future.

The Concert of the Future is a high-quality HD hologram that can be sent from anywhere in the world to a concert hall due to high-speed data transmission. The hologram will be able to give a show on the stage and fly around the arena, approach the audience, and communicate with them.

TV: television of the future will give viewers new emotions. Spectators will test multiscreen technologies and VR systems; a little later, new flexible smartphones and smartbooks will replace multiscreens and holographic television. Interactive television will solve the problem of the inaccessibility of information in some parts of the world.

Travel: In the future, people will be able to manage their journeys mentally and visit the places they have come up with. To do this, buying tickets and booking hotels are not necessary.

Since there are no borders and limits in virtuality, VR developments of the future will be open to humankind, previously inaccessible places on our planet, and the entire universe for travel. There may be more adventures and subsequent vivid memories in the virtual world than in reality. Already today, with the help of VR systems, you can teleport to any point on the planet and the universe, walk along the ocean, and visit any museum in the world. Cyber helmets and goggles are all ready today.

And in the indefinite future, slow-moving airships, vacuum transport tubes, and other fundamentally new approaches to transporting people and goods around the planet await us. Entertainment of the future is a bright embodiment of science and inventions and fantasy and reality, which will plunge humanity into a new life.

Entertainment of the future: 7D quests, survival games, and time travel? Actually, it looks like that; first of all, especially because of COVID-19, virtual communication and entertainment have become crucial. Virtual entertainment: having removed another philosophical futuristic dystopia, Terry Gilliam managed to show in her society of the future what dose it means to be “hungry for the meaning of one’s existence.” “Theorem Zero” is a beautifully presented and annoying pop-up ad that haunts passersby only on the Internet but on the streets and one specific aspect of the already existing VR entertainment. By connecting to the computer, a special latex suit conveys to the owner the feeling that anyone can have sex. And such virtual sex at a distance can occur in various decorations (the film shows a somewhat stereotypical “desert island”). Most of our experts slightly agree with this.

Theme parks: a recent hit series from HBO showcases another, much more expensive entertainment. In the future of Westworld, people have decided to change reality by creating a theme amusement park in which specially programmed androids perform the roles of all non-player characters. Park guests are attracted to numerous quests and stories and the spirit of impunity in the park. There is only one question, who are the director and the writers of the series, are they shaping our future entertainment?

Virtual Horror: “Black Mirror” shows many fascinating examples of future entertainment. In one series, all human memories are recorded using special lenses and another—people are encouraged to keep their consciousness and play it in a virtual city in an exciting era. Another entertainment that turned out not to be harmless was shown in the first season's second episode. The main character is involved in a horror test in VR, which becomes scarier, using the fears of the test subject himself. Such a horror project that adapts to the player's state already exists: Special controllers are used to read the pulse and breathing rate (Black Mirror, 2011).

Shows on survival will become more popular, although the development is already pregnant. But also films, series, and games (based on those films) like “Gamer” (2009), “Game” (1997), “Hunting for Piranha” (2006), “The Hunger Games” (2012), and countless others are united by the plot-forming idea of games on survival. Most of the time, the plot is uncomplicated—in the future, popular human entertainment, due to various reasons, will become a reality show on survival. “Running Man” prisoners sentenced to death penalty have a choice: to participate in such a TV show or accept the punishment.

Reality show: another variation on the reality show theme, which, however, has to have only one hero. People are interested in watching how others are placed in artificial conditions, whether hostels or desert islands. But what if the show's hero does not know that his life—the fruit of the imagination of television producers and everything that surrounds him/her in fact—is deception? Precisely in such a situation, it turns out to be Jim Carrey's hero film by Peter Weir. In general, if it seems to you that everything in the world revolves around you, it is a reason to think. The Kardashian family made the reality show a trend, which is rather very difficult to stop and will evolve till 2050.

Implantation of memories: in the future, it will be interesting to spend a vacation without wasting energy on getting somewhere. Unless to the office of a particular company, which in the film by Paul Verhoeven is called Total Recall and is engaged in implanting memories. Why fly to Mars if the most important thing you can bring back with you is the memory of the trip? On the other hand, who would trust a company that can change your knowledge of your own life?

2 Input from Interviewees

David Rodin

Moral and political philosopher, founder, and CEO of Principia Advisory

Impact of robotics major game changer, transformative. Cheaper and able to perform many more tasks, like care providing roles, simulations, etc. This will have a huge impact on society, economy, and theway we relate to each other as human beings, values, and ethics.

I see two scenarios. One where humans are liberated into a world of leisure, replaced by robots, equitable ways of distributing wealth, higher level of productivity, creativity and another much more.

Hobbean world, not equitable world, meaningless lives.

Moran Sol Broza

Sustainable impact entrepreneur and founder of Be. and Sol Food

In the future, entertainment will take up a larger part of our daily lives as immersive/experiential entertainment emerges, allowing us to tap into our imagination and its empathetic nature. It will be valued more than other industries and professions; artists will be paid close to equal to lawyers, doctors, etc. as people increasingly recognize the critical role culture plays in our survival—and thriving—as a species.

Technology will be blended with human intelligence, allowing for cross-pollination of data to create unprecedented hybrid combinations leading to exponential levels of genius as more and more open-source platforms continue to be introduced and integrated into our global culture.

Serj Tankian

Singer of System of a Down

The physical impact of live performances will never be underrated; however, there will be exponential growth in virtual and holographic-type performances.

Michele Wucker

Author, founder, and chief executive officer of Gray Rhino & Company

Attention spans can only collapse so far, so my hope is that in 2050 we'll see a reversal of this trend, even as participatory and immersive forms of entertainment will continue to draw people in.

Yan Yanovskiy

Investment banker and cofounder of Friends Foundation

I see the future of entertainment in a blink of an eye as all communication will be based on Internet-enabled contact lenses. Our entertainment will be super targeted to our tastes and produced individually for every person by AI algorithms.