Will robots play in future World Cups? And the World Cup 2050 is awarded to… (Drum roll)…Mars!
Sound far-fetched? Not if a recent suggestion of future “inter-planetary competitions” is anything to go by.Some might have felt references by FIFA’s chairman to football in space aimed to detract from the row about awarding the 2022 event to Qatar.
Others might note that if a tournament did go ahead on Mars, it would at least be cooler than in Qatar.
How will football and sport in general, develop in an ever-changing, tech-focused world? And what will the World Cup be like in 2050? There is no doubt that humans seem to be getting better at sport.
If the winner of the 2012 Olympics marathon had competed in the 1904 race, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. And if Jesse Owens, who took gold in 1936, had competed against Usain Bolt in the 100 metres at London 2012, he would still have had 14 metres left when Bolt crossed the finishing line.
These days sport is a science, with technology playing a huge role – from 3D printed trainers and specially-designed equipment to data analytics that monitor athletes’ every move.
Look closely at the British Lions next time they play and you may see a small box underneath their shirts.
Technology could also be used to give the fans a more immersive experience.
We can put Google Glass under a helmet and get a sense of what it is like to be running down a field at 100 miles an hour, the blood pounding in your ears.
There is plenty of technology on show in Brazil, including goal-line sensors, heat-bonded footballs and vanishing spray used by referees during free kicks.
But it was a mind-controlled exo-skeleton – worn by Juliano Pinto, a 29-year-old paraplegic man to kick the first ball of the tournament – that has stuck in the minds of many.
So will future World Cups feature similar robotics?
The technology is clearly available to make players even more superhuman but, will it be of cultural acceptance? Do the fans want football to go the same way as Formula 1, where the car matters more than the driver?
I expect that in 2050 we will not have human referees any more. Humans will probably be present as supervisors of an automatic referee that can be software or even a robot.
Google Has Announced Its First Smart Watch
The LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live – both featuring rectangular screens – mark an attempt to standardise the way Android wearable devices function.
The problem with smart watches so far has been that the sector hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be – is it a phone on your wrist or an accessory device?
Once you introduce Android Wear, it will hopefully provide a more focused case for what the devices are capable of. And that’s a direction that could invigorate the market.

Bionic eye let’s blind man ‘see’ again
As a teenager, Roger Pontz’s eyesight began to fail. Doctors told him there was nothing they could do to save his vision and over the years his sight deteriorated until, by the age of 40, he was completely blind.
Pontz had been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease that damages the retina — a layer of tissue at the back of the eye that converts light to nerve signals and sends them to the brain.
But he always believed that one day he would see again. A few years ago he heard about a device called the Argus II. Known as the “bionic eye,” it gave a glimmer of hope that some of his sight might be restored.
The Argus II system consists of a pair of glasses with a small video camera mounted on it, which captures images. A prosthesis, no larger than a pencil eraser is surgically implanted on the surface of the retina and information from the camera is transmitted wirelessly to electrodes on the artificial retina, where it is converted to electrical pulses.
Any remaining cells that haven’t been damaged by the eye disease are stimulated by the pulses, leading to a perception of light patterns in the brain.
It’s a long way from perfect vision — the users perceive simple flashes of light, no colour or details — but it can be enough to get around.