Stranger Things and Unsolved Mysteries’ Shawn Levy is one of the creators behind The Future Of, a new documentary series coming to Netflix next week.  More “What If?” than “When and How We Get There,” expect the series to feature interviews with visionaries in several disciplines examining everything from communicating better with dogs to be able to live to 200 years old.

Take a look at the ponderings coming your way in this trailer for The Future Of…

The first season of The Future Of includes twelve half-hour format episodes, posing possibilities and hinting at how close future technologies lie ahead.  The first six episodes will be released on June 21 with the second six following June 28.  Here are the subjects for each segment:

Dogs
Driven by our obsession with pets, humans are developing better and better technologies to communicate with them. We explore a future where dogs and people can truly understand each other, and we may even develop virtual tools to enrich our furry friends. Did someone say ‘dog internet’?

Dating
Dating apps: they’re awkward, time consuming, and actually a pretty bad way to get to know someone. It’s easy to meet people, but hard to actually connect. In the future, brain science and artificial intelligence will help us connect, and we’ll find ourselves in a future where the classic meet-cute is completely reinvented.

Houseplants
Houseplants have been our domestic companions for as long as we can remember, but what if they did even more? In the future, plants will be used for everything from pollution monitoring to street lighting to data storage.

Gaming
Video games, once confined to our screens and digital devices are starting to bleed into the real world with augmented reality. But today’s AR is just a taste of what’s to come. In the future, this tech will become so advanced that it will touch everything from fashion to architecture to food. Thanks to games, we’ll see all of reality through a new lens.

Space Vacations
What was once only possible in the movies is becoming a reality: commercial space tourism is rapidly evolving! In the very far future, if we can tackle the technical and practical challenges of space travel, we’ll push the boundaries of where civilians can go– from hotels in orbit, to life-changing experiences on the moon.

Cheeseburgers
Would you pay $100 for a Big Mac? Cheeseburgers are becoming more and more expensive to produce, and they’re not great for the environment. But there might be a way to produce meat that saves money, livestock, and our planet: growing meat cheaply and sustainably in our homes.

Life After Death
When someone dies, we’re left to handle two distinct pieces of their legacy: physical remains, and digital remains. Today, both of those things are full of challenges, from environmental sustainability to digital privacy. In the future, we’ll solve both in one beautiful and touching experience: memorials that bring our loved ones back to life, in more ways than one.

Sports
Today, our favorite athletes push themselves to break records… and limbs. In the future, advancements in sports medicine will not only keep players out on the field– it will help them achieve remarkable feats of strength and speed that will redefine what it means to get in the game.

Fashion
What if your closet could print out an outfit at the click of a button? And what if those clothes were made from a new generation of green materials? In the future, your clothes might not only fit you perfectly– they’ll be better for the planet.

Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers are icons of their cities…but with the growth of urban populations, many have become unsustainable, unlivable and unwelcoming. We imagine a clean, high-tech, cutting-edge city of the future, where our buildings themselves are not only communities: they’re living, breathing organisms.

Health
We do a lot to keep ourselves healthy, but in the future, we may enter an age of designer organs. These brand new body parts will revolutionize our healthcare and pharmaceutical needs. They’ll keep our “classic” organs humming along, produce customized vitamin and drug regimens, and even help us fight off new viruses.

Headphones
Music pushes technologies, industries, and cultures forward. And in the future, your headphones will be every bit as important as the music you listen to, because your headphones will listen to you. They’ll become the ultimate wearable, measuring your life and tailoring the sounds of your world to you and you alone.

Look for The Future Of beginning June 21, 2022, only on Netflix.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg