2030s · 6G
The 6G standard is due by the end of the decade. Juniper Research expects the first connections in 2029, first in the US and South Korea; Japan and China aim for 2030. Nobody has 6G today.
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Time · time machine
What time do you live in?
Everyone shares one calendar year, 2026. Daily life differs: some people cook over firewood as in the Middle Ages, others already ask AI for advice. Ahead lie 6G, AGI, robots and basic income. Press an era and the map will show where people live in it today.
- 671 millionlive without electricity, as in the 1800s
- 2.0 billioncook with wood, coal or kerosene
- 935 millionuse AI
- 0live in the future: 6G, AGI, robots and basic income are still ahead
The world on a map
A world map in three tabs: freedom by the V-Dem index, the income of the poorest 10% from World Bank data, and the era people live in, from the Middle Ages to AI. Turn on JavaScript to see it.
How the scale works
A person’s era is the one before the first invention they still lack. So someone with a smartphone but no electricity at home lives in the 1800s, and someone with AI but no 5G nearby lives in the 2000s–2010s. The scale measures household technology, not people.
- Stone Age
Isolated tribes live without contact with the outside world; their technology is thousands of years old.
Survival International, 2025: 196 peoples in 10 countries. The map shows areas, not exact places. - Middle Ages – 1800s
No electricity: light and food come from fire.
Access to electricity: World Bank, WHO, IEA. The Amish live this way by faith. - 1900s–1940s
There is electricity, but people cook with wood, coal, dung or kerosene.
Access to clean cooking: World Bank, WHO, IEA. - 1950s–1990s
There is a gas or electric stove, but no internet use.
Internet users: ITU. - 2000s–2010s
People use the internet but live outside 5G coverage.
5G coverage: ITU, UN Sustainable Development Goals database. - Early 2020s
People live within 5G coverage but don’t use AI.
AI users: Microsoft AI Diffusion Report, March 2026. - Today
People use AI.
The UAE leads: more than half of its people use AI. - 2030s
6G. Nowhere yet: it is in testing, and the first networks are expected in 2029–2030.
Juniper Research forecast, 2026. - AGI
AI that does any task better than people. It does not exist yet.
AI researchers put even odds on 2047 (AI Impacts, 2023). - Robots
Robots and AI produce more than people consume. Nowhere yet.
South Korea’s factories have the most robots (IFR, 2024). - Basic income
Abundance is shared: everyone has an income, and work is a matter of choice. Nowhere yet.
There are payouts to all residents in Alaska and Macau, and trials in Kenya and Finland.
What lies ahead
The future on the scale is 6G, AGI, robots and basic income: once robots and AI produce more than people consume, work becomes a matter of choice. Nobody lives there yet, but the first steps are already visible.
AGI
AI that does any task better than people. In a 2023 survey of 2,778 AI researchers, the 50-50 point came in 2047; in the same survey a year earlier it was 2060.
Robots
South Korea’s factories have the most robots: 1,220 per 10,000 workers. Next come Singapore (818), Germany (449) and Japan (446); the world average is 132.
Basic income
No country has a full one yet. There are payouts to all residents, in Alaska ($1,000 in 2025) and Macau, and trials: 12 years in Kenya, two years in Finland. AI researchers put even odds on all jobs being automated by 2116.
What you can do today
Robots and AI change daily life. Relationships and prosperity are still ours to build.