Your high-tech house will be communicative, able to sense your needs, and carbon-neutral, which means it will have no net emissions of carbon dioxide from all its energy use.

Food and drink will come from 'pharming' - the convergence of food and pharmaceutical industries. Filling your stomach will be just one objective when you shop; you will also pick up products that make you more creative, improve your maths, help you fall asleep or aid digestion.

Global superstar teachers will teach your children, while lifelong personalised learning packages keep you up to speed.

You will not spend more than five to eight hours in the office each week. Your friends will work in professions which may not exist today, for instance as tissue engineers who work with man-made skin and cartilage, or as remote do-it-yourself handymen.

Your car will be powered by hydrogen and will steer itself automatically on the highway while you plan your next sub-orbital space trip.

Real-time language translation devices will be commonplace, so will devices that act as intelligent digital gurus, getting you the information you need, fixing your social appointments and managing your home appliances.

New hierarchy-free discourse communities - such as common interest groups - will emerge under the radar of corporate decision-makers or governments.

The digital media world will become more appealing than the real world, and that is where you will enjoy weekends and holidays with your friends and family.

To relax, a high-tech T-shirt will be able to give you a 'hug' at the end of a long day.

BHAGYASHREE GAREKAR