A new survey suggests that Americans are generally excited about the new technology they expect to see in their lifetimes, but when confronted with some advances that already appear possible they get nervous.
Those are the findings in a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, which sought to gauge public opinion about our rapidly changing world of science and tech.
The report said that the American public anticipates that the coming half-century will be a period of profound scientific change, as inventions that were once confined to the realm of science fiction come into common usage, CNN reported.
Overall, respondents to Pew's survey were upbeat about how technology will shape the near future.
In the report, 59 percent of Americans think tech developments will make life in the next half-century better, while only 30 percent said they will make life worse.
More than eight out of 10 respondents (81 percent) said they think that in the next 50 years, people who need transplants will be able to get them with organs grown in labs. And more than half (51 percent) think computers will be able to create art as skillfully as humans do.
They're a little less optimistic about some science-fiction staples, though. Only 39 percent think it's likely scientists will have figured out how to teleport things (or, presumably, people), 33 percent say we'll have long-term space colonies by 2064 and a mere 19 percent expect humans will be able to control the weather.
Interestingly, some of the advances that may be closest to becoming reality are the ones survey respondents were most worried about.
Nearly two out of three Americans think it would make things worse if US airspace is opened up to personal drones.
A similar number dislike the idea of robots being used to care for the sick and elderly, and of parents being able to alter the DNA of their unborn children.
