Within the next 10 years, scientists expect to see proofs of many of the most difficult problems in mathematics and computational complexity. While some theories may be proven true and some may be proven false, the impact that this will have on everything from the foundations of mathematics to philosophy will be incredibly widespread. Stephen Hawking has stated that he believes that in recent years, philosophy has failed to keep up with science, and that it is on its way out as science begins to provide more and more solutions to what were once considered philosophical problems. Hawking is typically outspoken about this kind of stuff, but he is not alone in this belief.

The bottom line is that as we begin to see some form of solution to problems such as the P vs. NP problem and Poincare's Conjecture, new branches of mathematics are created seemingly overnight. In fact, one of the major reasons that we don't have solutions to all of these problems is that it takes years for scientists and mathematicians to develop the new branches, and then even more years for these to be verified and accepted. Regardless, these fields are accelerating at an alarming rate (whether this is good or bad, none can say for certain). Therefore, there are a few possibilities for where this takes education.

Subjects in the humanities might be seen as less and less important, and school curriculum will be even more centered on math and science then they already are. This is not to say that the humanities will vanish from education altogether; rather that they might be treated similarly to how classes like Fine Arts and Physical Education are currently treated (class meetings once or maybe twice a week as opposed to several hour long classes). In this case, programming and mathematical foundations may become the core courses at even the elementary school level, simply because at any higher level they will be required.

Progress in artificial intelligence has caused reasonable fear among scientists in all walks of life. That said, the progress is incredible. Little by little, scientists are beginning to accept Alan Turing's notion that, yes, machines can think, just not in the same way as people. This may mean that a self-improving computer program is actually not an unreasonable prediction for our near future. This may mean that computers actually become our educators, as they are not subject to human limitations and can very easily adapt to a student's learning style. Machines as educators have already begun being integrated in the U.S., and though this has been widely criticized, the possibility should not be There might be no education in our very near future. Depending on the next great leap forward, we may very well solve every problem that we conceivably can, or, conversely, determine that we simply cannot solve many of the problems that we thought we could. In this case, education will take a major turn, and will look very similar to education that we read about in the history books. Namely, this society will only need to educate a cultural elite: doctors, leaders, etc. We may decide that the education of every individual is no longer worth its cost, and we will see a society like that of Brave New World or 1984.