Engineering and the X Factors

The science journal Nature recently came up with a list of emerging game-changers.  None of these are currently on the engineering radar.  Engineers and decision makers might want to keep an eye on these "known unknowns" - all may sound like excellent Hollywood scripts, but they could also create broad opportunities and challenges for engineering.

• Runaway climate change - Is it possible that we have already passed a point of no return and that Earth's atmosphere is tipping rapidly into an inhospitable state?
• Significant cognitive enhancement - Ethical dilemmas akin to doping in sports could start to extend into daily working life; an arms race in the neural "enhancement" of combat troops.  Prediction - - advances by 2025 could make the Terminator franchise look dated.
• Rogue deployment of geoengineering - Technology is now being developed to manipulate the climate; a state or private individual could use it unilaterally.  This could be a great undated Bond film!
• Costs of living longer - Medical advances are prolonging life, but long-term palliative care is expensive.  Covering the costs associated with old age could be a struggle.  In my opinion, this is a "known-known" - already happening.  Our current budget debates and battles fundamentally revolve around some form of this issue.  This will never be a Bond movie.
• Discovery of alien life - Proof of life's existence elsewhere in the universe could have profound psychological implications for human belief systems.  Invest in CNN if this happens - Anderson Cooper will cover this for 100 straight days.