According to a theoretical physicist at the City College of New York, Michio Kaku, we are entering an empowered new era: “We have unlocked the secrets of matter. We have unraveled the molecule of life, DNA. And we have created a form of artificial intelligence, the computer. We are making the historic transition from the age of scientific discovery to the age of scientific mastery in which we will be able to manipulate and mold nature almost to our wishes.”

Among the technologies he believes will change our lives in the coming decades are cars that drive themselves, lab-grown human organs, 3-D television, robots that can perform household tasks, eyeglasses that double as home-entertainment centers, the exploitation of genes that alter human aging, and the possibility of invisibility and forms of teleportation.

“We will have the power to animate the inanimate, the power to create life itself,” Mr. Kaku said. “We will have the power of gods. But will we also have the wisdom of Solomon?”

In a new BBC4 series called “Visions of the Future,” Mr. Kaku talks to today’s pioneers about how we are moving from being passive observers of nature to its choreographers. Here are some of the speculations.

TELEPORTATION:

ANTON ZEILINGER, UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

“We achieved quantum teleportation 10 years ago, and we’re using it on a regular basis on the information carried by a system. This information is teleported over to another system, which assumes exactly that information; therefore, it becomes identical with the original. If you dream about teleportation of humans — well, we can dream — then all kinds of questions arise, such as: What does it mean to be me? When someone teleports me and I know that what is being teleported is information — not matter, not the stuff I’m made of — who is it that ends up over there?”

NUCLEAR POWER:

CHRIS LLEWELLYN SMITH, DIRECTOR, BRITISH FUSION PROGRAM

“Between 15 and 20 years from now, we will be ready to start building a fusion power station that will produce electricity [from nuclear fusion, rather than fission, the reaction that drives existing nuclear power stations]. After that, before the middle of the century, we hope to have large-scale fusion power.”

ELECTRICITY FROM PLANT LIFE:

ANDREAS MERSHIN, CENTER FOR BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, MIT

“Plants have developed this amazing ability to capture sunlight and create chemical energy and store it. Now we can grab the machine — the protein inside the plant called photosystem, which is responsible for generating energy for the plant — and hijack its function to create solar electrical power. Our goal is to provide an alternative to regular silicon-based solar panels. What we’re trying to do is produce a material that you can paint on a metallic surface, expose to light and have some electricity.”

NANOBOT ARMIES:

JOHN ALEXANDER, U.S. JOINT SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNIVERSITY

“On the battlefield, nanobots are going to do a lot of things; they can seek and destroy specific targets, for instance. You’ve heard about the ‘surgeons’ that you can inject into your bloodstream — well, they can go in there to repair a clogged blood vessel, or they might be able to go in and punch holes in the blood vessels to destroy an adversary. The embryonic stages are here today, and a lot of work is being done.”