MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has announced a series of programmes about what the world might be and a global competition inviting audiences to create their own vision of the future.

?What If?? peers into the future; 10, 20, even 50 years from now, how will we live, how will we look, how will we organise ourselves? What if we stayed young forever? What if everyone had a car? What if women ruled the world? What If? - a brand new, thought-provoking, season of BBC programming in early 2013.

BBC audiences around the world are invited to present their own vision of the future in a unique competition to coincide with the season of programmes and online content called What If? From 28 January to 31 March the BBC?s international news services on BBC World News TV, BBC World Service radio and online will broadcast a series of programmes focused on the future - from imagining how the world might look, to the new technology, innovations in health and science, and the people who will shape our new world.

Central to this special season audiences are invited to enter the BBC competition, and send their vision of the future, either a still or a moving image, using any visual medium - animation, photography, film, paint. The entries will be judged by leading artists and animators around the world.

Entrants can interpret "What if?" in any way they choose. They can imagine the future where they live, inside the home, outside, how we?ll look, what we?ll eat, how we?ll relate to each other, how we?ll move around, and what the planet will look like. But most of all the competition needs original creative work that the world should know about. Full competition and What If? season programme details will be available from 28 January 2013 at: bbc.co.uk/whatif.

The multimedia and multi-lingual programmes that shape "What If?" pose intriguing questions about our future, including:

What if humans and robots sat down together?: Recent developments in human/robot interaction are starting to open up a new debate. For instance, South Korea plans to install robotic teaching assistants in more than 8,000 kindergartens next year. So how will we learn from robots and how will robots learn from us? If robots are ever going to be truly useful in domestic or social settings then this question needs to be addressed. This hour long live radio discussion on the BBC?s technology programme Click from London on 29 January will feature a high profile panel including robotics experts - and a couple of robots. The programme will also include remote control audience participation with a robot interacting with the audience.

What if we were all cyborgs?: How far could we go and how strong could be become if we embrace human augmentation? When the senses become programmable, can we trust what they tell us about the world? Where can human augmentation take us in the future? And above all, are cyborgs still human? Stories from the new frontiers of humans and robots, and the ethics behind it.
BBC World Service - Monday 26 February.

What if we stayed young forever?: Peter Bowes in Los Angeles looks at how we are starving, injecting, modifying and increasingly allowing ourselves to be operated on to stave off the aging process. Just how far are we prepared to go? And why? This airs on BBC World Service - Mondays 4, 11, 18 March; and on BBC World News on 2, 3 March 2013.

What if we all had a car? : There are one billion cars in the world today. In 50 years? time that?s predicted to grow four-fold. Theo Leggett teams up with Kent Larson from MIT?s Media Lab in America to look at strategies to avoid global gridlock. This airs on BBC World Service, BBC World News, and BBC Online from 23 - 24 March.

What if we could decide our own form of government? Safaa Faisal from BBC Arabic takes new politicians from the scenes of Arab Spring to discuss their visions of the democratic process in their own countries. They travel from Cairo and Tunis to Washington to meet high-profile politicians, political theorists, and activists as they ask whether US-style democracy is the answer.

What if - the new tech billionaires?: The BBC?s Alastair Leithead enters the valley of invention. For the last decade Silicon Valley has had more patents pending than anywhere else on the planet, and is the home of many of the new industries that dominate the global economy. Smart money is in the start-ups that could shape our lives for decades to come. Leithead asks who the people who "invent" are, who is putting the money in and what the most exciting ideas about to come our way are. This airs on BBC World Service on 16, 17 March and BBC on World News on 16, 17 March.

What if women ruled the world?: Dee Dee Myers, author of ?Why Women Should Rule the World? is the former White House Press secretary to Bill Clinton. She was the first woman to hold that role (and acted as advisor on the West Wing TV series). Myers shares her personal take on women and power. She looks at the US State Department which has had three female heads in the last fifteen years and asks whether that has changed the culture of the organisation. She also takes a wide-ranging view on the status, responsibilities and realities of women in power around the world.