Prediction for the next 30-50 years

[jverne]

inspired by the movie i recently seen


Economics:
-capitalism will still be up and running
-facade laws will give the impression it will be more regulated
-the major resource providers (food, transportation, factories,...) will conglomerate into monopolies even more
-real competition might only exist in the digital sector
-privatization will be widespread (food, water, land,...)

Politics:
-major players will form a more intertwined political organization (USA, China, EU, India, Russia, Brazil)
-we might see some stabilization of African countries primarily led by now better off ones
-representative democracy will still be the common system
-but the richest will be even more powerful since they'll be interconnected even more than now
-people will know more about politics but won't bother to do anything serious about it (like always)
-china will somewhat open up their population gates

Population:
-will increase (at least 8 billion)
-the divide between privileged and the poor will increase, even to the point where there will be restricted areas for different classes
-slums will be commonplace
-major immigration will occur from the poorer to the rich (slums will be noticeable in every major developed city)

War:
-restricted to low conflict situations
-WMD won't be that talked about
-terrorism will increase

Environment:
-air quality will degrade
-biodiversity will diminish
-water quality might go critical (salt as well as fresh)
-pests will increase
-chemical contamination will be everywhere

Health:
-chronic diseases will increase
-now serious diseases/conditions will be effectively treated if you'll have the money to afford the cures

Society:
-richer areas will have lower crime than now and the opposite for poorer
-people will be even more apathetic
-the green mentality won't be implemented soon enough to make a change in this time frame
-segregation even more prominent

Science:
-bioengineering will become more mainstream (to the point we might see certain segregation and laws "regulating" it)
-nanotechnology will be widespread but not regulated soon enough (major health issues will become apparent in the early to mid years)
-maybe we'll see a space elevator built but it would be mostly restricted to private companies (science will be second place)
-the LHC won't find shit (no it will not implode the universe)

Energy:
-oil will be used for quite some time despite the peak production
-serious alternatives to the base load producers won't be funded enough to become operational in this time frame
-those silly alternatives solutions will pretty much stay as they are, maybe a max 20% increase





i base my predictions on current trends and historic events. life from the 50' changed but not that dramatically that we couldn't understand it.
some things were better then and some where not.
i envision it like this...if you'll work harder you'll have a "more comfortable" life but if you work the same or less you'll have a much worse than now.

in general i do not have a optimistic vision of the future, mainly because it's not the future i'd like it to be.
but it would be nice to have a hl3.net though.

 

[Insano]

Six billion? Think again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-Population-1800-2100.png

Overpopulation is going to cause major conflicts in the future. I don't see Africa stabilising, because of the water shortage.

Besides wars, we're already raping the natural resources of this planet at an exponential increasing rate. It's going to get a lot worse.

 

[Shyam]

Replace Russia with India. Russia has low population growth coupled with lots of alcohol abuses and diseases. And we saw how strong the Russian economy was when it plummeted during the recession.

 

[jverne]

well i tried to keep it somewhat balanced, there's always a worse potential scenario.

if i had to choose between between the good and bad option i'd chose the later. humans have never been screwing things up as much as now, kinda doubt we'd just better ourselves tomorrow.

@shyam

damn, sorry...how did India slip my mind i have no idea.

 

[Remus]

"The future is bright, the future is ORANGE!"

 

[Acepilotf14]

2010: Obama is ousted from office, replaced by Palin
2011: Alaska is attacked by China, seeing the USA's weak position and calling on its debts.
2012: War.. war never changes.

 

[jverne]

2010: Obama is ousted from office, replaced by Palin
2011: Alaska is attacked by China, seeing the USA's weak position and calling on its debts.
2012: War.. war never changes.

i know you're being sarcastic


but to any naive person...wars like that will no be fought for quite some time if they ever will. it's just not worth the effort, having someone by their economic balls is much more rewarding.

 

[Sheepo]

i know you're being sarcastic


but to any naive person...wars like that will no be fought for quite some time if they ever will. it's just not worth the effort, having someone by their economic balls is much more rewarding.

I would love to get inside your brain.

 

[Acepilotf14]

i know you're being sarcastic


but to any naive person...wars like that will no be fought for quite some time if they ever will. it's just not worth the effort, having someone by their economic balls is much more rewarding.

China is communist. Any real communist nation shouldn't like having money anyway, as money leads to corruption and greed.

Unfortunately, China is an autocracy.

 

[knut]

FLYING CARS

 

[PvtRyan]

well i tried to keep it somewhat balanced, there's always a worse potential scenario.

if i had to choose between between the good and bad option i'd chose the later. humans have never been screwing things up as much as now, kinda doubt we'd just better ourselves tomorrow.

Actually, humans are doing better than ever before. The issues we are dealing with now, are not issues created over the last couple of years, as a result of us screwing up more and more. They're mostly issues created in the past, like our use of fossil fuels.

The gap between the rich and poor is not increasing. All over the world, life expectancy and quality of life is increasing. Yes, the rich get richer, but so do the poor. And while the population will be about 9 billion around 2050, almost all of that growth will be centralized in cities, so it doesn't have to be disastrous to nature. And that growth is a direct result of improving conditions over the last decades for a lot of people, and eventually the growth will slow down because with increased wealth, fertility rates decrease.

All this doomsaying is bullshit and not very productive at all. Yes, the world is still a bad place for a lot of people and it's going to be for a long while, and some things are getting worse, but overall the trend is upwards, towards improvement. Not downwards. If you want to visualize this, the charts at gapminder.org are excellent.

 

[Polaris]

Some of my lame predictions

Economics:

- West will soon recover from current crisis
- Expect more crisis scenarios though
- China economy will grow stronger

Politics:

- Russia will become even more autocratic and agressive
- North Korea will become more and more unstable
- More radical and dogmatic US conservatives

Population:

- Will grow indeed
- Problems in the third world countries - famines and lack of water
- Low population growth in the West

War:

- War on Terror will continue and will spread to other Middle East countries
- Bio-terror will cause major problems
- Nuclear weapons will spread even more

Environment:

- Global warming will cause more and more troubles
- Geoengineering experiments will not be efficient enough
- Air quality and chemical contamination will be very bad in the developing countries, good in the West

Science:

- Unprecedented grow of biotech, ethical stem cell research will change medicine forever
- Major breaktroughs in physics by LHC experiments, theory of everything at hand
- Nanotechnology will become common in every possible way
- Space research will be dominated by private companies

Energy:

- Better not thinking about this one...

 

[Escaep]

^ Best prediction itt.

 

[dfc05]

I also mostly agree with Polaris's predictions. Jverne's are ok but a little extreme -- I don't expect there to be as much segregation as he mentioned. For the nanotech and possible health issues related to widespread/superfluous use of it (right now they're using it to make retarded crap like odor-free socks and cosmetics, ugh), I really hope they figure that out and regulate it before things get out of hand. Otherwise it could be the next dry cleaning solvent or leaded gasoline or CFC.

 

[Shyam]

I am leaving out the others because my knowledge about environment and scienc not good. I will be using Polaris's template

Economics:

- China, India, Brazil will increasingly become big economic players

- Indian and Chinese comapnies will become big players in world economy

- some African economies will start posting solid growths

Politics:

- Will see the solidifying of the U.S., Japan and India coalition to curb Chinese influence

- the Chinese will in return solidify their presence in Latin America and Africa

- The right in U.S. might become more radicalized due to the waning power of the U.S.

Population:

- will stabilise in India and China but will grow in Africa especially.

- The increasing number of people trying to urbanise will put pressure on developing countries.

- We may see the emergence of climate refugees.

War:

- Al Qaeda will shift their bases to Africa. There will be an increasing presence of Islamic extremists in Africa.

- Increasing population and dwindling resources in developing countries will provide fertile ground for extremists.

- warfare will mainly be restricted to low intensity conflicts.

 

[xdrive]

my prediction for the next 10 years is war. War war war

 

[Danimal]

Top secret Russian Orthodox priests are getting ready to kick some demonic ass.

 

[xdrive]

You all know what needs to be done.

http://www.invadenewzealand.com/

 

[Warped]

this is mere speculation but heres how i see it:

I bet in the future, more diseases will be patented and humans will have less control of themselves than they do now, becoming more prison like with more rules and more regulations.

Video Games will cost $120 easy. Flying to the moon will cost $5,000. Sending a friend a gift would be as easy as sending them a 3D model and having them print it out on the 3D printer that creates useful objects. Sex Education will include tutorials. Nude beaches will arrive in the US and pop up everywhere. MTV will still suck.

Cars will help drive humans around and leave more time to sleep or catch up on errands. The Earth will have more turrets up in space to avoid another "Great Slam" like in the late 2020s. Humans can plug into the internet but there will be no wires. Antigravity chambers will be easily accessible. There will still be lines at the DMV, even after opening an online only site. XBL hits 100 million users. PSN 70 million. Cameras will now float around and snag unbelievable snapshots that make headlines via advanced AI floating machines.

Cows and Chicken will be replaced with Invetro-Meat----grown in massive labs with the highest purities. Cancer rates will still rise as smoking makes a comeback after the governments of the world announce a Cancer-less cigarette. China will be the new Superpower. Humans will branch off into 5 different and distinct species. Chemical hacking of peoples brains will lead to widespread panics and a mindless society. (oohh shit that all ready happened)

It'll be a whole new world and would be hard to adjust if you were to be put into cryosleep now and awoke then

http://spbcar***/news/en/i/2009-06-25/balcony_opta.jpg

 

[Danimal]

Orbital Weapons will probably come about to be, yeah, but for more sinister purposes.

Perhaps the Great Slam of the late 2020s is a government created "fake event"!?

 

[fishdbaz]

Humans can plug into the internet but there will be no wires.

"Blargh! I can plug my mind into the internet, but I can't find any connection cords to jack in with!"

 

[Warped]

"Blargh! I can plug my mind into the internet, but I can't find any connection cords to jack in with!"

you forgot the Wifi toggle! unless your internet surgeon forgot to switch it to 'On'

 

[Lizardizzle]

the future:

 

[Shyam]

You all know what needs to be done.

http://www.invadenewzealand.com/

Only one thing wrong with that plan. When you look at the map, there will be no New Zealand. You Aussies better get on that underarm greande throwing exercise.

 

[Saturos]

My prediction:

2010: Economic and political pressure reaches breaking point between the US and all the other countries it owes money too. Especially China.

2016: China will get fed up with USA's bullshit and nuke the shit out of D.C. while invading Alaska.

2017:The US will follow suit and nuke the shit out of China.

2020:Tonnes of fallout and most of the world is in anarchy.

2027:Cockroaches become mutated by the fallout and develop a higher intelligence

2031:The roach horde begins consuming whatever is left of the human race.

2042:After ever last human is devoured, they move on to conquer other distant planets.

2048:The Earth is a pathetic mess of nothing but fallout wastelands.

2050: Huge planetoid/meteor 2x the size of Earth put's the world out of it's misery.

 

[xdrive]

Only one thing wrong with that plan. When you look at the map, there will be no New Zealand. You Aussies better get on that underarm greande throwing exercise.

What? None of what you just said made sense.

 

[Letters]

Only 10 years ago, I was in the eighth grade, playing TFC on our very first cable modem (so much better than America Online!). It'd be impossible for me to say what just *I* will likely be doing in another 10 years, much less what the world will be doing!

30-50 years? Get the **** out. I'll be old, that's all I can say.

OR WILL I?

 

[Rizzo]

My prediction:

2010: Economic and political pressure reaches breaking point between the US and all the other countries it owes money too. Especially China.

2016: China will get fed up with USA's bullshit and nuke the shit out of D.C. while invading Alaska.

2017:The US will follow suit and nuke the shit out of China.

2020:Tonnes of fallout and most of the world is in anarchy.

2027:Cockroaches become mutated by the fallout and develop a higher intelligence

2031:The roach horde begins consuming whatever is left of the human race.

2042:After ever last human is devoured, they move on to conquer other distant planets.

2048:The Earth is a pathetic mess of nothing but fallout wastelands.

2050: Huge planetoid/meteor 2x the size of Earth put's the world out of it's misery.

2010: Obama is ousted from office, replaced by Palin
2011: Alaska is attacked by China, seeing the USA's weak position and calling on its debts.
2012: War.. war never changes.

yeah this probably.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

Massive global political shift towards socialism.People will get fed up with capitalism after several more economic crises.

 

[simonjedi]

Everything goes to shit and we all die.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

Episode 3 will come out. Maybe.

Everyone in the US will be in jail.

A gallon of clean water will cost more than a gallon of gasoline.

Christian / Muslim war fought with robots made in China.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

The first nano-fabricator will be able to create ant-sized clothing (but take a year to do it)

 

[Escaep]

Wheres that picture that was posted a year or two ago that showed what one man predicted life would be like today back in like the 30s or 40s? He predicted that we would be in flying cars and such.

 

[MJ12]

-In the year 3030, everybody want to be an MC.

-In the year 3030, everybody want to be a DJ.

-In the year 3030, everybody want to be a producer.

-In the year 3030, everybody want to tell ya the meaning of the music.



Wait, 2010?

 

[L3N!N]

Hopefully energy will be drastically cleaner and more efficient with the possibly successful implementation of this:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/

Was this thorium article posted here before?

 

[jverne]

Hopefully energy will be drastically cleaner and more efficient with the possibly successful implementation of this:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/

Was this thorium article posted here before?

very interesting

 

[VirusType2]

Hopefully energy will be drastically cleaner and more efficient with the possibly successful implementation of this:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/

Was this thorium article posted here before?

That sounds very promising.

 

[Ennui]

as the decades progress the likelihood of the only innovation being a HUGE ****ING CLOUD OF RADIOACTIVE ASH WHERE THE SURFACE OF THE PLANET USED TO BE seems more and more poignant to me

 

[PvtRyan]

About the thorium stuff, all of that is possible with uranium as well. The article's pretty biased against uranium. For example:

It’s only slightly radioactive; you could carry a lump of it in your pocket without harm.

The same goes for uranium and plutonium.

Thorium is more abundant than uranium, in easy ways at least, but uranium is also virtually inexhaustible. But yeah, we need to embrace nuclear power, thorium is one way, but next generation uranium plants are just as good an option as any.

 

[VirusType2]

My prediction is that I'll be dead.