the Future: your view?

[EagleAye]

By 2020, another more serious economic crash will occur. This will spark some brief wars and the toppling of several minor governments. North Korea is one of them. Korea is united once again.
By 2030, most of the western nations are bouncing back. Many South American countries experience prosperity they're never known before, becoming first-world nations. Indonesia and Malaysia also become first-world nations and begin importing foreign workers.
By 2040, the USA, EU, most of South America, and most of Asia have completely eliminated their need for oil via alternative energies. Windmills dot the landscape and most housing is built or retrofitted with solar. The middle-east goes into decline. Since the crash of 2020 left most nations bankrupt, most nations begin trading via a barter system created by the revised and re-chartered United Nations. Expertise becomes the primary currency in use between nations.
By 2060, terrorism and money are almost a memory. The middle-east collapses into a complex tribal conflict. Former oil facilities have been destroyed by fundamentalists. Oil is not even available in the middle-east. Without the need for oil, the middle-eastern nations are no longer supplied tech or weapons from anyone. Some tribal conflicts are actually fought with AK-74s...from camelback. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt are the only countries immune to the chaos.

During 2060:
- Half the population no longer owns a computer. Instead, they buy "access time." You can identify them because they are always wearing something like sun-glasses and chic gloves. Their sunglasses access the internet and provide a private HUD (Heads Up Display) that they can manipulate with their gloves.
- Large cities are half-empty. What remains uses much of the space for vertical horticulture. Gardens actually grow next to office space.
- Planned villages sprout across the country-side. No one living in them owns a car. Instead, they use communal cars and mass transportation systems to get around. All tranportation is electric. All housing is smart housing. These villages form around manufacturing and other industry. Most of the workers bike or walk to work. People "borrow" from a pool of electric cars for long-distance travel.
- Nanotech is used increasingly in the medical field. Often, a trip to the doctor means...getting an upgrade.
- The first space-elevator is under construction in Brazil. This is now possible because ferro-tubes can be produced cheaply and easily.
- After years of debate and triple-checks, the first tests for a planned Artificial Intelligence are about to begin.
- Hypersonic aircraft are now the predominant aircraft of civil airlines.
- Space tourism becomes common in most countries.
- Walt Disney Universe opens on the moon.

 

[Guy Incognito]

I think it's wishful thinking to assume the technological progress is going to continue on an upward trajectory forever. That was never the case historically; progress has always been in the form of golden ages of advancement followed by collapse and a dark age, at which point society must be gradually rebuilt to achieve advancement.

So what's happening today, historically speaking? The post World War II world is collapsing, much the Roman Empire collapsed. Currnecy has been radically devalued and inflation is skyrocketing steadily for the past three generations, just as inflation in the Roman Empire spiraled out of control in its declining years. The Romans even replaced their silver coinage with silver-plated brass just prior to their collapse. Remind anybody of the fiat money system of today?

I'd say, if history is any indicator, we're in line for another dark age.

 

[Pinkie]

By 2020, another more serious economic crash will occur. This will spark some brief wars and the toppling of several minor governments. North Korea is one of them. Korea is united once again.
By 2030, most of the western nations are bouncing back. Many South American countries experience prosperity they're never known before, becoming first-world nations. Indonesia and Malaysia also become first-world nations and begin importing foreign workers.
By 2040, the USA, EU, most of South America, and most of Asia have completely eliminated their need for oil via alternative energies. Windmills dot the landscape and most housing is built or retrofitted with solar. The middle-east goes into decline. Since the crash of 2020 left most nations bankrupt, most nations begin trading via a barter system created by the revised and re-chartered United Nations. Expertise becomes the primary currency in use between nations.
By 2060, terrorism and money are almost a memory. The middle-east collapses into a complex tribal conflict. Former oil facilities have been destroyed by fundamentalists. Oil is not even available in the middle-east. Without the need for oil, the middle-eastern nations are no longer supplied tech or weapons from anyone. Some tribal conflicts are actually fought with AK-74s...from camelback. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt are the only countries immune to the chaos.

During 2060:
- Half the population no longer owns a computer. Instead, they buy "access time." You can identify them because they are always wearing something like sun-glasses and chic gloves. Their sunglasses access the internet and provide a private HUD (Heads Up Display) that they can manipulate with their gloves.
- Large cities are half-empty. What remains uses much of the space for vertical horticulture. Gardens actually grow next to office space.
- Planned villages sprout across the country-side. No one living in them owns a car. Instead, they use communal cars and mass transportation systems to get around. All tranportation is electric. All housing is smart housing. These villages form around manufacturing and other industry. Most of the workers bike or walk to work. People "borrow" from a pool of electric cars for long-distance travel.
- Nanotech is used increasingly in the medical field. Often, a trip to the doctor means...getting an upgrade.
- The first space-elevator is under construction in Brazil. This is now possible because ferro-tubes can be produced cheaply and easily.
- After years of debate and triple-checks, the first tests for a planned Artificial Intelligence are about to begin.
- Hypersonic aircraft are now the predominant aircraft of civil airlines.
- Space tourism becomes common in most countries.
- Walt Disney Universe opens on the moon.

This (mostly) sounds wonderful. I'll be sorry to miss it.

 

[Pinkie]

I think it's wishful thinking to assume the technological progress is going to continue on an upward trajectory forever. That was never the case historically; progress has always been in the form of golden ages of advancement followed by collapse and a dark age, at which point society must be gradually rebuilt to achieve advancement.

So what's happening today, historically speaking? The post World War II world is collapsing, much the Roman Empire collapsed. Currnecy has been radically devalued and inflation is skyrocketing steadily for the past three generations, just as inflation in the Roman Empire spiraled out of control in its declining years. The Romans even replaced their silver coinage with silver-plated brass just prior to their collapse. Remind anybody of the fiat money system of today?

I'd say, if history is any indicator, we're in line for another dark age.

I disagree, unless we're hit with another pandemic -- something severe. Even then, I think the surviving humans will rebuild fast and with more grace.

 

[Pinkie]

On the other hand, George Orwell predicted the future even earlier. What do you think a telescreen is? It's your laptop with embedded microphone and camera, connected to the Net. How about the mobile phone? It's not only the perfect tracking device (GPS like) but also the perfect eavesdropper, cause most people keep it within reach. Orwell even predicted the political tendencies - global socialist-fascist super states (see what Putin announced this week), cunning elite, dumb people, media brainwashing, bread & circuses culture, etc.
I'm not very optimistic.

Everyone remembers Orwell...no one seems to remember Huxley. I think his future vision is far more likely.

Aldous Huxley : Brave New World

 

[Deuce]

Not in their current form, too easily copied already. You might carry a "cash disk" (like a thumb drive) with a pre-loaded amount of cash you can transfer to another person/store's disk without going thru a bank, protected by biometrics... but paper and coins I doubt.

Except gold and silver coins, of course, as collector items and bad-times-backups.

I think having cash disks would finally get people to start realizing that gold and silver have no inherent value and therefore are just as much a "fiat currency" as what we use now.

 

[atrasicarius]

By 2060, computers will be orders of magnitude smarter than us. That represents a really fundamental change. Up until now, we've been the smartest thing on the planet, and in the known universe for that matter. There's really no way to predict how different things will be when that isn't true anymore.

A few more predictions:
Relatively cheap space travel
Self reliant extra-planetary colonies, although not large ones
Molecular assemblers
Fusion power as standard
Globally available wifi, with a high enough bandwidth to support full virtual reality

 

[atrasicarius]

Nanotech, biotech, genetic engineering and gene therapy, medical advancements and, naturally, the ongoing progress in computers/communications networks/automation/software/AI/etc... those are going to be huge.

Unless our ongoing experiments in high-energy physics (ie the big collider in Europe, etc) reveal some new field of physics, I think most of the next 50 yrs advancements will be in "soft" technologies like those above, rather than antigravity, warp drive, teleporters and other space-opera staples.

I tend to agree with that. I see the big advances in space travel happening in the twenty second or twenty third century.

 

[spud_meister]

By 2060, not much will have changed, we'll have smaller, much more powerful computers, a lot of power will come from renewable energy, computers will play a much larger role, with heaps of stuff being automated, they'll even have robots to spit in your burger at McDonalds, space flight will be fairly common, both by the private sector and government space programs and we'll have put people on Mars. But basic societal condition will remain pretty much the same.

 

[LaughAtTheWorld]

I dare not predict what the future will be like. That will be immmensely arrogant.
Technology, science, and society is moving at a pace that is going faster than before, and is going more and more faster.
It's like trying to see where a car that's going faster and faster will be. You might make rough predictions based on past speed and movement, however, you can't accurately predict where that car will be, what speed it will be going, and which direction it will be going.
People also may be able to at least rougly predict where we will be in the next decade or so based on predicted and current innovations, and where society is going right now, but there will never be any accurate predictions.
So I dare not make any predictions

 

[black hole]

I'm interested in how people view the future... particularly the relatively near future, say 2030-2060, but especially the latter date.

Will it be much like today, just with better gadgets?

Will day to day life... that is, home, travel, work, recreation, communication, buying/selling/economics, etc... be substantially different but not radically so?

Or will the future be so very different that most of us would be shocked if we could preview it today?


I'm primarily coming at this from the angle of scientific and technological advancement, and its effect on everyday life. Also operating on the assumption that civilization will continue and advance at least as fast as it currently is... if not more so. I'd prefer if we kept the apocalyptic "we're all gonna die/ we'll be living in caves" stuff out of it.

What do you think? Explain your answer and tell us what you think 2060 will be like.

Sorry for not giving my view of the near future of 2060 but what I can see in 2200 is a world full of high rise buildings where whole cities are literally contained and maintained within a building. It would be to a point where many people would work, live, be entertained, etc within a large building. It would become the norm to live an entire life within a building.

 

[Guy Incognito]

I think having cash disks would finally get people to start realizing that gold and silver have no inherent value and therefore are just as much a "fiat currency" as what we use now.

That's pretty ridiculous, and shows how little you understand about the concept of intrinsic value.

 

[LaughAtTheWorld]

That's pretty ridiculous, and shows how little you understand about the concept of intrinsic value.

Don't make this into another theoretical economics thread. Please.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Don't make this into another theoretical economics thread. Please.

No dice pal, it came up in the discussion. Sorry you haven't got a brain for big ideas.

 

[Sig]

Information will be beamed at us non-stop. All the knowledge of the human race will be available in an instant, all the time. Unfortunately, 90% of it will be advertisements. So really, we'll be living more and more in a manufactured dream world fed to us by people who want the deceive us and make us buy things, or view the world in black and white partisan terms, or just plain lie to us.

The ever increasing amount of advertising has got to go as, it is, even in our present age, a primary instigator of mental illness. (Let's face it, there is something extremely disturbed about a newscast that forces you to endure an inane tampon commercial before updating you on the latest mass murder, natural disaster, or nuclear meltdown.) I predict that in the not-too-distant future, there will be a global uprising against the advertising industry. People will start boycotting products that are advertised too heavily or in inappropriate settings.

 

[Canell]

I predict that in the not-too-distant future, there will be a global uprising against the advertising industry. People will start boycotting products that are advertised too heavily or in inappropriate settings.

Lol, I live in the future then. I love the "Mute" button and usually use it when the advertising block begins. I hate that the suckers try to manipulate me with higher volume and toady voices.

 

[Goshin]

The ever increasing amount of advertising has got to go as, it is, even in our present age, a primary instigator of mental illness. (Let's face it, there is something extremely disturbed about a newscast that forces you to endure an inane tampon commercial before updating you on the latest mass murder, natural disaster, or nuclear meltdown.) I predict that in the not-too-distant future, there will be a global uprising against the advertising industry. People will start boycotting products that are advertised too heavily or in inappropriate settings.

I pretty much quit watching TV years ago. If there's a show on I like, I find a way to get it on the Internet. A lot of this has to do with how much I hate TV ads.

I quit watching TV news long ago. I hated the patronizing manner of the news anchors, the talking-down-to-you attitude, the silly blurbs before commercials ("Is your bathroom cleanser killing you? FiveOnYourSide Special Reporter Asia Smarterthanu reveals hidden dangers you don't know about... after this message from our sponsors." GAG!). I read news on the internet where it is easier to ignore the ads.

Hyperbole and excessive sensationalism turn me off quick. I don't click on any links to WorldNetDaily anymore for that very reason.

You have to control your media intake, or it can really mess with your head. I suspect that in the future that's going to be even more true.

 

[LaughAtTheWorld]

I pretty much quit watching TV years ago. If there's a show on I like, I find a way to get it on the Internet. A lot of this has to do with how much I hate TV ads.

I quit watching TV news long ago. I hated the patronizing manner of the news anchors, the talking-down-to-you attitude, the silly blurbs before commercials ("Is your bathroom cleanser killing you? FiveOnYourSide Special Reporter Asia Smarterthanu reveals hidden dangers you don't know about... after this message from our sponsors." GAG!). I read news on the internet where it is easier to ignore the ads.

Hyperbole and excessive sensationalism turn me off quick. I don't click on any links to WorldNetDaily anymore for that very reason.

You have to control your media intake, or it can really mess with your head. I suspect that in the future that's going to be even more true.

I don't mind commercials that are good, they are at least sometimes worth watching, however, the cheesy ones where the only voices are singing and you have absolutely no idea what they're advertising drives me crazy.
I quit watching foreign TV news such as CNN, I figured out they are nothing other than talking heads who have no idea what they're talking about.

 

[Sig]

There wasn't a single Rapture in the last two thousand years. What makes you think there's going to be one in the next fifty?

I don't know for raptures, but there may very well be raptors.

​

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

If I really believed we were going to have real raptors in the next fifty years, my post wouldn't have been nearly so bitter.

 

[Wake]

That's something I dream about. There will possibly be another world war. Discussions on population control will have increased in intensity. With more and more mouths to feed, and a probably more incompetent government, we could face another depression. It wouldn't be wise to think the worst is behind us.

 

[EagleAye]

That's something I dream about. There will possibly be another world war. Discussions on population control will have increased in intensity. With more and more mouths to feed, and a probably more incompetent government, we could face another depression. It wouldn't be wise to think the worst is behind us.

I think we are doomed to face another depression. This will cause more revolutions than just the "Arab Spring." I think the debt-driven monetary system will be tossed out, all debts forgiven, and a new new way of looking at money will emerge. The march on Wall Street will not only happen in the US, it will happen across the world. It will get worse before it gets better. How long depression lasts in each country will be the telling factor. Those countries that adapt quickly will emerge as the new first-world nations.

 

[atrasicarius]

I think we are doomed to face another depression. This will cause more revolutions than just the "Arab Spring." I think the debt-driven monetary system will be tossed out, all debts forgiven, and a new new way of looking at money will emerge. The march on Wall Street will not only happen in the US, it will happen across the world. It will get worse before it gets better. How long depression lasts in each country will be the telling factor. Those countries that adapt quickly will emerge as the new first-world nations.

I also think there will be a depression and revolutions, but I'm not as optimistic about the results as you are. If we're really lucky, we might see one or two nations of the type you describe come out of it, but it'll be a while before they'll be considered successful. No one is successful right after a revolution.

 

[EagleAye]

I also think there will be a depression and revolutions, but I'm not as optimistic about the results as you are. If we're really lucky, we might see one or two nations of the type you describe come out of it, but it'll be a while before they'll be considered successful. No one is successful right after a revolution.

Even without revolution, just overcoming the depression will be easier said than done. It won't be easy; in fact it will suck a lot. My wild-a$$-guess is that it will take 10 to 20 years to recover. I believe recovery will happen via variations of the New Deal and massive public works projects. These actions will stimulate the economy while providing the infrastructure for a better life that we are reticent to push for now. Not nearly enough people are suffering now, so nations are not inspired to make huge changes. Depression, and the need to recover from it, will force those changes in a big way.

 

[Paschendale]

By the year 2050, someone on this forum will have literally wiped their own ass with a computer more powerful than the one they are using now.

The awesome potential of all of the technologies we are developing now will be castrated by the heartless reactionaries and the soulless profiteers. Every generation is going to continue to have it a little better than the generation before them, but we won't solve any of the great problems of the human condition. We're not going to cure any incurable diseases. We're not going to eradicate poverty, or famine, or violence, or crime. Some of us are going to live into our 120s, and some of our children will live into their 130s, but no one is going to wake up every morning secure in the knowledge that senescence and senility have become obsolete. We're not going to build colonies on the Moon and Mars, or floating above the clouds of Venus. We are not going to use technology to make ourselves better, we're just going to keep using it to make ourselves more and more complacent.

There's absolutely no reason to fear the future anymore. All of the great minds have given up on inventing it.

I want to like this post, because it is well thought out and well written. And probably true. But I don't like it. It makes me sad. For the previously mentioned reasons.