Predict life 100 years from now

[PrincessKLS]

Let's use our imagination and try to predict how life will be like in 100 years?

In America? Europe? Africa?, etc?

[David19]

I'm not too sure, but in the U.S., if there's a anyone like Bush as president (there's a scary thought, imagine Bush constantly reincarnating to become president of the U.S.!), then the world may be even worse. Iraq and Afghanistan will probably still be in a mess, people may be learning about the genocide that took place in Darfur, where the black Africans were all wiped out (and how the U.S. government did nothing), the U.S. government will probably do a spin job to make themselves look good.

Europe, not too sure, here in the UK, house prices will probably reach a billion pounds, and still rising, etc.

And, Bin Laden's grandchild will be on the run, having learnt everything from their grandfather, who managed to evade the U.S. until his dying days of 1oo years old!.

Cool thread, BTW :).

[PrincessKLS]

Well that's a doomsday approach :lol:

Don't you think it's possible that we can have these problems solved in hundred years or they'll be new problems. You don't think the year 2012 will change things?

[haw_thrn]

well if i had to guess...i d say that the gap between rich and poor would be at it's highest. if we are to survive a much needed more localy based economy will need to be put in place. the cost on shipping crap outweighing the cost of making it locally . however dure to increased comunications we can no longer rely on slave labout from other countries. initally this will be extreemly painfull as many jobs in the production lines are lost, this will cause a dramatic (and also painfull) reduction in population. I would imaging that a few companies would thrive making a very tiny amount of people very rich with the rest of everyone earning a moderatd to low income wage.

This alone would have mixed impacts on the environment depending on the possible state of technological advancements. in one hand people would be forced to live far more frugal lives, thus eliminating a huge amount of unessicary crap that we often buy. if we can find reliable and sustainablt technologies thast will allow us to do things like cook and heat and provide electricity then the environment could possibly be at an all time high. however if we cant then there is an additional stres put on the environment due to society needing to reclaim overgrown farmland (youd be amazed what our land scape looked like 100 years ago. everyone was farming) and an increase in the use of wood for maters such as heating and cooking.

regardless it wont be comfortable as far as i can see it for awhile. i think its starting now and unfortunatly our generation will be either the last to live in this opulance or the first to see it fall appart. I'm hopefull, but cultures tend not to have a story book ending in the real world.

[David19]

Well that's a doomsday approach :lol:

Don't you think it's possible that we can have these problems solved in hundred years or they'll be new problems. You don't think the year 2012 will change things?

I think some of the problems may still be there, mayve just even worse, and we'll also have new problems.

I don't think 2012 would change things, 'cause, for one, the Mayans would not have looked forward to the end of the world (they didn't believe that people would become "more peaceful" or "vibrate" into another dimension, the end of the world would have been something to fear, it would've apocalyptic, and something to try and stave off, although I don't think the end of the world would be something that could be stopped, just staved off till another time).

[tellmethetruth]

FUN!!!

I can't do a specific time period, but here's what I predict happening to the current 'developed' countries.

Technology is going to just keep getting smaller and smaller. Cell phones will become so small that they'll be implanted in our heads. Computers won't be necessary - they'll be in our heads as well, or in contact lenses of some sort. People will be using voice-activation for their tiny little computers and cell phones. They'll be able to order stuff online simply by using an "incantation" (voice-activated command) and the stuff will be beamed to wherever we point our "magic wand." There will be time travel. A few people will be able to bring those technologies back to ancient times. Then, there will be a catastrophic event which will destroy our tiny little technologies. Our society will become "third world" and the only record we'll have of our previous high-tech existence will be myths about a huge society of wizards commuting with eachother telepathically (because of the invisible cell phones) and using incantations and magic wands to make whatever they want appear wherever they want it. The only thing archeologists will dig up will be our less modern technologies such as the few books that survive and our old computers, etc., but they won't know how to work them. They'll think we were just an unevolved society like a lot of people think of the Egyptians and the Mayans. Scientists will poo-poo us.

[PrincessKLS]

Interesting. If you ask me, the technologies will get smaller but we may actually have Jetson like telephones that look like tvs so you can see the person you are talking to. I know a lot of what you see in future esque shows and movies are scifi but I think some of those things can become possible. Like the computer ran house I saw on a Disney movie once.

[tellmethetruth]

I think the "Jetson-like" telephone screens will be in contact lenses and invisible to everybody else!

I think future-esque shows are actually predictive. The people writing it don't know it, but they're prophets! Yeah. But - I think people are also going to become much more spiritual and open to psychic experiences.

Maybe . . . . . our ability to see the future and do magic and everything is actually the leftover implanted technology of some future/former (confusing because of time travel) civilization, programed into our DNA . . . . . .

[PrincessKLS]

How do you think the global economy or politics will be like?

[tellmethetruth]

Hmmmmmm. I'm not very economically- or politically-minded at all. But let's see. After all of the technology gets destroyed we'll be starting over at a basic economy. You know - barter. The society will start off being basically anarchical, with tribal leaders and as the tribes enlarge they'll have more centralized government.

While we're still enjoying our technology - hmmmmm. The government will continue to be as corrupt as ever, but I don't think we'll actually degenerate to "big brother" and all that stuff. The government will have the capability of tracking people everywhere they go - microchips imbedded in the implanted cell phones, etc. Criminals on the run will have to go "back to basics" and remove all implanted technologies. But - the gov. still won't give a rip about the average citizen. If the government gets much more powerful than it is now, we'll have a revolutionary war. I don't think they'll become "all-powerful."

Economically - paper money will cease to exist. We'll all have point systems in our microchips. Poor people won't have microchips - they'll still use credit card type things. Our taxes will be automatically deducted from us. We won't be filing our taxes much longer. There will be a bigger difference between the rich and the poor, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the poor people will have lower standards of living than they do today. The rich will spend their $$ on microtechnologies and the like. They'll be doing less outdoor physical activity and there will be more land for the poor to enjoy.

The technology will develop to the point where we'll have very little pollution. Eventually we won't need roads or paper so we'll have more trees and a lot more nature to enjoy - both the rich and the poor. Everything will be quieter. There will be more undisturbed nature. It will all be "viewable" through satellite technology, etc.

[PrincessKLS]

I have heard theories about starting over at a primative state. I think it's possible, even today you have people who try to immulate Prehistoric times.

[tellmethetruth]

Oops - I missed the key word - "global."

Globally, there will be 2 major superpowers with the rest vying for 3rd place. A little "unimportant" country, not even in the running, will surprise the superpowers because they will underestimate it and that will cause some sort of global disaster - perhaps destroying all of our wonderful technologies.

We won't have a global monetary system. International trade will continue, with sanctions and embargoes and all that. We'll never develop to the point where our technologies fit well together. We'll be prevented from buying whatever we want directly from the country we want it from, our purchases will be filtered through governmental controls and taxed before we can get them. We'll still have smuggling, of course.

[PrincessKLS]

I've always thought that the big countries of today will be small tommorrow and vice versa. I could actually see Africa becoming the super continent much like North America and Europe is today.

[David19]

I've always thought that the big countries of today will be small tommorrow and vice versa. I could actually see Africa becoming the super continent much like North America and Europe is today.

It would take longer than a 100 years for that to happen.

[phoenixrising]

I will not have a car, I will have a teleporter watch and all will be right with the world. Teleportation will be the greatest invention ever! Imagine ordering something from amazon and moments later it appears next to your computer... **Tries to buy beer on amazon**

[tellmethetruth]

I have heard theories about starting over at a primative state. I think it's possible, even today you have people who try to immulate Prehistoric times.

Yeah - but I don't think they'll be starting from a primitive state by choice. It will be because we trusted our technology too much. Those who do succeed will be those who were poor before and didn't have the technologies.

[Cassie]

I think there will be a huge divide between rich and poor. Rich human beings will have changed out of all recognition..
Nano-technology and other medical advances will mean that affluent people are virtually immortal and there will be little or no differentiation between man and machine. People will inhabit whichever body or machine is suitable for their needs or desires.
There will however be a backlash with some groups wanting a more organic form of life. These groups will claim that humanity is loosing it's soul or that it's soul is being corrupted by technology. In particular they will be suspecious of the several alien species that will be sharing technology with humanity by that time.

The rich will live in huge domed or walled cities on Earth, the moon, Mars, Titan and Europa and there will be expeditions to planets beyond our solor system organised by some of the alien contacts.

The poor will live in the nuclear and environmentaly ravished wastelands. They will live in abject poverty and be ravished by pollution and desease. Physically and genetically however, they will be stronger than the nano-humans. And they will hold the key to what happens next.

[PrincessKLS]

It would take longer than a 100 years for that to happen.


True, but in 100 years, I could see the majority of Africa being a lot more progressive and more of a 2nd world continent than a 3rd world continent.

[Zibblsnrt]

It would take longer than a 100 years for that to happen.

Japan went from a primitive medieval backwater (however people may idealize the place, that's pretty much what it was) to landing a humiliating defeat on a great power in the space of two generations. Nobody in 1850 could have predicted the state of the world in 1950. "The United States as a preeminent power? Most of Europe at peace? The empires, all gone? Utter hogwash!" On a more immediate level, the end of the Cold War came as a hell of a shock to anyone in the eighties.

I refuse to be surprised by any state the world ends up in by the year 2107. I wouldn't confidently bet on it, but hell, a Somali lunar colony by then would get a "..huh!" out of me more than a "...?!!"

In terms of things I would take a shot at predicting... hm. I suppose I can engage in the Awful Historian's Taboo of prediction since I'm on break. ;)

On the technological front, computers will have disappeared. I don't mean they won't be around - they will be, moreso than today - but they'll be increasingly integrated into this, that and the other thing, to the point where dedicated workstations more likely than not will be somewhere between rare and nonexistent. We already have incredibly complex, powerful, multifunction things which are ostensibly supposed to be telephones; that trend just has to continue for a bit. It will have interesting effects in the developing world, which has a tendency to leapfrog things technologically (the typical African with a phone has a cell phone, not a landline, for instance). I'm not sure if I expect Jetsonsian technology as much as a world where the applications and software are "just" smoother, more efficient, more user-friendly, etc., but I also know full well that any predictions of computing technology are always absurdly conservative, my own included.

The rich/poor gap will still be there, but I'm not as pessimistic about it as a lot of people. I'm not convinced by the inevitable dystopia sorts of things which get bandied about, about how there will be a rich posthuman aristocracy and an underclass of destitute slaves. Might it be that way some places? Absolutely; I'd be surprised if it wouldn't be. But I consider that a worst-case scenario, and as with all worst-case scenarios I don't expect it to be reached on a widespread level.

On the subject of posthumans or health tech in general, I expect human gengineering to become far more common than it is now. It might not be to the point where, say, election campaigns are fought over where to find the money for in utero genefixing or health coverage for from-scratch offspring, but I fully expect there to be some transgenic or genetically-modified humans in pretty dramatic ways well before I reach the end of my span, never mind by the end of the century. Obviously, as someone who identifies with transhumanism, I don't see the sky falling in this front, but I do see there being the potential for some significant changes - some good, some bad, some just different - which people ought to be thinking about in a more rational manner than they are. There will be substantial debates on what constitutes humanity by that point, with the extent of the debates scaling with the extent of modification people undergo. There might be some artificially-produced speciation events, but I don't expect those to happen at a widespread level.

Politically, the world will be multipolar again, barring something surprising. I will comfortably call that the major powers by the mid-to-late 21st century will be the United States, China, India and Brazil, with Indonesia, something in the Middle East, and some of the European powers as the main second tier. (Unless the EU actually becomes a superstate - I don't know ifi t will or not - in which case it'll be cemented very firmly among the top rank. Depending on the course of the next few generations, some or all of the African Union might be a significant second-tier power, too.) Beyond those two vague tiers, I can't and won't speculate about the relative power balance. If it doesn't happen in the next, say, 10-15 years, I really really don't see a direct armed conflict between anyone on that list happening by that time, again, barring anything unexpected.

[PrincessKLS]

In 1,000 years I envision America to not be a country but a small city or state such as Rome is now. Rome used to be an empire that covered vast amounts of Europe, and Africa with tons of influence and power. Now it's just capital city of Italy.

Also the UK and the countries that comprise it will also be reduced in size and power in 1,000 years or more.

[Liberty]

100 years from now women will have taken over the world! yayy!!!!!

:lol: okay, maybe not.

Hm...I predict I'd be dead by then but aside from that maybe humans will have smarten up and made it a part of their daily lives to do something that will preserve our planet. Fashion, like it always does recycles it self. Maybe they've modernize the Victorian look.
Canada and the US will merge, maybe even Mexico so no more talks of building stupid walls around the US borders because we all know that won't keep anyone out. The new nation will be call United Nations of Amercanxico. lol
Maybe humans will evolve to pick up an ability like heroes. :hehehehe:
Humans will have discovered that there's no life on Mars but there is on Pluto!