By the year 2050, There will be more children and more adults who are literate than not. There will be more children enrolled in basic K-12 education than any other point in history. There will be more adults with a college education than any other point in history. There will be an exponentially higher standard and quality of learning. There will be more opportunities for education for all children from all walks of life than any other point in history.
There will be 6 generations of people, 5 of whom have all interacted or have been affected by technology. 1 generation kept alive by technology.
There will be an entire generation of world leaders, parents, grandparents, laborers, technicians, teachers, CEOs, businessmen, pastors, etc. who (for the majority) have not been involved in an armed conflict or a major war.
I truly believe if we make it to this point, we'll all be okay.
As much as I Iike musk, I'm pretty sure his timetables are about a couple decades off of his own reckonings, and he's several additional decades ahead of everybody else.
Regarding men on mars tho, I think getting there is very feasible looking at immediate tech, but we have a long way to go in bringing them back. And I doubt we will be sending someone there to die.
On May 07 2014 02:20 Gamegene wrote: By the year 2050, There will be more children and more adults who are literate than not. There will be more children enrolled in basic K-12 education than any other point in history. There will be more adults with a college education than any other point in history. There will be an exponentially higher standard and quality of learning. There will be more opportunities for education for all children from all walks of life than any other point in history.
There will be 6 generations of people, 5 of whom have all interacted or have been affected by technology. 1 generation kept alive by technology.
There will be an entire generation of world leaders, parents, grandparents, laborers, technicians, teachers, CEOs, businessmen, pastors, etc. who (for the majority) have not been involved in an armed conflict or a major war.
I truly believe if we make it to this point, we'll all be okay.
Thanks for giving me some hope. Hooray for the circle of life!!
Sucks I'll pretty much be in the generation being kept alive by technology but if it doesn't turn out well at least I'll have gotten mine in
Will the world drift toward peace? No Will democracies prevail? No way Will there be a new world power? Not new, because China is already one Will global warming and overpopulation finally show their effects? They are already showing them Will we have found efficient ways of creating renewable energy? No Will there still be Facebook and Twitter around? No Will people still be having a social life in the real world? Yes Are new forms of art and entertainment going to emerge? Yes Is the music going to sound different? Yes Will YouTube beat television? Yes Will there be a robot in every household? In civilized world (I don't want to say Western, 'cause maybe West won't be civilized anymore) Is there finally going to be a robot that cooks for me and cleans up afterwards? Yes Are we still going to have Smartphones? Wearables? Google Glass? No Is everyone going to have chip implants? Nearly everyone Will computers become more powerful? Yes Will Moore's law still be in place in 2050? No Will it still be possible to live completely offline? Not legally Will governments take over the Internet? Yes Will there be new ways of transportation? Yes Will the electric car take over the traditional car? Yes Will there be wars at all? Yes Will women reach equality? They have reached it quite some time ago and the tables have turned since Will we still be dating in the real world? Not in the traditional sense and not even in current sense. It's going to get purely transactional Will there still be sex? Yes Will there be a major change in our economic system? Depends on what is major change... but probably nah Will the majority of people still be working? Yes Will there still be poverty? Yes Will we finally be able to treat diseases without side effects? No Is there going to be a major breakthrough in the sciences? Again, depends on the definition... not major in a sense like electricity or steam I think Will we be able to colonize other planets by 2050? Yes. Will we do it a lot? No.
Will global warming and overpopulation finally show their effects? Will we have found efficient ways of creating renewable energy?
The answer for both of these is yes in 2014, for some regions. If you take into account the negative health effects of coal it's already uncompetitive with wind and solar power. Natural gas is uncompetitive or barely competitive in regions that aren't big producers (e.g, Europe, Japan or China). My prediction is that in 10 years more than half of NEW energy generating capacity around the world will be renewable.
Will Moore's law still be in place in 2050?
Moore's law has not been true for at least 5 years. Maybe it will be true again in a different form, but only in a very different world.
Will governments take over the Internet?
I think it's fair to say they already have. In some sense they always controlled the infrastructure and had the power to pull the plug if they really wanted. Maybe it will be harder in the future because so much critical stuff depends on the internet.
Will there still be sex?
This is my only real prediction and I'm gonna go with yes.
Guys, guys, like the OP said, the question list is just a guideline to spark discussion. If you just list your answers to each individual question, no one is going to read it.
On May 07 2014 01:58 GreenHorizons wrote: I think we'll be lucky? to make it to 2050 before something sets off a global conflict that sets most of humanity back to feudal times.
Of course the longer we go before it happens the crazier and more devastating the war is likely to be... Think the before and after of war and the machine gun.
But provided we make it we are going to need even bigger cassettes!?
Sony has just announced a new record-breaking tape, capable of storing up to 185TB on one cartridge--74 times more than current tapes.
I think the humanity would abide by Maslow's levels of need before doing anything drastic. I don't think any nuclear weapons would be used in a war unless one nation's cruelty exceed a threshold. Yes people are greedy and selfish in the end, we prioritize our survivability as a SPECIES before anything else.
I'm not sure what you're getting at with the Maslow reference. You're stating that a war would not be fought without all other tiers of Maslow's hierarchy being met? Because a lot of the past wars are related to issues in the very bottom tiers of his hierarchy.
Will there be major wars until then or will the world drift toward peace? No major but shit load of small ones. Will democracies prevail? Democracy dont exist for some time now,if it ever existed. Will there be a new world power? India,possibly south american union (if they dont start wars among themselves,which is more possible.
Will global warming and overpopulation finally show their effects? For sure. Will we have found efficient ways of creating renewable energy? No.
How will we be communicating with each other? Similar as today only more advanced. Will there still be Facebook and Twitter around? I hope not. Will people still be having a social life in the real world? Yes. What are people going to do in their spare time? Same as now.
Are new forms of art and entertainment going to emerge? Yes,but there will be recycling of old ones. Is the music going to sound different? Not too much. Will YouTube beat television? Yes. How might future games look like? 3D
Will there be a robot in every household? Probably but not too advanced. Is there finally going to be a robot that cooks for me and cleans up afterwards? Clean but not cook.
Are we still going to have Smartphones? Wearables? Google Glass? Yes,more advanced. Is everyone going to have chip implants? No. Will computers become more powerful? ... Will Moore's law still be in place in 2050? dunno whats that
How will the Internet look like? 90% porn Will it still be possible to live completely offline? Only in africa Will governments take over the Internet? Not successfully
Will there be new ways of transportation? No Will the electric car take over the traditional car? Yes
How will technology enable new ways of warfare? Bio warfare Will there be wars at all? Shit load
Will women reach equality? Yes Will we still be dating in the real world? Yes How will partners find each other? 70% internet Will there still be sex? Fuck yea
How many times will the stock markets crash until 2050? 2 Will there be a major change in our economic system? yes Will the majority of people still be working? they will work more Will there still be poverty? there will be more !
Will we finally be able to treat diseases without side effects? no Is there going to be a major breakthrough in the sciences? yes
What will be the new threats to mankind? Corporations and Kardashians Will we be able to colonize other planets by 2050? no
I cant believe all these people saying that major wars are already a thing of the past.
If you look at Eastern Europe, they're pretty readily denying multiculturalism and progressivism, and Fascism is on the rise again, while the West is all about liberalism and socialism. It might end up as a Cold War, but there's definitely two big ideologies building up, and they could totally start shooting each other sometime between now and 2050.
On May 07 2014 08:13 Millitron wrote: I cant believe all these people saying that major wars are already a thing of the past.
If you look at Eastern Europe, they're pretty readily denying multiculturalism and progressivism, and Fascism is on the rise again, while the West is all about liberalism and socialism. It might end up as a Cold War, but there's definitely two big ideologies building up, and they could totally start shooting each other sometime between now and 2050.
Way to bring me right back down milli... I think the cold war part is more or less already underway. It's just the actual armament building is still rather covert. Of course we and other governments know it, we just don't like to talk about it much.
In February, IT security consultancy Mandiant said it had traced hacking activity to the People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398, which it said had "systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations."
We can look forward to a lot more of that. Considering how loosely 'use of force' is authorized in retaliation to cyber attacks it's probably just a matter of time before an event like that triggers a traditional force response.
Or until a country like Iran uses something like the 'Stuxnet" attack to justify a traditional force/terrorist response.
THIS thread is awesome, its kinda about the singularity in an abstract way. i think mankind if on some sort of cultural breakthrough and could drastically change itself over the next couple of decades. i really like the idea behind this thread, because it kinda asks us to challenge ourselves about what we think and what we should enact, seeing as how everyone who is under like 50 might make it to that age.
Nation states will have been superseded by mega corporations. General elections will have been replaced by General Meetings of shareholders. The vast majority will have zero political power. Wars will be fought between corporations over patents and access to markets as well as resources. Crime rates in non ghetto areas will be very low on account of automated security robots and complete 24/7 surveillance of every person below a certain wealth level.
Not all bad though, scientists will still be wanted ^^
I hope countries become a thing of the past in my lifetime but I don't see it happening. I think there will likely by corporations that run everything more than now but I think most of the west will have transitioned to a welfare state. We will have not reached post-scarcity in the west but I imagine there will be less scarcity. I think the work week will decline probably to around 30 hours a week by 2050. Wars will still exist but I don't think there will be a big one because of mutually assured destruction. I also think that the majority of the west at this point will be atheist or at least agnostic and the East vs West cultural battle will have shifted to secularism vs Islam which I think might lead to more tension than what even exists now. I think science will have improved and heart disease will decline and various types of cancer will be cured. Antibiotic resistant super bacteria will be the new thing and we might usher in a new phase where infectious disease resurpasses chronic disease as the number one killer in the West, probably not but its a possibility worth thinking about.
EPT
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I think the cold war part is more or less already underway. It's just the actual armament building is still rather covert. Of course we and other governments know it, we just don't like to talk about it much.
