Thread: The Future: What Will It Be Like?

I predict I will have pizza for dinner tonight.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

I predict I will have pizza for dinner tonight.

(on a global scale)

You better be sending me some too so!

I predict a bill to legalize cannabis will be introduced to congress, I won't speculate on the outcome but any discussion is good discussion when it comes to these things.

DMT and other psychedelics will become legal and catapult the world into an advanced consciousness

Islamoterrorists are going to do something far more outrageous than most people are expecting, possibly with nukes, and then pretty much the entire world is going to go after them instead of making excuses for them. That will lead to the overthrowing of all totalitarian governments that don't already have nukes, and wars between and among nations will finally be over... until new nations pop up in space and on other planets/satelites.

Then we are going to keep on settling space until Earth becomes uninhabitable, and eventually Earth will be something that is just an important place in history known as the planet where humans originated. There will always be videos and pictures of it.

Nobody has any idea what the future will be like. We can speculate all we want, but nobody really knows. For all we know space travel is impossible and humanity will live and die on this eventually God-forsaken rock.

Have you seen Astro Boy, The Jetsons or any of those old movies set in the early 2000s? They thought there would be flying robots and cars and spaceships everywhere.

Meh.

Obama: Does a good job with the economy, but is not re-elected by fickle voting public. Maybe Ron Paul? Palin? McCain? Some undiscovered Republican?

Islamic terrorism:

Bin Laden wastes away in a cave somewhere. The cause loses its figurehead and he can't be effectively martyred. The movement starts to die out. Maybe we can expect a last chance attempt at a coup from them which could be potentially deadly.

North Korea:

Either decides to blindly fire on West Coast USA after being told to discontinue its nuclear program, or develops targeting, at which point, they'd be told to stand down. Either way, we get a missile crisis, fairly similar to the one with Cuba (in that we'll want to avoid violence but time restrictions won't be beneficial to politics)

The crazy bastards either stand down due to excellent diplomacy under the gun by the losers at the White House, or fire. Suppose they fire, we target the missile, knock it out of the air, counter-strike, blow Korea off the map.

Don't know what would happen then, I'm assuming there'd be a political freezing-over of Hell because nuking a tiny nation until shit leaks from their microwaved pants doesn't look very good, especially from the US, who already look like warmongers IMO.

Economy:

Maybe a market crash, if not, we certainly get close, at which point, it rebounds and continues its cycle.

Earthquakes:

All of the overdue supermassive earthquakes hit simultaneously, killing us all. (in other words, I don't know and I'm going to leave it in the lap of the gods)

Asteroids:

From what I hear, we can effectively nudge an asteroid such that it misses Earth. I think we're fine.

Solar Shift:

I hope it doesn't release an EMP and fry every circuitboard on the planet.

Pandemic:

Swine flu scares the shit out of me.

Global Warming:

Polar caps melt until salinity is displaced enough to raise the freezing point. Polar caps refreeze and cycle continues. I die and it stops being my problem. Also, Al Gore falls through ice while collecting core samples in Antarctica and freezes to death in the supposedly high ocean temperature. That'll teach the bastard.

Philadelphia:

Phillies, Eagles and Flyers simultaneously win their respective championships.(the Sixers will never win anything, I won't even joke by saying they will) Philadelphia descends into riots and anarchy. By an act of God, a cavern opens up beneath the city, swallowing it forever.

Yeah. That's all I could think of for now.

Originally Posted by Lord Bennington

Meh.

North Korea:

Either decides to blindly fire on West Coast USA after being told to discontinue its nuclear program, or develops targeting, at which point, they'd be told to stand down. Either way, we get a missile crisis, fairly similar to the one with Cuba (in that we'll want to avoid violence but time restrictions won't be beneficial to politics)

The crazy bastards either stand down due to excellent diplomacy under the gun by the losers at the White House, or fire. Suppose they fire, we target the missile, knock it out of the air, counter-strike, blow Korea off the map.

Don't know what would happen then, I'm assuming there'd be a political freezing-over of Hell because nuking a tiny nation until shit leaks from their microwaved pants doesn't look very good, especially from the US, who already look like warmongers IMO.

samples in Antarctica and freezes to death in the supposedly

Yeah. That's all I could think of for now.

A more effective solution to nuking them is to simply conventionally attack them. The USA would be completley justified in attacking, and would garner the support of most if not all of its allies plus the UN; if combined air and navy forces took out critical targets such as airfields and oil depots, and of course any missiles. Then land forces (with support) could take it without an unnacceptable amount of deaths. Don't forget that the US has a sizeable military force in South Korea- it could be a perfect launching ground for a combined assault.

I personally think that if we took out the leadership of North Korea, then the people would not put up a fight. They don't have much reason to fight at all besides the threat of death.

Originally Posted by Lord Bennington

Philadelphia:

Phillies, Eagles and Flyers simultaneously win their respective championships.(the Sixers will never win anything, I won't even joke by saying they will) Philadelphia descends into riots and anarchy. By an act of God, a cavern opens up beneath the city, swallowing it forever.

Haha, yes!

Honestly, though, peak production of oil was/is predicted as (depending on who you ask) sometime from now to 2035. If we adjust and replace it quickly enough with alternative energy, were fine. Otherwise, we're all screwed.

Originally Posted by Black_Eagle

Have you seen Astro Boy, The Jetsons or any of those old movies set in the early 2000s? They thought there would be flying robots and cars and spaceships everywhere.

That's true. There were the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, its 1984 sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact and the mid-70's T.V. show Space 1999. We are behind the old public expectations, but I think we are not that far behind. We have landed a remote control robot on Mars and have space stations orbiting Earth right now. An enormous international space station is being built. Think of all of the awesome stuff that was invented in the 1900's. If we can keep inventing at the same pace, I think we will have large populations living in space before 2050. We might not be able to settle planets outside of our solar system, but I think we will probably figure out some kind of way to manipulate space and time to pull it off. If not, there is a strong chance we can transform the atmospheres of planets/satellites in our solar system to make the planets inhabitable. I really don't think the humans are going away.

Boy, I sure hope. There is that one ice moon around Saturn or Venus. And if fast space travel doesn't pull through there's still inter dimensional travel to consider. There's too many possibilities not to think that perhaps one day we'll get out of here. I don't think we're going to move large populations into space. What would be the point?

The earth will be all right, and we'll largely get ourselves under control. The benefits and complexity of international trade will reinforce and spread the peace. Both power and wealth will get more spread out due to the increasing flow of information and the networks arising to harness it, which initially confer advantage to those outside existing power structures. Social networking will be more important than we think.

The United States and Europe will continue a shift toward sustainability and conservation, and eventually they will profit from exporting that technology and expertise to India and China. Immigration to the USA and Europe will be primarily Muslim, and relations with the Muslim world will improve apace. World population will continue to level out.

The big wild cards in terms of peace are Russia, which is still full of nationalism and wounded pride, and radicalized idealogues in the USA, both isolationist militia types and and anti-corporate environmentalist purists.

Barring First Contact or significant evidence of extraterrestrial life, space is not likely to become a priority for a long, long time. Everyone wants to visit, but nobody wants to live there.