This is what I think. 1. The world will either still be growing slowly in population, or it will have stagnated and started to decline. I bet we'll get up to about 10 or 12 billion people before we start dropping. 2. There will be no TVs, radios, etc... The computer is powerful enough to take over all of these things. 3. Books made out of paper will be obsolete. 4. China will be top dog. 5. Global Warming will have to be counteracted with some form of geoengineering, like man-made volcanoes, because you know that nobody's gonna be able to stop a business from buying cheap coal. 6. Record labels won't exist. 7. More than three fourths of the world will be urbanized. 8. Religious fervor will die down in developed countries, rise in developing countries, and then die down in those, too. 9. Who knows how precise Google Earth will be. It might be live by this point. 10. Cellphones will have more power than PCs. Who knows how much power a PC will have. 11. Virtual reality, or as close as you can get. We'll have theaters that transfer you into the scene, instead of having you watch it. Maybe they'll completely encase you, and you'll wear 3D glasses and just watch. 12. Video games will be able to do the same. Bullets whizzing by your head. 13. Consumer/Producer divide will become smaller until it slowly equals out to everyone producing and consuming. Of course, there are always lazy people... 14. Bioengineering of bodyparts. 15. We won't need to drive cars, they will drive themselves. If we even still need them. 16. Wars won't be fought by humans. 17. Things that are handheld will be implemented into our hands and become nonmaterial. Actually, a lot of things will be implemented into our bodies. Instead of having a cellphone, you might press some buttons on your wrist and numbers might show up. Or, instead of taking a camera everywhere, you might hold your hands up in a square and take a picture by saying "click". 18. Related to #14. Blind people, and people who simply want better vision ( which means it will eventually include everyone ), will have bionic eyes implanted. If not that, then their organic eyes will be supplemented with bionic features. Zoom in, zoom out, record... What do you think?
I think you read too many scifi novels I joke, I joke... I can't see paper becoming obsolete in my (or my grandchildren's) lifetime...consider the increasing middle classes in countries like China and India...there is going to be greater demand for books, stationery for schools and offices, things like that. It may happen in places like Japan, but even there books and paper have a very solid place in daily life that I think most people would be hesitant to change (they've been saying paper will be obsolete ever since the introduction of the home PC). The problem of global warming will become an immediate one, but building man-made volcanoes isn't going to help anything XD. What I think there will be are far harsher penalties and greater incentives to reduce carbon emissions and legislative restrictions of personal car use. (As a result, American will lose its ****, complain about Socialism and prophecy doom for the great USA, but what's new?) 3/4 of the world urbanised? By area? Seeeriously? I don't think religious fervour, as you call it, will rise problematically in developing countries...they'll have a whole host of new problems without worrying about something as archaic as religion....once they've hit that developmental plateau and decline, then they'll get back into religion (just like USA and many other countries are doing now, thanks to the Great Recession). Technology moves too quickly and erratically to be predicted that far in advance, though I think besides what you've suggested, it seems clear that everything will be open-source. For better or for worse...(which I guess relates to the division between consumer and producer decreasing....) As for wars not being fought by humans....I assume you just mean "there will be no soldiers on the front lines"...people will always fight wars (if you're a Hobbesian), they'll just become more efficient and more deadly.... Basically, I think more or less things will be the same....things never really change that much, do they? At least not in 40 years...
Lol, 2050 really isn't that far away, I can't see such drastic changes occuring in such a short amount of time. I agree, you've read a few too many sci-fi novels... 'Wars won't be fought by humans' 'Things that are handheld will be implemented into our hands and become nonmaterial. Actually, a lot of things will be implemented into our bodies. Instead of having a cellphone, you might press some buttons on your wrist and numbers might show up. Or, instead of taking a camera everywhere, you might hold your hands up in a square and take a picture by saying "click".' ....seriously? come on now. The only thing I might agree with is that there will be alot more multi-function computers instead of individual Tv's, Pc's, and radios - however, they won't disappear. Think of the workplace where basic computers are all that's required - perhaps a small radio shared by the office. Also, personal computeres such as laptops are already multi-functional. I watch films, TV, listen to the radio and music on this thing. It's already happened - You can do all these things on a television too. I dont think, however, that people will abandon portable radios/tv's/dvd players - they're used for places other than the home, such as the workplace, building sites, cars, on holiday, etc. I think your predictions are way too drastic...and very unrealistic.
It is 2050. The particular location is known only to Google mapping devices installed in transporters. The destination, as it’s referred to (in the voice system) is China, though there is no other way to identify it as such. It is a typical high-rise building, inside of which is a conference room on the 277th floor. On the interior wall of that room is a three-dimensional videoscreen that reflects the population of the world as it continues to rise at an ever-slowing pace and, alongside it, a shifting display of demographics related to consumer production and spending. The bionically-equipped viewer can easily focus upon the particular demographics of interest by a subtle shift in mental focus. A fifty-eight year old writer has just opened the conference room door, having emerged at ground level from his transporting vehicle and elevated himself to Conference Room 2771. His transporter has collapsed and tucked itself neatly into a vertical column of stacked transporters, all empty now of their passengers who scurry off to their business conferences. But, like the others, our writer is not concerned with his vehicle, which takes pretty good care of itself, so long as its maintenance program is periodically debugged. Instead, he's adjusting his take on the shifting display of demographics for one last impression of the market for fictional stories. He takes a deep breath and walks to the remaining seat at the large conference table (in the center of which is a koi pond, which everyone knows has a mysterious, calming effect--particular upon the most bionically influenced multitaskers who are endlessly connected by ear-phone to various discussions with important key players in the industry of their choosing). In this particular conference room, the industry of choice, of course, is that of the literary marketplace. Fourteen editors and techno-translators are already present and seated. The PC-editor (whose job is to ensure that the writer's language inspires purity of focus in its readers) is distracted by thoughts of her unapproved pregnancy, and she watches the videoscreen pulse with statistics reflecting an alarming number of stillborns. She swallows a sudden sensation of nausea and quickly redirects her attention to the koi that swim in the table-pond. The Chief Publisher rises to introduce the writer who's been touted in the underground literary marketplace as the modern Kurt Vonnegut. He's been invited to this conclave under the guise of having his latest work translated, published, and distributed through all the new electronic channels. He's ignored his own doubts and concerns that his work contains revelations the self-described literati are more likely to reject than to promote. Instead, he has chosen to believe that this grand coup is something his work simply deserves. “Welcome to Random House East,” says the publisher. “Comrades, it gives me great pleasure to present our guest today, Mr. Maestro.”
Yeah, 2050 is much to soon for many of the changes you have noted. Not all, but many. China is already quietly making itself comfy in the top dog chair. But for most of the technological changes you have noted. No. This is one of the most common fallacies of science fiction: "Ten years from now the world will be completely new and amazing!"
I can't think of any ten years from the beginnings of recorded history to the present that has produced a different world. Not really. Different ideas, but that's about it.
Some of those things may happen, Maestro, but I can't see them happening in the next 41 years. I don't want to hypothesise about the state of world politics beyond stating that the European Union will have grown in power and might even have superseded national parliaments, or at least be building towards a United States of Europe. I'd like to think that man will have gone back to the moon, and perhaps the first steps will have been taken towards sending men to other planets, whether it's by building a base on the moon or by starting to send men deeper into space, experimenting with technology. It won't quite be 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it will be something that would excite someone like Arthur C. Clarke. Life expectancy in the western world will be threatening the 90-year barrier. The retirement age in the UK will have been set at 70, with proposals in the pipeline that that be increased to 75 as the population continues to age. The first 70-year-old to become a first-time mother will be unveiled to the press, after she underwent a course of the 2050 IVF. Those are a few things I can see being issues and stories in 2050.
There are only 2 things of which I'm certain: death & taxes. Or at least I think that's how it goes. Seriously, though, I think there will be great changes. Where was the world in 1968? How far have we come? Technological advances and world mayhem (read: Middle East ) will bring many more interesting things for us. Some of us will be 59 years old that year, and if we live in the U.S., we will have -0- social security to look forward to and probably taxation averaging 50-60% due to the current "stimulus money run amok". Regarding books, I agree w/someone I heard on NPR who said we'll have small bookstores where books are simply printed on demand as you wait.
The world in 2050? I've always been curious about the kind of social issues that would arise in the future. I think we could all agree that today's generation is generally "liberal," so I'd be interested to know how this generation's children and grandchildren would rebel against the then-norm and shock us like we had never been shocked before. By then, of course, I'd be too old and too frail and too irrelevant to advocate or oppose anything. I'd probably just sit on the fence with a bowl of popcorn on my lap.
I think in 2050 world philosophy will be the biggest change rather than technology. Due to pressures of climate change like you mentioned and an increase in population, countries will be forced to improve mass transport systems meaning fewer personal cars. The cost of fuel will leave only the rich to afford such luxuries. On the flip side of the coin, nuclear and solar energy might also experience break-throughs which would mean an abundance of cheap [cleans]energy,... therefore more cars for everyone?? As long as the technology for automated lawn mowing machines is on the horizons, I'll be happy!
I have never read a sci-fi book in my life... ( that I can remember ) What do you think the world will be like in 2050? That's the point of this thread. It's about what everyone thinks. It's easy to say my predictions are drastic and unrealistic and that I'm lost in some dreamland of what the future will be like. But look at my predictions individually. They may not be accurate or they may be, but whatever they are, it is not at all unrealistic. #1 and #2 are obvious. #3 may be a little far, though I suspect that we will soon be making books with screens instead of pages. #4 is obvious. #5 is something that could be heavily debated, considering what the subject is on. I don't know, maybe we will move to wind or solar. Until we can find ways to store those efficiently, though, my prediction still seems accurate. #6 Record Labels used to be the only way to get your music out. Then they became a huge advantage. Then they became a nice perk. Now, I can get my music out to iTunes, TuneCore, YouTube, and a plethora of other places all on my own... and in about half an hour. #7 This prediction is not entirely mine. Many environmentalists pick that between 80 and 85 percent of the Earth will be urbanized by this year. I think it'll be a little less, for a few reasons that aren't important enough to get into unless you ask. #8 This prediction isn't that unbelievable, but it's a hard one to get right because of how specific it is. #9 Obvious. #10 Obvious. My cellphone is smarter and more powerful than the biggest computer at MIT, one that took up an entire room, around the 1970's. No reason for the trend not to continue. #11 We can already make this happen. Nobody has yet, is all. #12 Same thing. #13 The internet is doing this. It is much easier for me to get what I produce "out there" and for me to obtain what other people produce. No reason for it not to continue. #14 We'll have a few moral riots, but after they've settled down, I don't see why we can't. I'm so tired, I haven't slept in two days. I'm going to sleep and I'll post some more tomorrow
Only one major problem... wars will always be fought by humans against humans. I may be in the minority, (doubtful, since I'm a hippy pacifist that joined to get college paid for) but any soldier will tell you that they would rather put their own life on the line for their beliefs/country before letting some robotic chessboard take over. If war was fought by machines or info or anything besides humans, it would become too commonplace. Nobody wants that. Even the most die-hard, overzealous, confederate flag waving, "patriotic", douche-bag is afraid of dehumanizing conflict.
Its getting a little off-topic (sorry cog!), but I think the way people look at war has changed/is changing since even the beginning of the occupation of Afghanistan...its becoming a viable industry. War isn't this cataclysmic event anymore, its a new (and expanding) market. The privatisation of the military is something that hasn't been discussed too openly (that I'm aware of...) but it is happening, and there are corporations making a lot of money off of the wars that are claiming thousands of lives each year. Back in WW2, and probably to some extent today, soldiers may claim that they would lay down their lives to serve their country, but as privatisation continues the main focus will become, like it always does in business, money. So, I would say that conflict already has been dehumanised to a huge extent, and will continue to be into the future. Unless the govt intervenes. Which is interesting....if the govt doesn't intervene, the market expands and is free of regulation and intervention, but we dehumanise conflict...if they do intervene, then they are disrupting a free market (inching closer to that dreaded Socialism) but potentially lowering the human cost. Wonder which way most people would vote...
