True. There is probably a good chance that things will stay the same or very similar. However, I feel that if you asked someone in 1927 what they thought 1931 would be like....... A lot of people seem to be talking about huge, almost apocalyptic like scenarios. Also, some people are right, I had not considered alien overlords, could very well be a possibility In my mind I imagine that somewhere in the world, maybe china or Russia, the quality of life is going to steadily increase. Here in the United States, I see a lines in front of soup kitchens. Gang infested and practically empty cities (Detroit x4) I see a lot of the racial tension we so happily call dead and archaic explode into violence. Its not going to be civil war and mass death probably, its just gonna suck. -no more flying planes to see family (only for few elite can do that) -no more 911 to save the day -no more walking any even slightly urban street at night. -no more exotic foreign foods -no more modern health care. -no personal cars, maybe just those buses you see in places in central america where like 80 people are on it with all their chickens and furniture probably stuff like that.
People in general will be even stupider, become even more negative and think up even more crazy **** to hope for. IMO, America will start looking after itself and not giving a toss about the world. Nothing major will happen, but they'll figure out their best bet to to look after the US of A and screw the rest. I think it'll be hard living in America though, with the economy falling apart though.
Actually, I think the opposite may take effect. With a rising middle class in India, China, Brazil, etc., I think the United States will soon (maybe not in 20 years) find itself no longer the mega-power, but just a power. This introduction of competition might actually make our kids appreciate their education a little more and possibly become more aware about their world. Wherever there is a demand, a supply will respond. The amount of time it takes for that supply to respond, however, could prove dangerous for us on the international front. I think this demand-supply relationship is what drove Japanese and Korean education; according to my professor who has taught in South Korea, they know the geography of the United States better than most American students... including me. I think a similar effect will happen here once we are stripped of some of our power.
I completely agree with the rise of Indian, Chineese middele class will create a new world (Production will move from these nations to falling first world ****ries like the USa and Australia). But i just dont think the USA will hold the kind of power they like to think they do now. They wont be the driving force, just the a power to keep those others happy. I was reading a thread on a forum where this person (Sorry, but they were American) was debating the fact that New Zealand used to be more North eastern of Australia and that it had only recently shifted south. What people were saying just would not click with this indivdual.
The reason I asked if you could cite any examples of this is because I couldn't think of a single one. We were all panicked about the hole in the ozone layer, but in that case we did make big changes right away, which prevented disaster.
Hopefully, the God-Emperor of Mankind will arise and shuttle us away from the Age of Strife by initiating his Great Crusade... Too much 40k, I know.
Worrying too much about the future, to me, is pointless. There's absolutely no way in hell to anticipate what might be. All we, as human beings, can do is adapt. A.K.A. Evolution at it's finest.
Or the warp storms will keep us locked in a veritable "dark age" (of technology) for the next...28 millennia? Give or take.
I hope that years from now, the US will be a much greener place, with a lot more clean-energy alternatives that are used by the majority of people. I also hope that some day this horrible political rhetoric we have in this country will be long gone, and that our government representatives will look on compromise not as a dirty word but as an actual solution to our problems. Wishful thinking, maybe, but it doesn't hurt to hope.
Being an unusually intelligent specimen and somewhat more entertaining than the norm, I would be more like a beloved pet to our new masters. But I might, you know, have a Moses moment and ask the aliens to let my people go. I'm just not as committed to the effort as old Moe so...you know...I'd have good intentions and all.
The difference is. We know for sure that all fossil fuels will run out at some point, and that point is getting relatively close. 50 years ago people became aware of this, but as like today, the majority want to put their head in the sand and say "it won't happen." The oil company's did nothing to conserve the use of fossil fuels and they will now begin, have already begun, manipulations to control oil, look at the wars in the middle east for that evidence. You really think its about Muslims? Americans reliance on fossil fuels and unwillingness to look for alternatives means, yes, America is screwed, maybe not in 20 years, but certainly in a 100 years. What will be interesting will be as the fossil fuels run out, what further aggressive actions will the US take to try to stay in control.
That's why I think we need to start looking for other energy resources, like nuclear energy. As soon as the fossil oil dries up, people will be mega screwed. Though I hope by 2020-2030, India is the supreme superpower of the world. I may be too idealistic, but I doubt it's gonna be gloom and doom. The world (including us Yanks) will just have to re-learn life without fossil fuels. Instead of cars, we'll have to use the horse and buggy. Sure it'll take days instead of hours to get anywhere, but it's possible. This is, assuming, that no one bothers with using nuclear energy.
You're not really thinking this through. As of yet there is still no safe way to dispose of nuclear waste. Nuclear power requires precious ores that will also deplete and become non existent. Nuclear power is the most expensive form of energy and not an option for many countries. Lastly its dangerous as hell, look at Japan. Where will all the nuclear power stations be built? your backyard. As it is, no one wants them anywhere near them, how would you build enough to replace fossil fuel power stations and meet the requirements everyone would demand. Nuclear power raises many concerns over world safety. Will you allow Iran and north Korea to develop nuclear technology, or is this power only for a few? If you answer no, your likely to have wars, if you answer yes, your likely to have wars. Nuclear power isn't going to save anyone.
You are right. No, I wasn't thinking this through. I know little of it and felt like putting my two cents. I had a suspicion it was incorrect though. I shall now sit quietly and observe the discussion. EDIT: I'm not angry or anything. I'm glad you cleared it up.
Sorry, I didn't mean it to come across snappish, which usually my comments do, you just have to ignore that in me. I like people from Alabama, I married one!..once. On a side note, why do you hope India will become "the supreme super power"? Ive been there 4 times and love it, but I'm not sure I want a country that still craps in the street running things!
I've heard as well that if we replaced every single coal burning power plant on the planet with a nuclear power plant, we would run out of uranium stockpiles within 20 years. (sorry no sources, but try and look something up). My whole thing is that we basically live in the fossil fuel age, and within the next 30 or 50 years its going to reach its climax. In my opinion fossilized carbon based energy has allowed humanity to "cheat" ahead into the future, and now the cost is going to catch up to us. Every technological advancement humanity accomplished before fossil energy was usually a sustainable and steady jump forward. Oil and coal changed everything. Humanity has developed more within the last two-hundred and fifty years did then they ever did in the last 10,000 before that. Human population use to be a steady growth upwards. Fossil fuels allowed for everything from mechanized agriculture, oil-based fertilizers, asphalt, preservatives and more. Now our numbers are in the billions and growing. Food and populations can be transported with ease by trains, boats, and aircraft; all fueled by fossil fuel. Plastics allowed for wider range of usable materials, development of computers, and mechanization of production. Information is sent across the planet by satellites made of complex petro-chemical based materials that are launched into space on rockets powered by petro-chemical based rocket fuels. The list goes on and on. Why would Humanity need to develop ways of harnessing the energy of the sun or wind or whatever when we had billions of gallons of energy rich black gold beneath our feet? Oil is probably one of the most amazing substances in existence, and there's not 1 single alternative that can match its energy ratio. That energy ratio is: energy cost to extract/produce divided by usable energy created. There is no single energy right now that beats the ratio for fossil fuels. Its still so good that it's cheaper to extract oil from tar sands in Canada than it is to try and power all cars via solar panels. I have a feeling its going to be that way for a long time, all the way until we're digging for tar sand on the sides of the Himalaya mountains or something. I'm afraid that I'm going to age in the exact wrong time in history; forced to grow old and watch as the world is crumbles around me, rampant wars and famines as the human race goes through withdrawal from addiction to black gold. I see myself in my 50's and 60's, a grumpy old man forced to watch as we kill each-other mercifully for the last remains of the black-liquid devil juice; everyone too stupid to understand that no matter what country controls the last reserves, were all going to be riding horse-n'-buggy in the end anyways. I'd rather have been born in the way future when everyone's already gotten used to living without oil. In my opinion the time I was born basically meant I'm going to live through the apex of human technological advancement only to have it be snapped away from me in my old age as the last pipeline dries up. That leaves me two options in the future: I can be grumpy and nostalgic about the times of DVR, whole foods, and the internet or I'll just die with everyone else in chaos and destruction of the post-oil collapse. Or maybe I'll be some badass Mad Max guy or run my own neo-feudal-post-collapse American medieval kingdom. look on the bright I guess. I have just given you an example of negative imagination.
Sounds like you've been reading the exact same thing as me! Hey at least you got to see Kate Beckinsale in her prime. If there's a Holocaust coming, here's to hoping she is in the same fallout shelter as me!
