The next 100 years

[Evil Chris]

I found these predictions in Macleans magazine.
Some of them are very realistic, while others not as much.
What do you think?

by 2015
- Demand for oil will increase from roughly 75 million barrels per day in 2000 to more than 100 million barrels per day.
- Nearly half the world's population - more than 3 billion people - living in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and northern China will be thirsting and "water-stressed"
- A sick person's DNA profile will allow doctors to better tailor treatments for a wide variety of diseases.
- Livestock will be commercially cloned.

by 2020
- World population hits 7.6 billion
- First samples returned from Mars show no fossil evidence of life.
- Infertile men use the DNA in their skin to clone stem cells that are then persuaded to grow into functioning sperm. Nine months later, the first stem-cell-sperm child is born.
- Astromomers discover extraterrestrial intelligence
- Retinal projectors redefine the home-theatre experience

by 2030
- Population odometer hits 8.2 billion
- Scientists create a gene to increase the three colour-producing cones in our eyes (red, green, and blue) to FOUR, enabling us to see new hues that we can't even imagine now.
- We reach Vernor Vinge's deadline for singularity, the point at which technology gives rise to "entities with greater than human intelligence".

by 2040
- Population? 8.7 billion
- Physicists figure out the origin of the universe
- Human power is increasingly battery powered. We'll be riding ultra-compact cars, bi-cycles and our scooterboards to Wal-Mart, the only grocery chain in the world.

by 2050
- 9.1 billion people wandering around
- The availability of fresh water is now limited only by the energy costs of transportation and desalinization.

by 2060 to 2100
- Human longevity increased by 30 years
- Vertical take-off and landing vehicles become popular
- Genetic engineering of humans creates a hostile super-race
- Most of the planet is now using a common currency
- Humans will learn almost all they will ever know about the laws of physics
- Travel faster than the speed of light becomes possible.
- An immortality chip allows humans to upload into cyberspace

[MorganGrayson]

Chris...this is the very first time I've ever been glad to be this age. I won't see any of this. Hurrah.

[JoesHO]

Damn, I better start taking acid again, this sounds like a journey!

[Evil Chris]

The whole "mind uploading" thing bothers me. WAY too many social and moral issues to even imagine. That is if it's even possible, which I think it is not. I can believe that the information and possibly even memories of someone might one day be uploadable into a machine from their brain neurons, but their actual sense of being, their soul? Impossible.

And Vinge's Singularity theory is outright frightening if you think of all (hell, even some of) the possibilities.

If human-kind stays it's current course, posthumanity will indeed be a very scary place. And we're only talking about 2 generations up the road. That ain't long.

[MorganGrayson]

Chris...to never touch, to never smell, to never feel the sun on your face or the rain on your skin...whatever uploads into cyber space will not be "human."

Luckily, weapons of mass destruction and a worsening weather pattern will reduce us all to cave dwellers and we can start all over again...unless we get wiped out entirely and it's the dolphin's turn.

I think I'm rooting for the dolphins.

[Evil Chris]

Originally Posted by MorganGrayson

Luckily, weapons of mass destruction and a worsening weather pattern will reduce us all to cave dwellers and we can start all over again...unless we get wiped out entirely and it's the dolphin's turn.

Morgan, I love your optimism.

However, mankind is too stupid to survive, and too smart to become extinct.
When the times come, it won't even be about money. It will only be about power and knowledge.

[JoesHO]

Mushrooms make a good substitute for those of you not in the know.... but for a trip like this we will need full blotter hits.... mushrooms will only act like 3D glass on the cereal box

[MorganGrayson]

Chris...I vow to you now, that if it looks bleak while we're still around, space will be saved for you in the mountain compound. Trees, streams, lakes, fresh air, log cabins...one bodacious garden and sufficient animals to provide eggs and milk for cheese. (Should you have the "hunter" part of the "hunter/gatherer," you'll be on "meat" detail. I don't do "kill," as I have a regrettable tendency to name everything and get attached, but I'm not an idiot.)

However, mankind is too stupid to survive, and too smart to become extinct. When the times come, it won't even be about money. It will only be about power and knowledge.

I'd give that a "pearl" if it wasn't the truest, saddest thing I've ever read. I couldn't bear to see it again every time I read the "pearl" list.

I used to think I was born at a glorious time in history. People with my conditions before had two options: die...or...die. Now, we have all these wondrous medical miracles. Unfortunately we also have a glimpse into the future that our ancestors were spared. They got to have hope for a "better tomorrow." We get "oh, my god, the fuckers are actually going to try that."

I am an optimist, Chris. A hopeless, doomed optimist. I used to tell people "I'm not originally from this planet." I stopped doing it when I noticed I was getting very thoughtful facial expressions in response to that statement. OK, it was a joke, folks, if you're going to start believing it...you're scaring me. I belived people were basically good and that goodness would triumph for as long as I could. (That one scared my own children. I told them: "It's necessary for my own mental health that I continue to believe it.") Well. *sigh* I can't do that anymore. People are basically stupid and probably evil, if not through intent then through neglect.

Anyone who craves immortality - even through something as stupid and dehumanizing as that "chip upload" crap - has missed a meeting. When you get to be my age, people start dying on you. Older relatives, famous people you've always liked - how many times on this board has the death of a treasured comedian been announced lately? Eternal life? Who the hell am I going to talk to? I already know way too many people who have never owned an LP. (And more than a few who don't even know what that stands for.)

"Humanity" is doomed. Bipeds may continue to go on, but everything about them that was once both praised and prized as "human" will die.

I'm glad I won't live to see it. I pray my children don't either.

[Rolo]

The world is better today, than it was yesterday - and I bet it will be even better tomorrow :-)

[Evil Chris]

Originally Posted by Rolo

The world is better today, than it was yesterday - and I bet it will be even better tomorrow :-)

That... is a matter of pure opinion.

[Evil Chris]

Originally Posted by MorganGrayson

I'm glad I won't live to see it. I pray my children don't either.

Great observations as always Morgan. I feel the exact same way.

[JoesHO]

what really mkes the trip even better, is if you drop liquid LSD into your eyes, like Jimmi hendrix used to do..... timothy leary where are you.

[Nickatilynx]

Originally Posted by Rolo

The world is better today, than it was yesterday - and I bet it will be even better tomorrow :-)

I'm with Rolo on this

The rest of you are such a bunch of depressed pessimists LOL

[sarettah]

When I die it is over.

You are all merely figments of my imagination....





















and annoying ones at that.........

[JoesHO]

although I must admit Disneyland on mushrooms with myself a buddy and two HOT strippers was quite the time in itself. so I guess mushrooms are severly underrated on second thought.

[Evil Chris]

Originally Posted by Nickatilynx

I'm with Rolo on this

The rest of you are such a bunch of depressed pessimists LOL

While I appreciate your optimism Nick, there must be a quote out there about how success and wealth can tend to put blinders on our eyes.

I just can't think of exactly what it is at the moment.

[Nickatilynx]

Originally Posted by Evil Chris

While I appreciate your optimism Nick, there must be a quote out there about how success and wealth can tend to put blinders on our eyes.

I just can't think of exactly what it is at the moment.

Dude even when I have been skint, I have always thought the next day was gonna be better.

Hell I'd love to see whats coming in the future!!!

I think it will be awesome for my kids!! Seriously , fan - fucking -tastic.

LOL..FUCK!!!

I was gonna post that "I don't believe in inheritted wealth etc" then realised on what I know they stand to inherit from family members they are pretty fucking wealthy. LOL

However..I think wealth to a degree is mute.

Though there is some truth in the fact that wealth doesn't make you happy ( it fucking does actually we just tell the poor people that to cheer them up) but it allows you to suffer in comfort. ;-)))


futures so bright...I gotta wear shades.

;-))

Hmmm....very interesting set of posts.

One thing I notice is that everyone who is pessimistic about the future is American. The three posters who look forward to the future (myself included) aren't.

IMHO, this is a testament to a very scary trend developing in the US; the supression of technology particulary by the religious right. It strikes me as a whole lot of Americans are scared that advances in science and our understanding of the world will leave no place for a God, which the more secular nations have little concern over.

Unfortunately if Americans continue to sit around worrying more about a fictional Apocalypse in a 2000 year old story book than planning for the future, they will soon find their super power status slipping.

As for the current worry about oil supplies, who cares if oil runs out? Britain faced a similar problem in the 18th century as the country was steadily deforested and wood, the major fuel and building material became scarce. New technology enabled builders to use other materials for construction, and the introduction of coke as a fuel allowed Britain to move into the industrial revolution, greatly improving the quality of life for its citizens.

You don't hear the rest of the world bleating about energy crises and the end of days. Why? Because we have faith in our own abilities to adapt and survive and populations that embrace change as new and exciting.

Unfortunately conservatives, who seem to be the majority in only one nation, the USA, by their very definition discourage change. The inability to adapt effectively and the refusal to embrace new ideas has been the downfall of nearly every civilisation throughout history. Consider that the next time some one tries to ban stem-cell research and stop teaching evolution in schools.

[MorganGrayson]

Technick...a most thoughtful and well written post. (The "Stating the Obvious" prize goes to me. You should post more, Technick. Lots more.)

You're right. Americans have watched our country slide downhill for a long time. All of the glorious things we were taught as children either weren't true or are no longer true. Our "rights" have been eroded severely. The once treasured - not merely treasured, but the reason this country exists in the first place - "separation of church and state" has ceased to exist.

It's nearly impossible to have watched all of this and have any hope for the future. The visceral reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the failure of this government to care for its citizens is still very fresh.

I'm speaking to you via technology, Technick. I'm grateful for that technology. It doesn't compare to the "real life, in person" conversations we've had, though. (Yes, it's also true that were it not for technology we never would have met in the first place to have those "real life" conversations.)

I don't know exactly when my optimism turned to pessimism. I don't like it, but I can't seem to get the optimism back. I am clearly able to see the great things technology has done...but....

I don't believe in the 2000 year old story book. The "conservatives" and the "religious right" scare the absolute hell out of me. This was *supposed* to be a "secular nation."

I'm running out of points here and my mind is going in several different directions at once, so I'll stop here for now.

Thank you, Technick. Much to think about.

[Dravyk]

An immortality chip allows humans to upload into cyberspace

That would really suck if your psyche got a computer virus.

On the other hand I could see some folks on this forum sending themselves out as spam attachments.