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As title, what do you think the future will hold?

No specific time, location, etc. It's an interesting debate with our technology rushing forward. Is it always going to be like that? Is our lifestyle truly sustainable? Will over population continue? Will anything really change that much in 50/100 years? Will GW give a toss?


Just throw your thoughts out. Positive or negative as you like.


I had a thought that if cash disappeared as everything became digital, would crime be reduced, and the government would push for no cash anymore purely to eliminate the avoidence of tax on second goods, drugs and other illegal stuff. But then i thought, crime would just advance along with it, just like it already has.


I'm unsure where the future will go. I think our constant growth, advancement and population increase will continue the way it has for many years yet. Most people, including governments ignoring our current world problems. I think in the UK people will result to growing their own food again, shopping locally and a sense of local friendliness will come back due to food and job shortages. Will the countries that have spent 100 years building their military truly use them to "save" themselves?!

I think our planet will undergo all the changes predicted by climate scientists and worse. We demonstrate daily that we are no longer capable of putting short term interests aside for long term ones.

Maybe it's human nature that we cannot. The Tragedy of the Commons.

For starters,,, no, GW won't give a toss


There really is no such thing, currently as "over population" if you really look, the level of food production and population have not equaled out. The "problem" is in the food distribution. I think there was something out there that was basically that Americans throw out 3/4ths more food than any other people, and we collectively have more than enough to feed the entire world's population (without taking into account other nation's food production capabilities)

I would love to see the legalization of Vice™ (sex, "natural" drugs, gambling) across the entire US/Western World... As this would basically FORCE a change in mindset on how we treat and deal with people who have problems from these things. as well as remove the need for the size of some of our nation's prisons/prison system.

As for your cash-less society, I have seen many articles in the recent past suggesting that economically, this could work, but it would so significantly change our society's that it'd take a VERY long time to implement.... Some other economists have also come up with new models where the 20 hour work week is the new "full time" where everyone outside of select jobs "only" work 20 hours a week, yet make 40 hour/week salary. This would also significantly change society, but much less drastically than a money-less society.


One thing I'd personally like to see, is in the realm of "clean" energy, going back to the cleanest, and thus far, safest energy source: Nuclear. From everything I've read on the subject, it is the cheapest, as well as cleanest form of energy production to date. On top of that, it is also the safest overall.

Nuclear power is inherently unsafe, both in production and in the storage of waste (see Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and most recently Fukushima for more info)

Solar energy , wind, geothermal, tidal are the real clean sources.

If we can ever master photosynthesis were golden

Games Workshop as we know it will no longer exist in 5 years time, nevermind 50 - 100 years.
Britain will be an Islamic State.
Overcrowding and lack of housing will be the foremost political issue in the UK.
Ireland will be united, though not without bloodshed on both sides.
Alex Salmond will be a bitter, angry old man and will be demanding a 3rd Referendum on Scottish Independence.
A gay transvestite transsexual will be in the White House.
Former U.S. Presidents' will have their heads cryogenically preserved in anticipation of future advancements in Cryogenic technology.
China will be the world's leading Superpower.
London, Amsterdam and New York will be seaside resorts and water parks.
The Moon will be a penal colony, much like Australia was.
The Stargate Program will be revealed to the world.
The Apes will rise and enslave us all.


Some of those are jokes, and some of them are serious. I'll it to you to figure it out.

China.

</thread>

I guess that will get me a mod warning though so uh...yeah I predict China will take over the world.

 jasper76 wrote:
Nuclear power is inherently unsafe, both in production and in the storage of waste (see Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and most recently Fukushima for more info)

Solar energy , wind, geothermal, tidal are the real clean sources.

If we can ever master photosynthesis were golden

3 accidents over 35 years is not exactly grounds to call it "inherently unsafe" especially when you consider for every death by nuclear power, many thousands die from other power sources.

Nuclear Fission and th radiation it produces are inherently unsafe. The waste it produces is radioactive and will last for what, like a million years or something....that is very unsafe.

Those three I listed are just the worst accidents....There have been many more accidents in the history of nuclear power. Just Wikipedia it.

 jasper76 wrote:
Nuclear power is inherently unsafe, both in production and in the storage of waste (see Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and most recently the power plant disaster in Japan fore more info)

I would argue the exact opposite... In the Western World, generally only one "type" of reactor is made, that which we see at Three Mile Island, Fukushima, etc. Chernobyl and the Soviet Bloc countries used a different type of reactor. In this way, when we talk about Nuclear Accidents or Incidents, we can basically "ignore" Chernobyl all together. As such, we can look at the incidents that have happened in the US and other places where "our kind" of reactor is used, and see how "safe" they are. This is because Three Mile Island could largely have been prevented through better personnel decisions. On top of this, even with such a catastrophic event taking place, there has been no statistical changes in that area in cancers and other diseases due to exposure. Then we look at Japan's Fukushima plant, which was completed and commissioned after the TMI incident (allowing for some changes in design, etc to be made) but the entire facility would have been fine if not for 14 meter (approximate) Tsunami waves hitting them (this is essentially double the height of what had been expected, based on history,etc. they designed it to withstand around a 5-7 meter high tsunami).

So, what you're looking at, in short, is that having properly trained people can prevent most every nuclear issue... and as much as you prepare for the craziest weather, you simply can't out prepare mother nature at her worst... when it took a massive earthquake AND huge waves to feth up the reactors.

I'd like to see nuclear power (particularly fusion as it's very powerful and potentially extremely efficient) take centre stage, but unfortunately I dying think it will as people will be to scared from a handful of avoidable mistakes (Fukushima for example; whoever thought nuclear power plants belong in earthquake/tsunami-prime regions was an idiot in the first place).

I'd also like to see a greater focus on Final Frontier, Space. Throughout is history humanity has pushed every boundary set before it, it would be a shame to stop now when the greatest discoveries still await. Boldly go, I say!

On a less optimistic and more realist and political level, I think that at some point within the next half century, a sudden and major shift in the power structure on a national and international scale will occur. Some event, be it an economic collapse, a geographical upheaval or even a discovery of something so profound or dangerous it could change the world, will trigger a compete alteration of the political, social and economic status quo. The ones in power now, and by that I mean the moneymen as opposed to the politicians, will find themselves in a situation money can't buy them out of, and hopefully that will lead to an end to the age of a world ruled by wealth and privilege an the dawn of a new, faire society.

Basically, I think Marxist theory will run its course: we will reach the ultra-capitalist phase where a corporation means more than a government (we're nearly there already), and then, across the world, it will all come crashing down as little device they've had enough. I'm not naive enough to expect a utopia to rise from the ashes, but I have no doubt humanity will become stronger as a result.

I'm not sure what role religion will play in all this. Considering how it plays much the same rule in the Middle East as money does in the West, being the force behind most politics, it could well end up destabilised in the same way. Alternatively, it could grow exponentially as the material begins valueless and the immaterial becomes ever more promising and powerful.

 Paradigm wrote:
I'd like to see nuclear power (particularly fusion as it's very powerful and potentially extremely efficient) take centre stage, but unfortunately I dying think it will as people will be to scared from a handful of avoidable mistakes (Fukushima for example; whoever thought nuclear power plants belong in earthquake/tsunami-prime regions was an idiot in the first place).

And yet, it was one of the only truly viable power options available that was efficient enough to pump out enough juice for Japan.... And I don't think they were idiots, they did "tsunami proof" the reactors/complex, up to a certain level of water.... Just so happens that Godzilla/Mothra/Gidorah all got pissed off, and shook the hell out of everything to the point where there was no point in tsunami proofing anything

Unless they can meteor proof a nuclear power plant, I'd never feel safe living near one. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/nuclear_power_plants_locations/


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Unrelated to nuclear power plants...

I think scientists will discover the exact nature of the big bang and the phenomenon that caused it (surprise, we live inside a black hole or whatever). They'll discover what is causing g the universe to expand so rapidly, and what is causing galaxies to hold together when they appear that they should fly apart (dark energy and dark matter problems will be solved)

 jasper76 wrote:

what is causing galaxies to hold together when they appear that they should fly apart (dark energy and dark matter problems will be solved)

Klingons.... It's right in the name for feths sake

Death .....

There will be pants in the future. Pants thrown into fires so that people can walk around in only togas!! I have seen the future, and it. Is. BEDSHEETS!!

Death! Death for all!

Also alien contact.

Mostly death though.

US being unable to support itself financially and crashing. We go to the "barter" system (which is apparently big in WI and MI as a form of payment)
LEO going to doing a "Risk Assessment" before responding to a call. So if the Assessment is red then they won't go for fear of officers being killed or injured
People are going to ignore politicians and take matters into their own hands
or
We go back into ME
or
The people are so polarized on a political agenda that nothing gets done at all
or We do reset on the US Government

I think there will still be babies in the future.

Damn..guess you didn't see that particular movie eh

Taxes.

In all seriousness I have an optimistic view of the world and I think things will get better as the alternative is just more depressing to me.

In the future there will be more history.

Yet no one will learn from it.

Oh and cake, there will always be cake.

 Avatar 720 wrote:
Taxes.

Shooting offense...

GW will raise prices.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I think there will still be babies in the future.

But will they still be made via sex?

I forsee within 20 years, we will have Deus Ex Machina level prosthetics.

Exploration of the sea floor

I predict that around half of the predictions made in this thread will look ridiculous in hindsight.

I predict that most of the things we are worried about today will just slowly, quietly go away, with people hardly even noticing that that we don't even think about those things anymore.

I predict that we will have a whole bunch of new things to worry about, almost all of which will come pretty much completely out of the blue. And in time those concerns will also get slowly resolved and disappear from our thoughts, without us ever realising that we've stopped worrying about them.

And I predict that no-one will learn from that process, and we'll still keep on making projections that our current anxieties will overwhelm in the medium to long term future.

The future is the space that I am currently trying to occupy, while also accepting that I am in the past.

(Late Night Philosophy with Chowderhead)

Future......growing old with my wonderful wife that God has given me a chance to meet when I needed someone after a very bad deployment

 Chowderhead wrote:
The future is the space that I am currently trying to occupy, while also accepting that I am in the past.

(Late Night Philosophy with Chowderhead)

But what if your future self, in it's occupasy, is currently in the past?