# Predictions for 2112 and beyond



## themooresho (Jan 23, 2012)

In the spirit of a recent thread, but keeping it separate so as not to highjack it, I was curious to see what you all predicted for 100 years from now.

Here are my predictions:

1. The world population will return to levels comparable to 1000 A.D. due to a shortage of fossil fuels, fertile land, and advanced medicine.

2. Paper currency will have lost all value, and precious metals will be highly rare because of hoarding practices over the preceding 100 years.  This will result in a barter economy.

3. People will have very high levels of technical knowledge but will be otherwise mostly illiterate.  Gangs will scavenge junkyards for mechanical and computer parts to create the tools they need, however, new manufacturing will have completely ceased as raw materials and fossil fuels become more and more scarce.

4. Large mammals will become endangered as their natural environments begin to die out due to drought and other climate changes.  Reptiles and amphibians will be abundant as forest lands turn to marshes and planes turn to deserts.

5. Fast transportation no longer exist.  Large, armored vehicles may be used occasionally during wars, but only very rarely.  As a result, individuals will be highly indoctrinated into small bands or tribes that compete against each other for food or other resources.

6. The most advanced technology will all be weapons.  They will be held and protected by powerful warlords to protect resources such as a fresh water river or fertile land.

7. After several generations, the larger world will seem so distant and out of reach that it will take on the look and feel of legend.

8. Most of the medical knowledge gained over the 200 years prior to 2112 will be rendered completely useless as the vast majority of people become immune to penicillin and other antibiotics (due to the vast amounts put into the mass produced foods during the early 21st century).  Doctors will resort to herbal, holistic, and superstitious methods to heal their patients, but for serious illnesses they will be mostly powerless.  Three in four patients undergoing any kind of invasive surgery will die of infection.

9. Religion will not die out, but it will be transformed.  Without any communication to a central authority or a larger community, smaller communities will put the most educated among them in charge of learning the scriptures they have chosen as sacred.  These new clergy will be in charge of not only interpreting scripture, but also they will be in charge of more general education for those children who have the opportunity to receive it.

10. Eventually, individual communities will set up autonomous governments, each with their own set of laws independent of each other.

Sorry if this was depressing.  If you have a more optimistic point of view, let's hear it.


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## patskywriter (Jan 23, 2012)

… and we'll see the introduction of the 39th actor to play The Doctor in the acclaimed "Dr Who" series.


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## Bruno Spatola (Jan 23, 2012)

There'll be giant, floating eyeballs patrolling the streets, observing the weak human-folk and informing the lord of the eyes of any suspicious and/or illegal behaviour, all of which will be punishable by death. 

Eastenders will still be on, though, so it's not all bad. . . :stupid:


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## Bilston Blue (Jan 23, 2012)

My nan will probably still be alive, bless her.


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## Rustgold (Jan 23, 2012)

11. A 35 year old person will be considered really ancient.

Btw re 8. I think that with the strengthening of viruses and bacteria by modern medical practices, we'll have an even harder time of it then they did a thousand years ago.


Generally, I don't know why we're so eager to guarantee this as our collective future.  Maybe it's something we all deserve.


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## elite (Jan 23, 2012)

- We still won't have flying cars.
- We still won't have holographic AI butlers/maids in our homes.
- We will still be using windows.
- Life will more or less be the same, with some extra conveniences.
- Global Warming will finally be debunked, and the next hip thing will be car vibrations inducing earthquakes.
- Desktop computers will still exist. In fact, with the rise of popularity of computer-managed homes and voice recognition, desktop-like computers will see a rise in popularity.
- Organic food will become the norm and "carbon-based" food will be the next hip thing.
- China exporting business will collapse. Countries will put prohibitive taxation on china to protect their economy.
- Another 10 or so wannabe dictators will show up in South America.
- The US will still be at war with the middle east.
- Nikes will completely fall out of fashion.
- Brazil will still use Nikes.


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## felix (Jan 23, 2012)

@themorresho and Rustgold: I'm genuinely taken aback by such pessimism. 

1. Fusion energy has, perhaps, become commercially viable and supplies the world with an unlimited supply of cheap, clean energy. [I would like to flag this one as the most pivotal, and, unsurprisingly, the one which cannot be relied on.]
2. The progress of photovoltaics improves the efficiency of solar power to the point that it's cost effective, and countries with an abundance of uninterrupted sunlight (Spain USA, Brazil, Australia etc) shift their power generation demographic towards solar. [Assuming a lack of fusion.]
2. Advances in nanotechnology renders antibiotics and the likes of radiotherapy obsolete. 
3. The human lifespan increases proportionally with the improvement of nutrition and medicine, and the average first-world citizen is able to work well into their eighties. 
4. Advances in carbon technology such as nanotubes provide the ability to create incredibly sturdy structures, allowing for nigh-indestructible, earthquake proof skyscrapers (which could be far taller considering the tensile strength of said materials) and perhaps, most ambitiously, space elevators, ridding humanity of the necessity for such expensive rocket launches). 
5. A manned mission to Mars has taken place. 
6. I suspect that by this time an International base of operations on the moon is in hesitant planning stages, but may not be realised for some time. 
7. Solid-state research yields the untold wonders of quantum computing and near-room-temperature superconductors, which would allow for truly incredible computing power and the likes of Mag-Lev into public transportation. 
8. Cancer will not have been cured.
9. Biotechnological advances have all but eradicated congenital conditions via an optional screening process at conception, and have increased world crop yields by untold factors. 
10. Oil and Gas, as predicted, will have run out many decades ago, and numerous wars were fought for the last of it. Regardless, the advances in renewable resources were sufficient to avert major international conflict. 
11. The world population will most likely exceed approximately nine billion. In developed, first world countries, the population will be much smaller than it is now, but in developing countries it will continue its trend of exponential increase, steadily levelling off perhaps by this time. 
12. No flying cars. Mag-Lev, though. Mag-Lev. 
13. Advances in robotics will still be in its infancy. You will have no house-maid, but personal computers will be integrated with personal 'assistants' as standard, due to the significantly greater advances in AI. 
14. Nuclear weapons will most likely remain, due to the mere lack of time for such international tension to dissipate. 
15. Weapons, by and large, will not be very different, with perhaps the exception of Railgun technology. 

Those are just some off the top of my head before bed. 

Most importantly, I'm fairly sure that things will be pretty much the same; just a little bit better than they were before. 

Also, as a final note, I'd say that this thread is largely for personal imaginings than anything else, as predicting technological advancement has proven incredibly difficult at every point in history. Flying cars and robot butlers, have, of course not come, but the internet has, a far greater achievement.


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## The Backward OX (Jan 24, 2012)

Copulation will commonly take place in public. Only it’ll be here in twenty years or so, not a hundred.

People who know little about spelling, punctuation, grammar and word usage will still infest writing sites.

At the present rate, my 2003 Toyota will have travelled just under 50,000 miles.


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## Olly Buckle (Jan 24, 2012)

The Yellowstone super-volcano will blow, not massively, but enough to destroy America's crops for a year and give everyone else a bad summer and crop failure resulting in mass starvation. Partially drug resistant forms of things like TB will achieve total resistance and, coupled with a virulent flu epidemic, and the afore mentioned starvation, will reduce the population to fairly small and isolated pockets. This will result in the diseases dying out and a total re-structuring of the social organisation. In a few hundred years time it will be viewed like the fourteenth century, when climate change and black death reduced the population of Britain to about half what it was and resulted in the peasant's revolt and the end of feudalism; unpleasant at the time, but generally a good thing.


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## luckyscars (Jan 24, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> The Yellowstone super-volcano will blow, not massively, but enough to destroy America's crops for a year and give everyone else a bad summer and crop failure resulting in mass starvation.



sorry to disappoint, but that scenario as you described almost certainly isn't possible, let alone likely. a supervolcano with the size and geological composition of the yellowstone caldera, which has had almost 700,000 years to build up energy, can only have one liekly outcome: an eruption with enough force to kill outright a huge percentage of the north american population, followed by countless more deaths from air poisoning and ultimately causing a global or nearly-global decimation of agriculture for a period of time far longer than a year. if yellowstone erupts in the next hundred years without significant technological improvements, you can essentially count on the end of civilization as we know it.


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## luckyscars (Jan 24, 2012)

felix said:


> Flying cars and robot butlers, have, of course not come, but the internet has, a far greater achievement.



abso-frickin-lutely! see, that's the problem with most of these speculators (and most science fiction, actually). they all too often get carried away imagining technological advancement as consisting of machines and hardware. obviously there will be some advancement in those things in a hundred years, but i expect it to be surprisingly minimal. IMO the real progress will be in cyber-based technology, particularly in the arenas of communication, information and entertainment (computer games you can actually 'be in', conference calls where the communicators are manifest in a 3D form of virtual reality, etc). as far as artificial intelligence goes, i think it will be small - a computer that functions to voice commands and understands context - instead of larger - robotic housemaids. i don't think people really want robotic housemaids, see. maybe its just me but i dont find a lot of those types of futuristic living ideas very appetizing. who the hell wants some weird android walking round their house mopping? since when was mopping that big of a chore? these things have to be cost effective you see, and any robot that can mop will likely not be worth spending thousands of dollars on just to avoid a few chores.


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## Rustgold (Jan 24, 2012)

felix said:


> @themorresho and Rustgold: I'm genuinely taken aback by such pessimism.



Not pessimism, rather just being realistic.

Just start looking at all of the things oil is used for besides fuel.  Then add copper, lead, zinc, tin, & silver all to be depleted before we run out of oil, plus phosphorus following soon after.  Iron & aluminum isn't so far behind that.

Simply put, there's going to be nothing left to keep our society running, nothing to fertilise crops with, nothing to build technological products with, nothing to make medicines with.  We're going to have a hard landing, and one we collectively deserve.


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## luckyscars (Jan 24, 2012)

i don't know, rustgold. i'd say with enough investment there's a decent-to-good chance we'll invent a decent oil substitute in the next hundred years. don't ask me to come up with any ideas, i know little about chemistry, but oil is one thing i'm not quite so worried about. they used to say the same things about coal, you know, back when steam power was still the basis for transportation and industry. and then they came up with oil for the former and nuclear for the latter. even if we don't come up with a perfect alternative for oil, i believe we'll find suitable alternatives to generate electricity. and there's still probably enough oil left to sustain the economy for a few years. remember a lot of potential oil fields have not been developed yet.

to be honest, i'm at a loss to understand why we don't use nuclear energy more. it's almost one hundred percent clean, a hell of a lot more efficient, and you can power a whole nation with a fraction of the number of coal/oil plants you'd otherwise need. it seems that nuclear power, in combination with solar, hydro, wind etc alternatives in appropriate locations would minimize reliance on fossil fuels. for instance, the hoover dam is capable of powering the entire city of las vegas. that said, i'm not hugely in favor of some of the sillier uses of windmills (i.e putting them on the rooftops of suburban homes where the power generated is barely enough to heat a shallow pan for five minutes) and solar energy needs a lot of development to be cost effective, but these are nonetheless all ideas worth developing and in the meantime we can and should use nuclear power on a far greater scale. the problem is people are just too damn paranoid about it, and for no rational reason. sure you have the occasional fukushima and chernobyl, but with enough investment and good management those kinds of disasters can be minimized to a level of almost complete reliability. most people who object to nuclear power overlook the fact that countries like france have used it for decades and have never had a problem. 

also another theory that i quite like is the idea of developing hot deserts like the sahara, which are otherwise fairly pointless as far as the environment goes (since little lives in them) into energy generators - vast 'sun fields' consisting of hundreds of square miles of solar panels, harnessing their year-round sunshine to provide exportable amounts of electricity. and why not? this theory has many advantages. aside from the obvious clean energy they would produce they could also have an important geo-political impact. most of the desert countries, such as westen sahara, the sudan, morrocco etc are desperately poor and in need of meaningful industry. with investment from foreign energy companies we could work with the governments of such countries to put in place a system whereby we build these solar fields for them. we would receive cheap electricity and, in return, these countries could tax the exported energy, using the profits to then develop themselves into the 'energy superpowers' on a par with present day saudi arabia and venezuela. it really isn't a particularly complicated idea. in fact, we pretty much have the means to do it already. all it needs is significant investment and careful planning to implement. within one hundred years i cant see that being an issue.

don't buy into the fear-mongering quite so easily.


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## The Backward OX (Jan 24, 2012)

If I was, say, 50-ish at the time everything went pear-shaped, I'd see the end of civilisation as we know it as a rather exciting experience to attempt to live through.

That's just me and my romantic streak again. In reality...


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## felix (Jan 24, 2012)

BBC News - Japan finds rare earths in Pacific seabed

I read a similar article in New Scientist a while back, I thought that you guys might find it interesting. 

Regarding fossil fuel substitutes, there's no technological reason why we'd be stuck, as we already have the ability to artificially produce gasoline in small amounts via an application of solar energy, have many renewable resources developing rapidly towards the point of being cost-effective (namely Wave energy and Solar) and also nuclear fusion really isn't far-fetched (it's already possible, the problem lies in getting more energy out of the system than you've put in). 
It's just easier to use fossil-fuels, and so the distribution of fossil fuels to renewable resources won't change massively until the faucet runs dry. However, the shift towards renewables is on the increase; as somebody mentioned, Vegas has the Dam, and the country of Iceland is powered 100% by Geothermal energy.


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## Kyle R (Jan 24, 2012)

-  the global temperature will have risen 15 degrees farenheit due to carbon dioxide and methane gas emissions, creating a mass exodus of humanity from the fatal heat of southern continents, northbound, or southbound to Antarctica, where the ice sheath has melted away completely, exposing new land to be developed. One third of the planet is experiencing drought-conditions.

 - Sea levels have risen 10 feet in height, displacing hundreds of millions of people living in or near low-lying coastal areas. Nations around the globe have undergone large-scale evacuations and resettlements, costing trillions of dollars.

- A laptop-sized computer of can now perform the equivalent of "one billion Earth's worth of human brains" in less than ten microseconds

- All cold-climate animal and plant species have become extinct in the wild, the only survivors are the result of localized human conservation efforts

- Due to the increased efficiency of computing power and advances in artificial intelligence, cerebral implants are now offered to allow the human brain to interface directly with computers. Labelled "superhumans" or "transhumans",  those with implants are able to operate with intelligence and efficiency that surpasses comprehension of non-implanted humans. As a result, a psychosocial divide begins to make itself known. As technology continues to accelerate exponentially, super/transhumans continue to advance while biological humans begin to feel adrift in a strange, alien world which has become increasingly difficult to understand and comprehend.

- Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Typhoons occur in record-breaking numbers, due to the warmer, larger oceans and hotter air

- A unified global currency is is used, though language barriers still remain

- AI machines, which now operate at "trillions upon trillions" times more intelligent than the human brain, are put to work in the fields of quantum mechanics, and nano-technology, resulting in scientific and technological breakthroughs on an exponentially accelerating basis.

- Synthetic organs and limbs are now a thing of reality. After the first synthetic trachea was transplanted in 2011, using synthetic material and cellular grafting, scientists can now create entire synthetic humans. Combining this with cognitive "downloading", wealthy individuals can choose to download a "copy" of their consciousness onto a machine, so that their sentience may then be "uploaded" into a synthetic human body after their passing, thereby granting practical immortality until full-human-body cloning is acceptable and practiced, whereupon the person can then upload his consciousness into a clone of his own body, to repeat, at will, as long as funds allow.

- The first androids appear, used as greeters and hosts primarily. While still obvious imitations of humans, by the end of this century Androids will be indistinguishable from biological humans, with the exception of their behavior, which will seem subdued and notably tranquil and pleasant. Social debates arise when the first sex-androids are released on the market.

- A.I.-commanded spaceships begin taking flight to explore the galaxy. Construction has begun on the moon. Plans to begin terraforming Mars are being discussed.

- The average human life expectancy has extended by 7 years. The average human is also now one inch taller. Scientists are actively attempting to manipulate the "aging gene", after the discovery of The Immortal Jellyfish. Japanese scientists are pursuing nano-technology as a path to biological immortality.


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## Kyle R (Jan 24, 2012)

Oh yeah, for those of you who like this stuff, check out: Future Timeline | Technology | Singularity | 2020 | 2050 | 2100 | 2150 | 2200 | 21st century | 22nd century | 23rd century | Humanity | Predictions | Events

Fun!


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## BabaYaga (Jan 24, 2012)

Really? No polar bears AND no flying cars....? 

Is there really any reason I shouldn't start saving up now so I can buy a life-size sculpture of myself made entirely out of cocaine?


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## ppsage (Jan 24, 2012)

National sovereignty will be much reduced.


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## philistine (Jan 24, 2012)

I remember finding a website once which had a very accurate series of predictions for future technology, beginning at 2015 or so, and extending (albeit unrealistically for the most part) to several light years from the present. I'll try and find the link.

Anyway, following the development of automotive technology, other fuel technologies and several other developments, they theorised, quite accurately it seemed, that the first flying automobiles (not those VTL monstrosities they have now) will be available in 2075 or so; likely only for the wealthy.


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## Olly Buckle (Jan 24, 2012)

philistine, how do you know they are accurate if they have not happened yet? Do you mean 'precise' maybe? Plus a light year is a spatial, not temporal measure. anyway even if the super-volcano doesn't blow there will be the huge N American earthquake that will send a tsunami across the Pacific and global warming will still screw up the crops and cause mass starvation, not to mention the killer flu pandemic. I lived through the golden age when antibiotics still worked, you youngsters are totally screwed, you don't have a chance.


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## Deleted member 33527 (Jan 24, 2012)

It will be legal to walk around naked in public.


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## Kyle R (Jan 24, 2012)

Dreamworx95 said:


> It will be legal to walk around naked in public.



Illegality doesn't stop me now!




			
				phillistine said:
			
		

> I remember finding a website once which had a very accurate series of predictions for future technology, beginning at 2015 or so, and extending (albeit unrealistically for the most part) to several light years from the present. I'll try and find the link.



It sounds like the link I posted. See a few posts above you. Is that the same site you're speaking of? They extend the predictions all the way until the end of the universe.

My favorite prediction is the construction of the Dyson Sphere, an artificial MegaPlanet constructed by self-replicating AI spaceships.'

Oh and, one more prediction of mine.. in the late 23rd century,* pregnancy will be considered a burden of the past*. Partners wishing to conceive will supply their eggs and sperm, which will then be combined in a lab and the fetus will be grown in an artificial womb, tended to by machines. Parents will be able to choose the hair color, eye color, and specific personality traits they want in their child. These selections will be implemented through genetic modification. After the baby has reached "infant" status and is gauged as healthy, the parents can they arrive to "pick up" their new baby.


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## The Backward OX (Jan 25, 2012)

Dreamworx95 said:


> It will be legal to walk around naked in public.






The Backward OX said:


> Copulation will commonly take place in public.



One thing surely leads to the other.


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## Rustgold (Jan 25, 2012)

luckyscars said:


> i don't know, rustgold. i'd say with enough investment there's a decent-to-good chance we'll invent a decent oil substitute in the next hundred years. don't ask me to come up with any ideas, i know little about chemistry, but oil is one thing i'm not quite so worried about.
> ... don't buy into the fear-mongering quite so easily.



If the problem was no fuel for cars, I'd agree with you.  We could pushbike or breed millions of horses if we had to, plus there's environmentally & health destructive coal for our computers.

But it's not a fuel shortage problem, it's a resource shortage problem.  There's no way around the copper, lead, zinc, tin, & silver, phosphorus and iron shortages, particularly as the low quality aluminum is in little better shape.  You simply can't build solar cells, fusion power (which remains unworkable), or nuclear power plants when the materials needed to build them are no longer available.

At a even more primitive level, you try to sustain modern crops with no phosphorus.  It doesn't work.  Of course,our society could survive a 70% die-out of the population by starvation, if it wasn't for the other resource shortfalls.  We simply don't have a solution for these future resource shortfalls, and the mythical mining of space rocks is hundreds of years away, hundreds of years we don't have.

So no, it's not fear-mongering; it's a realistic look at future issues, and the lack of progress towards solutions.



Dreamworx95 said:


> It will be legal to walk around naked in public.



Not until they ban fat people (now now catty).


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## saintenitouche (Jan 27, 2012)

I'll tell you what actually _is _going to happen.. because, well... I _actually_ know. U_U
You are all going to get unplugged, for I am Morpheus. You are all going to get unplugged NOW! 

oh wait- wrong person.......


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## KangTheMad (Jan 27, 2012)

*Politics:*

- Either India, Brazil or Turkey will become the world's next Superpower
- Turkey will invade Greece due to Greece's inability to fix their economy despite dozens of bailouts by the Eurozone
- NAFTA (US, Canada, and Mexico) will form a common currency, much like the Euro. Talks will be in place of NAFTA becoming more than just an economic union.
- Mexico will see a mini-civil war as a result of needing extreme measures to deal with the drug cartels. The US will send troops to oppose the Cartels.
- The Middle East will continue to see revolutions
- Palestine will become a country, once a more moderate, democratic sentiment takes over
- Russia and China will form a military alliance
- Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania will form one country, the East African Union. Kenya will have a nuclear power plant

*Science and technology:*
- A manned mission to Mars will take place
- A probe will be sent to Europa and burrow under the ice to explore the water ocean underneath it
- Computers will become even more advanced, though AIs will not become reality. We would have "virtual intelligences", and these would be used by governments for military and scientific applications, and not available to the public.
- Using solar and wind power, there will be a more efficient way to desalinate water. This will cause coastal countries in Africa to become more developed.
- Overpopulation will become an issue, and a colony on Mars would start to be seriously considered.
- Copper will become a very expensive resource, as copper deposits will become extremely scarce if not non-existent.


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## theorphan (Jan 27, 2012)

Hover cars and sky ships.  No more fossil fuel.


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## Jon M (Jan 27, 2012)

Canadian rock band RUSH will re-release their breakthrough album, 2112, with new and improved special effects wizardry, and it will, once again, suck.


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## LaughinJim (Jan 28, 2012)

I am afraid that themooresho is liable to be correct in his OP. I think the de-evolution of our technological society is at hand. There will still be writers though, using quill pens made from vulture feathers (there will be plenty of those around) on paper (we are unlikely to lose that technology as its fairly simple) with ink made from lamp black and polluted water. We will therefore still need cursive handwriting because its quite a bit faster.


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## Jon M (Jan 28, 2012)

On a more serious note, I think the view of people, as held by other people, as useable commodities will become more and more widespread, especially in the workforce.


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## Olly Buckle (Jan 28, 2012)

johnM said:


> On a more serious note, I think the view of people, as held by other people, as usable commodities will become more and more widespread, especially in the workforce.


They say the increase in population means that slavery is now the condition of more humans than ever before (I am not sure I believe it, but it is pretty widespread), do you think we (the human race) are ready to re-legalise it yet?


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## KangTheMad (Jan 28, 2012)

Not in the US.


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## InsanityStrickenWriter (Jan 28, 2012)

In the future, due to highly advanced cosmetic surgery and life-extending medicines, nobody will be willing to have sex without first seeing the other's birth certificate.


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## themooresho (Jan 28, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> They say the increase in population means that slavery is now the condition of more humans than ever before (I am not sure I believe it, but it is pretty widespread), do you think we (the human race) are ready to re-legalise it yet?



Globalization pretty much ensures slavery in the third world.  I used to hear about slaves used for different products, usually food, and I would cut that particular food out of my diet, but I eventually came to realize that the vast majority of our food is produced by slavery or something so close to it that it's hard to tell the difference.  The latest story is about Chocolate being produced by child slavery.  See The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs.

The only way to ensure that you don't buy food produced by slavery or the closest thing to it is to eat organic food only, but honestly, who can afford to eat like that all the time?


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## KangTheMad (Jan 28, 2012)




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## Syren (Jan 29, 2012)

I think you're all going to be surprised. I think that the next fifty years will change the world drastically.

Molecular computers, advanced photovoltaics, nano medicines, cellular coding, anti-matter propulsion, and lasers that generate more heat than the suns corona. All real things, all in production. Think about how much has changed in the past twenty years and realize that they were the slow years. Twenty years from now I honestly believe we will all be self sufficient regarding energy. Fossil fuels for transportation will be nostalgia. Education will be radically changed and simplistic tasks will be completely automated. 

There's tons to speculate on, but I'd bet anyone that twenty years from now, we'll all be wondering what the hell happened. It's going to be remarkable.


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## Blood (Jan 29, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> They say the increase in population means that slavery is now the condition of more humans than ever before (I am not sure I believe it, but it is pretty widespread)...


If slavery is a current reality, then yes, but they can take solace in the fact that the continued increase in population means that slavery is _not_ now the condition of more humans than ever after.


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## Blood (Jan 29, 2012)

I predict that by the end of 2012, there will be 2013 (87% probability).


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## luckyscars (Jan 29, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> They say the increase in population means that slavery is now the condition of more humans than ever before (I am not sure I believe it, but it is pretty widespread), do you think we (the human race) are ready to re-legalise it yet?



no. that's absurd. if slavery has re-emerged or will ever re-emerge, the last thing it will be called will be 'slavery' and subsequently it will be entirely transcending of law. that's the whole point. slaves who know they are slaves will not stay slaves. a big reason the slave trade ended wasn't because of lincoln or anybody like that (lincoln himself was no big opponent of slavery) but because the slaves themselves became aware of their plight and thus it evolved into an issue of public conscience.


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## Blood (Jan 29, 2012)

luckyscars said:


> no. that's absurd. if slavery has re-emerged or will ever re-emerge, the last thing it will be called will be 'slavery' and subsequently it will be entirely transcending of law. that's the whole point. slaves who know they are slaves will not stay slaves. a big reason the slave trade ended wasn't because of lincoln or anybody like that (lincoln himself was no big opponent of slavery) but because the slaves themselves became aware of their plight and thus it evolved into an issue of public conscience.


There are other places in the world besides the U.S.


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## Rustgold (Jan 29, 2012)

luckyscars said:


> no. that's absurd. if slavery has re-emerged or will ever re-emerge, the last thing it will be called will be 'slavery' and subsequently it will be entirely transcending of law. that's the whole point. slaves who know they are slaves will not stay slaves.



If you take 8 billion people and a food crisis (which will happen as our practices are unsustainable), billions will be willing to hand themselves (and their children) over to slavery for survival.


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## luckyscars (Jan 29, 2012)

Blood said:


> There are other places in the world besides the U.S.



yeah. and what's your point?


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## Blood (Jan 29, 2012)

luckyscars said:


> yeah. and what's your point?


Olly was not referring to an increase in U.S. population. The United States and the World are not one in the same. There are most likely forms of slavery happening today. See this link provided themooresho.  The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs.


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## luckyscars (Jan 29, 2012)

that isn't the point i was making, blood. the fact is that slavery is legally outlawed regardless of what country you're in, because any country permitted into the U.N (i.e any official country) is not allowed, by law, to have institutionalized slavery. in that sense, the U.S situation and world situation are not different. both are against the legal existence of slaves. that doesn't mean slavery doesn't exist, because it plainly does in various forms in virtually every country to some extent. however, it does mean it will probably never be legalized (and rightly so) because doing so would be political suicide and that is not likely to ever change. therefore my point is valid: if slavery grows it will do so through means that are either illegal (i.e through criminal gangs and human trafficking) or within the law, but under a different name - i.e indentured servitude, which exists in many countries today. if you want to count the latter as slavery i'm not going to dispute it, because i completely agree there's little moral difference between a sweat-shop worker in bangladesh who works 22 hours each day for a dollar or less and somebody who worked in the cotton fields of georgia for nothing. however there is a legal difference, a distinction if you will, that the former is designated as a worker and the latter as a slave. its because of that difference that what olly described is absurd because there will almost certainly never be a time in the future when written common or civil law reintroduces 'slavery' (unless you count the enslavement of machines and A.I, which is another story). why? because the people wouldn't allow it. we have developed intellectually to a point where slavery is no longer considered to have ethical currency. therefore, if slavery will reemerge (and i dont doubt that it will you understand) it will be through far more subtle and insidious methods. it will almost certainly be legal, of course, but not as it was prior to the 19th centuries. it will be through manipulation of the legal process, through reducing the quality of life for workers to the point where their conditions are tantamount to slavery. it may be through abolishing minimum wage legislation, for instance, together with media manipulation and an increase in corporate power in government. in any case though, it will absolutely not be a case of slavery being 'legalized'. slavery, by name, will always be illegal. slavery by circumstance, on the other hand, well i'd say that's got great potential. particularly as government and corporate power becomes increasingly intertwined, human rights are eroded and the economy falters. all of which are quite likely within the next 100 years. but not inevitable, yet.


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## ShatteredUniverse (Feb 10, 2012)

patskywriter said:


> … and we'll see the introduction of the 39th actor to play The Doctor in the acclaimed "Dr Who" series.



Yes, because _Doctor Who_ is the most recyclable series in the history of television. It has the market cornered on Lead Actor Replacement. Too bad Steven Moffat will no longer be around to be showrunner. :-/


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## ShatteredUniverse (Feb 10, 2012)

elite said:


> - We still won't have flying cars. *Not sure about this one. Hovercraft may become more cost-effective than wheel-based transportation in the future.*
> - We still won't have holographic AI butlers/maids in our homes. *Well, if you mean in the Star Trek sense of a hologram, then I'd have to agree. But holographic technology will certainly be advanced enough by then. AI, on the other hand, is a trickier issue.*
> - We will still be using windows. *Bill Gates will still own our souls.
> *- Life will more or less be the same, with some extra conveniences. *That's the way it's been since the Industrial Revolution.
> ...


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## LaughinJim (Feb 10, 2012)

There will be a resurgence of Jainism in India.
Ther will be a long protracted war with Iran.
St. Thumas Aquinas will be reborn to save the world.
And Madonna will remain alive long enough to do a cover of Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly.


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