What are your predictions for the year 2090?

[nhnifong]

What will life be like for the average person in 2090?

Make your best effort to truly make your guess as correct as possible.

Honest attempts only if you don't mind.

Here are my guesses:

Life is characterized by a sharp divide between the informational and material worlds. Transportation is expensive and time consuming, and only the rich do it, as status statement. The only things physically transported are crops and raw materials. The shipping carriers operate at huge loss and are subsidized by a failing U.S. government that lives off it's inexplicably large remaining reserve of natural gas. Blimps have made a comeback in the private sector. Most of your time is spent interacting in the global virtual worlds online. Most of what you need can be download and manufactured or grown within a few miles of home, it's that or you can't afford it anyways. Netspeak is completely incomprehensible to old folks without years of training and immersion. Africa is still starving. The middle east is still fighting. You carry a battery with you during the day and it is the only thing in your pocket. it is about the size of a typical cellphone battery without the cellphone but it holds hundreds of times more energy. You can buy a new one if you lose it for about half the price of a meal. If you need a computer or phone, any random piece of gadgetry within arms reach will suffice once you power it, root it, and give it a tunnel to Sweden, you primarily interact with things via cameras and micro-projectors. Space around earth is very slightly less empty. Most of the stuff up there is broken. There's lots of little solar thingies the size of a coin flying around in the upper atmosphere though for God knows what reason, but they're cheap. There's a bunch of these in the atmospheres of other planets too, accidently DDOSing the only relay satellite. There are a mind numbing diversity of currencies in use. None all that much more reliable than say, the Peso, with the exception of natural gas. Most places are very very crowded.

Edited October 10, 2012 by nhnifong

[Whatshtisthis]

1. Less reliance on oil for power. Due to massive usage of solar panels and nuclear power stations, the Earth looks like as if a huge solar panel is installed on it's surface.

2. Augmented Reality technology is everywhere.

3. Development of powerful engines allows for cheap flights to space.

4. Subsequently, there are space colonies to help solve the overcrowding issue on Earth.

5. Cellphone? What cellphones? Communication gadgets will be integrated into the augmented reality devices.

[RedDwarfIV]

2090?

Forget all oil, for starters - that's predicted to run out in 2045. Unless of course those guys in Arizona perfect their thing that takes carbon dioxide and water vapour from air and turns it into petrol, we'll either be using electrric or hydrogen fuelled cars - most likely a combination of both with hydrogen being prevalent. Because of lack of fossil fuels, most non-renewable resource fired power stations will have been shut down and replaced with either nuclear or green energy generation facilities. Nuclear could refer to fusion too - the biggest problem with fusion in 2012 is getting funding for a reactor large enough to sustain fusion reactions. By this time, the concept will have been proven and several nations rich enough to do so will have constructed fusion sites. For fission, it will be divided between conventional reactor types and Molten Salt Reactors - those are currently in development, but have a lot of advantages over uranium fuelled plants.

Global warming would be making life difficult across the globe - despite efforts to reduce carbon emissions [mostly successful now that oil and gas have been exhausted] CO2 will continue to affect climate until it can be brought back to safe levels. Since by this point the Amazon would have been mostly destroyed, forests would have been put up elsewhere. Earth's population will have greatly increased, leading to spread of poverty further through third world countries.

Private sector space companies would probably have gained a strong foothold. Alongside rockets, SSTO vehicles such as Skylon will have been brought into service. There may even be sub-orbital spaceplanes intended for high-speed travel between places which carry passengers and cargo commercially, acting like a more expensive version of an airline. Such spaceplanes would probably take advantage of the atmospheric bounce effect.

That's my 2p for you.

[royalkingofgames]

very pessimistic, i hope for one it will be like the star trek equivelent of 2090 (30 years after first contact)

[nhnifong]

very pessimistic, i hope for one it will be like the star trek equivelent of 2090 (30 years after first contact)

I think the life in this galaxy is about 99% fish.

[DeviouslyDeviant]

Hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm I think we'll be screwed up by liek the Covenant or something

[Sbowyer28]

Hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm I think we'll be screwed up by liek the Covenant or something

Why do I agree with this, I hope this is true because it would be awesome (Except for our colonies getting glassed )

[WechyPichu]

I think by then we may have created biospheres on the moon and are beggining to get somewhere on getting mars an atmosphere.

[Russian Flame]

i think that in 2090 we will have colony on both Mars and the moon. and countries are tying to gain territory in on both planets human have begun interplanetary

travel in the solar system. also earth has 9 billion living on it and heilium-3 is being mined all over the place. also the FTL drive being developed for intersteller travel.

[Robo336]

http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Population.html

[Grand Lander]

Over advanced technology at human hands.

[bsalis]

http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Population.html

This is nothing new...

No longer are (savage) islands dreaded, nor their rocky shores feared; everywhere are houses, and inhabitants, and settled government, and civilized life. What most frequently meets our view (and occasions complaint), is our teeming population: our numbers are burdensome to the world, which can hardly supply us from its natural elements; our wants grow more and more keen, and our complaints more bitter in all mouths, whilst Nature fails in affording us her usual sustenance.

- Tertullian 210AD

That's not to say it won't happen. It's just that new technology comes along and solves the problem. You may have noticed a renaissance of fossil fuel energy in the form of shale gas. All thanks to... you guessed it, new technology in the form of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

Edited October 12, 2012 by bsalis

[Nibb31]

My predictions:

The economy will have been destroyed by Goldman Sachs and banks that will have sucked everything they could out of it in a desperate race to make more money for the rich. Food resources will be destroyed by Monsanto and greed. There will be technological advances, but lack of funding, lack of vision, and general obscurantism will prevent or slow down any technological revolutions that might save us.

With no economy, no more oil, and no long term vision for education, healthcare, and replacement energy, the US will probably go through a dark age of obscurantism, war and fanatism, pulling down the rest of the western world with it. Forget about space exploration. At this point, most of the scientific and technology sector will have been killed off by fundamental religious luddites pushing creationism and home-schooling.

Asia will probably emerge as a dominant power, but the world will rapidly be running out of resources. There will be wars for oil, wars for water, and wars for religion.

Population will probably keep on increasing until we reach a tilting point. This will cause more wars, sudden famines as the agricultural systems collapse (thank you Monsanto!), the return of auto-immune strains of diseases, and so on... At this point, the World's population will rapidly decrease, with lots of suffering and pain. We might go extinct, but more probably we will reach a bottleneck of a few million people like we already have. Billions will die in the process, but that will be nature's way of reinstating a balance between population and sustainable resources.

The only way I can see us avoiding this scenario is if all nations band together, switch to renewable energy, enforce birth control, share their wealth, and create a new kind of economy based on fairness.

Yeah, I know... which is why I'm pretty pessimistic about our future.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Nibb31

[Nibb31]

This is nothing new...

That's not to say it won't happen. It's just that new technology comes along and solves the problem. You may have noticed a renaissance of fossil fuel energy in the form of shale gas. All thanks to... you guessed it, new technology in the form of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

Counting on new technology to save the day is risky business. It's also a race against the clock. The disaster is evitable ONLY if we figure out a way to get free massive energy AND if we are capable of implementing the solutions BEFORE the disaster. What if we don't? What if we figure it out too late? What if we can't agree on the solutions? What if it is already too late?

Also technology follows the laws of diminishing returns. The first increments are simple, easy to implement and produce spectacular results. As you advance technologically, each technological iteration costs more, is more complex, and gains less than the previous one. Until you get to a point where your system is simply as efficient as it can be. What if we reach a technological dead-end ? What if those new technologies end up being counter productive (like hydraulic fracturing tends to poison the water and land around it).

Edited October 12, 2012 by Nibb31

[zapy97]

i dont agree on birth control at all, because that can cause many problems, no birth control will destroy us, i think we shood have massive solar farms on roofs, with roof top gardens

[Nibb31]

Which is why we are doomed.

Birth control is a necessity if we want to survive as a species. Our planet simply cannot sustain infinite population growth. What is the point of doubling the World's population every decade if most of us have to starve. Did you even read the link posted by Robo336 ?

It's funny how the same people who oppose birth control also oppose renewable energy and scientific research.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Nibb31

[nhnifong]

My predictions:

The economy will have been destroyed by Goldman Sachs and banks that will have sucked everything they could out of it in a desperate race to make more money for the rich. Food resources will be destroyed by Monsanto and greed. There will be technological advances, but lack of funding, lack of vision, and general obscurantism will prevent or slow down any technological revolutions that might save us.

With no economy, no more oil, and no long term vision for education, healthcare, and replacement energy, the US will probably go through a dark age of obscurantism, war and fanatism, pulling down the rest of the western world with it. Forget about space exploration. At this point, most of the scientific and technology sector will have been killed off by fundamental religious luddites pushing creationism and home-schooling.

Asia will probably emerge as a dominant power, but the world will rapidly be running out of resources. There will be wars for oil, wars for water, and wars for religion.

Population will probably keep on increasing until we reach a tilting point. This will cause more wars, sudden famines as the agricultural systems collapse (thank you Monsanto!), the return of auto-immune strains of diseases, and so on... At this point, the World's population will rapidly decrease, with lots of suffering and pain. We might go extinct, but more probably we will reach a bottleneck of a few million people like we already have. Billions will die in the process, but that will be nature's way of reinstating a balance between population and sustainable resources.

The only way I can see us avoiding this scenario is if all nations band together, switch to renewable energy, enforce birth control, share their wealth, and create a new kind of economy based on fairness.

Yeah, I know... which is why I'm pretty pessimistic about our future.

This is grim, but has a certain degree of frightening realism. The US Dollar and the value of corporate stock might be destroyed by irresponsible hedge funds but I don't think that would take the rest of the world economy with it in the long run. It always seems to bounce back in under a year. (unless you are Japan)

And about religion, over the years the US has become more athiest, and the religions here have become more moderate. I cannot find a graph of this though, and I don't want to have to look through consecutive census.gov religion reports.

As for the population, it seems that after countries finish with industrialization, their literacy approaches 100% and their birth rate drops below 2. India and China are slated to pass through those points in their development very soon. (but doubtless there will be other countries behind them)

Someone is bound to try dropping condoms from planes at some point, which will be pretty comical in a "The Gods Must Be Crazy" kind of way

[Spearka]

here are my predictions

First, the USA destabilises, this is mainly due to to the nature of each state and also it's failing economy and political influence

Second, Global Warming takes it's toll, first the Gulf stream is drawn away from the UK due to meltwater, freezing the UK causing mass emigration, then the tundra in Canada and Russia melts away, turning them into Food superpowers, Russia may either politically fuse with Canada then or just Take over the world, before any of these there could be the dreaded nuclear war

Lastly, further in the Future, maybe 2050 to 2090, the UK will thaw out once again to what it is today

But unfortunately, due to lack of enthusiasm, Humanity still wouldn't have a Colony on the moon

[Cydonia]

My predictions:

The economy will have been destroyed by Goldman Sachs and banks that will have sucked everything they could out of it in a desperate race to make more money for the rich. Food resources will be destroyed by Monsanto and greed. There will be technological advances, but lack of funding, lack of vision, and general obscurantism will prevent or slow down any technological revolutions that might save us.

With no economy, no more oil, and no long term vision for education, healthcare, and replacement energy, the US will probably go through a dark age of obscurantism, war and fanatism, pulling down the rest of the western world with it. Forget about space exploration. At this point, most of the scientific and technology sector will have been killed off by fundamental religious luddites pushing creationism and home-schooling.

Asia will probably emerge as a dominant power, but the world will rapidly be running out of resources. There will be wars for oil, wars for water, and wars for religion.

Population will probably keep on increasing until we reach a tilting point. This will cause more wars, sudden famines as the agricultural systems collapse (thank you Monsanto!), the return of auto-immune strains of diseases, and so on... At this point, the World's population will rapidly decrease, with lots of suffering and pain. We might go extinct, but more probably we will reach a bottleneck of a few million people like we already have. Billions will die in the process, but that will be nature's way of reinstating a balance between population and sustainable resources.

The only way I can see us avoiding this scenario is if all nations band together, switch to renewable energy, enforce birth control, share their wealth, and create a new kind of economy based on fairness.

Yeah, I know... which is why I'm pretty pessimistic about our future.

I would agree with all of this.

Once we run out of (cheap) oil, things are going to get very bad for our species, very quickly.

The human tendency towards greed also makes our, (overall), future quite bleak.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Cydonia

[Nibb31]

This is grim, but has a certain degree of frightening realism. The US Dollar and the value of corporate stock might be destroyed by irresponsible hedge funds but I don't think that would take the rest of the world economy with it in the long run. It always seems to bounce back in under a year. (unless you are Japan)

We've been in a financial and economical crisis since 2008 and nobody has really bounced back.

Capitalism as a system is fundamentally flawed. It used to be about creating wealth based on growth, but infinite growth is impossible in a finite system. Wealth can no longer be created ex-nihilo. Resources and habitable/arable land surface don't grow, while population grows exponentially. This means that either we need to share our wealth (this means that rich countries have to give up their lifestyle, which they are not prepared to do), or we have to just accept that fewer people get richer while more people get poorer (which will significantly increase social pressure both on national and international levels). This can't last indefinitely, so I foresee some major economical and social collapses and revolutions, and it probably won't be pretty.

And about religion, over the years the US has become more athiest, and the religions here have become more moderate. I cannot find a graph of this though, and I don't want to have to look through consecutive census.gov religion reports.

I get the impression that extremists are much more vocal and mainstream nowadays than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Sarah Palin, Santorum, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, etc... The entire Republican party has been taken over by the bible-thumping luddites and tea partiers, and half of the US population is going to vote for them. These are people who oppose religion and science, who want to cut spending on research, education and healthcare. The US is essentially divided in two very different nations right now. Combined with the social tensions that I described above, it's a ticking time bomb.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.

As for the population, it seems that after countries finish with industrialization, their literacy approaches 100% and their birth rate drops below 2. India and China are slated to pass through those points in their development very soon. (but doubtless there will be other countries behind them)

Yes, with industrialization, literacy rises, but so does the thirst for consumerism. The Global Footprint concept shows that for the current level of world population to be sustainable, we already need 2.5 Earths. The world simply can't cope with every Chinese and Indian having an SUV and the same level of consumption as the west, yet who are we to deny them access to the same level of comfort that we have? These emerging countries will aspire to a more comfortable lifestyle and they are going to hit a barrier.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Nibb31

[Czman007]

People have been saying for centuries, if not longer, that the world would soon be coming to an end, because of this crisis or that crisis. But is hasn't yet. It it probably won't for a very long time. The human race is a species of survivors. One way or another, we will solve the current problems and we will survive. Also, advances in agricultural technology creates more food to feed more people. Overpopulation will not be a problem anytime soon.

[Cydonia]

Will you eat plankton/algae though? What about when meat becomes a luxury?

[kevinlacht]

1. Earth gone.

2. Small human collonies with all the technoligy taken from earth.

3. No US anymore (the collonies will be just one group, humans).

4. Humans landed at Callisto with a small colony.

5. Founded life that's not earth.

[Cthulufaic]

Homestuck will be finished.

'Nuff said.

[AeroPelican]

Homestuck will be finished.

'Nuff said.

Really? My friend at school keeps telling me to read Homestuck but I’m not bothered quite frankly.