What do you think human society will be like in 75 years time (2077 AD)?
Comment on our science, political climate, geographical and meterological maps/patterns, fashion, the transport we use, the speed of computers (the type of computers), medical technology, Living on Mars… or anything else you care to speculate…
Just remember, some of you will still be around then.
I predict I will be a healthy 103 full of new body parts grown from my own cells.
I predict there will be a large number of 20 somethings who have no brothers, no sisters, no aunts or uncles (so no cousins go without saying).
I predict that productivity, as measured by product produced per unit of human labor will be nearly astrological proportions due to mechanical intelligence.
I think there will be so many disturbing scientific things that the response of the masses will be to pretend they don’t exist since they pretty much can’t be countered. Although some people will embrace them wholeheartedly. Meaning we will have designer babies.
I may be going out on a limb here but I predict that by 2077:
Computers will weigh less than half a ton, perform over 10,000 calculations per second, and be so inexpensive that most Fortune 500 companies will be able to afford one. However, there is no reason anybody would want a computer in their home.
Supersonic rocket planes will routinely fly passengers across the Atlantic in under 3 hours.
Atomic power will revolutionize every aspect of life. No city power grid because every home will have it’s own atomic reactor. Atomic powered cars that can go 10 years between fill-ups. Even junior’s atomic-powered toys will never need batteries.
Houses and everything inside will be quickly and inexpensively made out of modern plastics. When the missus cleans house, she merely has to turn a hose on everything.
Although nobody will have landed on the Moon yet, the idea will not be so implausible as to be laughed down.
Immortality will become a reality in mammals, causing a raging debate over whether reasearch into human immortality is ethical.
Artificial wombs allow for a significant jump in human births, contributing to the surplus population
New and terrible diseases will appear to balance the population surplus.
I’ll have more later on…
there will be a new species of plant, genetically engineered, that will glow in the dark, thus becoming a tremendous fad.
Mammoths will be succesfully be brought back from extinction. At about the same time, people start realizing that mammoth meat has a wonderful taste that we have missed for 10,000+ years. Mammoth steaks become all the rage.
Mind-Machine Interfaces will become theoretically possible.
There will be a trend among multi-billionaires and trillionaires to create designer societies in their third-world country of choice. They will of course justify this under the auspices of charity.
By 2077, the first corporate war will have occured (and security guard blood will be spilled).
The first sentient computer will be created (at least it will mimic sentience very very well).
the underwater conveyer belt will grind to a halt due to global warming, thereby triggering the start of an ice age.
The air force will retire it’s fleet of B-52N’s…Or, at least, begin the five-year phase out plan.
First-Person-Perspective shoot 'em up games will look almost exactly like real life video footage…the processors can only handle ten characters on screen at a time, though, but they’ll look good.
There will be trouble in the middle-east.
Ranchoth
I predict there won’t be a Middle East…
So I’m a cynic.
You should be a science fiction writer; you’ve got great ideas.
The sun will continue to rise and set each day.
The moon will continue to orbit around the earth.
Oh yes, and I will rule the earth as an immortal and all humanity will be my slave BWA-HA-HA-HA-AH!!
[sub] Oh, you were serious? Well the first two still count[/sub].
Zev Steinhardt
Lets see. In 75 years I would be 109. Hopefully I will dead and buried long before that.
If population growth rates maintain their current pace the population of the world will 25 billion +or-. I don’t know about you but I am already frustrated with traffic. We’d better have colonized Mars, because we are going to need the space. I really think that Kim Stanley Robinson has a good idea of what the next 120 or so years are going to be like.
Sure you might live longer, but what is the point? Everything you remember will be gone, and you’ll be just another cranky old fart with good old days syndrome.
Alright, time to flex my prediction muscles…
During the 2010’s:
Recently extinct animals are brought back to life using cloning. Zoo’s have Woolly mamoths, sabre tooth tigers etc.
Many nations in Europe outlaw human cloning. The U.S. government fearing that the biotech industry will move to other countries gives human cloning is given the all clear. The first human is cloned.
NASA launches it’s first mission to mars. The year long colony is a success and NASA has plans to go back and establish a permanent Martian base.
Commercial flights into sub-orbital flight are becoming extremely popular, but still very expensive.
During the end of the 2010’s the first carbon nanotube processors come into commercial production. The CNT processors are 10 times faster than silicon based chips and are producing speeds of around 60 GHz.
The population of a city in Israel is wiped out by a weapon of mass destruction from Iraq. The USA has no choice but to send ground troops into Iraq and dispose of Suddam Hussein. A UN administered intrim govenment is established. There is another Jihad declared and there are revolts in most of Jordan, Egypt and other Muslim nations under the control of a pro-American government.
During the 2020’s:
Computer/Human neural interaction is advanced enough to develop commercial applications. Using only the power of your mind (and the computer) you can now change channels on your interactive digital tv, dial phone numbers, and other almost pointless advances.
North Korea’s economy completely collapses, and in a final desparate attempt at retaining power the NK military advance into South Korea and fire their ICBM’s at US cities, the missiles are destroyed by an orbital missile defence system. The first and last time the system would be used.
Nuclear fusion is developed and provides the first truely clean form of cheap, reliable and plentlyful energy.
During the 2030’s:
Computer/Human neural interaction is come along way… now it is possible to project images/movies straight into your mind. You will be able to type word documents, do your taxes, play VR computer games by thought.
Super-Corporations begin to administer third world countries in Africa, providing employment and economic growth while squeezing every last drop of productivity out of the nation.
During the 2040’s:
The first AI computer becomes sentient. And just like in Star Trek first contact human kind realizes that we are not alone anymore, but the entity didn’t come from another world it was created right here. And so, there is a second renaisance as computers begin to do the thinking for us, and there is more time to be more human and less a worker.
Governments agree to give the UN more power in an attempt to create a world government by 2080.
During the 2050’s:
The Earth has become so overpopulated that we start colonies at the bottom of the oceans. Larger colonies are established on Mars, with projects underway to teraform most of the surface.
Other planets, moons and asteroids are already being mined for their valuable resources.
Nuclear fusion is replaced by Zero-Point energy extractors, there is an almost infinite amount of energy in space-time and the AI entity has found a way to viably extract it.
During the 2060’s:
Poverty is virtually wiped out. The third world is a term from your history nanopedia.
Racisism is no longer present in society, and all people are treated equally.
The AI entity develops biochips that provide complete immunity to diseases, create nano-robots in our blood which repair cell damage which keeps us young and makes us immortal.
Human cities are massive, spacious, clean places filled with beautiful structures of architecture and art and places of amuzement. Living is a joy for everyone.
During the 2070’s:
Science is developing at an exponential rate. As the AI entity makes itself faster it is able to develop science faster.
Matter synthesizers are developed, it is not necessary to mine for resources anymore because it can be converted from energy.
The AI entity has developed the Warp drive, we can now explore and colonize the universe thanks to faster than light travel.
In 2077:
We make first contact with an intelligent alien race, and now everything is different…
There will be 1 world economy, more or less free and completely integrated under which circa 80% of the World’s population lives.
For needed labor categories (i.e. like High-tech companies in the ‘90’s) workers will be offered subsidized houses, cars and other goodies and will be paid on a scale that we proportionally would be shocked at today.
Unskilled labor will be performed by AI or from folks competing and “racing to the bottom" with each other & AI – that we would be surprised at the small disposable income of these people.
Retail stores, wholesalers and some MEGAstores may have disappeared or at least been minimized as people use e-shopping.
Your shirt will tell you, or maybe tell your house/personal assistant to tell you, when your cholesterol or heart or blood get funky
By then the first wave of truly engineered humans will be coming of age: smarter, faster, bigger, more attractive than us. You tell me what implications there are in that for them and for the “natural” humans (who will still outnumber them by far for generations).
We will have proof of extraterrestrial life.
The highest rated show on TV will be Fox’s Funniest Live Execution Bloopers.
Too late, already been done using luciferase (what makes fireflies glow). Hell, a French guy even made a glowing rabbit using a gene from jellyfish: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/rabbit000918.html
I predict that in seventy-five years, humans will have to learn how to effectively deal with artificial intelligences (or perhaps only one) that are vastly more intelligent than we are.
Space travel by humans will be a far distant memory, and a majority of people will not really believe that man once went to the moon. However, a cloud of miniature space probes will orbit all major bodies in the solar system, identifying resources for future transportation to earth by intelligent robotic devices.
The very concept of national identity will be erode as one will be able to conduct business from any spot on the globe. The result will be an invasion of the world’s hinterlands on a scale unimaginable today. Because so many people will have good educations and so little to do with them, a tide of mini-insurrections will sweep the world as various groups of people purchase property around the world and then attempt to split off into independent micro-nations. Some will point out that arcologies are now viable; nobody will want to live in them when they can own an acre of Siberian tundra or Saharan desert. Twenty million people a year will be maimed by the land mines used to protect these isolated, politically unstable plots.
The entire ecology of the planet will be destroyed in the blink of an eye, as any animal larger than a breadbox and any tree larger than a couple of feet in diameter will take on an astronomical value due to their rarity. To fill the vacuum, scientists will propose the concept of a “monosphere,” a vastly simplified worldwide ecology, and perhaps by 2077 the oceans will already teem with a species of robust, fast-reproducing, genetically engineered krill which will supply the majority of protein for the human race. Fast-growing forests will sprout and be cut in a decade. Oxygen depletion will be a major concern, and most of the planet’s surface will be covered by a form of oxygen-producing lichen that is resistant to chemical and electromagnetic damage.
A few wealthy, elite individuals will enjoy lifetimes of theoretically indeterminate length. Most, however, will have a life expectancy significantly lower than today due to disease, hunger, war, privation, and environmental factors.
Fusion will be a mere two decades away from becoming a viable power source.
You are all wrong.
From this article. I’m using this section because I generally agree with it:
"We have seen how the 19C pundits were wrong about this century. It wouldn’t be fair to close without making some equally imprudent predictions about America in the next century.
The Republicans will find that they like governing; as a result their anti-government rhetoric will fade away, to be revived only on ceremonial occasions (in much the same way that you only hear “these United States” at political conventions).
Religion is here to stay; but the fundies, frustrated with their inability to impose theocracy, will lose interest for a generation. The next time they pop up, they’ll be as likely to ally with the left as with the right (especially because abortion will, I suspect, be largely eliminated by improved methods of contraception).
Liberalism will disappear-- at least in its incarnations as described above; the new movements and causes that replace it may keep the name. The political fights of 2100 will center largely around ideas that are considered impossibly idealistic or perverse today.
Conservativism will remain, of course; though it will end up implicitly accepting everything that 20C liberalism stood for.
By the end of the century, racial tensions will have been largely defused; those that remain will be a matter more of class than race. There will still be resentment of whatever group most recently immigrated, however.
Acceptance of gays and lesbians will be mainstream in a generation, and will spread to the conservative churches by the end of the century.
Collectivism will come back in a big way… but not for another generation, and Americans won’t be the ones to develop it.
(I don’t understand what he means by Collectivism though.)
New forms of democratic government will be devised (again, not here; probably in Europe) that prevent the tyranny of the majority.
The important units of society will be, increasingly, not geographical units but what we might call tribes: diffuse collections of like-minded individuals who want to live life in a certain way and have broad rights and powers to do so.
When the oil runs out, mid-century, we’ll finally make some progress on sustainable development.
Corporations will be run quite differently, though if I knew exactly how I’d be a business consultant, not a writer. I suspect that by present standards they’ll be much more efficient, much less autonomous, and more democratically run.
Half the economy will be bit production and consumption-- an amalgam of entertainment, news and business analysis, science, education, religion, and the increasingly abstract support industries that these require. Manufacturing will be like agriculture is today: a tiny though essential sector of the economy.
The scientific study of government will make present-day political fights seem like pure foolishness. Once we actually know how to grow an economy, 20C moralisms of all political flavors will sound like leeches and electroshock therapy do today.
English won’t take over the world; localism will lead to a resurgence of local languages, whose inconvenience will be mitigated by technology.
Artificial intelligence will be a significant factor, past midcentury. I suspect that human-level intelligences won’t turn out to be useful-- or politically viable. Rather, we’ll see lots of low-level AI in appliances, software, mechanical translators, etc.; as well as massive systems that can contemplate the affairs of an entire corporation or government.
Still no flying cars. Dammit.
A few hundred thousand people will live in space… the largest space industry being tourism. But Alpha Centauri will have to wait for the next century, at least.
The list sounds a bit utopian; but some of these changes will be accompanied by massive upheaval, violence and destruction. How pleasant a society we’ll have in 2100 largely depends on how creatively we meet some of the challenges discussed above.
If there’s any overarching theme here, I think it’s this: historically, as we move from a world based on resource exploitation and physical power to one based on bit manipulation and intellectual power, liberalism is unstoppable. But it proceeds in half-century fits and starts. We’ve seen the cycle several times now: the Revolution, Romanticism, Reconstruction, the Roaring Twenties, the Radical Sixties. We surge forward, right some wrongs, indulge in various excesses, and burn out. The conservatives then come in; but the reaction doesn’t last forever. Underneath the surface, the gains of the last period of exuberance are consolidated, and the next one prepares itself. "
In the US:
there will be virtually no more human MDs providing medical treatment.
Super-advanced versions of those taser-like ab exercisers will keep us all buff, and nervous
There will be no economic need for 90% of the population. Extreme sports, and death sports skyrocket. Rollerball is a reality. Fox will be the biggest network.
There will be universal health coverage. Our benefits coverage limits (combined with our e-dollars) will be instant and unquestioned justification for refusal of medical treatment. There will be serious debate in Congress about birth licences to control population growth.
There will be a tyrrany of the old. Uh, more of one…
Survivor will not.
Marijuana will be legal. It will be prescribed for more than 70% of the population.
US RPVs will be launching the latest assaults in the War on Terrorism. Our Air Force pilots will control their craft from computer labs, and living rooms, across the country.
We will recognize ourselves to be in a “Post-Literate” age. Information will be almost exclusely presented in pictures, symbols, and sounds. Reading (the alphabet)will seen as kooky.
Christopher Reeve will have fallen off his horse again.
There will be contract, limited term marriages. In 50% of them, the contract will not be fulfilled.
Artificial womb birthing will be the rage of the day. The children produced by them will not yet have been fully assessed for negative consequences.
Dick Clark will again host New Year’s Eve on ABC.
Just as concepts like the Internet were completely incomprehensible to people at the end of the 19th century, the big issues of the late 21 century will revolve around ideas, expressions, or technologies that we have no inkling of today.
Telecommuting, virtual reality, and the internet will create new communities that aren’t determined byu Geography. Much like the SDMB is today, only these aggregations will gain in actual, political power and be able to control their destinies somewhat.
Cheap, easy internet publishing leads to a revolution in commercial expression, sparking big changes in entertainment, news, and literature.
In 75 years??
37th Directors Cut of Blade Runner is released on Holo-dvd.