Once our descendants have been genetically engineered to remain perpetually youthful,the phrase “Death is a part of life” will seem as imbecilic as saying that plagues are God’s punishment for our our sins.
Yeah, so many other supernatural theories were proven to be true and added to the encyclopedia… That article in Encyclopedia Brittanica about how the angels push the planets and stars around the Earth really helped my 4th grade book report! 
That people will know planes fly because of the conservation of momentum and that applying Bernoulli’s law is just a bonus.
That helicopters don’t work.
And was it Orwell that predicted we’d all be eating modified fungi, designed to taste like the objects they were grown to look like? I could see that being common, the way soy comes in bacon flavoured strips.
And I’m not so worried about that heaven problem. I’m pretty confident that if we all moved over to a godless system, God would step in and correct us before things got out of hand. And if She doesn’t, we’re no worse off. Unless there is a God and our final attempt towards a godless system leads to our extinction…
I second Lumpy’s point. The fact that today many professional “bioethecists” argue that life-extending technologies should be restricted because they are an affront to human “dignity” will be viewed as as backwards as the moral defense of slavery.
The false right wing / left wing duality.
That age discrimination is desirable or necessary.
Oh man, in re-reading this thread, I have no idea whether the things people posted would be gone in the future or arrived at in the future. Too many double negatives.
That it is good to make your children sleep in a separate bedroom. IIRC, Carl Sagan used that as an example of a well established rule that may turn out to be a bit of hokum that horrifies future generations.
Our ideas about nations and national sovereignty will be vastly changed.
Imagine …
I´d welcome the end of “Might makes Right”
How would this work? Honestly, I can’t see how.
Are you saying that nationality will mean nothing? The only way I can see that happening is if the world evolves a united, global wide government. Otherwise, how would you sort out the tax base? What would the basis for citizenship be if it offered no priviledges over non-citizens? I am not necessarily disagreeing, I am just asking for elaboration.
Very interesting OP.
I agree with much of what’s already been said: First and foremost, it’s essentially a given that much of religion in general will, while not be “gone”, it’s use and power will be vastly reduced.
Why a “given”? Easy- we no longer believe in Thor, Odin, Zeus or Mephistopholes, in Isis or Bast or the Golden Calf.
Today it’s seen as silly and even stupid to believe in Ra the Sun-God, yet to some back in history, the concept of Ra was as important, if not more so, than Jesus is to some today.
Religion will not vanish in a mere hundred years, but I’m certain it will be much diminished, and will be more and more considered akin to astrology and palmistry.
Those, too, will be nearly gone by then as well: Palmistry, Astrology, Phrenology, the concepts of telekenesis, telepathy, dowsing, remote viewing, speaking to the dead, the ideas of ghosts and spirits and souls. If we’re lucky we can dispense with the ideas of “bad luck” from black cats, walking under ladders, the numbers 13 or 666, breaking mirrors or spilling the salt.
Spoonbending, magic crystals, “healing magnets”, homeopathic remedies, faith healing, stigmata…
Doc Nickel, Hmm, I think the influence of religion is as strong or stronger than ever now. Are you perhaps just enumerating the difference between currently ‘acceptable’ religious beliefs v. the less trendy?
I’m sure middle-class Romans scoffed at the superstitious ways of the past and congratulated themselves for being much more rational than the heathens in, say, Macedonia, even as they made sacrifice in the temple of Jupiter (or whomever). Is it that different today?
We have 900-number psychics who advertise profitably on TV. In the US, lawsuits are filed in defence of creationism. Religious zealots fly airliners into buildings for thier God. Cults have committed group suicide worshipping a comet.
Are we really approaching the age of Reason, or is belief in the supernatural quite widespread, and perhaps as widespread as any time in history? I’d guess the latter.
My #1 pick is that we discard the notion that the ends justify the means. I know it’s hung around a while, but I think it’s a bad idea whose time has gone, and we’ll get along better without it.
Perhaps the notion of race will vanish entirely. Biologically, we’ve only ‘had’ races for about 100,000 years. They’re tiny, essentially meaningless differences today, and our racial distinctions are already so murky (Caucasian?) that it may just pass into obscurity.
Actors will finally realize it’s okay if they say “Macbeth” while working on a production.
If televangelism isn’t gone in 100 years, we’re in deep trouble.
The notion in the US that you don’t need to know geography.
The idea that obedience to authority is, in and of itself, a good thing had better be gone.
Why is it bad for kids to sleep apart from their parents??
I think many of you are unestimating the attraction that religion and superstition offers. While I believe the larger religions lose most of their political power and influence, smaller cults, trends and superstitions will multiply as the ability to spread their messages to the desperate grows with modern communication.
One belief I can see dying out is that a belief system composed solely of science and scepticism can create a happy, productive societity and that people will prefer it to escapisim.
The UK already is a country where religion is not important. For instance creationism is a non issue here. Yet 100 years ago the UK was probably just as religious as the US. Why hasn’t the US changed to be less religious as well?
I haven’t got a clue to be honest, but i’m just trying to show how future = less religion isn’t necessarily right.
At present most people believe that it is impossible to make a computer that thinks for itself.
Additionally many that think computers may become self-aware imagine that the artificial intelligences that result will be no more advanced than humanity.
This may be the biggest shock in 100 years time-
to find that artificial intelligence has no such limitations, and can far exceed the collective abilities of humanity.
Sci-fi worldbuilding at
http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html
Cite? :dubious:
Genetically-based depression is pretty much an accepted fact, last time I checked, & I see little reason to believe otherwise.
And in the past, we knew diddly about genetics or molecular chemistry. Makes a biig difference. Not quite the same as attributing mental illness to “unbalanced bodily humors”, now is it? Hmmmm?:rolleyes:
What seemingly rational or normal beliefs of today will be discredited in 100 years?
Obviously, from reading this thread, any current institution that you don’t agree with
(And yes, I do realize exceptions)
What will be gone: the common believe that science can resolve all our problems and that it can control ethics and that it gives the final answers.
In 100 years hopefully it will be the other way around: Ethics will control science and science will be used for what it really is useful: a tool.
And hopefully people will have understood, that wars between religions are stupid and that fundamentalists, whether christian, jewish or muslim, are even more stupid.