# What will you live to see? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612 "2011-03-14T02:20:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/21 "2011-03-18T14:00:33Z")
None of the above. Most of these I would assign no more than 1% probability. One World Government, Bioengineered Pandemic and Space Colonization are the most likely, but I wouldn’t give any of them more than 50:50 probability by 2050 at best. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/22 "2011-03-18T14:12:24Z")
Where is the option for none of the above? ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/23 "2011-03-18T19:20:44Z")
How 'bout a freaking Flying Car? Is that so much to ask? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/24 "2011-03-19T18:51:30Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > How 'bout a freaking Flying Car? > > Is that so much to ask? [You’d only crash it](http://xkcd.com/864/). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/25 "2011-03-19T20:08:58Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Where is the option for none of the above? That option would be called “Not Voting.” In case the zombies didn’t make it clear, the poll wasn’t intended as a serious scientific instrument. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/26 "2011-03-20T01:37:46Z")
In the case of nuclear world war, it will, of course, be the \*last \*thing you live to see. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/27 "2011-03-20T12:56:53Z")
I chose “nanotech run amok” but I was thinking on a small scale. Like, a lab wiped out by severe allergic reactions when they accidentally inhale a bunch of nanobots that somebody spilled into the air conditioning system, or something. Most of my other stuff was optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/28 "2011-03-20T20:20:32Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Of all of those, a pandemic is most likely. At one point, the Soviets had weaponized smallpox mounted in warheads and ready to go. The release of that sort of virus, particularly one that has been engineered to blow through any vaccine (and did you know that the smallpox vax is only good for five years?), would be devastating on a global scale. Read _Demon in the Freezer_ for a good scare. Or David Hoffman’s excellent _[The Dead Hand](http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Hand-Untold-Dangerous-Legacy/dp/0385524374)_, which details (among other things) the Soviet Union’s _Biopreparat_ program and the little that is known about its continued legacy under post-Soviet Russia. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/29 "2011-03-20T20:23:00Z")
Bioengineerred pandemic. Caused by stupidity, corporate recklessness & greed. But not intentionally. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/30 "2011-03-25T01:56:12Z")
Idiocracy. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/31 "2011-03-25T02:19:33Z")
“Bioengineered pandemic” and “Nanotech run amok” are essentially the same thing. Do you think nanotech necessarily means gears and a silicon or iron substrate? No, the whole premise of nanotech is, essentially, building our own proteins _de novo_ and constructing cells from them to do things we can’t coax natural cells into doing. Either you think ‘bioengineering’ is merely genetic engineering (reprogramming existing nanomachinery) or you have an odd view of how machinery works when shrunk to molecule scale. Anyway, my prediction: The 20th Century was the century humanity learned to read. Prior to that, ‘book learning’ was really ‘book memorization’, due in part to the fact paper was still somewhat expensive (_viz._ hornbooks) and to the fact we had no real idea of how to teach people. In specific, we (apparently) didn’t understand the difference between memorization and comprehension, so we emphasized the former because it was easier to test for (and, likely, more influenced by beatings). The 21st Century will be the century humanity learns how to do math. Computers are now getting closer to where paper and books were in the early 20th Century, but educational styles have not caught up to the fact memorizing times tables, for example, doesn’t teach you anything and certainly doesn’t make you better at math. Pervasive, essentially always-available computing will both make arithmetic pointless for most people to know, for the same reason it’s pointless to memorize the holy book of your choice, and it will make it essential for people to be able to deal with logical concepts. Why will people have to be able to think more logically? Because, if computers are everywhere, being unable to program them is a cognitive deficit comparable to, but worse than, being unable to read in modern American society. In short, if you think ‘everything is done with computers’ _now_ you ain’t seen nothing yet, and the already substantial gulf between programmers and non-programmers will already get wider. (If you don’t know about that gulf, you’re on the wrong side of it.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/32 "2011-03-25T03:08:30Z")
I’m hoping to make it to midcentury, when I’d be 95. Put me down for ‘none of the above’. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/33 "2011-03-26T00:08:31Z")
I hope I live to see: - elimination of oil-burning transportation - elimination of human operation of cars/vehicles (except off-road recreational) - significant amounts of human DNA engineering to eliminate disease and bad human traits - elimination of overeating & obesity - 100% planned pregnancy, subject to global procreation treaty - universal health care - major reduction in air pollution/emissions - 50% renewable energy - elimination of greed not too much to ask for, is it? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/34 "2011-03-26T00:11:34Z")
nothing on that list ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612/35 "2011-03-26T03:50:34Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > “Bioengineered pandemic” and “Nanotech run amok” are essentially the same thing. Do you think nanotech necessarily means gears and a silicon or iron substrate? No, the whole premise of nanotech is, essentially, building our own proteins _de novo_ and constructing cells from them to do things we can’t coax natural cells into doing. Either you think ‘bioengineering’ is merely genetic engineering (reprogramming existing nanomachinery) or you have an odd view of how machinery works when shrunk to molecule scale. Nah–my thinking behind “bioengineered pandemic” was that it was **engineered** to be a disease. “Nanotech run amok” is something that’s not intended to kill. I’m pretty surprised this late-night-slightly-tipsy-thread is still going, but you raise an interesting point: > [@](#): > > The 21st Century will be the century humanity learns how to do math. > … > Why will people have to be able to think more logically? Because, if computers are everywhere, being unable to program them is a cognitive deficit comparable to, but worse than, being unable to read in modern American society. In short, if you think ‘everything is done with computers’ _now_ you ain’t seen nothing yet, and the already substantial gulf between programmers and non-programmers will already get wider. (If you don’t know about that gulf, you’re on the wrong side of it.) This gets to something that annoys me about people whining about the state of modern education, and how great schools used to be: I sometimes ask them, if schools used to be so great, why can’t old people program VCRs? (Sadly the question raises eyebrows among kids and eyerolls among my peers; I need to come up with a new question). Because you’re right: schools used to emphasize memorization much more than they do now, and now we emphasize figuring out how to solve a problem much more. Hopefully my current students will be a lot better at figuring out new technologies–and, of course, designing new technologies–than previous generations were, and hopefully my approach to teaching math will help them with that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-you-live-to-see/574612.md?page=1)