What do you predict the future of mankind will be?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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People are weird. Serial killers, mad bombers, road rage, riots, etc. But there is love, liberty, the arts, science etc. You name it, people have done it. We, seniors, have been hanging around now, for most of us, about 65 years. What do you foresee about us as nations, and societies? Is it a rosy future, or hell on earth?
 

It seems like we're becoming a tech-centric world where luddites will soon be living in the fringes as troglodytic outcasts. Music and many forms of art are becoming computer generated, soulless, heartless, cacophonous noise to those of us who were brought up during the '50s-'80s before computers destroyed music. Perhaps something will take the place of art. In the distant future, we might be able to just stimulate the part of the brain that was activated when we heard music we liked and we can experience pleasure without what will be extraneous visual or auditory devices.

So it might actually be a better life. It's not going to happen in our lifetime, but it is going to happen.

Along with that, scientists will be able to manufacture food in labs instead of needing crops and animals, so hunger will be eradicated. Sex will be simulated and reproduction will occur via cloning.

I think it's time for my nap. :)
 
I predict that the lives of the haves will become much more difficult as the lives of the have-nots improve.

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
 
It's a tossup between Climate Change, and Overpopulation....as to which is going to have the biggest effect on humanity. A few years ago, the UN said that the optimum Sustainable human population would be right around 6 billion. We are already well beyond that, and could reach 12 billion by the end of this century. That is going to create a huge disparity in wealth, which will lead to a major conflict between the Have's and Have Nots. If the Have's win, we will begin to unite under a common language and government, and reach for the stars. If the Have Nots win, we will revert back to the Dark Ages.

And then, there is Climate Change. I doubt that anything of substance can or will be done to reverse the current trends. As the oceans rise, the U.S. will lose 15%, or more, of it's land mass...the Gulf and Eastern coasts will be inundated, 10's of millions will be forced to relocate, and many of the coastal cities will be uninhabitable.

Enjoy life, now. Those living 50 years from now will be in a different and chaotic world.
 
My prediction:
As long as technology progresses at the rate it has, we are doomed. I'm not against technology, but I don't like that it's progressing so fast in such a short time. Can we humans keep up? I remember growing up and we didn't have access to computers until the 1980s. Cell phones weren't around. Although I like the computer and cell phone, they have become important in my life, yet these past twenty years have seen astronomical increases in technology in other areas, like cryptocurrency, electric cars, artificial intelligence and robots. We might be flying our cars one day. Or a robot will be our companion. Imagine that!! Technology, however, depends on electricity to survive. What happens to climate issues when electricity demand shooting up the roof? So I'm worried about a number of things.

Don't get me wrong, there are the pros and cons to technology. Technology has helped in diagnosing illnesses and diseases. We have information at our fingertips, etc. Technology can be manipulated and abused, and that's what I'm worried about. If hackers get into the system, they can cause havoc. If robots decide to rule the earth, bye-bye humanity. Even the airplanes that were built eventually became military planes that dropped bombs during the wars.

My prediction is that technology, electric cars, and the AI robots will slowly take over. A warning by Elon Musk on Youtube has mentioned that we need to be careful. Another aspect for the future is that we as humans will be interfaced with technology so that we will become hybrid humans. In other words, we are slowly losing our souls. Can we live with that?
 
Don M. said:
A few years ago, the UN said that the optimum Sustainable human population would be right around 6 billion. We are already well beyond that, and could reach 12 billion by the end of this century.

Enjoy life, now. Those living 50 years from now will be in a different and chaotic world.
Click to expand...

by the turn of the century, I should (hopefully) be long-gone from This Mortal Coil, but I shudder to think what it will be like then, should I come around again...
 
Extinction, very soon if they lose control of the atmosphere,
overheating as it is, droughts and fire will stop food growing,
torrential rain will erode the land and cause more flooding!

I heard a report about the warming, if it reaches 2 degrees C,
all the coral reefs will die and most of the Pacific islands will
disappear.

So it is frightening for the future generations when the large
countries that cause a lot of the damage are ignoring this
problem and refuse to meet with the rest of the World who
are trying to do something, about it.

Our countries spend more on preparing for war against other
countries, but that wasted money could go a long way to help
lower the temperature.

The South West of the USA is suffering now, as we are during
the summer.

Mike.
 
Not optimistic at all. The longest living democracy in history will fall before 2030... possibly as early as 2024. A second current super power will also fall. Aging power grids will be decimated by attacks and there will be war in the streets. "Civilized" societies are currently unable to function without electricity, internet, cell phones, and other technological advancements. Every aspect of putting food on tables, money in pockets, fuel in vehicles, heat in homes relies on electric energy.
At some point, wars will be fought over water just as we have seen wars fought over oil. Desalinization is costly and, currently, not a viable option for safe drinking water. Aquafers are drained. Yet, the sea water approaches as global temperatures rise. Less land. More people. Less food and drinking water.
We witnessed the partial collapse of a power grid in Texas just this past winter. And, today, nothing has been done to correct the issue. People froze to death in their homes or died from carbon monoxide as they tried unsafe methods of providing heat.
Too much global divisiveness for the industrialized nations to put their heads together and begin solving issues instead of making them.
Oh, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more pandemics in the not too distant future.

Heck! I'm 75 years old. Lots less time left than lived. Just hurts to see the mess my generation has left for our future generations.
 
No one so far has been able to predict the future, going back to 19th century.
No clues. It will be very dismal, I think, because humankind is stupid and greedy.
Technologically, it is unimaginable. But human ethics is no better than 2500 years ago
so that will worsen, terribly. New inventions surpass the morality to deal with them.
Robot machines and robotic inventions will be ubiquitous but totally unlike what we expect.
 
Patch said:
Not optimistic at all. The longest living democracy in history will fall before 2030... possibly as early as 2024. A second current super power will also fall. Aging power grids will be decimated by attacks and there will be war in the streets. "Civilized" societies are currently unable to function without electricity, internet, cell phones, and other technological advancements. Every aspect of putting food on tables, money in pockets, fuel in vehicles, heat in homes relies on electric energy.
At some point, wars will be fought over water just as we have seen wars fought over oil. Desalinization is costly and, currently, not a viable option for safe drinking water. Aquafers are drained. Yet, the sea water approaches as global temperatures rise. Less land. More people. Less food and drinking water.
We witnessed the partial collapse of a power grid in Texas just this past winter. And, today, nothing has been done to correct the issue. People froze to death in their homes or died from carbon monoxide as they tried unsafe methods of providing heat.
Too much global divisiveness for the industrialized nations to put their heads together and begin solving issues instead of making them.
Oh, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more pandemics in the not too distant future.

Heck! I'm 75 years old. Lots less time left than lived. Just hurts to see the mess my generation has left for our future generations.
Click to expand...
Personally, I refuse to socialize with anyone participating in the subversion of our democracy. I haven't talked to my neighbor in four years.
 
I don't know. Not something I personally read about, study, or think about as my generation's era is past the time that was an immediate concern ala Cold War era. But we as decades old adults in our Western Civilization can reflect on our individual shallow experiences in the matter that as a forum can paint the ways different people think about it. A question that certainly is important for those with societal and political power.

I don't think there is a single vision that can be pointed too as dominantly probable and rather several that are possible, not just bad but a threat to our human race and most of the long evolved amazing life on this unique and no doubt rare blue water planet with an oxygen atmosphere in equilibrium. Despite the below, I do believe we humans on this blue water planet with maybe a 1 billion population could live in harmony fulfillingly, statically, in a sustainable world that over the universe would be considered as near to a natural heaven as any intelligent organic creatures in the universe might imagine.

What most people don't understand is how fragile our Western Society is to utter collapse and chaos. The pandemic was a good scare towards that end and has no doubt crossed the mind of some planners.

Our overpopulated by humans planet is slowly destroying fragile ecosystems that are bound up in complex food chains that might pass the point of being able to recover by feedback without mass species extinction. Each new generation does not witness how much better nature was during earlier eras. Unstoppable with wealthy and wealth seekers in control since that also reflects true social power.

Given CRISPR gene splicing technology, it may soon be rather possible for a rogue nation or powerful sociopaths with evil intents to begin developing a truly horrible pathogen say piggybacked onto a rhinovirus aka head cold virus. And then of course is the regular ongoing threat of wars between countries with advanced technology weapons with blunting nuclear proliferation already failing.

Add natural catastrophe's possible due to climate change like lack of rain over areas where 100s of millions of people live causing chaos worldwide in production, logistic, and shipping of food stuffs that requires modern infrastructure. The biggest possibility of chaos is likely to be if Western Civilization food stops becoming available to large urban populations that depend on the system working. That may not have anything to do with the climate but rather panic in the economic and political process that causes division then chaos. People begin dying from famine, the guns come, out...
 
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What an interesting topic, and lots of great input in this thread. We only need to see what has happened in recent years to predict what will happen in the future.

China is kicking our ass in so many ways. They have developed a middle class while that in the US slowly declines. They invest in R&D and innovate while we rest on our laurels. Heck, China is one of the main reasons cars are so expensive now in the US. They manufacture the microchips that go into new cars and they have scaled back due to Covid, meaning new cars are in short supply and are very expensive. We could have done it but it was considered too expensive to develop the manufacturing facilities. Our Billionaires are mostly developing ways to get to space, not investing money in R&D that will benefit the Earth. Think of the money that has been spent that could have benefited families that are going hungry.

There are no longer any bi-partisan politics in Washington. (Not necessarily a new phenomenon but more recent). So little gets done. Our country is now so divided and I expect things to only get worse in the very near future. I dread the 2024 election. Will some miracle happen that makes this better? I can't say. I will say that the country seems to be more united when we have a common enemy that resides outside of the US. Think 9/11. Now our most common enemies are each other.

I think technology has made our lives so much more convenient in so many ways, but it has further divided us due to the amount of misinformation spread through companies like Facebook. And as Palides mentioned, companies are not equipped to counter hackers that could take down any of our grids or access our personal information, and because these are private companies the government can't dictate how stringent they are in their oversight. That is actually my biggest immediate fear.

I'm also a big believer in Climate Change. I live in Texas. We had the freak Winter storm this past February. But it is Oct. 31 and we haven't really moved into Fall. It was 79 degrees today. Not complaining, but this is truly unusual. My friends in Seattle surpassed 110 degree temps this summer with no air conditioning and just went through a Bomb Cyclone (whatever the hell THAT is). My friends in the Northeast have been battered with storms recently. Tornadoes are popping up where there used to be zero. There are so many examples. I'm not sure what the COP 26 Climate Change summit in Glasgow will achieve. Without Russia and China's commitment, the other countries can only do so much.

And as others have said, I'm concerned about overpopulation. We are already overpopulated, and as medicine has improved we've all seen life expectancy extended significantly in the US. The older generation is growing, yet our healthcare is still expensive and many times subpar. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of people over 55 grew by 27%, 20 times greater than the collective growth of the population under 55 (1.3%). The US is going to become Japan soon, with an elderly population that relies on robots for care. Well, maybe there IS something to be said for technology. ;)
 
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