Life in a hundred years. Will the US still be the great power or will ETs take over?

Passing through New York the other day and having just read an article about the age in which we are now, where our every step can be and is in fact recorded, I stumbled upon a new mystery, or better yet - countless questions.

I suppose I started to wonder what our lives will be in a hundred years.

With the continuing increase in technology and medicine, what will the new life expectancy rate be?
Will the AIDS epidemic and cancer be treatable with a simple medicine?
Will the government control the reproduction rate of its' residents?
What kind of food will we eat?
Will we be able to teleport from place to place or will we still be driving land bound vehicles?
How far will space exploration have taken us?
Will the monetary class division be replaced with mental profiling (i.e. will our power and social standing be measured by our IQ)?
Will we still have wars? If yes, what kind of weapons will we use?
Will the US' seemingly never ending glory finally cease?

In essence, what I am really curious about is your take on the future. I think with a forum with such rational and intelligent people we will be able to come up with very interesting theories.

Have fun with this, take into consideration absolutely everything.

If humanity isn't dead or nearly dead from global warming related disasters or nuclear war, and if ETs don't step in, then the planet will most likely see China as the dominant world super power with the U.S. relegated to a mere shell of itself much as Great Britain has become after its economy went south. However the U.S.'s secret weapons tech and nuclear hegemony is still going to loom over the earth for some time to come.

Originally posted by Frith
If humanity isn't dead or nearly dead from global warming related disasters or nuclear war, and if ETs don't step in, then the planet will most likely see China as the dominant world super power with the U.S. relegated to a mere shell of itself much as Great Britain has become after its economy went south. However the U.S.'s secret weapons tech and nuclear hegemony is still going to loom over the earth for some time to come.

Each century we continue to make progress
From 1700-1800 - progress
From 1800-1900 - progress
From 1900-2000 - tremendous progress
During that past hundred years we became a superpower (apres WWII). So the US is still a very young superpower.
If the trend of progress continues (and there's no reason why it shouldn't) and if none of the stuff you mentioned (nuke war, global warming disaster) happens, then yes the US will still be a "great" power 100 years from now (that is if the world stayed as it is now - no NWO or anything like that).
I don't think it'll be as powerful as it is now....but still a top player.

With the continuing increase in technology and medicine, what will the new life expectancy rate be?

They don't say "Millions who are alive today will never die" for nothing.

Will the AIDS epidemic and cancer be treatable with a simple medicine?

They already are, in toto. But the solutions are not commercial so they sit amongst other suppressed inventions.

Will the government control the reproduction rate of its residents?

Some governments will, some won't. The US may have reduced from 4% of the world's population to less than 3%.

What kind of food will we eat?

Regular crops, plankton and textured foods. Meat will have been rendered far too inefficient quite soon.

Will we be able to teleport from place to place or will we still be driving land bound vehicles?

There will be no need to move from place to place all that much, but it will be quite simple to hop into a small craft (3000-4000 capacity), point skywards, and touch 40-50 minutes later in the city of your choice on the opposite side of the planet.

How far will space exploration have taken us?

Mars and Saturn, and unmanned craft will have shown us signs of other planetary systems.

Will the monetary class division be replaced with mental profiling (i.e. will our power and social standing be measured by our IQ)?

No. The rich will be richer still, and there will be more poor people (with a higher standard of living than today, but still relatively poor) to support them. There will be some applications of true meritocracy - not IQ-based at all - in one region that has seen major upheavals and another failed socialist revolution.

Will we still have wars?

Yes.

If yes, what kind of weapons will we use?

Economic and social, and in the case of a few states that did not learn, sticks & stones, to quote Einstein.

Will the US' seemingly never ending glory finally cease?

This is only perceived in the US, so the question is somewhat rhetorical.

A hundred years is a lot of time for things to either go right or wrong. Hopefully, mankind will take a hard look at what is going on around the world today (famines, war,plauges) and take the steps now to fix them. But we humans have a poor record when it comes to solving the worlds most distressing problems. I guess we may not even be around in 100 yrs. Im all in favor of inviting the E.T's to help straighten out our problems. They may be even be able to guide us out of the terrible mess man has created for himself.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar

Will the government control the reproduction rate of its residents?

Some governments will, some won't. The US may have reduced from 4% of the world's population to less than 3%.

What kind of food will we eat?

Regular crops, plankton and textured foods. Meat will have been rendered far too inefficient quite soon.

Will we be able to teleport from place to place or will we still be driving land bound vehicles?

There will be no need to move from place to place all that much, but it will be quite simple to hop into a small craft (3000-4000 capacity), point skywards, and touch 40-50 minutes later in the city of your choice on the opposite side of the planet.

How far will space exploration have taken us?

Mars and Saturn, and unmanned craft will have shown us signs of other planetary systems.

Will the monetary class division be replaced with mental profiling (i.e. will our power and social standing be measured by our IQ)?

No. The rich will be richer still, and there will be more poor people (with a higher standard of living than today, but still relatively poor) to support them. There will be some applications of true meritocracy - not IQ-based at all - in one region that has seen major upheavals and another failed socialist revolution.

LOL you seem so sure of yourself, going so far as to predict statistics is a bit riskey in my oppinion.

And the question about the US, I meant that to be interpreted more as "will the US always think that they are the boss of every nation?" lol
I guess, I can laugh about it now, but it is becoming increasingly inconvenient to be an american outside of america. And it is always scary to live in a nation that so many despize.

Originally posted by leptir

LOL you seem so sure of yourself, going so far as to predict statistics is a bit riskey in my oppinion.

I hope you don't lose any sleep over it. These trends are simple, statistics are the easiest things to predict. That's why they are called "statistics" (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters).

For various reasons the power base will be largely in the southern hemisphere. No risk about that.

In a 100yrs time.

Things which I believe would happen:
1)Technological advancement
2)More wars around the globe
3)Failure/Disintergration of UN
4)Capitalist system becomes a model system for every nation
5)WW3
6)Death of Bush
7)Celebration/Mourning Ceremony of Bush's death will be held
8)U.S becoming more and more a powerful and influential nation
9)Aliens introduce themselves
10)ATS beats Yahoo! in the number of users

Peace!

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Sort of an aside comment.
I believe there is evidence that the reason for the Dark ages was a huge volcanic erruption [around 600?] made about 3 years in a row winter all year long.

Humanity will become more and more technologically advanced. At some point there will probably be some kind of historical check on the species. Either from itself or from mother nature.

While the US has been on the forefront of advances I think we are and will be surpassed by other countries and cultures that are more excited about it than we are. American culture and politics have become old and tired. Maybe because we are fatter and just cant get the energy to get excited and motivated.

Hubris usually gets in the way of making the most of what you have. If you are some 40 yo guy still dreaming about your days as the HS quaterback it tends to get in the way of focusing in on here and now and the future.

Democracies are hard to get motivated all in the same direction. If they do manage it often it is the wrong direction.

If America realizes it is nothing special, and will have to work to be something special, it will do well. If not it will degenerate into a second rate country.
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