100 years into the future

Okay so I'm curious to see what everyone predicts the world will look like 100 years from now. I'm sure many people are very focused on current events and even predictions and prophecies that are made in this forum which tend to deal with much shorter timelines. Answers don't have to be extremely long, summaries will be just fine as long as solid points are made. I would like to see if there is a general consensus or not on humanities eventual fate.

Two answers are also acceptable in the form of one outcome if humanity can pull through all the turbulence we are currently experiencing, and the other outcome of humanities failure to find solutions. After a few people have given their opinions I will give my own, and after a few pages (if we get that far) I will post a general summary of the average consensus of the threads participants.

reply to post by Teikeon


If predictions from 100 years ago are any indication, the next 100 years will bring about fantastic things we never imagined or anticipated would occur, as well as problems to go with them, but also things won't be quite so amazing as we might expect, nor will it likely be as Distopian as some might like to imagine though elements on both sides will certainly show.

Technological Singularity is a big hoped for event among some.
Feasible trans humanism, post-humanism, or other alternatives are also certainly looked for whether they come through machine technologies or bio-tech.

Will we ever get those flying cars? I doubt it, but, eh, who knows?

There will be balance of peace and war. As in today.
Technology will be improved in bigger steps in shorter time.
Posibillity of nuclear war is great. Specially caused by young teen kim il and eastern allies.
Economy will be restored through global unions unity.
Non unionist will be together, economicaly weaker but, with standard current freedoms and islamic nations will embrace new freedoms, and through some time, will march toward western nations and style.
If established western african union, most of factories will be in old continent. Cheaper work force, great military strength, and for africa a doorway toward prosperity in long run, wich is dependable of actions of eastern allies interests, two separate fractions exists only now, eastern and western conflicts, space resoureces monopoly and fight for it, and final march toward global goverment. Aliens coming to earth in peace, or aliens coming to peace and capital make a marketing how they are threat and new leaf is turne, as today mentality, with new age and tech.
Wich bring us at final chapter of choice of human race as global mentality will go towards what

Society in 100 yrs:

-Technological advanced, only slightly, not as much as year 1900 to 2000.
-Hybrid government systems, sort of like worker union(derived from socialist) and a religious leader(derived from capitalistic)
-Few religions and Cultures
-More mixed children
-Moon Colonization, Mars research.
-Less Forest, Less Animals, Less livable land.
-New diseases, illness
-Monitoring, Tracking, Tracing of population.
-Low crime
-Appointed Jobs, depending on skills and intelligence.
-No paper money, but digital advanced monetary system.
-0 gravity propulsion system

________________________
Individual in 100 yrs.

-Secluded
-Almost no social interactions
-Living in huge building complex
-Possibly small room for each person
-Possibly higher obese count
-Procreation can be opted out for artificial in vitro fertilization
-Vital signs and emotion are monitored through internal chips.
-Communications are thru embedded chips on skull.
-Many prosthetic, robotic lips and organs.
-Automated law enforcement, army, security, justice system.

The corporate anti-cristos (which, by the way, you can quote me on that) is already here.

THAT is the news of the next 100 years (and the last 100 years, by the way, in case you weren't paying attention).

The Corporation is the anti-man/anti-cristos.

It is a new life form and it is re-shaping the world to fit itself.

It will grow and increase its control over the actual human population.

To the extent that it needs humans, we will survive.

To the extent that we are problematic - we will go away.

Simple as that.

Originally posted by MarsSentinel

It will grow and increase its control over the actual human population.

To the extent that it needs humans, we will survive.

To the extent that we are problematic - we will go away.

Simple as that.

I'm not sure I entirely understand whether you are speaking metaphorically of a corporate hive-like mentality among those inside the corporation, or of a separate artificial intelligence based on corporate agendas. Could you clarify?

I just finished reading Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku. You should definately read it. It talks about prototypes that are being made right now that will shape the next hundred years. I think everything in that book will come to pass and I think I will be alive to see it all thanks to nano tech and gene therapy and organ replacement from my own tissues. The future is going to be amazing.

Originally posted by Druscilla
reply to post by Teikeon

 

Technological Singularity is a big hoped for event among some.
Feasible trans humanism, post-humanism, or other alternatives are also certainly looked for whether they come through machine technologies or bio-tech.

Tech singularity is an interesting concept that could, and probably has, had it's own discussion and thread. If it were to happen within the next 100 years it may be what saves us from ourselves, I am hopeful of that.

reply to post by lcbjr1979


He really is a brilliant man and I will definitely look it up, sounds very interesting. I've heard of the kinds of things you mention and it all seems very fantastic and almost unbelievable, but I'm sure if anyone can explain it in laymen's terms it is him.

reply to post by Teikeon

This topic is fascinating because predicting the future is next to impossible.

Here was a great example of somebody who got a lot of things right:

(he's even somewhat right about monkeys; google "Helping Hands")

My goal is to find futurists and future thinkers from the past and find out what they thought. I really believe to predict the future we've got to first examine what futurists thought in the past.

One thing I'd like to bring up is that in 1914 H.G. Wells published The World Set Free. In this novel, he depicts nuclear bombs being used. He predicts that it would lead to a last war. Why? Because the world was so fragmented and war was so common. His answer? World government and global pacification or a return to the stone age. BUT back then, the idea of world government was laughed at. So he saw the world collapsing in a last war. We'd all be asleep when the bombs dropped.

Somewhat similarly, Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 wrote that people would be glued to their wall screens and busily burning books. They'd be so tuned out from reality that when the war came and swallowed up their city in flames they'd only get a brief glimpse before they were consumed.

I think that what he saw was a people that no longer knew how to interact with the world and instead watched useless dramas on their wall screens that offered them nothing and made the world worse. I think what was going on here was that Ray Bradbury could not figure out in his mind how radio and television and computers could make the world better. In his mind, they made things too easy. They sidestepped evolution. They short-circuited our brains. They appealed to our weaknesses. They made us lost and as a result we lost life skills. They're like a vampire sucking our soul.

Part of his distrust for this technology has to do with the world he lived in. He grew up in the 1920's and 1930's. Radios were the new thing. They didn't even have radar until the 1930's. Most information was stored on paper and gas combustion engine vehicles were a recent innovation. Back then, being productive meant (more) directly interacting with the world. It didn't mean using phones and computers. You had to do more things on your own. A typist had to either remember words or had to look it up in a dictionary; no spell checking and no(!) googling. People had to physically move more things from one place to another. There were no robots yet. They did have machines.

As a result of all that, Ray Bradbury had a very direct experience. His experience and hence his trust was invested in directness. But when phones and computers and all these gadgets came into being, suddenly the tables were turned. All his life experience was unprepared. There was distrust.

But subscribing all of his writings to distrust and lack of experience with newer technologies is too easy. He was a prolific writer and thinker and I cannot stoop so low that I would dismiss him.

Arthur C Clarke and Ray Bradbury disagreed on this issue. Nowadays, we can digitally move information on computer networks across the world. Additionally, people are increasingly communicating via phones and text messages rather than directly speaking with each other. Ray Bradbury would be very much against this, but Arthur C Clarke predicted this in the video link I posted up above. In fact, Arthur C Clarke predicted that cities as meeting places would become obsolete because of communication technology connecting people. He anticipated working from home.

Now, if someone is glued to their computer screen AND watching useless dramas all day and not getting anything substantial from it and this is the dominant pattern then Ray Bradbury was right. But even if some people do this, it's not enough unless most are. See, there's no doubt that some people are abusing technology, but that'll always be the case. Ray Bradbury might have not given humanity enough credit. Most humans aren't so weak that they'll tune out so easily.

I've got many more books to reads. There're SO MANY writers in history that can give me more insight. I have a long ways to go. I got a LOT of old books to read. I believe it's worth it. But the sad story is that I won't ever live long enough to see it all. But that's ok. I will do what I can.

The problem with most future forecasting is that it is done with a linear perspective on history. For example, reasoning went in the 1960s: Cars are popular now, so I bet by the year 2010, we will have flying cars. Likewise, we've just landed on the moon, so I bet by 2010 we will all be able to visit the moon.

But as we have increasingly come to realise, Black Swan events come along and radically change all of our preconceptions.

Here are 4 black swans that could completely alter the shape of humanity by the year 2100:

ET contact
Radical life extension
New Physics
Artificial Intelligence

Source: Four Low Probability, High Impact Events that could Change Humanity's Future


Personally I think that if just one of those events came to pass, it would fundamentally alter human reality in such a way that we wouldn't recognise the world in 100 years time.

I think we'll have the answers to many current questions.

Like;
Can we go the speed of light?
Is there life on other planets?
How is toast made?
Why won't Cher die?
And finally. . .

100 years from now, maybe my Google Chrome will finish downloading!

Originally posted by luciddream
Society in 100 yrs:

-Technological advanced, only slightly, not as much as year 1900 to 2000.
-Hybrid government systems, sort of like worker union(derived from socialist) and a religious leader(derived from capitalistic)
-Few religions and Cultures
-More mixed children
-Moon Colonization, Mars research.
-Less Forest, Less Animals, Less livable land.
-New diseases, illness
-Monitoring, Tracking, Tracing of population.
-Low crime
-Appointed Jobs, depending on skills and intelligence.
-No paper money, but digital advanced monetary system.
-0 gravity propulsion system

________________________
Individual in 100 yrs.

-Secluded
-Almost no social interactions
-Living in huge building complex
-Possibly small room for each person
-Possibly higher obese count
-Procreation can be opted out for artificial in vitro fertilization
-Vital signs and emotion are monitored through internal chips.
-Communications are thru embedded chips on skull.
-Many prosthetic, robotic lips and organs.
-Automated law enforcement, army, security, justice system.

This to me, unfortunately, sounds like the most likely scenario of the few that have been posted already - and also the closest to what I would have said. Unfortunate because, to me, this lifestyle would be more existing than actually living. Even today you can see that there are a great many people on this planet that merely exist and do not truly live. Go to work. Go home. Eat some manufactured food that isn't very nutritious. Take a variety of medications that zombify you more than help you. Turn on whatever mind numbing "reality" show you watch. Go to bed. Sleep - sort of, wake, repeat.

reply to post by tallcool1


Unfortunately there is truth to what you say, many people are already like that. I believe in any endgame scenario those people wiln not last more than five minutes, and even in any enlightened scenario this type of behavior will either not be tolerated or we will rise above it collectively. I am optimistic about humanities future, but I agree that there are many already who have given up or never learned how to really live

Originally posted by kristobal


The problem with most future forecasting is that it is done with a linear perspective on history. For example, reasoning went in the 1960s: Cars are popular now, so I bet by the year 2010, we will have flying cars. Likewise, we've just landed on the moon, so I bet by 2010 we will all be able to visit the moon.

But as we have increasingly come to realise, Black Swan events come along and radically change all of our preconceptions.

Here are 4 black swans that could completely alter the shape of humanity by the year 2100:

ET contact
Radical life extension
New Physics
Artificial Intelligence

Source: Four Low Probability, High Impact Events that could Change Humanity's Future


Personally I think that if just one of those events came to pass, it would fundamentally alter human reality in such a way that we wouldn't recognise the world in 100 years time.

Any of the above would be amazing and I agree they would change things in huge ways, I also think there is a progression to the list you provided, that one scenario could possibly lead to an acceleration of any of the others.

I am not George Orwell or Aldous Huxley, but the scenarios of their novels have proved to be 90% accurate. As for me, I can only predict on trends.

Global cooling to the extent that food wars will be inevitable
An increasingly poisonous world, more and more toxic substances affecting our quality of life and our lifespans.
More and more young people dying from binge drinking
The death of culture.
A world of financial chaos.
A complete breakdown of society on account of an over-reliance on satellite communications.
Violence becoming increasingly 'acceptable'
The end of civilisation 'as we know it'.

Is 'climate change' going to last forever? Or is it going to setttle down into an ice age?
Are rising levels of methane going to stabilize or go down? Or continue to go up?
Are meteor strikes going to increase? Or are they not increasing?
Is music going to improve? Are books going to be worth reading? Are films going to be worth watching?
Is political, police, legal, local government, show business and ecclesiastical corruption going to stop or continue?
Are our governments going to continue to spend fortunes of trips to barren rocks and building new telescopes?
Will we have a pole shift in the next 100 years?
At the rate of species becoming extinct daily, how many will be left in 100 years?

As for what we have got now, I'm quite happy with what we've got, am not looking for 'more' of anything, would just like our current species to be preserved, our green areas retained and our rivers depolluted, guns banned.
But of course, those are mere wishes and off topic.

Originally posted by Teikeon


Any of the above would be amazing and I agree they would change things in huge ways, I also think there is a progression to the list you provided, that one scenario could possibly lead to an acceleration of any of the others.

That is a really good point, and I've been thinking about the possibility these could be interconnected as well, but I haven't been able to sort out my thoughts on that yet.

What I believe more and more, is that we need an evolutionary unified theory that encompasses not just physics and biological evolution, but technological and memetic evolution as well. If you are interested in this line of reasoning, check out Evo/Devo cosmology.

Some (so far only marginal) thinkers have proposed similar -- see for example Kurzweil's view of accelerating history, or Terrence McKenna's 'timewave zero' concepts. For now these are quack concepts, without rigorous scientific testability. But as with many things, eventually these ideas could gain more mainstream scientific support.

We will then be asking questions like, "did technology invent humans or the other way around?"

reply to post by mclinking


That's a very grim outlook of things, and as for things staying the same I can guarantee you they won't. The only constant is change, and change is the only guaranteed truth. What my original question pertained to was; what type of change given a specific span of time did the members of ATS feel was plausible. While my opinion of your outlook is a dark one, I have to agree that it is a possibility and we should explore all possible outcomes, even the ones we don't like thinking about. Like I said before *I* personally am a bit more optimistic, but I do believe that we will probably need some sort of catalyst or unifying scenario in order to bring people to the same level of thinking. What type of catalysts are possible besides the ones that were mentioned like contact with ET's, life extension, A.I., etc.

Maybe some would consider an Ice Age a catalyst in itself for human evolution? Does anyone think that its possible that the previous Ice Age worked as a catalyst of some kind for our species? Or did it work against us?

I'm loving the ideas so far, there's been a balance of both post-apocalyptic scenarios brought up as well as ideas that see our future in a more positive light. I'll gather my thoughts soon and post my own hypothesis. Thanks to everyone who participated thus far. Much Love.

People will water their gardens with Gatoraid. It has electrolytes!

Sentient Machines
Sentient Machines used as oracles for governments and citizens decision making.
Space tourism
manned installments on Moon/Mars
asteroid mining common practice
alternate energy sources.. possibly from captured asteroid materials... Supergrids
Full immersion VR
Cybernetic organs
GUlf Coast cities abandoned and more centralized population areas/megacities/human kennels
Major extinctions of human groups and animal groups. Localized, but complete.
Massive mineral extraction in the Antartic
Much more people ( regardless of the depop group) and far fewer languages
Mechanized war
Heavy ocean farming/natural habitat manipulation ( not fishing) and more crops from various oceanic vegetation used in foods

I could go on and on... but Il be dead by then so Ill never know if I was right.

Originally posted by Advantage

Much more people ( regardless of the depop group) and far fewer languages

The bit about languages intrigues me. So you think some languages will disappear/merge? Leaving only a few major languages left, very interesting. I could see that happening. Maybe by then we'll be on our way to integrating into a single language for our entire species. Could you imagine?