[babopeddy]

What do you think the world will be like in 10, 20, 50, or even 100 years? What about 1000 years?

What sort of technological, scientific, social, economic and other advances would you like to see in the decades ahead? How do you think the day-to-day life of the average person will be different from our own in the future? How will the Internet change? How will our cities change?

Do you think we'll ever have peace and harmony, an end to religious conflict, and equal rights for everybody - or is this just an idealistic fantasy? Should we be spending more on space exploration, or should we be focussing on our own environment here on Earth? Will we ever travel to the stars, or colonize the solar system?

Is there a danger of reaching a technological singularity, where we advance too far?

Discuss!

And by the way, here's a personal project of mine, which I've been working on for the last few months, and continue to update almost daily. It's a timeline of future predictions -

http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm

Hope you like it!

[Emalodoulouts]

Well, in 50 years, I can picture the world being hot as hell, everything is underwater, and newly built condos on Mt. Everest. Then again, I'm pessimistic, maybe the new condos will be on K2.

[texprofi]

1. United States will steadily move, inch by inch, to a totalitarian state. Freedom will largely be a quaint notion. Your every move will be watched, by somebody. OBIT.

2. At some point in the next 5 years, the beginnings of an underground freedom movement will take root. This will manifest itself in random acts of resistance and later, violence, against the government.

3. Within the next 10 years, the United States and China will be at war. There will be Chinese troops on American soil. Nuclear weapons will be exchanged, taking out most major U.S. cities. China will have the industrial capacity, and tenacity, to win.

4. The invention to end all inventions is in the offing: a technological breakthrough will result in limitless and virtually free energy. Time span: within next 15 years. This will allow the world to quickly recover from worldwide thermonuclear war within a relatively short time span.

[bjacogaerllyo]

Ay Dios mio!! Thanks, Rebecca Sunshine!

[SappyAppy]

You know when you take a porcelain cup and smash it as hard as you can on the floor and it shatters in every direction? Like that; only bigger.

[Plulpangepler]

so you're up for playing a little game of global thermonuclear war, eh?

well, if and when we go to war with china, and i do think we likely will at some point, one thing i can absolutely guarantee you is that the rest of the world will have long entered into a backstabbing secret pact to sit it out. see the novel 'warday' for an example. that means...take heart lads, the return of the british empire is nigh!

[bZEUWO4F]

10, 20, 30, all the way up to 50, I bet it'll be just like now, except with more crap to distract us. The young will have bizarre fashion trends, the elders will bemoan their unhealthy everyday use of some cutting edge cultural/technological gizmo, some kind IP will be pirated (furniture perhaps, thanks to 3d printing? Or custom genes? Whatever - someone will whine).

People will still mosie on down to the store in car like vehicles, gobble down unhealthy food, and spend their down time watching other people compete for $$$. The more things change...

[yatrahnualenu]

The more made-for-TV movie plots you get?

[brorialsibers]

In the next 5yrs actual money (the stuff you have in yr wallet) will become less and less useful - credit devices will be used everywhere for everything

Think the Minority Report style advertising will happen - but rather than retina style recognition - we will all have blue-tooth style devices - internet connection will be practically world-wide and therefore we will be bombared with ads based on our previous spending habits.

Vehicles requiring re-filling of fuel will identify themselves to roving fuel pump-dispensers when visiting malls.

Politically - little will change (God, how cynical are we - so much for "Change, Yes we can"!!)

Radical Muslims will still hate the "West" and call for Sharia Law
Radical Christians will still hate homosexuals and various gene exploration technology.
Abortion will continue to divide people
Europe may face some worrying trends of far-right politicians becoming closer to power, as majorities fear economic and cultural impact of mass immigration (as has always been the case throughout history)

Hopefully someone will finally sort out our dependance on oil - in which case the Middle East will crash economically

USA will eventually (25yrs minimum) win the soccer World Cup

Yankees will hopefully win another World Series - sooner the better please!

Don't believe we will have a nuclear war - don't think anyone is dumb enough to do that - though not ruling out detontation of a single nuclear device somewhere in the world as an act of terrorism

No one will ever find Osama Bin Laden

Until the desire to gain more by working hard and being selfish is completely abandoned as a way of life - we will never achieve world peace and harmony - regardless of the intentions of even the majority

See Star Trek/Bill Hicks ethos
"No effort, no work, no job, no savings, and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourselves off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what you can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defence each year, and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, for ever, in peace."
Bill Hicks