Have you seriously considered the future?

[Guest icubud]

I am assuming (which I know is dangerous) that the people who post on this board think about the future and what lies ahead.

I am curious how people will answer these questions:

1. What do you think lies ahead for the world (defined as mankind everywhere) 50 years from now?

2. What do you think you will be doing 50 years from now?

2. What do you think the world will be like 200 years from now?

When considering what I am asking, please think about the state of governments, religion, science, language, population, space, economics, and so on.

I am looking forward to reading what other people think.

[Guest Wellington]

Hi

Yes indeed I would love to know what awaits us in the future. My answers to your questions are:

1 - The world in 50 years from now could be more or less the same as now. I do not see any breakthrough anywhere, be it in science, society, or even leisure. Maybe each and everyone will grow even more dependant on technology and will try to escape whatever pain he could still have. I am not sure though that 50 years can be enough to see some kind of de-humanising of mankind, unless we do social choices that would protect more the individual in opposition to society. I also have the feeling that we are already sliding on the track of selfishness, and I cannot see when we will reach the bottom. Individual performances will become more and more the benchmarks and that concept will flood schools in some sort of official way (selection, bounties, discrimination based on personal criteria). Even though some try hard to suppress distinctiveness inside a group, the poorest side of individuality will prevail. In that way men will try and over-protect what is theirs, so I do not think how the present divisions could fade. By divisions, I mean those between rich and poor, powerful and exploited, open-minded and narrow-minded, etc... Of course, there is no way international affairs could be better than national affairs, but I do not see more conflicts nor more reasons for conflicts to be. Some people still need wars or oppression to reach their ends, so we will still see both of them.

That awful down-to-earth mentality will close many doors that are not quite open even now. The absence of dream and mass-ambition will forbid men to reach higher goals, like medical discoveries or space missions. Priorities will be elsewhere, nearer the trigger of a gun or the ignition of a missile, just in case...

Arts will become more and more devoid of a meaning. Arts are already cheap, and critics seem to gratify exaggeration over sheer talent, detail or virtuosity. There will be no more Beethoven or Rodin or Poussin than now.

Some loony might try to explain that the road of pollution has a dead end, but new commercial partnerships will be the best excuse to delay a signature. Of course, noone would ever remember that we already made the same mistake in the late 90s - early 2ks. As North American economy will be on the verge of being overtaken by those new partners, we cannot afford to lose any ground just to allow our children to breathe. Drinkable water shortages will become a real issue, but as it will be more obvious in countries where it is already rare than in wealthy countries, noone will care. After all, it is so much fun seeing those firefighter trucks dispensing water to chosen neighbourhoods twice every week during summer!

2 - in 50 years from now, there are good chances that I will be dead. Either there really is something in the beef after all (and all those conservatives, colorants, acids and so on will detonate in the core of my cells, wreaking havoc in the DNA sequences), either noone will want to pay my pension. I would be 78, and if I cannot retire by 70 (which is already way too late), I think I could well hang myself in the wardrobe between my worn shirts and my worn trousers, cursing the world for having been screwed for so long. By the way I am not sure the life expectancy will go on rising, or maybe we will find it is very selective in its ways.

3 - In 200 years from now, we might well be surprised! As the US of A could be reflecting on "Rise and fall of the Roman Empire", they would suddenly be the champions of solidarity, world peace, resource sharing, and non-globalisation of the world market. They would suddenly earn the Nobel price for peace 5 years in a row, for trying to suppress downtown riots and allowing the independance of Texas, amongst other things. But then some fundamentalist activists born of the nostalgia of the Bush era would plan plane attacks against the new economy leaders, and they would be branded as public enemies #1. Their pictures would adorn the figures of a card game and one of their leader would hide underground, right beneath a lampost in the garden of the White House, now a psychiactric hospital for war veterans. Enough for kidding... I really do not know what awaits mankind in 200 years from now. I guess it will have problem of overcrowding of the poorest countries (just like now, but probably in a more ballistic fashion) and pollution, with no escape plan. Each and every cent would serve to pay for health system and care of the elder, who would be in far too big numbers compared to the younger. Priorities would then again be chosen on behalf of half-thought reports and someone would cross fingers for the world to end soon.

I hope those are of the kind of answers you were expecting. Of course, they are but a mere reflect of my thoughts for today, and I dare not speak of opinion! I would love to read your own answers!

Regards

[Raven Wolf]

Well, I may have a difficult time mesuring up to that post, Wellington! But, here are a few thoughts.....

#1 Like Wellington, I don't see any huge leaps.... No time travel (though that'd be cool!) or an end of violence and poverty. I do see us becomming increasingly dependant on technology to make our lives work......& drugs to make our lives berable. Prices for things will continue to increase, and though it will take too long by worker's standards, wages will eventualy rise to balance the level. Numbers have never ment anything. People just charge what they think they can get away with, and they often DO. As Jose Chung said... "1000 more years of the same old crap."

#2 50 years from now...if I haven't croaked from the stress, or ended up in the nut house, like Frank... I'll be 80! I'll likely be tending my rose gardens, wondering who will take care of my cats when I die, and arguing that I DO want my ashes mixed with my husband's (if he died first), and that I'm not crazy!

#3 In 200 years, if humankind hasn't destroyed itself by the systomatic destruction of it's environment, we will be facing an overpopulation problem of astronomical proportions!

Sounds bleak, I know, but oh, well. Hopefully someone will take what Frank said in "The Exegesis" to heart. "Who's gonna see a different future?"

[Guest A Stranger]

According to Bush, we should have an established home on the moon.

[Guest Jordan]

I agree with you that the next 50 years won't see us solving the problems we've spent thousands of years creating; nothing has been done yet to make the world a better place, in fact its getting worse. more wars, more crime, more famine, more disease . . . you get the idea.

I think that it would be nice to think that in the next 200 years, we'd find a way to overcome our differences and make the Earth the perfect place, but I don't see that happenning either. Why should it happen? How would it happen?

People would never agree to anything; the past century has seen more blood spilled in wars than all other wars in human history put together. With our own eyes, we have seen a horrific example of someone trying to demonstrate their opinion - September 11th. Everyone's claiming that their way is better than the other 6 billion people's way, so how do we know what way is best?

Regarding technology and science, I think that there will be big developments. I'd be really excited to see more space exploration and even the colonisation of mars. On the down side, it seems that most inventions and creations have a drawback, ie cause pollution or something. I heard on the radio yesterday that since 1988, there has been a 1500% increase in child porn offences (think it was 1500% - something hundred). A major british children's charity was saying that its mostly due to the internet - the material is more readily available. So even if there are major technological breakthroughs, I don't think that it would be necessarily a good thing.

Anyways, after all that doom and gloom, I'll leave it there

[Guest nuno]

I don't share your pessimism. History has taught us that the evolution os mankind is made in cycles. As mankind achives a confortable stage it starts to decline until it reaches the botom of the well and only there when there is nothing to lose a revolucionary state emerges and pushes mankind forward and, the next stage is always better than the last best one. Of course during that time many people get hurt. We are now living the fall of democracy as we know it. Many options lay ahead and one of those will start to gain suport as we aproche the botom of the well and, will be the next world order.

History also taught us that tecnology evolves faster with human pain, tragedy and war. Ten years ago who had heard anything about the internet and look at us now with this tecnology developed for war.

I don't think i can make a prediction not even for tomorrow, time changes faster and faster every day, simply look at sept 10 and sep 11 and how a simple day afected each of us even thousand and thousand miles away. Look at the Berlim wall, who could haved gessed in july that the wall would fall in that same august.

Has things go down, i wake up in the morning and i don't feel glad or sad to be alive, i just wait until the end of the day to see if it was worth. One day at the time, no rush.

[Guest Mikal C Johnson KtCym ECA]

1. What do you think lies ahead for the world (defined as mankind everywhere) 50 years from now? 

More of the same.

There will be a number of technological advances before then in the quantum fields... the fastest high-speed internet connection now will seem like nothing compared to the results of Quantum Foam studies.

But, as I said, more of the same. People will be the same as they are now, and have been for the last 5000 years... petty, mean, bickering over trifles...

Murder, rape, theft... crime will have skyrocketed almost as if in direct proportion to the technological advancement...

But, somehow, space exploration will still be a dream of the future... almost as if some outside force is sabotaging our ability to get away from our solar system. No cities on the moon, a decent prospect of a manned mission to Mars, but virtually no hope of getting beyond the "inner planets."

2. What do you think you will be doing 50 years from now?

Not alot.

I will die in the year 2018 from health problems.

2. What do you think the world will be like 200 years from now?

Virtually all space programs on earth, other than satellite maintenance will have been abandoned. We will long since have discovered that "extraterrestrial life" is actually not "extraterrestrial" at all, but beings that inhabit higher dimensions... those things that we have, in the past, called angels, demons, ghosts, gods... this discovery will be a direct result of mucking about in the Quantum sciences... trying to utilize hyperspace for intergalactic travel will, ironically, show us why it is unecessary.

We will find out that they have been watching us and interferring to some extent in our technological development. It will turn out that Enoch was right.

Despite the growing influence of a certain people group in the Middle East, no one will catch on that the fastly approaching year 2240 AD marks the start of a new Millennium... the one everyone expected a couple years ago...

[Guest icubud]

Greetings, I had decided to wait a little bit before posting my two cents.

I really enjoyed reading the reply posts. In a lot of ways it appears the collective thinking on the future is quite similar. I am hoping to read more posts in reply to the 3 questions.

1. What do you think lies ahead for the world (defined as mankind everywhere) 50 years from now? There are some things that will Wen in the next 50 years that I am curious to see what develops. For example: What happens when Castro dies? Who will be replacing Tony Blair and the other leaders of Eurpoean countries? What is going to happen when China's leader dies? In the Middle East when Yarafat croaks, what next? These certain events, to my understanding, will greatly change the political alliances as we know them. Things can get extremely volatile quickly in China, Mid-East, Cuba, and Russia. I think the USA will have PC'd itself to a complete mess. I am not very confident looking ahead at our society. Things just are not right.

2. What do you think you will be doing 50 years from now? I will be 88 years of age. Hopefully I will be retired from my employer at the age of 65 and teaching in a university or college while writing. Of course the key is I am doing things at 88 because I want to, not have to. Unfortunately I believe Social Security will be gone which includes the $$ I have put into it. I just hope my parents can enjoy when they retire.

2. What do you think the world will be like 200 years from now?

I honestly believe 200 years from now we will be at the stage the Bible refers to as "a new heaven and a new earth".