Make Your Predictions 60 Years From Today…

Grace

Scientists complete the human genome code project, and figure out how to make artificially germinated fetuses. Congress passes laws intended to "safeguard" the sexual categories, and prevent "excessive manipulation" of genetic stereotypes, but a thriving black market underground develops to create clones, "neuters", "super"-men & -women, "Stepford"-wives, etc.

Scientists develop a cure for cancer, but new "super-bugs" and viruses proliferate around the globe, causing mass die-offs among third worlders, leading to a net reduction in world population.

The new Einstein (whoever he is) cracks the ultimate code of matter, and scientists develop actual "anti-gravity" machines, facilitating the abandonment of the historical sources of energy such as fossil fuels, wood, nuclear fission, etc.

The meaning of life--struggle, destination, accident, free will, adversity and death--dissolves. People and their favorite pets can choose to live to be 300 years old, if people become terminally ill, or have incurable diseases, injuries, etc.--they can be "put down" in the deep freeze to come back in a couple of centuries or when scientist's find a cure for incurable diseases. This practice is franchised as "Ice-o-lation". Fast forward 200 years we are thawing, in an isolated ice chamber deep in the mountains in Wyoming at Buffalo Ridge. Many of the chambers from Colorado's saw-toothed ridges had to be discarded, but fortunately the isolated ice chambers from Wyoming at Buffalo Ridge have with stood. There is not much left of life on earth, as we knew it. We had no idea that most people had departed and found new life on Jupiter and Mars. Scientist's planned to build a tower from the earth to space lab where shuttles run up and down like elevators. Scientist's say it would be much cheaper to leave for Jupiter and Mars from a space lab. It is called " the star way to the stars " on some days you can hear Frank Sinatra singing, Fly me to the Moon (as they use Industrial Light and Magic for sound) the planet earth had been devastated by a nuclear fallout that had devastated the ecology of much of the planet Earth.

The "Ride" with its customized space-lounge is very popular and quite comfortable, each station for each person has a vibrating customized space chair that has a cycle they can ride for exercise and a compartment that holds needles for intravenous feeding, hydrating and oxygen, it is quite spectacular, especially watching asteroids, or meteor showers.

Finally, the "true god" (i.e., an alien from another galaxy) arrives in his customized space-lounge to blow us out of the aether, and all the rising humans sing The Messiah (it's the Music of the Spheres!). Hallelujah!

ShawnD

Computers are so big and so expensive that only the 3 richest kings of europe will be able to afford one

I'm not going to make outlandish guesses. I'll just make predictions based on what has changed over the past 60 years.
-Fusion powerplants will be somewhat mainstream the way fission powerplants are mainstream today
-School will be a hell of a lot easier
-A movie will cost $500
-A new material will be created to replace plastic. It will be harder, cheaper, and easier to make.
-Fox will be a hard core porno network
-Cars will have 400HP but still get 40mpg.
-Telephones, cable TV, and satelite TV will all run through the internet
-Working at McDonalds will require a 4 year degree
-Jeans will still be fashionable
-Government will have gone too far, and we'll need licenses to have kids
-Canada will still have a liberal government
-The cure for diabetes will be mainstream (Univeristy of Alberta developed the cure some time ago, link)
-EA will continue to make crappy games that don't work

Grace

That's the great thing about long-term predictions. We won't have to take the heat if they don't come true.

Near-term predictions are riskier. Orwell died decades before 1984. Thank goodness his nightmare didn't come to pass.

Could the world descend into chaos?, medieval stagnation? I wouldn't rule it out.

Moonbear

Well, except for history class. There will be a lot more of that to learn.

Grace

Called FOX-E for erotica.

fourier jr

how about what hilbert said about what would be going on in the world in the future:
"If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?"

ShawnD

I should have explained what I meant.

Behold the glory of technology. Here is a formula from my physical chemistry course.

[tex]C_{rms} = \sqrt{\frac{3RT}{MM}}[/tex]

Say you want to solve for T. Using your brain and a simple $10 calculator, you would need to do something like this

[tex]T = \frac{C^2MM}{3R}[/tex]

All in all I had to write down the original formula and variations of it 3 times to get to that, and it took me about 2 minutes to get this new formula (yeah I'm slow).
If you have a snazzy $100 calculator, you can do the rearrangement in 1 step like this:

[tex]0 = \sqrt{\frac{3RT}{MM}} - C[/tex]

Go into equation solver, punch that formula in but write T in as X, hit enter, hit shift, hit solve, the calculator gives the answer. I didn't need to write anything down, and it took me maybe 1 second to derive this new equation. All the time was spent just punching it into the calculator.


History will still be easier because the school systems will have sunk to a point where teachers are even more like babysitters, and they will make all history tests multiple choice so they can be marked in 1 minute by the scantron in the office. My grade 12 history class was all multiple choice stuff; I totally nailed that class.

Astronuc

I will be very old.

Moonbear

I'll be 93, will have long, gray hair, and will give a whack of my cane to anyone who doesn't get out of my way when I'm out walking with my new and improved hip replacement!

Ivan Seeking

Sixty years from today global warming will be causing large poplulations to migrate towards the poles. The bread basket of the US will be shifting towards Canada. Much of Japan, NY, The Netherlands, and other low lying areas will be lost to rising seas and more frequent and stronger storms. Most pacific island nations are effectively gone.

After being exiled to Cuba for forty years, the Bush family re-enters US politics as liberals.

Grace

Artificial food is produced without the need for arable land, but food costs so much that no one but the rich can afford to buy it. Pollution, overgrazing and botched genetically manipulated crops result in desertification of 3/4's of the global landmass. Global warming (brought on by the tail end of the fossil fuel age) progresses, and there are catastrophic alterations of the tides, ice caps, weather. The poles melt, and the water level rises 50 feet world-wide, sinking most of the natural harbor cities, and inundating great river valleys the world over with brackish sludge. The Gulf Stream will change its way and Europe will become Tundra due to a polar shift.

Without the need for sex, most people are "born neutered" so no accidental pregnancies occur. Sexual interaction is just another form of pleasure, like taking drugs, or "tripping" in the new "theme park" hostels where mind-altering chemicals are offered in a dizzying array of choices (if you can afford them).

European nations capitulate to expediency and become a single continental empire called--what else?--Europa, with its borders the Mediterannean, Iceland in the West, Finland to the North, and the Urals to the East. China joins with Japan, Indochina, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia to become Auschinesia. The U.S. joins with Canada, Mexico, Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean to become "Greater Norte America"--ditto for S. America. Mass famine, pestilence and tribal warfare finally decimate Africa to such a degree that it becomes a true "no man's land"--and it sinks into a new "Dark Age".

SOS2008

I and other old folks will be given our government benefits of a cardboard box and shopping cart--maybe a jar to pee in.

New York, Miami, and Washington DC will be under water, with DC going under just before Americans amass to march upon the White House in the wake of civil war--the cheer will be heard throughout the world!

Kids will rediscover Led Zeppelin – Again

Everyone will be vying for jobs at hydrogen plants, greenhouse/hydroponic and aquaculture companies, and underground prostitution due to abstinence laws.

All information will be available through one channel – E!

Video games, cell phones, and other tech items will be exchanged on the black market for clean water, fresh fruit, and other basic necessities and rationed items.

People in the U.S. will speak Spanglish.

PF will become a Second Superpower that will save the day!

Grace

We wouldn't need to communicate. We might be able to "read" thoughts? We are telepathic.

ShawnD

Isn't global warming only like 1C per century?

SOS2008

I think we're already doing that. Ivan, you, and I all posted at the same time with many of the same thoughts. I'll have to log this under "strange things."

Ivan Seeking

Models vary greatly. What we are seeing is that things are going much faster than they should be. We can't really know if this is GW or some cycle that will reverse over time. Some scientists now fear that we may have seriously underestimated that rate at which events will transpire. The thing is, a very small change in the average temp will have large affects. Looking strictly at temp also ignores the significance of the increased energy and frequency of storms.

Integral

We will have learned, once again, to love our horses, Open fire cooking will be state of the art. Crazy old people will set staring at cracked broken pieces of plastic muttering about 'tricty, and 'puters. There will be lots of scarp metal and glass about great for making arrow points. The crazy old folks call the metal heaps "cars" and being able to travel further in something called an hour then we now to in 3 days. Crazy old folks living in some dream world seem to think there is some value, other then as fire starters, in the things they call "books".