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, http://www.archermusic.com/Fly%20Me%20to%20the%20Moon_edit.mp3 (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]

Originally posted by ShawnD:
I'm not going to make outlandish guesses.

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]

-School will be a hell of a lot easier

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

 

[Grace]

Originally posted by ShawnD:
Fox will be a hard core porno network

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]

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

I should have explained what I meant.

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

$$C_{rms} = \sqrt{\frac{3RT}{MM}}$$

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

$$T = \frac{C^2MM}{3R}$$

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:

$$0 = \sqrt{\frac{3RT}{MM}} - C$$

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 will be very old.

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]

Originally posted by 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 shirting towards in 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.

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]

Originally posted SOS2008:
People in the U.S. will speak Spanglish.

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

 

[ShawnD]

Sixty years from today global warming will be causing large poplulations to migrate towards the poles.

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

 

[SOS2008]

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

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".

 

[loseyourname]

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

Jenna in '64?

I say that we'll develop the technology to reproduce by parthenogenesis, completely eliminating the need for males in any modern society. The world will quickly become a Valerie Solanas utopia as women take reign over the new Pax Universalis.

 

[Grace]

Originally posted by loseyourname:
women take reign over the new Pax Universalis.

Uhuh... yah, right... in your dreams there would be peace!

Women fight with each other more than men do...

Originally posted by loseyourname:
I say that we'll develop the technology to reproduce by parthenogenesis, completely eliminating the need for males in any modern society. The world will quickly become a Valerie Solanas utopia as women take reign over the new Pax Universalis.

What kind of sensible, red-blooded American woman would want to live in a world without penises?!

Not THIS one, I can assure you!

I can guarantee you that if modern technology eliminated the need for males completely, that there would be no such thing as "World Peace"--there'd be too many grumpy, unhappy penis-loving females like me missing the male of our species like all git out for that to happen!

 

[kaos]

we reinvent agriculture after groups of humans band together after ther nuclear apocalypse.oh and vault 24 sends the chosen one to look for the water chip.

 

[kaos]

Ohhh, and no quantum gravity theory/ theory of everything yet.

 

[Astronuc]

The answer is still '42'.

Remember "Soylent Green" (1973)?

 

[fourier jr]

"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." -- Niels Bohr

 

[honestrosewater]

This is one of the most depressing threads ever.

 

[loseyourname]

This is one of the most depressing threads ever.

Really tells you who the pessimists are, doesn't it? I predict the Lakers will win at least 20 more championships in those 60 years and, for that alone, I will be happy.

 

[Astronuc]

We will finally have sent someone (some people) to Mars.

We will solve the energy, water, food and resource distribution problems.

We will have more peaceful times.

We will find a solution to global warming and environmental degradation (pollution).

I have to hope that these will happen, otherwise I should fall into despair.

On the other hand, we have the collective knowledge to do something about all these problems, and if we choose not to do anything solve these problems, then our children, and our childrens' children, and our childrens' childrens' children, . . . will suffer.

In TIME, March 14, 2005.
COVER STORY - The End of Poverty

In a world of plenty, 1 billion peo ple are so poor, their lives are in danger. How to change that for good?

We can banish extreme poverty in our generation--yet 8 million people die each year because they are too poor to survive. The trag edy is that with a little help, they could even thrive. In a bold new book, http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/about/director/ shows how we can make it happen It is still midmorning in Malawi when we arrive at a small village, Nthandire, about an hour outside of Lilongwe, the capital. We have come over dirt roads, passing women and children walking barefoot with water jugs, wood for fuel, and other bundles. The midmorning temperature is sweltering. In this subsistence maize-growing region of a poor, landlocked...

 

[SOS2008]

Really tells you who the pessimists are, doesn't it? I predict the Lakers will win at least 20 more championships in those 60 years and, for that alone, I will be happy.

I predict the Phoenix Suns will trail the Lakers and all other NBA teams by one or two points, only winning when the clock just so happens to run out at times when they are one point ahead--for the next 60 years. Oooops, sorry, that was pessimistic...

I predict loseyourname will at last live off the land, free of paying bills and other annoying habits of the modern world, and with these encumbrances removed, will regain interest in talking about about sex.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

“Don’t try to teach a pig to sing. Pigs can’t sing, and it will only annoy the pig” – Unknown

Hey! That is one of my all time favorite pig quotes. Here is the other:

You are more likely to be killed by a pig than by a shark.

Whoops, my version goes like this.
Don't teach a pig to sing…it wastes your time and annoys the pig. --- also unknown

 

[Grace]

Originally posted by Astronuc:
I will be very old.

Whats new?

 

[honestrosewater]

I predict the Lakers will win at least 20 more championships in those 60 years and, for that alone, I will be happy.

Well, being optimistic is great, but here you're just fooling yourself. No, I don't know basketball.
Is it too much to hope the Bucs will win another Super Bowl? It only took 27 years the first time.
I predict that within 60 years Shakespeare will be writing again. Oh, and what Astronuc said. Oh, and speaking of Mars, do you think someone could make it to Alpha Centauri in 60 years? I think with current or not-too-distant-technology it would take about 75. Does anyone know or have predictions?

 

[SOS2008]

Hey! That is one of my all time favorite pig quotes.

Oh geez--for a moment I was sitting on the edge of my chair thinking maybe you knew who the author was. Maybe it is supposed to be worded as you have it - I just found this version on-line: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. You'll frustrate yourself and piss off the pig" I think I'm pretty accurate about Porky though.

True, pigs can go into a feeding frenzy that would make a shark jealous.

Here's another one that circulated in the 80's: "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not really out to get you" -- Unknown

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not really out to get you" -- Unknown

LOL, I already have it.

As for predictions: In 2065 the first computer to human virus transmission will occur. The Norton-Kaiser corporation saves humanity with their anti-nanovirus mouth wash.

 

[Astronuc]

Oh, and speaking of Mars, do you think someone could make it to Alpha Centauri in 60 years? I think with current or not-too-distant-technology it would take about 75. Does anyone know or have predictions?

I would be satisfied with getting to Mars and may be exploring moons of Jupiter and Saturn. We should have done that by now, based on technology 20-25 years ago. Jupiter and Saturn (and the moon Titan) may become important sources of fuel in the future.

As for Alpha Centauri - 4.35 ly - honestrosewater, what technology did you have in mind?

It would be worthwhile verifying that there is a compatible destination. Presumably a trip to Alpha Centauri will be one way.

At a minimum, there are two major issues to deal with - life (and for long journeys, reproduction) in zero-g and radiation (cosmic) exposure - generally more of a problem within solar (star) systems. Then there is the issue that one has to take all the necessary provisions - food, water, stored energy and propellant.

 

[Entropy]

After living as a hermit for 60 years I finally complete my doomsday device and destroy the world. Afterwards only fragments of the Earth are left and I escape on an asteriod and live the rest of my life in space with my pet Sasquatch.

 

[Zantra]

After living as a hermit for 60 years I finally complete my doomsday device and destroy the world. Afterwards only fragments of the Earth are left and I escape on an asteriod and live the rest of my life in space with my pet Sasquatch.

quick question - would you actually have a pet that was a sasquatch, or would it just be a pet with the name sasquatch?