In the Next 50 Years...

In the world today we have War, Famine, Drought, Terrorism, Hate, Fear, Death, AIDS, and Natural Disaster. If I were a fundamentalist Christian, I could say we are in the End of Days. But, I�m not, but that doesn�t let me stop thinking about the end of the world, or at least civilization as we know it. You look at the John Titor musings, the Aztec Calendar, the fatalism of International Terrorism, the rise of International Corporations that cross Government domains and act above boundaries, and the general apathy to all of it, and I wonder�

What is the most likely path of the world in the next 50 years? Will it all end or will it just continue as is? Will an unseen meteor just end it all in a flash some autumn day? Will the Yellowstone Supervolcano wipe out North America and change global climate forever? Will the U.S. continue to exist, or will outside forces rend it apart or nuke it away? As an ancillary, will western culture continue?

Personally, I see the world not at all like it is now. I see technology slowing drastically over the next 50 years due to government controls on industry and a lack of innovation, sort of a Reverse Industrial Revolution.

I see a lowering of U.S. quality in general achievement due to reduced educational standards and school quality. A drastic quality of life reduction with massive tax increases due to an expansion of the welfare state (a side effect of the diminished education system) and the Baby Boomer Bulge hitting retirement.

I see the Fortress America type situation, with the U.S. going isolationist as a backlash to the world response to the War on Terror. We will do JUST enough to keep our homeland safe (airborne anti-missile lasers and a missile shield) and grow to ignore the problems of the rest of the world. The borders will close. The U.S. will do most of it�s business WITHIN its borders, and will be generally self sufficient. And, as a crazy thought, I see the United Nations moving its headquarters to Europe as a response.

I see the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic Superpower in the Middle East with the consolidation of several countries through war (The Bush plan of Islamic Democracy fails because of a lack of support from the western powers).

I see a Socialist China expanding their pseudo-capitalist plans through expansion into new markets, and an expansion of products in their own massive market. They will be THE superpower of the 21st century.

I see Africa just as it is now, poor and full of strife. AIDS will be the single greatest killer in Africa, followed closely by war and racial/religious differences.

Europe? Not really sure, but I see them growing increasingly socialist and restrictive, especially after continued Terror hits. A general U.S. bashing and a promise of non-intervention against Terrorist states and Organizations will then quell Terror in Europe. This is what forces the U.S. into Fortress America.

Taiwan and South Korea will cease to exist, taken over by their neighbors.

I can see all of this happening, as long as a major natural disaster does not happen. A pole shift is due anytime, though�.

Just go and read 1984 by George Orwell....It seems to me "ol' Georgie Boy" wants to use that as blue prints for this country...

of course he does thethrall...and he's so good at what he does he's only going to need 8 years to make us all subservient.

Long and short of it, Nothing George Bush does can radically change the country. Nice thing about a Democracy: it's big, slow, and not likely pushed to action. The status quo of freedom will stay, taxes will go up and down; wars will come and go; and that's about it. Only a paranoid freak would be MORE scared of Bush than Kerry. At least a reasonable lunatic would be equally scared of both. But then again, that an oxymoron...

Worst case scenario: Collapse of US dollar and global depression with untold miseries.

Best case scenario: Restructuring of global economics.

50 years from now? Here's my list.
We will be driving in automobiles that don't require gas.
A manned Mars mission will have become history.
Cancer will not exist.
Most all diseases common today will be cured.
The first babies born in space will be adults.
A global economy where there won't be any poor nations.
Space travel will become a common place vacation.
Mining colonies on the moon.
Permanent residences set up in space.
Living to be 120 years old will be common.
War will be something that is history.
Colonies on the ocean floor.
Entertainment systems will have interactive holographic displays.
School will be taught at home via satellite.
Traveling from New York City to Sydney, Australia in an hour.
People will live their whole lives at sea on mega-platform ships.
Individual air transporters will be commonplace.
And communications will blow your mind.
Multi-function and specialized robots will be the owners helpers.

That's all I can think of. Sleepy. Any more anyone?



[edit on 24/9/04 by Intelearthling]

in the perfect 2054...

-commercialism abolished, instead we will have a sophisticated credit system.

-dense super citys will have been developed. work will be done incramentaly and compartmentalized. once completed your work quota off to the natural earth habitat developed for your lesure outside of the super citys.

-each person will have a transport pod, capable of sound speed able to zip us around the globe

-every form of communication will be networked into a personalized PDA with the processing power 1000 times greater then our current computers.

-small recreation centers and shared house quarters located through out the natural earth habitat.

other then all of these drastic changes life wont be all that different. these ideas are completly feasable. however at the rate of self destruction we are at now i dont think it will happen.

: /

The survivors will all be speaking arabic.

My predictions for the future...


1) Bush will die in office allowing Cheney to become president.
2) Cheney declares himself king of america.
3) Cheney will live to be 287 years old with the help of stem cell thereapy and yoga.
4) Larry King and Dick Clark will be put out of OUR misery in a horrible pie eating contest.
5) God will appear in the year 2083 and demand that "The Simpsons" finally be cancelled.
6) The pentagon says that since God created the terrorist then God is cooperating with terrorist and orders the 101st to commit scuicide and kill God.
7) Compaqs and Macs will still SUCK.
8) The aniti-Christ will be born in a small town in Illinois, USA but will become to fat and stupid to harm anyone.
9) Area 51 will exposed as not a top secret facility that has aliens and test secret aircraft but, the super top secret location of Pizza Hut headquarters.
10) The government of the USA declares human beings as WMD and calls a nuclear strike on the entire planet from the base on the dark side of the moon.


enough of my BS...go read something important!!!

50 years in the future.... Aids will wipe out Millons of people in Africa every day this will only be matched be the birth rate. Africa will become a terrorist haven.
Iraq will have gone throu a few civil wars with the people no better off then they were under saddam this is due to Bush/Blairs colossal naviety. Afghanistan will have slid into chaos with the government being little more then a mayor of Kaboul. This is due to the amount of resouces that went into the sideshow called Iraq.
There will be a terrorist attack on Australian soil. Eastern europe will struggle to overcome the wave of terrorist attacks.
The USA wont be bankrupt but they will be faced with china as the next superpower because of the amount of money they spend on trying to bring there fairly tale to life in the middle east.
The Pacfic Islands such as Samoa will have sufferd coups and bin ladin clones will run those countries.

Originally posted by Intelearthling
50 years from now? Here's my list.
We will be driving in automobiles that don't require gas.
A manned Mars mission will have become history.
Cancer will not exist.
Most all diseases common today will be cured.
The first babies born in space will be adults.
A global economy where there won't be any poor nations.
Space travel will become a common place vacation.
Mining colonies on the moon.
Permanent residences set up in space.
Living to be 120 years old will be common.
War will be something that is history.
Colonies on the ocean floor.
Entertainment systems will have interactive holographic displays.
School will be taught at home via satellite.
Traveling from New York City to Sydney, Australia in an hour.
People will live their whole lives at sea on mega-platform ships.
Individual air transporters will be commonplace.
And communications will blow your mind.
Multi-function and specialized robots will be the owners helpers.

That's all I can think of. Sleepy. Any more anyone?



[edit on 24/9/04 by Intelearthling]

Sleepy?... sounds to me like you're already dreamin'....