What's wrong with [your part of] the world? Is the future bright? 2050?

[Calin Leafshade]

So, I'm on a day shift again so I thought I'd do one of those thread.

Where do you see humanity going? Are we doing ok? Are we getting better? Will capitalism destroy itself as predicted by marx or will it not matter because technology will make the notion of scarcity irrelevant (see Star Trek)? Will an ecological disaster destroy us? Will a new global war erupt as china makes a grab for russia's resources?

What are your predictions for the next 50-100 years?

[Armageddon]

I don't think anything will change much in the next century. Global warming just won't have an effect, ecosystems evolve and there's nothing anyone can do. Running out of natural resources doesn't seem very probable for a long time. Ehhhhhhhh

[miguel]

In 100 years time we will have major political changes in the world.
There's no room for small countries and their independence as their dept are never to be paid.
Territory occupation (non-military in Europe, I believe) will happen again. This doesn't have to be dramatic (WWII) and cultural absorption would likely start with economical regional federations.
I think that in the next 50 years we'll see southern European countries (Portugal,Spain,Italy and Greece) forging a political and economic space. The same will happen with countries that were former soviet regions.
And yes, capitalism will eventually collapse again, and again, and again. Enforcing rules to keep markets from collapsing may delay future crisis but not for long.
Again, this doesn't have to be bad, people will adapt. At least the ones living in the safe zone.

[Radiant]

I don't think anything will change much in the next century.

Because soooo little changed in the past century, or the one before that...

[Iliya]

Why I don't see anything for USA in this thread? Unfortunately, the future depends upon USA too much.

[Calin Leafshade]

Actually I think the US will become much less relevant in the future. In fact I think we are just about now beginning to see the beginning of the end of US domination.

They certainly wont be able to maintain their economic domination of the world in the next 50 years without something catastrophic happening. China's growth rate is something like 9% a year and India's is also very high. The same thing happens to any empire really.

[miguel]

Unfortunately, the future depends upon USA too much.

And China, India, Russia, Middle East, EU,...everybody will constantly "battle" for market dominance and resource monopoly.

EDIT: What Calin said

[Iliya]

In one of his speeches Bill Gates said something like: "Life is not fair - get used to it!". For me future is not bright. The distance between the rich and the poor is increasing. This is a timebomb.

[Calin Leafshade]

Your posts are always a little like an acid trip.

[SDA]

Judging by the class I took on cyber warfare and cyber terrorism, I'd say we're screwed once China decides they don't need the USA anymore. 

[TastyCloud]

We'll all feed on soylent green.

[Cuiki]

I have absolutely no idea where this capitalism thing will lead to, and I know way too little about politics to come up with anything that wouldn't be a shot in the dark.

But I do sort of believe, for instance, that the internet will become increasingly policed and regulated, and it will get harder/more expensive to access all the mainstream stuff we can get for free today. I think all in all, the internet is just too radical to survive in its current form in years to come.

That's all about (more or less) wild guesses from me, the rest is just hoping for a better future. For example, I'd like to see more scientists and engineers, in the time of economic decline, to take a break from developing all that fancy high-tech stuff that is already way beyond our needs and focus instead on turning what we already have into something more accessible, environment-friendly and perhaps lasting longer. But - oh noes! Where's the money in that! :O

One thing I do like, and see a bright future in (Germans out there, correct me if I'm wrong) are metropolises such as Berlin, and perhaps Munich. From what I've seen on my visits to those places, it all seems a lot less... erm, zombified than, say, Slovenia. It's nice to see for a change some friendly and well-mannered people who don't look so fed up with their jobs and their lives in general, and don't buy all the possible media crap and go along with all their political provocations (I'm sorry, I'm just bitching about the Slovenes here, I don't actually know the situation in Germany ). Anyway, I've always been really impressed by Berlin in particular. It seems so culturally diverse, and so well-balanced in every way - modernised and well-structured (with things like public transport, for example), but still giving plenty of room to all the alternative stuff. I did see/hear about squats and things like that getting shut recently, but even so, I still think the situation there is a lot better than in practically any other city I've been to, as far as alternative life goes. I do hope more cities start to recognise Berlin as a sort of exemplary city of the 21st century and learn something from the way stuff works there. So yeah, my point is that Germany, with urban centres like that, could play an important role in political changes that are to come. I hope it will, at least. Maybe I'm just being naive.

Okay, I got a bit carried away, I'll stop now. I apologise in advance for all the ignorant bullshit I might have written, even if it was unintentional.

[ddq]

While it's easy to cry "Idiocracy", a lot things are in fact getting better, especially in the areas of technology and medicine. Making specific predictions is a fool's game.

[kconan]

  One great trend is the increased transparency of whats going in other countries, which can help topple dictator(s) and allow folks from different parts of the World to come together.  The downside of course is that misinformation also gets spread around, and people seem to not be fact checking these days.

  My main concern is overpopulation, which exacerbates many other problems facing the human race.

[Khris]

The main thing that's wrong with my part of the world is the so called "Energiewende" (energy turnaround), which means they're shutting down all nuclear power plants because that Fukushima thing happened nobody talks about anymore.
I'd be all for it if there were an actual alternative to NPPs but there isn't (currently).

So once again, hippies/conservatives/idiots spreading panic have won against rationality, and politics follow suit.

Then there's two Catholic hospitals in Cologne who refused treating a rape victim because treatment includes talking about the morning after pill. Which is of course against the rules, the only problem here is that the hospitals are 98% state-funded.

Stuff is going to get better though, because contrary to popular opinion, everything gets better everywhere, even in extremely underdeveloped countries. The only thing we need to be wary of is a religiously inspired global war and of course climate change (not "Global Warming", which is an inaccurate word only used by the media).

[Cuiki]

While it's easy to cry "Idiocracy", a lot things are in fact getting better, especially in the areas of technology and medicine.

I'm sorry, could you be a bit more specific?

[miguel]

the increased transparency of whats going in other countries, which can help topple dictator(s)

I'm afraid that we don't have a clue of what is really happening on the "Arabian Spring" countries. It looks to me that they are replacing dictators for...dictators?

because contrary to popular opinion, everything gets better everywhere, even in extremely underdeveloped countries

I think so, humans everywhere struggle to get better. Although, I believe that most 3rd world countries will not have the "chance" to become developed. In 100 years we'll see African nations disappear under bigger neighbour countries. Some African nations exist solely for their resources and black market weapon trade. Once a democracy is set up on those countries, they will have to deal with half of the population being related to crime and corruption - making new politicians tied to strong characters in order to win elections. It takes generations to lower corruption levels IF they ever accomplish it.

Then there's overpopulation, of course. There's simply no way Europe can maintain their "open borders" policy. This sounds right-wing I know, but I've seen the damage done to Portugal in the past 10 years. Today, not even half of foreign people are still in the country. And we're left with social security debts to our necks, low pay checks related to foreign work and thousands of blond, blue-eyed children who don't have a clue of what Portugal or being Portuguese is.
This said, if I can still name the US as a free country for all, even with their border policy, then I hope you understand that I can talk about a European border policy without being called fascist.

[Andail]

What Khris said.
It's a statistical fact that things get better (in a long term perspective), and the only thing that might go against that trend is the global warming.

[Calin Leafshade]

I think that life will probably get better in material ways. My concern is that we engineer away our failings as a society before we understand the need for social conscience. A Brave New World like scenario seems *painfully* close to reality.

[kconan]

the increased transparency of whats going in other countries, which can help topple dictator(s)

I'm afraid that we don't have a clue of what is really happening on the "Arabian Spring" countries. It looks to me that they are replacing dictators for...dictators?

In some cases, yes.  Hopefully the dictator-for-dictator swap is short-term.  And of course the World isn't going to know everything thats going on exactly, but I think its good for countries to learn that you can't fully hide atrocities (Syria currently), suppress information (China during Sars), etc...and there is at least some degree of transparency.