What will the world look like in 50 years?

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What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by gerg »

Anybody stop to think about what the world will look like in 50 or 100 years?

I might be around in 50 and it's difficult to imagine what it will be like. So what was life like in 1965 and how will 2065 look? The obvious changes between 1965 and now are computers, transport improvement, medicine (life expectancy), increased knowledge (particularly access to education and current affairs). The growth in capitalism and the greater gap between the rich and the poor. War, greed and corruption are just as bad as ever.

Will there ever be a point in the future where all countries put aside their differences for the good of humanity?
Will technology save the planet?
Will cyborgs take over, eventually?
Will there be a common language or currency?
Will we be more successful in space exploration?
Will there be flying cars (so to speak)?
Will people live to 150 with the aid of stem cell or robotics?
Will countries go under water and if so who will bear the burden of the environmental refugees given a lot of countries current insular thinking?
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Toviii »

I don't know, but I look at the last 15 or so, and it sort of seems like the rate of innovation is slowing down. So from my perspective it's hard to imagine a drastically different world in five decades time. But you never know...
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Schifty »

If Trump gets elected we might not even have a world in 5 years time.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Green eyed Mick »

Schifty wrote:If Trump gets elected we might not even have a world in 5 years time.
It will be like Biff getting his hands on the Almanac.

In all seriousness. I am genuinely concerned that as a planet we have too many of our best and brightest working in financial markets and consumption technologies and too few working on climate change, medical advancements and food security.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by simo »

Green eyed Mick wrote:
Schifty wrote:If Trump gets elected we might not even have a world in 5 years time.
It will be like Biff getting his hands on the Almanac.

In all seriousness. I am genuinely concerned that as a planet we have too many of our best and brightest working in financial markets and consumption technologies and too few working on climate change, medical advancements and food security.
who? Hands on what?
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Green eyed Mick »

It's a back to the future II reference
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Manbush »

Toviii wrote:I don't know, but I look at the last 15 or so, and it sort of seems like the rate of innovation is slowing down.
You're not looking very hard, technology, research and inventions are still growing rapidly.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Manbush »

To answer your list in my view

1)Nope the world won't unite, maybe temporary allegiances if we get invaded but won't last
2)Might not be enough to save our planet but we will spread like the virus we are throughout other planets
3)The leaps and bounds in AI it's a very real possibility robots/technology will take over, cyborgs being a combination of technology and man is inevitable but I think the human side will be dominate.
4)Nope language and currency will remain different
5)space exploration is inevitable, already looking at stations on Mars and the moon, engines to travel further and faster
6)Flying cars yes
7) people will live over 150 with the aide of technology but only the rich and powerful
I bow down to thee oh great Nickman, the wisest of the wise, your political adroitness is unsurpassed, your sagacity is unmatched, your wisdom shines through on this forum amongst us mere mortals as bright as your scalp under the light of a full moon, never shall I doubt your analytical prowess again. You are my hero, my lord, my savior, may you accept my offerings so you continue to bless us with your genius.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by BrisbaneRaider »

Flying cars will never happen. It's just not practical.

The next big game-changing technologies will be 3D printing and self-driving cars. It's likely that kids in 50 years time will never learn how to drive a car. Also I'd be interested to see if physical currency will still exist in 50 years. I hope we see another space race in my lifetime as well, who knows what kind of tech would come out of that.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by simo »

Personal jetpacks are next actually. Already in production
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Shadow Boxer »

Nah, personal flying machines will be quadcopters.

My new drone is awesome.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by simo »

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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Shadow Boxer »

Man that thing looks dangerous, quadcopters are electric and have auto altitude, gyros and accelerometers.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Green eyed Mick »

Manbush wrote:To answer your list in my view

1)Nope the world won't unite, maybe temporary allegiances if we get invaded but won't last
2)Might not be enough to save our planet but we will spread like the virus we are throughout other planets
3)The leaps and bounds in AI it's a very real possibility robots/technology will take over, cyborgs being a combination of technology and man is inevitable but I think the human side will be dominate.
4)Nope language and currency will remain different
5)space exploration is inevitable, already looking at stations on Mars and the moon, engines to travel further and faster
6)Flying cars yes
7) people will live over 150 with the aide of technology but only the rich and powerful
If people are to live to be 150 they will have to discover a treatment to prevent or delay ageing. If that happens it becomes far more important for rich old white men to rapidly fund progress to a type 1 civilisation.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by the bone »

The world will be heavily overpopulated in 50 years time. Apartment living will become the new norm in cities previously dominated by suburbia. There will be an emergence of new large economies that will drive business growth in the same way BRIC (brazil, Russia, india and china) have been the growth drivers for many multinational companies over the last 5 years. Economists say Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and turkey (MINT) will be the new BRIC, but that's more in the medium term. In 50 years time it'll likely be another bunch of countries
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What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Sid »

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It'll be cold outside with no kind of atmosphere.. Much like Canberra
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Manbush »

Green eyed Mick wrote: If people are to live to be 150 they will have to discover a treatment to prevent or delay ageing. If that happens it becomes far more important for rich old white men to rapidly fund progress to a type 1 civilisation.
By aide of technology that incoporates cybernetics, even just the brain being downloaded, I didn't mean the physical body in its entirety that i don't necessarily believe will be possible.
I bow down to thee oh great Nickman, the wisest of the wise, your political adroitness is unsurpassed, your sagacity is unmatched, your wisdom shines through on this forum amongst us mere mortals as bright as your scalp under the light of a full moon, never shall I doubt your analytical prowess again. You are my hero, my lord, my savior, may you accept my offerings so you continue to bless us with your genius.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Green eyed Mick »

Downloading brains is fortunately still science fantasy and hopefully it remains that way (Black Mirror Xmas special is a terrifying look at what could happen if the brain could be digitised and downloaded)

It is possible that in the near future we could see robotics transforming into life saving medical devices but the future is IMO within our own DNA. The capacity to harness mortality is a much more achievable goal IMO and there are a growing number of investors in anti-ageing research.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by dubby »

Impossible to say how advanced technology will be.
The spiral of silence refers to the idea that when people fail to speak, the price of speaking rises. As the price to speak rises, still fewer speak out, which further causes the price to rise, so that fewer people yet will speak out, until a whole culture or nation is silenced. This is what happened in Germany.

If you do not speak, you are not being neutral, but are contributing to the success of the thing you refuse to name and condemn.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Manbush »

Can't see it staying that way with the progress science is making, either to a hard drive or to a fresh brain, teleportation would require something along that line also. 3D printing using stem cells is also a possibile path to immortality if they can transfer the brain waves, cloning, few options some dependent on what one considers life and what a person is. If we transfer our brain waves to another body even identical to our former body the religious would probably believe that it wouldn't be the same person unless you could transfer the soul, for mine their are no souls everything we are are within our brains, the body is just the vessel and the heart just the engine.
I bow down to thee oh great Nickman, the wisest of the wise, your political adroitness is unsurpassed, your sagacity is unmatched, your wisdom shines through on this forum amongst us mere mortals as bright as your scalp under the light of a full moon, never shall I doubt your analytical prowess again. You are my hero, my lord, my savior, may you accept my offerings so you continue to bless us with your genius.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Botman »

dubby wrote:Impossible to say how advanced technology will be.

:lol: :lol:
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by -TW- »

A black hole, somebody would of nuked somebody by then
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Cranky Old Man »

My experience over the last 60 odd years proves to me that I would be hopeless at forecasting what the next 50 or 100 years will bring, but I strongly believe that the trajectory of population growth or slowdown will have more influence than almost any other factor.
Politically, history tells us that much will change. Not many of the current nation states existed in their current form prior to 1900, almost none of them prior to 1850.
Climatically I don't see much in the way of good news coming down the road.
I agree that it is highly likely that many more people will live in high rise high density mega cities (over 10mil), unless a particularly virulent disease steps up.
If people are to continue with personal vehicles they are highly unlikely to be self driven due to congestion.
As a kid I was certain that there would be jetpack type personal transport long before I grew up. It hasn't happened but I still think it will. I desperately hope I live long enough to see it.
I don't think people will live hugely much longer than they do today, just some incremental improvement. I believe most research will revolve around quality of life stuff for aged people rather than some elixir of life.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Cranky Old Man »

One factor that somebody alluded to is sea level rise. It seems almost inevitable that there will be no real agreement to do anything about it at least until its probably too late, and so lets assume that it will happen and that we have something like the same population at the time.
Currently nearly all the mega population centres of Asia are centred on the big river deltas flowing into the Indian or western Pacific Ocean (Indus, Ganges, Bramaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Red, Yellow, Yangtse etc.). In addition huge cities are on former swamps lying less than a few meters above sea level such as Saigon, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila etc. Sea rise for the populations of these areas and cities will be a disaster, and force refugee movements of utterly unprecedented scale. Instead of agonising about the effects of a million or two middle eastern refugees we will face numbers in excess of a billion, approaching two billion.
If you want a glimpse of what sea level rise might mean for the world, think about New Orleans and hurricane Katrina. There the richest nation in the history of the world struggled with the internal movement of some tens of thousands of people, and the physical damage is nowhere near being completely remedied.
Should sea level rises of the milder predictions come true, no national border anywhere will stand up to the pressure. Very few nation states would either.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Notaroboticfish »

I think the biggest problem that we will face in the next 50 years will be global warming.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Manbush »

Notaroboticfish wrote:I think the biggest problem that we will face in the next 50 years will be global warming.
Unless Trump or Carson become president
I bow down to thee oh great Nickman, the wisest of the wise, your political adroitness is unsurpassed, your sagacity is unmatched, your wisdom shines through on this forum amongst us mere mortals as bright as your scalp under the light of a full moon, never shall I doubt your analytical prowess again. You are my hero, my lord, my savior, may you accept my offerings so you continue to bless us with your genius.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Manbush »

Love Hawkings work.
I bow down to thee oh great Nickman, the wisest of the wise, your political adroitness is unsurpassed, your sagacity is unmatched, your wisdom shines through on this forum amongst us mere mortals as bright as your scalp under the light of a full moon, never shall I doubt your analytical prowess again. You are my hero, my lord, my savior, may you accept my offerings so you continue to bless us with your genius.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by gerg »

dubby wrote:Impossible to say how advanced technology will be.
What about religion dubby, where do you see it in 50 years (note: without turning this into another religion thread).

Self driving cars are on the way which I think is great.
Population growth will be a massive issue. The evolution of superbugs and medicine you would think would counteract each other.
I agree the winner of the US election could be critical but don't forget the world survived Bush.
I tend to agree with COM with global warming and hate the lack of respect or 'real' action it receives. Especially in Australia with our temperatures. Australia as a whole isn't that far above sea level so we could be impacted greater than many are willing to accept.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by dubby »

Religion? I can't speak for Hindu, Buddhism, Shinto, Judaism, Islam, Jehovahs witnesses, Mormonism, etc.... But I expect Christianity to face further ostracism in the west while continuing to grow in third world countries. At least in the short term.

It really depends.

If liberals continue to influence politics, then religion will face a rapid rate of expulsion from public places. I'm interested to see how Canada goes, Trudeau basically gave the far left everything they wanted in terms of pc and feel good stories, how that eventuates will go a long way to consolidate the left, or expose them for being shallow that e will realise the world needs a more conservative and traditional leadership.
I think a point will come that we will get everything we want and still feel empty and unfulfilled.
Who will the liberals point the figure at then?
(ok, that was poor satire, but I tried. Plus, I just woke up)
Yknow what I don't get? People hate religious people trying to 'convert' them, or share their faith... But the far left are probably the most parochial of them all
The spiral of silence refers to the idea that when people fail to speak, the price of speaking rises. As the price to speak rises, still fewer speak out, which further causes the price to rise, so that fewer people yet will speak out, until a whole culture or nation is silenced. This is what happened in Germany.

If you do not speak, you are not being neutral, but are contributing to the success of the thing you refuse to name and condemn.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by dubby »

I believe that gay marriage will happen in Australia soon.

I believe that turnbull will win the next election.

I believe he will the next and won't run the one after that.

An impending financial crisis will occur again, Australia will feel it because harsher than the last as we don't have the cash Rudd used last time to stimulate the economy.

I think an increase of terror related activities will occur in Australia. I think a sporting event is a likely target.

The mining sector will regress.

I think Australians will become something they've never wanted to be ; a nation of whingers. I truly believe that the world will not enjoy our company because we are so easily outraged at minor things. Our easy going way of life will exist in our minds, but the fact is until we end the morning show headline grabbing, twitter rampage, Facebook campaign to worth our passive aggressive behaviour.... We'll end up looking like bloody sooks.

Now excuse me, I'm going back to sleep.
The spiral of silence refers to the idea that when people fail to speak, the price of speaking rises. As the price to speak rises, still fewer speak out, which further causes the price to rise, so that fewer people yet will speak out, until a whole culture or nation is silenced. This is what happened in Germany.

If you do not speak, you are not being neutral, but are contributing to the success of the thing you refuse to name and condemn.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by gangrenous »

Manbush wrote:
Notaroboticfish wrote:I think the biggest problem that we will face in the next 50 years will be global warming.
Unless Trump or Carson become president
I don't think Trump will fix Global Warming ;)
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Schifty »

gangrenous wrote:
Manbush wrote:
Notaroboticfish wrote:I think the biggest problem that we will face in the next 50 years will be global warming.
Unless Trump or Carson become president
I don't think Trump will fix Global Warming ;)
Be interesting to see someone launch missiles at wind turbines because they make his golf course ugly..

Actually I shouldn't joke about that.
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Re: What will the world look like in 50 years?

Post by Schifty »

dubby wrote:Religion? I can't speak for Hindu, Buddhism, Shinto, Judaism, Islam, Jehovahs witnesses, Mormonism, etc.... But I expect Christianity to face further ostracism in the west while continuing to grow in third world countries. At least in the short term.
Agreed, that group has really been copping it in places like America.

Mississippi even went and legislated to make owning black people illegal in 1995.

btw that isn't a typo.
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