With a couple of high profile deaths of celebs in their 90’s this last week, and me being in my 40’s still, I figure I’ll hopefully have 50 years left alive. What will the world be like in 50 year’s time? What will I see in the rest of my lifetime?
Here are my PREDICTIONS. Anything you disagree with? Post your version below, I do love a good prediction! 😀
All adults will have a CHIP IMPLANTED under the skin. This will enable all in-store purchases with just a wave of your hand, unlock all electronic devices and home/building door locks, and provide all identification requirements like picking up prescriptions, though the latter will be DELIVERED BY DRONE as will all post and parcels, and it thankfully be the end of computer passwords as all websites integrate with the tech requiring a simple wave of your hand over your device to login anywhere.
Everyone will have their GENOME SEQUENCED, kids will be done at birth. Individualised gene editing to fix known genetic diseases will be the norm, even to the point of editing the germ-line, i.e. having the edits pass down to your children, to eradicate genetic diseases in the same way we use vaccines now to try to eradicate viruses.
We’ve been through the stone age, bronze age, iron age, medieval age, and industrial age, arguably we’re either in the plastic or silicon age now. The 21st century will be known as the gene age. Within 50 years, designer babies will be common, at least for the rich.
As an aside, if I were advising a teenager now on job choice, I’d definitely say if they want a long term SECURE CAREER that really will directly affect people’s lives for the better, do biology and chemistry A level, and genetics at Uni.
Most computer interaction will be by VOICE rather than keyboard. You’ll be able to interact with your own virtual assistant (like Alexa) wherever you are physically, even whilst out shopping. E.g. whilst in Tesco, you’ll be able to tell Alexa to put the kettle on, turn on the heating, record EastEnders, order a repeat prescription, make a GP’s appointment, and call an Uber (see below) to pick you up.
Whilst it might be another 100 years, I’d like to think that within my lifetime we’ve cracked NUCLEAR FUSION, an inherently safe technology, which will enable fusion based Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to be deployed, one per housing estate, removing the need for massive power plants and hundreds of miles of cabling. These will come in simple cargo container format and can be swapped out or doubled up with ease and safety, removing at a stroke the need for fossil fuels.
This technology will transform Africa into the world’s garden, ringing Africa with nuclear fusion powered DESALINATION PLANTS, to irrigate the fertile land and support the people with fresh water. This will be the key to unlocking Africa’s potential as investment floods into the continent providing jobs, and the subsequent economic prosperity that drives the healthcare, education and development needed for a sustainable and happy population.
Electric cars, whilst initially having completely replaced internal combustion engines, will already be on wane, being replaced by HYDROGEN FUEL CELL CARS. Current petrol stations will still be used to fill up but now with hydrogen. They will create their own hydrogen on site, through electrolysis (or similar) powered by an onsite SMR and other renewable power generation.
However personal ownership of cars will also be on the decline, as fewer people bother to take their driving test, preferring instead to order one of the national fleet of Uber driverless AUTONOMOUS TAXIS, which are more convenient, cheaper per trip, and have a much better safety record than manual driving. As a result, buses will cease to exist outside of cities due to simple economic pressures.
We’ll have an operational MOON BASE, generating hydrogen and oxygen based rocket fuel from water deposits mined on the moon. This will be used to refuel rockets sent from the earth, to the both the new OUTPOST ON MARS, and also for ASTEROID CAPTURE operations which will be returned to a lunar orbit for mining of materials for return to Earth or onward shipment to Mars.
BTW within 100 years, we’ll be gene editing humans to better withstand the extraordinary physiological challenges of long term space travel / and permanent life on Mars. The first HUMAN MARTIAN will have been born on Mars as we start to colonise that planet and become a true multi-planet species, effectively ensuring the long term survival of humankind.
300 years from now, people will look back at the 21st century as the genesis of genetics and space exploration and say: “Wow, what must it have been like to live then, when there was such amazing development and change happening?”
In 50 years the world’s population will have just passed 10 BILLION PEOPLE! Whilst it’s expected to continue to grow, the growth is slowing and it will peak around 2120 at approximately 11.x billion, mostly driven by Africa and Asia.
This will result in a massive shift in attitude to IMMIGRATION, as indigenous Western populations collapse, particularly European countries will all be offering incentives for workers to migrate in to fill up the bottom of the demographic chart.
Look at Japan, it’s started already and within 50 years a full quarter of their population will have disappeared. Hungary too for example have a steadily DECLINING POPULATION and are offering astonishing tax breaks for mothers who have lots of kids, along with a package of other financial benefits. This is already a particular challenge for former Eastern Block countries today.
Generally religious belief will be on the wane worldwide, but at different rates. All developed western countries will be predominantly ATHEIST within 50 years (yes, even the USA!) as christianity generally collapses, due to old religious people dying off. Whilst muslim belief is also on the decline, it will be the most popular religion on the planet by far, with many African and Asian countries still religious rather than secular in nature. Thankfully however religious extremism and terrorism will be a thing of the past.
As a result, culturally the emigration to Europe will be biased by policy makers toward the southern half of African countries, as these are predominantly christian and seen as a better fit, rather than the northern countries which are predominantly muslim. ECONOMIC MIGRATION across and around the Mediterranean to Greece, Italy and Spain, and from South America into the USA via Mexico, will continue to be a challenging topic.
Finally the big one: as other countries follow the successful lead of the UK’s Brexit, within 50 years the EUROPEAN UNION WILL COLLAPSE and ex-member states will return to their native currencies! EU v2.0 will emerge from the ashes like a Phoenix based on a simple trading block of crucially strictly similar economically and culturally developed countries like the EEC of the 1970’s, this time without the unnecessary and ultimately destructive federal trappings of the “European Parliament”.
