How do you imagine the world by 2050?

[Saucycarpdog]

I played the hyrdophobia trial demo today just to see if I liked the game. For those of who don't know, the game is set in 2051 and the planet is suffering from over population and low resources. It got me thinking, what will the world be like by 2050? Will it be that bad?

What do you think?

 

[pyrosaw]

World? What world? We would have eithr bombed each other to death, or the big corporations bought out the government. Okay maybe not the last option, but I want 2050 to be cyberpunk-ish.

 

[Spinozaad]

I do not know what states there will be. I do not know what wars have been fought. I do not know what developments have been made and breakthroughs achieved. But what I do know is the general state of the human condition. It will likely be the same with as it is now, and how it always was. The general idea that, in a way, the future will be different; and that all will either have been made anew, or destroyed forever.

 

[The Cheezy One]

Play Metro 2033. I really hope so!

 

[wulfy42]

Sadly there will be no life on this earth by that time almost certainly.

The reason is pretty simple, we have already passed the point of no return and the only possible solution at this point is to colonize other planets.

We have not made the progress needed to do so within the time needed though (next 20-30 years) as we have not even accomplished the first step, let alone the next two.

We would need to have a fully functioning space station in orbit already and a moon base as well by this point to really have any chance of survival.

As far as people on this planet. If 95% of all human life was wiped out today instantly with no adverse affects to the rest of the planet there is still a high chance the remaining humans would consider it an act of aggression and destroy the planet in retaliation. There might at least be some chance at that point of life continuing though.

It's quite likely if all human life simply went poof the planet would continue to heat up over the next couple hundred years until we had a constant cloud layer in effect (Which would continue to increase the temperature) and eventually no life would be able to survive on this planet. That would take more then 50 years to happen, but that is only because all human life was already gone.

I think we have about 10-15 years before things really start to go down hill big time. Until then we should still be able to stick our heads in the sand. By about 2025 or so the resources on this planet will be gone and the number of countries with biological, chemical weapons and nukes will be much larger (and thats saying no new weapons are invented). Even if we discovered a new massive power source tomorrow it would not help much. Anarchy is no longer a tool that can be used to alter governments as it is too dangers with the tools humans have at this point.

So basically the human race and for that matter the entire planet is doomed. In less then 40 years there will probably be no life on this planet or the planet will be almost completely barren and heating up rapidly. Humans have already destroys themselves and the planet that gave birth to them, we are just waiting for our effects of our actions to be seen.

 

[Subzerowings]

Pretty much the same, really. Maybe some new electric cars.
You know how scientists in the fifties used to predict that we'd have flying cars in the year 2000?
It's kind of like that.
Don't hold your breath.

 

[Hollock]

Mostly Jetpacks, in fact there will be 6 jetpacks for every one person.

 

[Valkyira]

I think it'll be pretty much as it is now just with some more eco-friendly stuff out there. We just need to decrease the amount of bad shit we're putting out there.

There won't be jetpacks or flying cars though, that's almost certain.

 

[wulfy42]

Pretty much the same, really. Maybe some new electric cars.
You know how scientists in the fifties used to predict that we'd have flying cars in the year 2000?
It's kind of like that.
The great chain moves slowly, but with wisdom...

Slowly?


Look at what has happened in the last 50 years.


Computers were huge bulky objects only used by the government (and not by them much), Phones were barely around, heck almost every form of technology has advanced greatly in 50 years.


The difference in just the last 10 years is huge. Cell phones, computers, the internet etc are all things that have expanded around the world and changed it drastically in just the last 10 years.

I do not doubt there will be many other changes in the next 10 years that we can not easily predict right now.

I don't think it will matter in 50 years...but I think for the next 10 years or so we'll continue to see new inventions that change how people live their lives.

 

[McNinja]

I swear if we do not have fusion power or flying cars by 2050 I will kill people.

Seriously though, fusion power should be what we are focusing on in terms of a new energy source, not windmills until they come out yer bum. Once we get fusion power, anything that requires large amounts of energy would be feasible to create.

 

[The Ambrosian]

Play Metro 2033. I really hope so!

Don't hope that happens!
I don't want to be attacked by a Dark One!

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Different energy sources (I hope), more people, maybe more tension. The human induced climate change would be more noticeable as well I guess. I doubt it will be that much better though. The technology will have advanced sure but

Sadly there will be no life on this earth by that time almost certainly.

The reason is pretty simple, we have already passed the point of no return and the only possible solution at this point is to colonize other planets.

We have not made the progress needed to do so within the time needed though (next 20-30 years) as we have not even accomplished the first step, let alone the next two.

We would need to have a fully functioning space station in orbit already and a moon base as well by this point to really have any chance of survival.

As far as people on this planet. If 95% of all human life was wiped out today instantly with no adverse affects to the rest of the planet there is still a high chance the remaining humans would consider it an act of aggression and destroy the planet in retaliation. There might at least be some chance at that point of life continuing though.

It's quite likely if all human life simply went poof the planet would continue to heat up over the next couple hundred years until we had a constant cloud layer in effect (Which would continue to increase the temperature) and eventually no life would be able to survive on this planet. That would take more then 50 years to happen, but that is only because all human life was already gone.

I think we have about 10-15 years before things really start to go down hill big time. Until then we should still be able to stick our heads in the sand. By about 2025 or so the resources on this planet will be gone and the number of countries with biological, chemical weapons and nukes will be much larger (and thats saying no new weapons are invented). Even if we discovered a new massive power source tomorrow it would not help much. Anarchy is no longer a tool that can be used to alter governments as it is too dangers with the tools humans have at this point.

So basically the human race and for that matter the entire planet is doomed. In less then 40 years there will probably be no life on this planet or the planet will be almost completely barren and heating up rapidly. Humans have already destroys themselves and the planet that gave birth to them, we are just waiting for our effects of our actions to be seen.

Wow a little cynical are we? Not to totally blow off everything that you just said, but I doubt much of that will happen. While some resources may start to dry up and tensions may rise, the only way I see us wiping most life off the face of the Earth is through full scale global thermonuclear war which I don't see happening anytime soon. Us humans are tough bastards and we don't really give up that easily. Although overpopulation and climate change will certainly have effects on the Earth, they won't be radical enough snuff us all out. I doubt that colonizing the stars will be necessary for the human race to survive anytime soon. Unless of course something happens that we can't predict like a meteor impact or alien invasion.

 

[blankedboy]

What we need is some very real, very sad genocide. Or infertility. If we can half or third the world's population over the course of a couple years, then we should be good. And use the Chinese child policy - no more than 2 children per family, with the obvious exception of triplets.

If that doesn't ensue, then, well, there go our resources.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I can tell you for one thing, even in the year 2050 there still won't be any flying cars or food in a pill etc. I really can't rememeber the official term of all of those future utopia vision by people from the past 1970's etc. That type of vision will still not happen in the year 2050.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I reckon it'll be pretty much like it is now. Everything will be a bit shinier though. And we'll probably have hydrogen powered cars (probably in the next 15 years actually).

 

[DocAscii]

I envision myself as official Tooth Brusher to Steve Jobs' head atop some Honda robot contrivance between his presidential speeches and making upgrades to the iSafe planetary defense systems.

or

"Pretty much the same, really. Maybe some new electric cars." like that guy earlier.

 

[Serenegoose]

Pretty much the same, really. Maybe some new electric cars.
You know how scientists in the fifties used to predict that we'd have flying cars in the year 2000?
It's kind of like that.
Don't hold your breath.

True, but we made advances in ways they could never anticipate. In the fifties they still thought that we'd have room sized computers, and look how rubbish their mobile phones are - and the internet? Sure, no flying cars - but we way outstripped even their imaginations in quite a few ways.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

War... war never changes.
/thread