# the world in 2050



## science

Just rambling. Barring nuclear war or other armageddon scenarios: 

- China and India have the biggest economies, followed by the US and (if it exists) EU. Mexico's economy is larger than Canada's, Brazil's larger than Japan's. 

- World population growth is flat at around 9 billion, and perhaps even beginning to decline. 

- Life expectancy is at least 90. 

- Migration from the poorer parts of the world (where population is growing and labor is cheap) to the richer parts (where the population is shrinking and labor is dear) has made the Northern hemisphere a lot less "white." A third of the USA is Hispanic; a quarter of Europe is Muslim. 

- Robotics and nanotechnology have multiplied the efficiency of manufacturing. Physical labor is increasingly more like a hobby than a necessity. 

- What were once regarded as alternative energy technologies have become cheaper, cleaner, and more efficient than fossil fuels ever were. 

- Mining for resources takes place ever more deeply underground; we're even beginning to look for resources on the moon, Mars, asteroids, and so on. 

- Absolute poverty is a thing of the past, even in Sub-Saharan Africa. Relative poverty is common, but not as obvious as the classes mingle less and less often. 

- An even larger share of the world's GDP is spent on things like deodorant, plastic surgery, cosmetics, luxury goods. Services make up the majority of the world's economy - especially health care for an increasingly aged population. Space tourism. 

- Global trade and finance are regulated by non-democratic institutions. 

- Sham democracies are everywhere. Popular personalities win or lose elections, but have little actual control over the governance of their states, which is actually in the hands of an unelected, largely anonymous elite. 

- There is no such thing as privacy. Governments know anything they care to know about their citizens; employers, about their employees. Neuroscience enables an unprecedented degree of control over individuals.

- War is no longer possible; there is no corner of the world free from the domination of the largest states, and the logic of mutually assured destruction means that they cannot make war against each other. The elite rulers of the major states all know each other, and emphasize the necessity of cooperating to maintain stability within their borders (i.e. their power). 

- Robots display plausible emotion. Robotic sex dolls and virtual-intelligence "personalities" have, for some people, replaced actual relationships.


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## Crudblud

If this is true, then thank **** I'll be dead by then. The world is already intolerable at best, I never want to live in the reality you're estimating here.


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## Ukko

science said:


> [...]
> - War is no longer possible; there is no corner of the world free from the domination of the largest states, and the logic of mutually assured destruction means that they cannot make war against each other. The elite rulers of the major states all know each other, and emphasize the necessity of cooperating to maintain stability within their borders (i.e. their power).
> [...]


 - The largest states (and most of the rest) are quasi-political entities; the power structure is based on a plutocratic elite that transcends national boundaries.


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## Eviticus

Caught a lecture once by Dr. Michio Kaku on technology in 2030 which was quite interesting if you have a spare hour one day.






Odd computer lenses, weird toilets that diagnose conditions and virtual worlds... love this guy.

I also remember reading an article saying that oceans will be farmed too.

If only i'd taken the blue pill...


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## Taneyev

I would have died at that date, so I don't care.


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## elgar's ghost

I know one thing - the Eagles will still be waiting for their first Super Bowl.

Robotic sex-dolls? Would they be updates on the Model XQJ37 Nuclear-Powered Pan-Sexual Roto-Plooker which I first heard about back in 1979?


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## mmsbls

science said:


> - Sham democracies are everywhere. Popular personalities win or lose elections, but have little actual control over the governance of their states, which is actually in the hands of an unelected, largely anonymous elite.
> 
> - There is no such thing as privacy. Governments know anything they care to know about their citizens; employers, about their employees. Neuroscience enables an unprecedented degree of control over individuals.


I agree with what you've suggested with the possible exception of the two above.

Some would say the first is true now. If you do not believe that, I think things will move somewhat closer to that statement, but the public will still have a modest-reasonable say in public policy.

There will be less privacy, but there will be significant non-financial things that people still keep private.

My biggest questions are:

Will artificial intelligence be clearly smarter than human intelligence? I'm not talking about chess or quicker calculating but actual generic problem solving. My guess is that it will be very close.

Will most young humans have significant neural implants such that they take advantage of the superior artificial intelligence ability? Presumably these implants will allow a very fast interface with the 2050 version of the internet and superior thinking ability. My guess is that we will need several more decades for this stage.


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## moody

Most of what you say is true now as for sex robots, what do you think Paris Hilton and her ilk are? Luckily i will be gone quite soon because I don't like what we have now.


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## Jupiter

I'm still waiting for flying cars.


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## Guest

I do wonder what avant garde music will be like? no, I do not wonder I shudder


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## aleazk

I think we are going to the world that Aldous Huxley has described in his novel "Brave New World", a remarkable visionary. 


> the Northern hemisphere a lot less "white." A third of the USA is Hispanic;


I understand your point, but I'm "hispanic" and I consider myself "white". I have green eyes, all my family is white, with blue eyes. We are of french-basque-italian ancestry, like most people in Argentina. I think that reserving the term "white" for people of anglosaxon ancestry only is vague, and "hispanic" for mexicans is also vague.


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## regressivetransphobe

I keep subconsciously imagining my old age in some cartoonishly futuristic year like 4000 or something. Thanks for reminding me of my mortality


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## Philip




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## starthrower

Jupiter said:


> I'm still waiting for flying cars.


The cars will drive themselves, and the passengers will be watching movies on the windshield.

People are already getting fed up with sham democracies like the one here in the US. So far two states have openly condemned the folly of the Citizens United court decision. Lets hope there are more to follow.


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## science

starthrower said:


> The cars will drive themselves, and the passengers will be watching movies on the windshield.


I've been wondering about this possibility. Not that there will be cars, but some kind of transportation with units about the size of cars, that picks you up and drops you off like a taxi service.


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## Couchie

God is definitively proven not to exist in 2034. Israel and Palestine come to a timeshare agreement. China forgives all US debt in exchange for the US helping China to adopt democracy and a full market economy. Japan develops cold nuclear fusion. Poverty in Africa ends with the rise of an inspirational gandhi-type who wins african women equal rights. America gets its first black-hispanic lesbian physically-disabled president. Climate change begins to reverse from a Canadian-led global initiative. Most world governments are socialist and people work an average 20 hour week.


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## science

mmsbls said:


> Will most young humans have significant neural implants such that they take advantage of the superior artificial intelligence ability? Presumably these implants will allow a very fast interface with the 2050 version of the internet and superior thinking ability. My guess is that we will need several more decades for this stage.


As soon as it is possible, people are going to do it, ethical implications be darned.


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## science

- 3D video game rooms with screens on all surfaces 

- The overwhelming majority of classical performers will be Asian. 

My question is, who will be remembered at that time as the great composers of the 20th century? I'd guess that Stockhausen will eclipse Schoenberg, Bartok will rise, musical composers like Andrew Lloyd Webber will rise, jazz and classical will merge and a few jazz greats like Ellington and Coltrane will be regarded as great composers.


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## science

aleazk said:


> I think we are going to the world that Aldous Huxley has described in his novel "Brave New World", a remarkable visionary.
> 
> I understand your point, but I'm "hispanic" and I consider myself "white". I have green eyes, all my family is white, with blue eyes. We are of french-basque-italian ancestry, like most people in Argentina. I think that reserving the term "white" for people of anglosaxon ancestry only is vague, and "hispanic" for mexicans is also vague.


Yes, this is a good point. Some of the racial forms in the US distinguish between "Hispanic, non-white," "white Hispanic," and "white, non-Hispanic."

In the case of migration to the USA, Mexico is the biggest but not the only source of Spanish-speaking peoples, also Cuba, Puerto Rica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and so on.


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## clavichorder

science said:


> My question is, who will be remembered at that time as the great composers of the 20th century?


I personally don't care. Many of my most beloved composers of all centuries are remembered only by me and the few people like me in that respect.


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## clavichorder

science said:


> I've been wondering about this possibility. Not that there will be cars, but some kind of transportation with units about the size of cars, that picks you up and drops you off like a taxi service.


Who needs cars and personal vehicles? One of the things I hope for in the future is when we all take public transit, trains and buses. If we are going to be squished together in population, we shouldn't pretend we don't exist and should learn to get along with each other, plus something seems tastelessly excessive about cars per person. Even in today's world.


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## clavichorder

science said:


> As soon as it is possible, people are going to do it, ethical implications be darned.


I can't decide whether that would be cool and potentially enhance the whole of humanity or whether the concept is disgusting and will homogenize us all.


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## Krummhorn

Although I probably won't be on this earth in 2050, although it could be possible (I'd be 102 by then), I do care about what happens ... at least for my Son, who will be 25 this year. Already he is feeling the crush in income vs expenses (needed expenses: rent, utilities, food, petrol) and although he is paying into Social Security now, he has almost accepted the fact that when he reaches retirement age, there will be no US Government Pension (Social Security). 

I'm not on Social Security yet either ... two more years to wait ... and even at that, I am coming to grips with it not being adequate in comparison with rising costs for food, petrol, utilities, etc. Fortunately, everything we own is paid for and we do not charge on plastic what we cannot pay off at the end of each month. 

It will be a scary place in 2050 ... I do hope that things will get better, but I'm not holding my breath on that, either.

Kh


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## Guest

Cars can park themselves now, and on TV last night I saw a system of electric powered cars driving themselves guided by magnets embedded in the road, so its not all that far away.


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## starthrower

Couchie said:


> God is definitively proven not to exist in 2034. Israel and Palestine come to a timeshare agreement. China forgives all US debt in exchange for the US helping China to adopt democracy and a full market economy. Japan develops cold nuclear fusion. Poverty in Africa ends with the rise of an inspirational gandhi-type who wins african women equal rights. America gets its first black-hispanic lesbian physically-disabled president. Climate change begins to reverse from a Canadian-led global initiative. Most world governments are socialist and people work an average 20 hour week.


Boy, things are gonna be great when I'm dead!


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## Guest

starthrower said:


> Boy, things are gonna be great when I'm dead!


Yeh........................ only foolin


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## emiellucifuge

Edit: my mistake I misunderstood the point of the OP


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## Crudblud

You've been to 2050 and observed these things?


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## science

emiellucifuge said:


> Edit: my mistake I misunderstood the point of the OP


Happens to everybody!


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## science

Crudblud said:


> You've been to 2050 and observed these things?


I am not at liberty to discuss the sources of my knowledge. They appear displeased even at this allusion to their existence.


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## Crudblud

I knew it; ancient astronauts!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

By 2050: The first lot of operas (14 in total by that date) by ComposerOfAvantGarde will be available for download for quite a low price as downloading is going out of fashion. CDs are not actually obsolete yet, but are sold in second hand shops just as records from 40 years ago are being sold. Downloading music straight onto the computer has become a pain, so music is recorded onto 1cm x 1cm x 1cm cubes (invented in 2038) each holding up to twenty-eight hours of music. 

Also, ice caps have melted too much.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

The world in 2050? Hmmm, let me guess ...


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## Huilunsoittaja

How about a world like this?









You might not be able to tell, but there's still an actively running concert venue below. :tiphat:

Whatever happens, we who are living today are surely going to be supremely outdated by 2050, whoever is alive then.


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## Ukko

clavichorder said:


> I can't decide whether that would be cool and potentially enhance the whole of humanity or whether the concept is disgusting and will homogenize us all.


[the subject is micro-electronic implants]

For some time after the advent of the practice, it will not 'enhance the whole of humanity'; too expensive. I see it as first 'enhancing' the techno class - including techno criminals.


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## Ukko

Krummhorn said:


> [...]
> I'm not on Social Security yet either ... two more years to wait ... and even at that, I am coming to grips with it not being adequate in comparison with rising costs for food, petrol, utilities, etc. Fortunately, everything we own is paid for and we do not charge on plastic what we cannot pay off at the end of each month.
> [...]
> Kh


Soc Sec hasn't been adequate by itself for a long time, maybe never. It wasn't intended to be to start with, and it's been steadily more inadequate ever since. Without a company pension and IRA payouts, I wouldn't be on the internet... just for starters.


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## emiellucifuge

The odd winter this year has caused millions of euros in damage here in the NL. Pear farmers alone lost 1million euros. 
The mild winter tricked organisms into their vulnerable spring phases, and then the belated frost killed a lot of them.

With AGW set to increase these odd weather phenomena we have to wonder at the damage done by 2050


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## Fsharpmajor

Hilltroll72 said:


> [the subject is micro-electronic implants]
> 
> For some time after the advent of the practice, it will not 'enhance the whole of humanity'; too expensive. I see it as first 'enhancing' the techno class - including techno criminals.


I suppose it could be put to sinister purposes, but the main use in the foreseeable future will be rectifying, at least partially, hearing loss, blindness, spinal cord injuries, severe epilepsy, intractable pain, and suchlike, by using electronics workarounds for various medical conditions.

But we have got to grow up and wean ourselves off fossil fuels. If we don't, we are fncked.


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## Ukko

Fsharpmajor said:


> I suppose it could be put to sinister purposes, but the main use in the foreseeable future will be rectifying, at least partially, hearing loss, blindness, spinal cord injuries, severe epilepsy, intractable pain, and suchlike, by using electronics workarounds for various medical conditions.
> 
> But we have got to grow up and wean ourselves off fossil fuels. If we don't, we are fncked.


I'm thinking data retrieval implants. And the condition isn't 'fricked' it's frickle-fracked. The hot, contaminated atmosphere causes the skin to crack open into fissures, and polluted sweat runs into them... suppurating pustules too, but the sweat doesn't bother them so much.

That's what's waiting for you young'uns, unless you get it fixed.


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## Fsharpmajor

Hilltroll72 said:


> I'm thinking data retrieval implants. And the condition isn't 'fricked' it's frickle-fracked. The hot, contaminated atmosphere causes the skin to crack open into fissures, and polluted sweat runs into them... suppurating pustules too, but the sweat doesn't bother them so much.
> 
> That's what's waiting for you young'uns, unless you get it fixed.


I think everybody will look healthy and sexy, no matter whether they actually are. One of the main problems in 2050 will be the depletion of the rare earth element indium. Its alloy, indium tin oxide, is essential for the production of touch screens. There's only about twenty tonnes of easily recoverable indium in the entire world, so we will either have to find new sources on the moon and Mars, or else go without.


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## science

Fsharpmajor said:


> I suppose it could be put to sinister purposes, but the main use in the foreseeable future will be rectifying, at least partially, hearing loss, blindness, spinal cord injuries, severe epilepsy, intractable pain, and suchlike, by using electronics workarounds for various medical conditions.


I'd guess its first users will be militaries.

They'll also have invisibility cloaks. That appears to be just a few years away: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/pwr_invisible.html


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## LordBlackudder

no need to guess. the world will end in 2012.


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## TzarIvan

The world in 2050?? Classical music don't exist anymore, as the people taste in music has been corrupted by pop culture


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## Philip

TzarIvan said:


> The world in 2050?? Classical music don't exist anymore, as the people taste in music has been corrupted by pop culture


pop culture _is_ the people


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

TzarIvan said:


> The world in 2050?? Classical music don't exist anymore, as the people taste in music has been corrupted by pop culture


Don't worry. I would have made people come to their senses by then.


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## superhorn

Armageddon tired of all these ridiculous predictions .


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## rojo

How about some Yogi Berra quotes:

"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."

and

"The future ain't what it used to be."


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## Ukko

rojo said:


> How about some Yogi Berra quotes:
> 
> "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."
> 
> and
> 
> "The future ain't what it used to be."


That "The future ain't what it used to be." is pretty deep. The future keeps turning into the past, and the 'new' future looks different.


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## Lenfer

Philip said:


>


The things that get washed up on beaches these days...


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## Chris

2050. Eric is at home with his mum.

Eric: Mum, why is there a rectangle in the wall?
Mum: That's called the front door darling. You can go through it to the outside.
Eric: What's the outside?
Mum: It's where people used to go before we had computers and the internet. They went outside to make friends.
Eric: I've got lots of friends. But not Luke. I unfriended him because he supports Everton.
Mum: It was different before Facebook. People met their friends in real life.
Eric: My friends were here last week for my party.
Mum: They were holograms dear.
Eric: I threw virtual blancmange at Jessica. He he he.
Mum: That was naughty Eric. People also went outside to go to the shops.
Eric: Like Amazon?
Mum: No darling, the old shops were like houses with big windows.
Eric: I've got Windows 26 on my third PC.
Mum: I don't mean... never mind dear.
Eric: Mum, will I ever go outside?
Mum: Yes darling, when you get married you go outside to find a new house to live in.
Eric: Oooh mum, how do you get married?
Mum: You click on match.com dear.
Eric: Oooh mum can I get married now? Please please please.
Mum: I suppose so darling. You are 43.


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## Klavierspieler

Regarding OP:

I'm with you pretty much except for the poverty thing, I'm much more pessimistic about that.


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## clavichorder

I just hope it isn't that bad. You guys at least have hope don't you? Nobody can really know after all. Same with "the future" of music. I wish we could all just do what we do, and try to do it well. Foresight can help, but one has to realize that things seldom turn out the way we think it will.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Chris said:


> 2050. Eric is at home with his mum.
> 
> Eric: Mum, why is there a rectangle in the wall?
> Mum: That's called the front door darling. You can go through it to the outside.
> Eric: What's the outside?
> Mum: It's where people used to go before we had computers and the internet. They went outside to make friends.
> Eric: I've got lots of friends. But not Luke. I unfriended him because he supports Everton.
> Mum: It was different before Facebook. People met their friends in real life.
> Eric: My friends were here last week for my party.
> Mum: They were holograms dear.
> Eric: I threw virtual blancmange at Jessica. He he he.
> Mum: That was naughty Eric. People also went outside to go to the shops.
> Eric: Like Amazon?
> Mum: No darling, the old shops were like houses with big windows.
> Eric: I've got Windows 26 on my third PC.
> Mum: I don't mean... never mind dear.
> Eric: Mum, will I ever go outside?
> Mum: Yes darling, when you get married you go outside to find a new house to live in.
> Eric: Oooh mum, how do you get married?
> Mum: You click on match.com dear.
> Eric: Oooh mum can I get married now? Please please please.
> Mum: I suppose so darling. You are 43.


I hope that by the year 2050 Facebook would have become ancient history.


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## science

I thought that was optimistic!


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## clavichorder

See my new signature.


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## Crudblud

I'd like to see nothing but sea.


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## Ukko

Breathing will be allowed only in specified areas. Speech will be banned outside the home, and allowed inside the home only with adequate sound insulation.


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