What will the world be like in 10 years' time?

arthwollipot

Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
arthwollipot
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
103,263
Location
Ngunnawal Country
On another forum, there was a discussion about thread necromancy, and when it was appropriate. Someone mentioned a situation where there was a discussion about what the world would be like in 10 years, that was revived 10 years after it was originally posted. Assuming that the JREF Forum survives for another 10 years (which of course is impossible to know now), I'd like to try and do the same. A time capsule, if you like.

So. What will the world be like in ten years' time? For one, I believe that the internet will be so pervasive and continuous that we won't even refer to it as an internet any more. It'll just be data - the way we get around and do things will be so dependent on it that we won't think about it any more than we do electricity. Storage costs will drop basically to zero, and most data will be stored in vast server farms and streamed wirelessly to devices.

Speaking of electricity, we are undoubtedly coming up on an energy crisis. Sustainable energy sources will replace a proportion of current sources as countries adjust their energy infrastructure. There will be more smaller, local energy generation units - many buildings will have their own solar and wind generation plants, with the excess feeding into the grid. Such plants will be considerably more efficient than they are now.

Hybrid and electric vehicles will be much more common than they are today, which will improve air and water quality in many urban areas. Most petrol (gas) stations will include battery swap/recharge stations as well as petrol/gas.

There will still be conflict in the Middle East and in Africa. Technology uptake in these areas will still lag behind developed countries. However, the situation will improve somewhat as more and more people get reliable access to the global information network. However, there will still be millions of people living in poverty.

Movies will be shorter, skirts will be longer.

What do you think?
 
I'll be able to order a chocolate bar from Ghiardelli's, and have it printed, wrapped, and waiting for me within an hour at the corner candy store. :)
 
Still no flying cars, still no hoverboards.

Anything else is irrelevant.
 
Some easy guesses:

1. The world will be in imminent danger from some religion gone amok.

2. Oh, and the world will be about to end from some environmental threat.

3. Something commonly consumed by people will turn out to cause cancer..

4. The word "ask" will finally be pronounced "axe". Oh, wait, that's 950+ years in the future!

5. There will be a heated debate as to whether Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame.
 
arthwollipot said:
.......There will still be conflict in the Middle East and in Africa. ......
Click to expand...

Middle East yes. Africa? Not so sure...

Nowhere on the planet is growing and changing as fast as Africa, and nowhere is embracing technology faster. Nowhere else is democratising faster.

So, my advice is to go and see it while it is still Africa, and before it has been totally homogenised into the rest of this homogenised planet. Oh, and whilst it still has some animals left.

On Africa.....I predict that the ANC will thoroughly split soon, and that South Africa will have a period of decline before re-emerging as a regional power. Sooner or later the DRC will break into smaller pieces, and post-Mugabe Zimbabwe will have a short period or turmoil, then resume its place as one of the most incredible countries on the planet.
 
1. In the tradition of James van Praagh, and then John Edward, and then Sylvia Browne, and now Theresa Caputo, the next "great" psychic will be a fast talking huckster from Butte, Montana. They will call him the Butte psychic. Not to be confused with Ace Ventura.

2. Bobo will be THIS close to finding a squatch on season 13 of the now internet-only Finding Bigfoot..

3. Deepak Chopra's latest book will be called "You're all suckers, I'm stealing money from you." It will be a best seller on the Kindle Blaze.

4. The President will reveal herself to be a Reptilian, but only to a 14 year old with magical golden plates.

5. Alex Jones will die of lung cancer, and people will claim he was killed by the NSA.
 
Self driving cars will be available to consumers, but they'll still be an expensive, high end feature and not common yet. All other new cars will come with GPS navigation as a standard feature and will communicate with each other giving the driver up to the second traffic information. Mid range cars will be semi-autonomous, the driver will still have the wheel, but features such as adaptive cruise control, 360 degree cameras, and communication with other vehicles means the car can react to things before the driver is even aware there is a problem.

Traffic jams due to accidents will be reduced, further reduction will be seen because cars will be able to detect when one route is starting to get congested and find an alternative. This will also effect nationwide fuel consumption since traffic jams waste fuel.
 
A lot will be the same as today, but...

1) Eco-friendly cars will be more common.
2) More people will be using public transport as it is improved across the world.
3) Near Earth Space flights will be common place for ordinary people as Space Tourism booms.
4) China will have landed men on the moon (there will be claims they faked it).
5) ESO will have taken over the mantle of the most popular MMO of all time.
6) Mobile Phones, portable gaming consoles, and Tablets will merge with the likes of Google and Windows Glasses resulting in most people using some form of enhanced reality through out their day.
 
Cuddles said:
Pretty much the same as it is now.
Click to expand...

x2. The desire to preserve the status quo amongst the major powers will ensure that.

The main difference I expect to make is to do with power. I will have a more economical car and the electrical goods I get will be more efficient. Even so power costs will become my biggest cost.

The main difference I expect to see is with the weather as it gets even more varied than it already is.
 
What the world will be in 10 years ?
1) still slurping oil like there is no tomorrow, ignoring totally any AGW consequence until it will be rubbed in their nose 50 to 70 years from now
2) energy generation will even be LESS nuclear than today with retired plants replaced by coal plants.
3) internet will be walled off from many side, be it private (especially DRM) or governmental, much more than now.
4) woo will come back in force
5) JREF will be a very low traffic forum
6) big foot will still be touted as an existing cryptid due to PGF
 
See Charles Stross's Halting State or it's sequel Rule 34. Both are rather good glimpses of a possible near future.

Edit: Warning, some people find the second person these books are written in to be disconcerting. I like it since it reminds me of text based video games.
 
Last edited:
People will no longer refer to "Africa" as if it were one big monoculture. Instead, they will refer to each of its diverse nations individually. One of those nations will be the newly-formed United States of Africa, which everyone will refer to as "Africa"*.










*This will confuse nobody, but will occasion a fair bit of trolling on the Internet.
 
People will stop referring to "Africa" as if it is a monoculture when people stop referring to the "West" as if Europe, North America and whatever other group they don't currently like are one big monoculture.
 
Weak Kitten said:
People will stop referring to "Africa" as if it is a monoculture when people stop referring to the "West" as if Europe, North America and whatever other group they don't currently like are one big monoculture.
Click to expand...

Or "asia" , "middle east" , "christian", "muslim", "atheist", "people living in westend frankfurt , versus people living in bornheim frankfurt".

We are creature which like classification, over-generalization.

So yeah, ain't going to happen.
 
The UK will be more like the US is today (due to being 10 years behind) but without g**s.

Many things will be the same.

The queen will still be on the throne. Charles will have predeceased her - to great rejoicing.

Fulham will not have won anything.

I will not be Lord Chancellor.

Something that was in fashion 20 years ago will be in fashion again.

We will be spied on even more.

JREF will have adopted Bitcoin, made billions in risky but well thought out speculation, caused turbulence in financial markets leading to social upheaval and gone underground as an international criminal conspiracy directed at destruction of the world's economy.
 
arthwollipot said:
What will the world be like in ten years' time?
Click to expand...

Google bots will rule the world with literal fists of iron.

Australia will revert to its original role as a dustbin for criminals.

The United Kingdom will be under water. Despite this, the Daily Mail will survive and blame the flooding on immigrants, Travellers (essentially Gypsies) and Muslims.

Global warming will turn out to be the result of somebody not shaking the thermometer before taking a reading.

Anglo Lawyers will sell out to Google and help enslave us all.
 
Last edited:
USA and EU have negotiated a Free Trade Agreement between them.

Negotiations between EU and Serbia have been completed, Serbia has fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria, and is ready to join or perhaps even has joined the EU. Other countries in the Balkans region for example Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro are in negotiations for their memberships. But still not Turkey.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom