The Future of Mankind...

[Boerseun]

So - let's speculate a bit.

Where do you see mankind in 100, 1,000 or even 10,000 years?

Judging by the last 100 years, whatever happens will be strange and weird! A guy who lived in 1900 will clearly not recognize the world today! I reckon if you go into a coma today and wake up in 2050, you'll be pretty much lost.

Here's my prediction:

I guess with global media being what it is, and entrenching itself even further, a form of internationalized English will become the global lingua franca. That being said, and the sheer size of the number of speakers, it will not be very susceptable to local changes. Sure - there will be different accents (like Aussie, South African and US English all being understandable to a Brit, but definite locality-specific accents) - but the vocabulary should stay pretty much constant for, I reckon, at least the next 1,000 years. Let's call a person living today "2006guy". So, 2006guy should pretty much understand 2106 guy, although there might be a few new words and stuff to describe technological advances, etc.

I don't place much hope on ever receiving a definite, verifiable signal from ET. I guess 12006guy will be as lonely in space as 2006guy.

I think there will be a spurt of attempts at colonizing the solar system, but it will die a natural death much like the Apollo program did. We went to the moon and proved that there is, indeed, nothing there. The TV audiences got bored with it, so support for the expenses died off. We'll go to Mars and Jupiter's moons, and then, well, stay on Earth.

I reckon that advances will be made in electronics to such an extent that we'll reach the absolute maximum in storage capacity for any available medium, and pretty soon, too. The ability to have individual atoms storing a 1 or a 0 will make 12006guy's computer as efficient in data storage as, say, 2050guy's computer. Obviously different methods of networking or whatever will pass for it in 12006 will make it more efficient, but whatever'll pass for a harddrive in 12006 won't store much more per square cm that 2050. They can make a 3D solid state storage medium, but it'll still be limited to the number of atoms, etc. I reckon there should be other absolute limits to varied technologies that will also be reached pretty soon.

I think that somewhere in the early 2000s, say 2020-2030, there will be a worldwide conflagration where the US, Europe, India and China (in different aliances etc.) will slug it out for world economic domination. Sure - the feeling is that 'free trade' and 'market forces' will stop these countries from going to war, but I think domestic opinion (especially in the States and Europe) will swing towards war as more and more jobs are exported to these ex-Third World countries, leaving the US and Europe with growing unemployment, etc. This will be dubbed the Third World War, and it will be nuclear after the initial conventional methods will prove to be inefficient. This contains the danger of setting the planet back a few hundred years, although if the death count is in the billions, it might just be beneficial (however callous that might sound).

I also reckon the world population will top out at around ten billion in the 2040s (if the war doesn't take place). This was predicted in the 1980's, and I agree with it.

I think Earth circa 12006 will have a population in the low hundreds of millions. Say maybe 200-300 million. Reason for this is that as populations grow in wealth and education, family sizes tend to fall. Europe and Japan being a case in point, they are running out of young folks!

But then the very real danger exists that Earth circa 12006 will be indistinguishable from Earth 10,000BC!!!

What then?!?!?

Our current civilization might be referred to in 10,000 years like we currently refer to Atlantis! People will talk about the Myths of the lost civilizations who left a few relics around of stuff that they simply don't understand. They will dig up our landfills and reckon we were a bunch of wasteful bastards! The will perpetuate the myths of us being gods, while they sit around their fires telling their kids about all the weird stuff buried in dusty heaps around them! Then, in 10,000 years, when Mankind sets foot on the Moon 'for the very first time', they'll find a few moonbuggies and footprints and stuff scattered all over the place, and they'll reckon 'We're not alone!!! There's definite proof of aliens having visited the Earth, using the moon as a low-g observation deck!!!'

Or maybe I'm talking through my butt. But then again, what do you think Newton would have said if you asked him to predict the world in 2006?

[Jay-qu]

wow, what a post, apparently I have to spread some more rep around before I get back to you..

100 years, hopefully I will still be alive and we will have bases off world. computers directly interfaced with our brains

1000 years broken free from this system this sun, and hopefully i will still be alive to see that, will have the theory of everything

10,000 hopefully we will still be around and colonizing the galaxy

[InfiniteNow]

Boerseun:

You'd probably really dig this book if you haven't read it already.

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/3001/

[Racoon]

I think in 100 years there will be flying cars like in the 5th Element.

I think in 1000 years robots will rule and the need for humans will be greatly diminished, if there are any.

10000 years?? wake me up when it gets here!

[InfiniteNow]

Oh yeah... my prediction:

They probably won't use the word "reckon" anymore.

[Boerseun]

I reckon you might be wrong!

[smartypant]

Oh yeah sure Racoon, like we won't all die before pollution and global warming kills us all. And we will be able to build gas masks that filters all the polluted air. YOU WISH!!!
But what are we gonna do about global warming even if we somehow manage to build such inventions? I don't understand why people don't think about that. I'm only ten so I don't know many things but I do know enough psychology to say this:
Mankind is going to die wether he makes wierd gas masks or live his life in a cryogenics pod. He just doesn't want to admit it.
I may sound crazy but I beleive in any of the crap about flying cars and robots taking over the world because I think YOU'RE all crazy because haven't you realized that the Earth is dying. We don't have many resources left. Sorry for not being Mr. Encouragment, but I was given the illusion that people talk about the truth not some kind of wierd inventions that we won't even be able to manage to make for the whole world.

[infamous]

In the year 2525, if man is still alive,

Just reminissing over an old 60's tune, but in all seriousness;

Mankind is becoming more and more dependant upon technology with every passing year. I would use the expression, "If we're not careful" we may find ourselves at the mercy of the beast. But I won't, because I fear it is already beyond the point of returning. My forcast is a dire one and for that reason, I may be criticized for being a total pessimist. Nevertheless here's my prediction:

If we don't annihilate the human race in war first, technology will eventually outpace mankinds ability to control it. I see the day when artificial intelligence will control us completely and eventually do away with humanity altogether when our contribution is no longer neccessary. It's called evolution, and the day will come when our time will pass..........................Infy

[HydrogenBond]

Technology will continue to get more and more complicated. Back say, 100 years ago, the average Joe could tinker with most technology of the day, since it was mostly mechanical. Today, fewer people can tinker with less of the totoal technology. In the future, we few will be able to do much with the technology beyond push the on button and use the interface for stirring.

Maintanence and further evolution of technology will mean even more specialization with the once open ended human mind narrowing down its focus to increasingly complicated tasks. The problem this will create is connected to the brain. Humans are omnivores, not just with food, but with knowledge, with a more diversified knowledge diet needed to evolve the 3-D or the right side of the brain.

What will happen, is that this very ancient and consevative side of the brain will seek its just due. The natural result will be some type of religious revival to exercise the right hemisphere.

Although that, in itself is not bad, the longer the time the narrowing of the mind, due to specialiization, continues, the greater the potential that will be created within the right hemisphere. An increasing potential will cause the religious expression to increasingly regress back into time, first pre-christan, old testament, mytholgy, nature worship, depending on the interval of repression.

This affect can be understood with an example. If you were forced to have a meager diet, due to circumstances beyond your control, at first the stomach would rumble. Give it a few more days and one will get grouchy. A little longer one will begin to dream and think about food all the time. Longer still one will begin to justify stealing and worse to get something to eat. In the case of a cultural wide starvation of the right side of the brain, the regression will be a stroll down religion lane, until the social dynamics become unconsciously compelled enough to restore balance. The transition time could be a little hairy.

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by smartypant

Oh yeah sure Racoon, like we won't all die before pollution and global warming kills us all. And we will be able to build gas masks that filters all the polluted air. YOU WISH!!!
But what are we gonna do about global warming even if we somehow manage to build such inventions? I don't understand why people don't think about that. I'm only ten so I don't know many things but I do know enough psychology to say this:
Mankind is going to die wether he makes wierd gas masks or live his life in a cryogenics pod. He just doesn't want to admit it.
I may sound crazy but I beleive in any of the crap about flying cars and robots taking over the world because I think YOU'RE all crazy because haven't you realized that the Earth is dying. We don't have many resources left. Sorry for not being Mr. Encouragment, but I was given the illusion that people talk about the truth not some kind of wierd inventions that we won't even be able to manage to make for the whole world.

The earth is not dying. That is a myth. Mankind may die off and no longer be found on the face of the earth. All life as we know it may die off and the earth be left barren. But that is the cycle of planets. Is that what you mean by the earth dying? Like the moon is dead? Or do you mean man is inherently evil, and the earth suffers and dies from mankind's ignorant behavior? Please clarify.

Bill