Earth 2050?

PostEarth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:13 pm

I'm hoping everyone here will still be about in 2050 but what do you think life will be like by then?

I think the UK at least will be almost completely powered by renewable energy mainly from the vast offshore windfarms we're building at the moment and the next decade or so. This will be backed up by nuclear plants like Hinkley point C and a few smaller new reactors.
Self driving cars will slowly be becoming the norm but a lot of people are still reluctant to use them and normal cars are still abundant and almost all cars will be electric.
Most homes will have some kind of power storage system like a Tesla Power Wall but much less complicated and expensive.

Hopefully gooseberry fool like Alexa will have well and truly fallen out of fashion as people see them for the data mining machines they are and bin them.

The US will split into two countries with one being run by liberals and one by conservatives and the conservative area will be an utter shambles for anyone but the ultra rich. The liberal area will be ok but nothing special and China will take over the title of largest economy mainly just due to them having such a large population.

Lastly Luton will indeed be officially recognised by the UN as the New Dubai and they will relocate the UN headquarters there.

So what did I miss out and are you upbeat or pessimistic about the future?

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Cheeky Devlin** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:21 pm

Personally I don't think the UK will exist in 2050. Hell I'm not sure if it will exist in 2030.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Moggy** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:22 pm

Some days I am wildly optimistic about the future and other days I am wildly pessimistic.

At the moment I am pessimistic though. Climate change is going to wreck much of the world and will lead to huge pressures on the countries that are less screwed by it. Totalitarianism is on the rise and there will be war and destruction. Superbugs are going to kill more of us than ever as anti-biotics and other medical treatments become useless. The wealth gap will widen even further as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

But still, the PlayStation 11 is going to be awesome.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Superfurryfox64** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:22 pm

Shenmue 4

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Gemini73** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:26 pm

We will have died out as a species, the earth will have healed itself and cats will rule the earth.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:27 pm

Superfurryfox64 wrote:Shenmue 4

Hopefully on the just released Dreamcast 2.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:29 pm

Gemini73 wrote:We will have died out as a species, the earth will have healed itself and cats will rule the earth.

I assume the cats would have had to win a global war against all the pet dogs first.
This also means the death of all birds so I'm not sure I'm a fan of this future.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Cheeky Devlin** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:32 pm

Peter Crisp wrote:
Gemini73 wrote:We will have died out as a species, the earth will have healed itself and cats will rule the earth.

I assume the cats would have had to win a global war against all the pet dogs first.
This also means the death of all birds so I'm not sure I'm a fan of this future.

Pet Cats never stop being vindictive little murder machines. They can deal with the good boys.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:46 pm

I'm not so optimistic about the prospects in space as some.
I think Elon Musk's idea for Mars will be constantly pushed back but we may have a small base on the moon with maybe enough room for 5 people at once. Space tourism may become a thing with space hotels being put in orbit but only a few and it'll still be the preserve of the ultra rich.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **OrangeRKN** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:05 pm

Huge refugee camps around Europe's borders and militarised UK coastal border patrols. Food shortages for certain imported foodstuffs and seasonal water shortages in parts of the country.

Think I'm being pretty optimistic 8^)

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:11 pm

OrangeXMS wrote:Huge refugee camps around Europe's borders and militarised UK coastal border patrols. Food shortages for certain imported foodstuffs and seasonal water shortages in parts of the country.

Think I'm being pretty optimistic 8^)

In terms of food production I'm actually pretty optimistic. Hydroponics and vertical farming could become pretty huge in the next few decades and provide much more food output for much smaller areas of land than we use now. If lab grown meat does become a thing (I think there's a 50/50 chance of this) that will also be huge as it'll mean meat being produced using a tiny fraction of the resources it takes now and use almost no land at all.

Yes, this does mean a huge change to farming and a quite devastating loss of jobs but some of that will be taken back up by maintaining the equipment.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Preezy** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:37 pm

Robot sex slaves.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:39 pm

Festivus Maximus wrote:Robot sex slaves.

Hanky panky will be outlawed

.
Babies will be grown on Borg maturation chambers.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **OrangeRKN** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:40 pm

Total food production hasn't been a problem for decades, globally we produce more than enough - distribution is the issue, and that's both ineffective and frighteningly non robust. Climate change and the wars it sparks will drive unprecedented migration and that's going to be hugely disruptive. In the UK we rely heavily on imports from places that are going to suffer greatly.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:59 pm

OrangeXMS wrote:Total food production hasn't been a problem for decades, globally we produce more than enough - distribution is the issue, and that's both ineffective and frighteningly non robust. Climate change and the wars it sparks will drive unprecedented migration and that's going to be hugely disruptive. In the UK we rely heavily on imports from places that are going to suffer greatly.

The use of vertical farms and lab grown meat will also cut down on the transportation needed.
As for climate change I fear you are right and it's going to cause a lot of problems.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Oblomov Boblomov** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:28 pm

I'm afraid global warming will strawberry float us over so badly that we will revert to a pre-19th century standard of living.

We could be the last generation to enjoy the contemporary quality of life all the way to the end.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Ironhide** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:49 pm

The arctic permafrost will melt, releasing an ancient aliem bioweapon which causes 50% of humans to mutate into hideous crab monsters.

I may have played too much Phoenix Point.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:04 pm

I Shot A Kid wrote:I'm afraid global warming will strawberry float us over so badly that we will revert to a pre-19th century standard of living.

We could be the last generation to enjoy the contemporary quality of life all the way to the end.

I just hope humanity can survive until the end of series 7 of Star Trek: Picard.
Then we can launch a probe into space that just beams that out to the universe as a testament to our greatness.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Peter Crisp** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:05 pm

Ding Dong Merrilly on Hide wrote:The arctic permafrost will melt, releasing an ancient aliem bioweapon which causes 50% of humans to mutate into hideous crab monsters.

I may have played too much Phoenix Point.

We can just hit them for massive damage in their obvious crit spots

.

PostRe: Earth 2050? by **Rightey** » Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:58 pm

Peter Crisp wrote:
I Shot A Kid wrote:I'm afraid global warming will strawberry float us over so badly that we will revert to a pre-19th century standard of living.

We could be the last generation to enjoy the contemporary quality of life all the way to the end.

I just hope humanity can survive until the end of series 7 of Star Trek: Picard.
Then we can launch a probe into space that just beams that out to the universe as a testament to our greatness.

Nah, it should clearly be a probe that forces people within range to live a virtual life of someone on Earth who lived while the show was airing instead. That was a pretty cool episode, also pretty sad.

Earth 2050?

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