To wonder how the world will look in 40 years

[Figmentofmyimagination]

We killed time on a long car journey yesterday idly speculating about this. If you think back to how the world looked in 1980 - and how it looks now.
My DD (15) was very pessimistic - no antibiotics, species deaths etc. My DH was much more optimistic in some ways - eg better genetics to tackle diseases. I thought the trains might be a bit faster! Actually I'm pretty pessimistic politically, but more interesting to hear what others think. This feels like one of those "turning points".

[steiner8]

This site predicts what will happen over the next 100 years. It's really detailed;

www.futuretimeline.net/

[Bellarom]

The borders will have collapsed and many immigrants will have moved in. There will be no benefits system and no NHS, so only the rich will get (private) healthcare. Only primary school will be free - everyone will have to pay for secondary. There will be huge problems with constant storms / flooding / droughts. The storm will have started to take over the seaside resorts. Only London will have money spent on it to protect against the rising sea levels.

[manicinsomniac]

Oh my God, this thread is terrifying me!

However, societies always predict dystopian futures (Orwell thought 1984 was quite a realistic prediction, I believe!). They don't seen to bear out in reality.

I don't think there'll be too much change. Technological change, mainly (I can't decide if we'll continue to go more Sci-Fi or whether attitudes will flip, people will get scared of over technoligisation (so not a word!) and start to revert backwards).

Political, Social change - I don't think it will be like these dire predictions. Things go in cycles. We've always corrected and moved on in the past.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Orwell got lots of stuff right though:

Big Brother; Massive decrease in personal privacy; we are monitored on CCTV and, increasingly, online.
Doublethink; So are we mates with Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan or whoever this week, or have we always been sworn enemies?

The Proles; Most of us are proles now, we increasingly learning our place.

[PitOfFique]

Wow, steiner8, that site is amazing. Thank you for sharing. Has totally distracted me from what I should be doing.

[Snoozebox]

The world changed a hell of a lot more between 1935 and 1975 than it did between 1975 and 2015.

I think technological change will have the most impact...social change has already come a hell of a way. I think we will have more fluid working styles (so a lot more people will be working from home and have more pay based on targets/aims achieved rather than hours clocked in) and terrorism will be replaced by another social fear. Can't imagine what that would be, but based on our economic situation coming up it might be something to do with age and health.

[Bellarom]

We can't get away from the effects of climate change - it is happening and will speed up. That is a fact, not just supposition.

[Gruach]

terrorism will be replaced by another social fear.

What's going to happen to bring this about?

[TTWK]

Only London will have money spent on it to protect against the rising sea levels.

Phew, that's a relief! You had me really worried up until that point.

[Snoozebox]

I can't imagine Gruach, but the dominant fear in our culture always seems to be based on differences between groups of people we don't really understand and who we fear. In the 30s it was fascism vs communism, in the 70s it was emerging nuclear powers. Now it's religious fundamentalism (yet again). It's time for a new fear...aging perhaps? We're already seeing that in celebrity culture. Maybe those who don't contribute towards looking after the elderly will get vilified.

[Pantone363]

A cross between Mad Max and 28 days later.

The world will be populated by marauding bands of people desperately fighting it out for fuel and medical supplies. There will be some large fortified camps populated with ordinary civilians attempting to recreate society. Lawlessness will prevail. Mystery illnesses and disease will run rampant, countries will eventually lose contact with the outside world. The (now) third world will advance due to retaining typical survival skills. The developed world will fall further and further into chaos as all skills and knowledge is no longer supplied by a touch screen in our hands.

[Bellarom]

Just looking ahead 15 years, I predict that there will be a huge chasm between rich and poor, with the rich thinking of the poor as almost a separate species, born to serve them at minimal cost and to live a much more basic and shorter life.

[Gruach]

Maybe those who don't contribute towards looking after the elderly will get vilified.

Nah. You know it will be people who have the temerity to look old, or who refuse to self-euthanise when they are old who will be lynched.

After all "the poor" have been beaten to death.

[Tetleys]

I live in Ireland and I predict that in forty years time, everybody here will have an American accents.

ttwk that made me laugh about the DFS sale!!

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Security companies (especially home security, but also security for the person) will do really well.

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Assisted dying will be lawful - and available through the private sector, but in theory at least, tightly regulated.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

It will be much the same as it is now, just with far worse weather due to climate change and an Internet so restricted that it bears no resemblance to what it is now.

[Ouchmybloodythumb]

I will be retired. That's all that matters to me.

[MrsFrankRicard]

Artificial intelligence has really taken off recently, in 40 years time there will be self driving cars and robots for all sorts of things.

[ppeatfruit]

With any luck the global farming system will have broken down and each country will farm organically and carefully for their own population. So many more workers on the land to help the robots .

The above will happen if we still have land to farm, hopefully the flooding will be controlled either that or we'll all be living in boats.

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Last post (sooo distracting!) - I have been doing some reading recently about the Anarchists - who were around at the turn of the 19th C. It's easy to forget that in those 20 years, 6 separate heads of state across Europe were assassinated by Anarchists. There were also quite a lot of random attacks, bombings, stabbings, slashing the horses of wealthy people and so on.

I think there are some parallels between the Anarchists and Islamic fundamentalists.

The Anarchists were extremely poor, poorly educated but auto-didacts - desperate to learn and easily led.

They believed in a secular utopian vision of how everyone would be (somehow?!?) galvanised by their Deed to rise up and create a world in which everyone shared everything.

They formed little cells.

They usually gave themselves up after committing their Deed, knowing they would always face the death penalty - they needed the martyrdom in order for the Deed to inspire everyone.

They followed secular preachers of Anarchism - men like Prince Kropotkin - who gave salon speeches about how violence and hate would produce change, listened to by intellectual worthies like George Bernard Shaw, who probably felt super cool and liberal by listening.

The British government took quite a long time to do anything about stopping the hate "preaching", given the number of assassinations etc

I suppose the interesting point is - everything comes around - especially if you (even if accidentally!) recreate social conditions.

[ppeatfruit]

More people die in traffic accidents than in terrorist attacks at the moment. Maybe there'll be driverless cars in 40 years time esp. for the blind, disabled and elderly, run by steam.

[DurhamDurham]

I predict dado rails will make a huge come back along with 'complementing' wallpapers on the top and bottom.

[LaChatte]

We will be eating insects instead of beef.