What will the world look like in 25 years?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I keep wondering what daily life will look like a few decades down the road. Will we have managed to stave off the absolute worst possibilities of climate change?

In terms of planning for retirement, are you hoping the state pension will still be a given? Could cryptocurrency (or anything else) cause any shift in how we save for retirement? What impact will the global recession have on pensions?

What will life be like, do you think?

A lot hotter wetter windier and less just sadly

Water, everywhere. Mass emigration from poorer parts of the world. The rich get richer. Automation kills off the last remaining supermarket jobs.

Pretttttttty preeeety preeeety good

Mostly shit.

I’m extremely concerned about climate change and whilst I do everything I can on a personal level (recycle, eat plant based, have one child won’t be having more etc) until more big corporations make changes we are fucked.

Also not sure the state pension will exist. I’m 31 and pay 6.5% of my salary into my company pension scheme and they contribute 15%. Even with that, I’m still worried financially for what my retirement will be like in 40 years.

Being old enough to have seen a lot of 'towns of the future' etc I can guarantee that it will generally be much the same as now, more eco awareness, even more technical advancement etc but if you're expecting something like we saw and expected in The Jetsons and so on you're in for great disappointment!

The divide will be bigger between rich/class/race.
it is growing so fast now people are more intertwined and feel it is okay freely have a say gathering a mob mentality.
The population will increase.
Society is breaking down the level of violence aggression is much worse than 25 years ago.
I still believe there's far more good than bad there's hope if big social changes are made.

The year 2046
Pessimistic:
No rainforest
No ice caps
Mass extinctions of wildlife
Extreme weather
Everything’s expensive
Food expensive but low quality
Overpopulation and poverty
Constant pandemics, due to environmental destruction and loss of biodiversity.

Optimistic:
Green energy revolution
Climate change being reversed
Increase in conservation
Democratic socialism on the rise
Equality on the rise
Regeneration of communities
Increased social connection and improved mental health

@hansgrueber

Being old enough to have seen a lot of 'towns of the future' etc I can guarantee that it will generally be much the same as now, more eco awareness, even more technical advancement etc but if you're expecting something like we saw and expected in The Jetsons and so on you're in for great disappointment!

Well, The Jetsons would be fun, but I'd settle for things being generally much the same as now.

But that seems rather...optimistic.

How set in stone is it that parts of the globe are going to be uninhabitable? Is it definitely too late to prevent?

I'll be early 80s by then , so I'm hoping I'll be ready to depart it all
by then!

Oh let it be utopian rather than dystopian. I've had enough of dystopian.

Increasingly over populated with mass migration away from areas affected by climate change.
Reduced quality of life, more extreme weather .

apart from devices and more immigration, I don't think today is so different from 1996. Yes we have super computers in our hands, but in 1996 we had mobile phones (ok quality) and websites (not quite as multi-functional). our cars now aren't so different from 1996

So... 2046:
more electric cars
more species extinct
more smart appliances & devices that all talk to each other
less cash for transactions
slightly less food waste
more treatments that keep people slender
better quality plastic surgery (it can't get worse)
worse air pollution
more life-like robots/android things
many more old people
many more brown people
more preciousness about young children, sheltering them
legal ban on all smacking children in most countries
less petro-products dependence
more environmentally friendly types of fake plastic
different germs causing problems
some amazing materials -- material science will explode in interesting developments
some cures for conditions we now think are incurable
Wars, famine, injustice, tyrany, dictators, populists, violence, drugs

I am curious @lljkk why many more brown people? Do you mean the Asian countries will see a population boom? Or races and ethnicities will mix a lot resulting in more racially ambiguous "brown" people?

in terms of physical infrastructure it will look pretty much the same as it does now

Oh what a horrible thought, 25 years time 😭

I hope to be gone by then.

It will be even more horrendously overpopulated and covered in concrete than now.

Actually, the film Idiocracy sums up how it will be, I reckon. We will be bar coded etc. "Ass" will be the most popular film etc.

lljkk 1996 feels like a different planet.

The past isn't just another country!

birth rates in 'white' communities & predominantly white countries are down compared to birth rates in 'brown' people/browner countries. UK has strong links to a very populous group of countries (Southern Asia) and will need to import a lot of professionals -- from Philipines or Nigeria, too, not just Pakistan etc.

I don't have a gut feeling that there will be more cultural tolerance & mutual respect on back of this change, sadly.

@lljkk

apart from devices and more immigration, I don't think today is so different from 1996. Yes we have super computers in our hands, but in 1996 we had mobile phones (ok quality) and websites (not quite as multi-functional). our cars now aren't so different from 1996

So... 2046:
more electric cars
more species extinct
more smart appliances & devices that all talk to each other
less cash for transactions
slightly less food waste
more treatments that keep people slender
better quality plastic surgery (it can't get worse)
worse air pollution
more life-like robots/android things
many more old people
many more brown people
more preciousness about young children, sheltering them
legal ban on all smacking children in most countries
less petro-products dependence
more environmentally friendly types of fake plastic
different germs causing problems
some amazing materials -- material science will explode in interesting developments
some cures for conditions we now think are incurable
Wars, famine, injustice, tyrany, dictators, populists, violence, drugs

May more brown people? Seriously?

I dread to think, so I try not to.

I think we’ll have a lot of very impoverished pensioners enduring 43 degree summers, suffering with mixed sex lavatories.

But in the 1960s it was assumed nuclear war was imminent, so who knows...

Self-driving cars.
Cruelty free meat grown from stem cells.
Supermarkets where you don’t need to check out.
High streets that are residential and service-based with few shops.
Ever better phones. No landlines. No TV schedules except live sports etc.
Robot hoovers as standard.
More use of robots in caring for elderly people.
More elderly people.
A more diverse population.
A bigger population.
More remote working.
More living away from big cities.
Fewer coffee shops.
More unemployment.
A privatised or partly privatised health service

More vaccines e.g. against cold viruses.
Maybe a cure for Alzheimer’s or some cancers.
Good treatments for covid

More self-charging solar powered things

If I’m still here, I’ll be very old
Who knows.

As a DC I thought we'd see flying cars by 2002 who knows maybe by 2046.

I guess we’re overdue a war :(