What do you think life in the UK will be like 30 years from now?

[Blancmangemouse]

The year is 2053. I will hopefully be about to retire. What do you think life will be like?

I remember in my teenage years I became irrationally convinced I would die at 25. I remember reading that young people inexperienced with life can feel this way because they just can’t picture their future selves in an adult world which is unknown to them.

Now mid 30s I am getting similar feelings and it could be because the future seems so uncertain. AI, Climate Crisis, World Powers shifting- etc etc.

So what do you think 2053 will realistically look like?

I'll be 71, DH 78. I'm still working part time. We keep talking about moving into assisted living, before he need a care home...
The kids are be 38, 33 and 33.

Eldest works as an animator, has his own YouTube channel, that's still a big thing and he can do it around the kids. They have three - qualified for the bonus payments from the Govt to have another child. Wife works full time in a Govt job.
One twin married, no kids yet. They're contemplating one of the schemes to get work abroad but oy if they can find a way for the other twin to go too. They both work in engineering, but in different sectors.

King William has abdicated due to Katherine's ill health. George is coming 40, he's ready for this. Will Prince Erik by his side they're ready to take the RF in a new direction. The throne will pass down through Charlotte's line.

The Government is strict on all energy consumption these days. Solar panels are mandatory in all new build, have been for years. Water costs have risen so people are much more careful. Landfill is charged for so businesses have had to cut back massively on packaging etc.

Petrol prices have gone through the roof so people are much more invested in their local communities. People walk wherever they can. Foreign travel is a luxury for the rich, and always the prize on reality TV shows, which have taken over even more.

The NHS is part privatised but there's been some huge advances in stem cell research and cancer, and genome editing in foetuses. As mentioned, the Govt has schemes to pay families to have a third child because of the population crisis. Lots of people argue for more open border but the Prime Mister is resisting after what happened 15 years ago.

There's less travel on shopping too - less exotic fruits or clothes imported from developing countries. But that's helped fuel local economies more.

Evacuating plans have been drawn up for much of the SE coast, rising water levels and pollution have already made some areas uninhabitable and high rise blocks are flats are becoming more popular, whilst environmentalists clash with developers over dwindling green belt land. The Attenborough Act is meant to mean that developers must convert 25% of all brown field development sites to will life, but there's usually a way around it...

It's sad to think that Polar Bears no longer exist in the wild. I show the kids old nature shows, but they're amazed I'm so old I was alive at the same time as them 😂. They say the lions will be next.

No need for funeral plans. Everyone is cremated now and people can scatter the ashes anywhere. We're saving up so when the time comes, they boys and their families can afford to take our ashes to Wales

If you're lucky enough it get on. There will be a material shortage anf Parachutes will be too expensive for the ordinary person.

Well that or the current batch on MN babies will be on an MN equivalent arguing about how frequently to wash towels.

Tbh this is probably the most realistic. Nice post

I'll be dead I hope or else I would be 95 so don't particularly care

I'll be 93.
I hope there will be a Conservative government, low taxation, a thriving economy, encouragement for people to work.

I also hope education will be about education and not just qualifications, that the UK will have introduced a fit for purpose healthcare system and all domestic pets are loved.

DH will be 92 if he's still alive and the dc will be 53 and 50 and I hope they will have thrived and produced some grandchildren for us to love.

In climate terms I think we'll be OK.

I very much hope I'll have a sportscar!

@SleepingStandingUp - amazing! Trying to work out the best way of me seeing this again in 2053!

Thank you, I really enjoyed reading this.

Oddly the only part that has upset me is the bit about being cremated. I feel really, really strongly that I want to be buried.
Is buying grave plots ahead of time a thing?

I'll be dead 85 by then, I hope they will have legalised assisted euthanasia so I am not spending my final years demented in a care home unaware of what is happening outside.

You're too valuable outside the salt mines to be allowed to do that.

Looking at the way things have changed and not for the better over the last forty years, I would say that it will be terrible.
I'll be dead or almost dead by then as I'll be in my nineties, but for the sake of the future generations, I hope it turns for the better.
Somehow I doubt it though.

It will be a more boring world less diversity, fewer stars in the sky due to pollution. House prices will be lower though

Brilliant. Can't wait for Prince Erik.

I absolutely dread to think.

Just going to keep it real here, guys.

I mean, I class myself as quite optimistic but I just can’t see this!

AI will control humanity andlet’shope they do a better fucking job of protecting the planet and one day humanity will reemerge more intelligently

Hopefully AI will have taken over and sorted everything out. If not everything at least the Heathrow parking buses and fly tipping.

I think pollution will be right through the water/food chain as well as the rest of the earth. The only way to eat relatively unpolluted food will be to grow it yourself. Lots of preventable deaths and 'mysterious' illnesses caused by pollutants.

Lots of people will react to the unnatural/over processed life and go off grid. They'll be whole regions of communities living like we did 200+ years ago. These people will die earlier because of their physically very hard lives. They will be puritanical in all sorts of ways including gender roles. Religion will become more popular. There will be many localised civil wars.

Energy will be reserved for business/public services. Domestic energy will be what you can generate for yourself and if you run out then you do without until you can generate more.

Many coastal towns will no longer exist. London will have become almost uninhabitable because of the repeated flooding making it a shanty town of the poorest and most desperate. MPS will have moved parliament to the midlands.

There will be very little nightlife as we are so reliant on wind/solar. All new builds will have solar roofs/windows/wall coatings so new houses are very expensive. Most people rent. Flood defences will also be standard in new builds. Most people have an emergency raft and children are drilled in emergency responses.

They'll be days and weeks where people cannot go out because the wind and rain are too extreme.

They'll be a huge division between rich and poor. Rich will live in smart, air conditioned/safe buildings with green space. They'll have private schools and healthcare. They'll run the country.

Poor will live hand to mouth. They'll own very little and struggle to get menial jobs as they can easily be done by AI. Robots will look after rich elderly who will die from loneliness. Most will just die from starvation and neglect.

Rich people will run companies, strategize, lead organisations. Middle management jobs will be far fewer. Most good jobs will be given through family connections and nepotism.

There will be widespread disinformation (AI) so that no one will know what's really going on. Elections will be a ritualistic pantomime.

Services like the post, telecoms, libraries will be quant things of the past. Wifi will be free via satellite but the energy to run handhelds will be very expensive. Mobiles/computers etc likewise will be very expensive because resources like lithium are only available from recycled stuff. Most people only come into contact with them in businesses.

China and India are super powers. Europe and US second world countries. UK and Japan third world.

Rich people have started to colonize Mars.

Driven by AI and robotics, a 4-day work week, maybe less. There will be a shift to social good (physical and digital) and much more time spent on leisure and interests. Mental health will generally be much better.

Universal income with reduction in poverty levels in developed countries. Greater economic divides with an elite class.

Majority of civilisation plugged daily into the metaverse (VR/AR/XR). TV ans movies will be a dying art form. Humans will be more social than ever, but digitally.

Reduction in petty and violent crime, but hugely more cyber crime. Surveillance and monitoring literally everywhere. Privacy will be a rare commodity. Lots of civil unrest and will spark a sub culture of people that will want to disconnect and go live in remote communes.

Advancing medical technology, there will be much lower mortality rates and accompanying aging population, but 75 the new retirement age

Due to continuing climate change, there will.en increasing global instability with even more intense immigration issues. More overseas wars and threat of terrorism. Continued tensions with China, more so with manufacturing coming back onshore through automation and robotics.

Ultimately life will be more sedate and compliant to the loss of freedoms. Most of us will feel safe enough and be apathetic to most external struggles.

I watched that a couple of years ago. It was the first time I'd watched a postapocalyptic film and actually felt the reality of it.

Though perhaps a more likely scenario is Years and Years (climate change, economic collapse, the rise of the far right, lots of cheery stuff!)

Thanks for that @madroid....

Reduced life expectancy, people living more virtually as natural world decays, more drug use.

We will only eat locally grown organic foods and use only public transport except for certain licensed individuals. No imported foods, seasonal only. The young ones will recoil in horror that we used to fly or ship things for consumption. Plastic will be a thing of the past. Gov will have cracked down on processed foods and sugar products will be a very rare and expensive luxury. "Green" energy only. And everyone will laugh at how silly people were in early 2000s when social media was a thing and everyone walked around scrolling on phones. They were b😁anned except for emergency use in 2030s. Either that or we are all fucked

The Royal Navy will be tasked with sinking migrant boats.
The sick, disabled and elderly will be expected to undergo euthanasia because the state will refuse to support them.
We will be getting heatstroke in the summer and freezing in the winter as only the rich will be able to afford air conditioning and heating.
Massive loss of bird/animal/insect species due to habitat destruction.
Large violent underclass prevelant in all built up areas with high unemployment in this group due to lack of education and being unable to cope with technological advances.
The population coerced and controlled via technology and social engineering.