NationStates Jolt Archive

Next week the YLE(Yleisradio, the translation would be the FBC, the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation) will be broadcasting a show, which explores what Finland could be like in 2030. Changes include creation of slums, enternialization of the media and other changes. So, what does NSG think what will the world be like in 2030?

Mile high buildings, bigger cities, a massive urban sprawl. This is probably the only prediction that will become of anything. I don't think we are going to have flying cars and space holidays just yet :(

With a bit of luck, I'll not be around to care anymore...

Declining birth rates in developed nations (which will then include China but not India)
Over-population in third world countries so that the earth's population will be heading towards 8 billion.

Tougher border control because of pressures from the third world.
Regional monetary control as in the EU

A decline in religion - particularly in religious fundamentalism

More androgony (women being more like men and vice versa)

Petrol powered cars will almost be a think of the past.

The Finns' Nokia mobile phones will continue to revolutionise communications an dyoung Chinese will all have clones of them - enabling the rapid spead of the Chinese democracy movement.

We'll have vacations on the moon, 20 mile high buildings, and flying cars that can fold up into suit cases!

We'll have ... 20 mile high buildings ...

Gee, I didn't know they were planning to devalue the mile by that much! :tongue:

Gee, I didn't know they were planning to devalue the mile by that much! :tongue:

Its already starting don't you know?

Its already starting don't you know?

Yeah, and that's just to make cars score better in the miles per gallon department... :(

Massive resource crunch leading towards increasingly desperate recycling and mining operations. Energy brownouts commonplace as nuclear power becomes touted as the next best thing but fail to live up to expectations. Resource wars have spread out from backed proxies to increasingly direct conflict between military "advisers" of various countries. Alternative methods of energy and resource procurement are being researched, but stymied by monopolies intending to maximize profits.

Tensions are on the rise between nations as climatological and pollution conditions worsen, resulting in widespread crop failures and famine in third world countries and food riots in first world countries. Governments worldwide become increasingly authoritarian as citizen discontent begins to explode in violent riots and radical demands. Military units used against citizenry as suppression force.

I think the new world sport will be the new sport Hanglide Socketey, combining hockey, soccer and rocket powered hangliders, with the main focus on the Finland vs Russia matches.

It's people!

22 years away? Finland will still be too warm and horrible in summer and too cold and horrible in winter, alcohol will continue to rise in price (but people will buy it anyway), and Tango will become the official national dance (eugh blech), therefore immigration to Finland will probably fall.

As to the UK, no idea. Probably much the same odds.

giant ball of radioactive glass

Leather pants will be mandatory, and shirts will be criminalized. Shoulder pads will be "optional," in the sense that it is an "option" to be arrested and tortured for having small shoulders.
Alien creatures from beyond space and time will tear open the fabric of our existence and walk among men for the first time in over 100,000 years. However, they will leave in frustration after being unable to figure out today's "newfangled devices," like fire and the wheel.
The pinata gag, wherein a man (it is always a man) is savagely beaten by a blind folded small child and everyone laughs they're stupid heads off, will still be being used at least once by every T.V. "comedy" series. It still won't be funny.

In response to global food crises, all suburban lawns will be turned into co-op farms. Privileged nations' sense of humanity will kick in and massive amounts of food aids will be sent to the world's hardest hit nations... except this time aid won't be tied to impossible loans.

Peak oil will cause localization to occur... trade will continue, but will be better planned and, above all, truly fair. More things will be made more places, allowing for only what is truly needed to be imported from other countries. Trade between nation states will fluorish.

Canada's population will skyrocket over 300% to 100 million, as massive influxes of immigrants from coastal regions across the world flee the effects of global warming to a rapidly warming body of land with fresh water supplies and (mostly) unexploited resources.

Intercontinental auto routes will be replaced with trains whereever possible - trains will commonly accomodate cars as cargo to maintain driver convenience and personal freedom.

The United States won't be so united. States will be more or less autonomous regions.

Corporations will be required to have a sustainable community economic development impact and contribute positively to the environment as a condition of conducting operations in a given area.

Environmental sustainability will be the law, except in rare instances where it is neccessary to extract a scarce, essential resource.

The recycling/manufacturing industry will boom, allowing regions to turn their old shit into new shit and back again with a surprising profit margin.

The golden age of solar, wind and eventually, geothermal development will happen after 2015, with microgeneration practices becoming widespread, allowing the little man to get the big man out of his pocket - at least in terms of energy bills. Little men everywhere rejoice after their first cheque from 'the grid.' The invention and perfection of solar glass allows every window to become a power plant. Wind turbines will be placed on top of skyscrapers in cities everywhere - some unfortunate incidents involving the soon to be defunct airplane will ensue, and will serve as another contributing factor to the rise of the train. Tidal and wind power will be harnessed on the windy, wavy coasts.

Of course, the powers that be with the guns and money could still fuck this vision up... but something tells me the age of the tyrants is coming to an end.

Declining birth rates in developed nations (which will then include China but not India)
Over-population in third world countries so that the earth's population will be heading towards 8 billion.

Tougher border control because of pressures from the third world.
Regional monetary control as in the EU

A decline in religion - particularly in religious fundamentalism

More androgony (women being more like men and vice versa)

Petrol powered cars will almost be a think of the past.

The Finns' Nokia mobile phones will continue to revolutionise communications an dyoung Chinese will all have clones of them - enabling the rapid spead of the Chinese democracy movement.

Not likely. Especially not likely outside of large cities in fairly well developed nations. Yes India has an air powered car, the likelihood of it roaring outside Delhi in place of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles in the next 5 years? 10 years?

But at least India has a green future in mind. How about developing and undeveloped nations? Nations that cannot afford or do not want to feed their people. Do nations like these have the finances to afford green programs and solutions, either their own or from the developed world?

A Toyota Prius which has been on the market for 11 years starts at 30 large (CDN). That's out of reach for many Canadians. Until the cost of alternative fuel vehicles drop to within reach of the everyman, world wide don't expect the gasoline engine to go anywhere. It's initial investment is cheap, it is reliable, and it can be found in every nation in every town, village around this world.

NO FUTURE!

UK is goose stepping towards a police state, and will find itself torn between the nazi regimes in eastern europe (posibly even russia itself), and the EU. Muslims will be pushing sharia law onto the books and proselytizing on every corner of their ghettos, while terrorism is used as a justification for mass surveillance (one nation under CCTV, echelon, terehertz frequency cameras replacing metal detectors). Japan, Taiwan, and good korea will form a tighly knit confederacy, bad Korea will end in either a nuclear civil war or international intervention, with red China as the "good guys".

Nigeria's large population and oil shales will count for something, Brazil will be a world power equivalent to France, and Mexico will become a dominant power in north america. I like to think the US and Canada could balkanize under the right conditions, but thats just me.

GIANT KILLER ROBOTS!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.staats.us/sonle/gw_five_gundams.jpg

or not.....

The 2012 apocalypse has come and gone. World population down to a mere 300 million. Post-apocalyptic death squads roaming the countryside and murdering women and children for pleasure. Nuclear radioactivity almost everywhere. 85% of all plants and animals dead or dying. World temperature rising rapidly. In a few centuries, Earth will be completely uninhabitable.

NO FUTURE!

UK is goose stepping towards a police state, and will find itself torn between the nazi regimes in eastern europe (posibly even russia itself), and the EU. Muslims will be pushing sharia law onto the books and proselytizing on every corner of their ghettos, while terrorism is used as a justification for mass surveillance (one nation under CCTV, echelon, terehertz frequency cameras replacing metal detectors). Japan, Taiwan, and good korea will form a tighly knit confederacy, bad Korea will end in either a nuclear civil war or international intervention, with red China as the "good guys".

Nigeria's large population and oil shales will count for something, Brazil will be a world power equivalent to France, and Mexico will become a dominant power in north america. I like to think the US and Canada could balkanize under the right conditions, but thats just me.

:D Thanks for the laughs.

Baby boomers will be in their 70s and 80s and finding that their pensions are becoming increasingly inadequate, fortunately 80 will be the new 50 and many will be working in second careers. There will be substantial competition between generations for work. Women will finally achieve career and pay parity, not because of any legal support, but because the current trend of men not going to college and women going to both undergraduate and graduate school will shift the demand simply because there will be fewer qualified men.

As the US becomes more split along liberal/conservative lines, a third, moderate party will develop and the political slogan (sorry, Shakespeare) "a plague on both your houses" will become the rallying cry of the disgruntled and, finally, articulate party of sanity.

I´m getting flashbacks of watching Wall-E.:eek2:

Everyone has a flying car, entire meals come in pill form, and the world is ruled by DAMNED dirty apes! :D

Next week the YLE(Yleisradio, the translation would be the FBC, the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation) will be broadcasting a show, which explores what Finland could be like in 2030. Changes include creation of slums, enternialization of the media and other changes. So, what does NSG think what will the world be like in 2030?
Will the whole media be enternialized, and what does that mean!?!

The same things will occur as they always have, very little will change, except gadgets will be even more complex and expensive.
The poor will remain poor the rich will remain rich.
I don't see any reason why it will change.

22 years ain't that long. Expect a few years of global instability as China tells the world it doesn't actually have the massive economic growth it says it does, then it'll right itself and continue to grow.

India and Brazil will become global powers, India especially.

Westernised nations will institute euthanasia legislation so that all the baby boomers who are terrified of ending up like their dementia ridden parents can off themselves before it happens to them. Expect radical immigration expansion in western nations as population starts to decline, with birth rates falling below 2.0 per woman, and life expectancy also falling.

Population explosions will continue in the developing world, but as I said, immigration will take some of the load off.

OPEC will make sure oil stays at at least $150 US (equivalent, adjusted for inflation or abandonment of US currency as standard). People will still be buying Hummers.

People will teleport to go to work, home, vacations and everything will be dark and dingy on the streets with massive buildings on both sides of you. Flying cars will zoom overhead and when they get in accidents, they will drop out of the sky and kill people on the streets, which will be massive walkways for the enormous population since not cars will actually drive on them...

Will the whole media be enternialized, and what does that mean!?!

Yup, whole media. Even the news, and ratings will be monitored realtime.

The Finns' Nokia mobile phones will continue to revolutionise communications an dyoung Chinese will all have clones of them - enabling the rapid spead of the Chinese democracy movement.

Yay, the Finns will be at the forefront of innovation!

People will still be debating on NSG.

If it is the same people or not is a different question.

I will be 40-41 and thus miserably married with a scary mortgage and little hope of escape : )

I will be 40-41 and thus miserably married with a scary mortgage and little hope of escape : )

Better than having a scary mortgage all to yourself. :p

Those of us left will be sporting mow hawks, shoulder pads and wrist mounted crossbows, all fighting for the precious juice gasoline....

Better than having a scary mortgage all to yourself. :p

you haven't seen the wife :)

World tyrant Jon Stewart will be preparing for his final purge against the forces neo-scientologists in their last mega-fortress on Ron Hubbard Island (formerly New Zeland). But little did the tyrant know that these brave freedom fighters of honour and virtue had one last desperate plan up thier sleeve to bring down the Comedy Central Caliphate for once and for all. 2030 will be the year that mankind decides it's fate for once and for all. Guest starring Jean Reno.

Oh, and I'll be drunk. And on NSG57.

22 years in the future. Computers will be 16384 times as powerful. The internet will be full of porn.

There will be ruins of great cities left over from the wars that were fought for water and food.

Tribes of like minded people will be scattered throughout the wilderness, running from radiation and what's left of authoritarian governments. On the note, what's left of the governments will house selected intellectuals in bunkers to repopulate and hope for a better future in 100 years or so. Technology will only exist in their hands, if any left.

Civilization will barely exist in 2030.

Did you ever think about that though? If there really was a massive killing off of civilization, technology and most steel (because of rust) will be lost over 100 years.

The internet will be full of porn.

Oh gawd, I can only imagine what future porn will be like. If people are getting off to Japanese puking girls, and Brazilian fart porn, one can only imagine the horror of the future.

Abandoned to rust, decay, and creeping vegetation, monuments from before the Great War still stand amidst the ruins of Downtown DC: the Capitol, the Jefferson Memorial and the battered remains of the Washington Monument; this desolate area is known as Capital Wasteland. The central hub of civilization in the ruins of the former capital is Rivet City, based in and around the remains of an aircraft carrier carried far inland and beached by a catastrophic tsunami whose waters have long since receded. Other settlements include the towns of Megaton, Arefu, Tenpenny Towers and Paradise Falls. Movement between the towns is possible through the Washington Metro tunnels.

Oh gawd, I can only imagine what future porn will be like. If people are getting off to Japanese puking girls, and Brazilian fart porn, one can only imagine the horror of the future.

Sex bots.

After 10 GLORIOUS years of Barack Obama, in which everything went awesome, (america threw in two more years for being awesome) Palin will coup the government and establish a regime of Alaskan folkism, from which she rules for 12 years, before finally accidentally firing off all of America's nuclear missiles at the moon, destroying it, and causing the collaspe of the world's civilizations.

Sex bots.

they've been out for awhile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleaner)

Those of us left will be sporting mow hawks, shoulder pads and wrist mounted crossbows, all fighting for the precious juice gasoline....

You've gotta say it with a bit of a 'stralian accent. Guzoline, just like the movies.

Watch Children of Men. Then throw in Depression, massive climate change, and widespread government survaillance.

changes. So, what does NSG think what will the world be like in 2030?

Sen. Jenna Bush will decide to run for office in 2032 and so will Gov. Chelse Clinton.
Calif will be the first state to allow Human/Animal couples to marry, sparking another proposition to be put on their ballots.
The US will be reduced back to 49 states when Hawaii is submerged due to the combined effects of the Big Island Split and rising sea waters.

I will be looking at this forum, remembering the time that a thread called "The world in 2030" was created, and I will laugh briefly, then cry myself to sleep with the aid of alcohol.

I will be looking at this forum, remembering the time that a thread called "The world in 2030" was created, and I will laugh briefly, then cry myself to sleep with the aid of alcohol.

That's a pretty bleak outlook. :(

The formation of the nations of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia
The emergence of Droogs
The creation of the Kwisatz Haderach

I will be looking at this forum, remembering the time that a thread called "The world in 2030" was created, and I will laugh briefly, then cry myself to sleep with the aid of alcohol.
I do that nearly every day, why bother waiting :tongue:

You've gotta say it with a bit of a 'stralian accent. Guzoline, just like the movies.

*Winces*

On the note, what's left of the governments will house selected intellectuals in bunkers to repopulate and hope for a better future in 100 years or so.


Nahhh. Common myth perpetuated by nerds in hopes that some day they will actually get laid.

The world will be the same as it is now. Maybe technology will solve some problems and create new ones, but that's as irrelevant as it can be.
People will continue to multiply like bacteria (especially in the 3rd world - it's funny that birth rates are inversely proportional to the abundance of food) and they'll continue to kill eachother en masse (à la Great War of Africa). The first world will be split among the self-described centre-left and centre-right; the right-wing-ruled states will isolate themselves and the left-wing-ruled ones will submerge in a flood of immigration (unions such as the EU may become more centralised due to this melting pot effect).

Humans will still be greedy and selfish, whether it's socialists trying to force their beliefs on the rest of society, conservatives looking down upon anyone beyond their imaginary level, corporations bleeding humanity dry for profits, communists persecuting their own citizens found guilty of heresy by thought, etc.

The world will certainly not be a better place to live in, but it's not because nobody's listening to you*. It's because you're convinced that you're right, contributing to the flood of self-righteousness which will drown this world.

*Adressed to the reader, most likely to whomever doesn't feel addressed

one thing that can always be said about "the" future, is that a number of things we take for granted won't always be there. while a number of things we haven't even considered, will.

at some point (presuming the present course continues and cannot be diverted) famine and desease will reduce human population as a resault of that population over stripping available resources. another is a probable head on collision between emotional attatchment to certain things, such as the automobile, and the survival of the human species.

however, the first is by no means cast in concrete, and the second, with a little bit of common sense, is not immune to replacement by even MORE gratifying and bennificial means.

this is not to say what absolutely WILL have happened anywhere by any particular date, but three major converging factors ARE quite real:

1) the finiteness of oil reserves (and nonfiniteness of demand from an ever expotentially increasing human population, a demand i will never tire of pointing out, is entirely artificial and not intrinsic to the development of tecnology or anything other then lame attempts to stave off the inevitable colapse of an unsustainable status quo)

2) the breakdown do to abuse, of the illusions of symbolic value, and

3) signifigant perminent chainge in long term climate patterns, observably either do to, or at least triggered by, the degree to which combustion in all its forms, is employed by that already excessive and even increasing population (mostly to generate electrical energy and propel mechanical transportation)

plot your own projections, draw your own charts, but one conclusion is inescapable:

humanity is going to have to change many of its current habits, or the realities of the universe we are surrounded by in general, the mechanisms of the web of life in particular, will chainge them for us, and much less comfortably then were we to do so voluntarily before then.

We'll be hitting the hard slope of exponential technological change, which means things are going to be shifting very, very quickly in all fields of life affected by technological advances. It's obviously highly difficult to predict absolutes, but suffice to say there will be a huge challenge for governments and society to handle the rapid pace of change; not only will there be the consistent challenge of current ethical dilemmas, such as the technological rich-poor gap but also new ones that challenge the meaning of humanity itself and the way we deal with dramatic shifts in that definition.

In fact, things may have reached such an escape velocity that we are collectively hard-pressed to even keep up with our own changing world, the result being the collapse of existing social order and the constant emergence of completely new cultures and subcultures from previous ones. The world will be turned upside down, and I think it's up to us here in 2008 to make sure we take the necessary steps to ensure that these changes lead to a newer, better era of human existence rather than our downfall.

I'll be alive in 2030, ceteris paribus, so we'll have to see just how things turn out. I have a feeling they are going to be far more...something...than any of us can possibly imagine right now.

i have a lot of hope, faith even, that the humanity and earth that emerge, either after the famines and epidemics, or we somehow manage to choose to exercise the good sense it will take to avoid them, will be cleaner, greener, and a LOT more gratifying for everyone who will be living then.

but i think 2030 is a little soon to expect all of that to have cycled through, and being 60 today, it'll be fun to see (the begginings of) how potential catastropy is avoided if it is, but either way, it's UNlikely i'll personally be arround to see anything like 2080 or 2090 or 21xx anything, which is more reasonably likely 'how long it will take the dust to settle'.

as a quick sketch of what i would expect to see, where i to be alive on this earth then, and by then i mean when the dust finally HAS settled, NOT a mere 22 years from now, which is possible but not likely for it to have by then, i would say a much reduced human population, salmon returning to the rivers and streams, windmills and solar cells everywhere, and some or many little people sized trains.

private passenger automobiles something people go to museums to see and go away shaking their heads not believing. and that goes for ALL of today's dominant idiologies. certainly all that put symbolic value and trying to impress each other by accumulation, ahead of a sustainable living environment.

makiavellianism and procustianism BOTH will be things people will have a hard time believing that people of our current era could ever have gotten conned into either one.

We'll be hitting the hard slope of exponential technological change, which means things are going to be shifting very, very quickly in all fields of life affected by technological advances. It's obviously highly difficult to predict absolutes, but suffice to say there will be a huge challenge for governments and society to handle the rapid pace of change; not only will there be the consistent challenge of current ethical dilemmas, such as the technological rich-poor gap but also new ones that challenge the meaning of humanity itself and the way we deal with dramatic shifts in that definition.

In fact, things may have reached such an escape velocity that we are collectively hard-pressed to even keep up with our own changing world, the result being the collapse of existing social order and the constant emergence of completely new cultures and subcultures from previous ones. The world will be turned upside down, and I think it's up to us here in 2008 to make sure we take the necessary steps to ensure that these changes lead to a newer, better era of human existence rather than our downfall.

I'll be alive in 2030, ceteris paribus, so we'll have to see just how things turn out. I have a feeling they are going to be far more...something...than any of us can possibly imagine right now.

Oh man, your not talking about the "singularity" and transhumanism nonsense are you?



Look to the past to see the future.

Mile high buildings, bigger cities, a massive urban sprawl. This is probably the only prediction that will become of anything. I don't think we are going to have flying cars and space holidays just yet :(

Yeah, and horrible pollution.

Oh man, your not talking about the "singularity" and transhumanism nonsense are you?

Look to the past to see the future.

Nonsense? It's the most likely chain of events. Now, whether or not it's a good thing is up to each person to decide, but the fact is that change is not only happening, it's happening at an ever faster rate and it will be our biggest challenge as a society to see if we can keep up with it.

Even the very history of life on Earth has been one of accelerating change. The pace of evolutionary change has continuously accelerated; it took over a billion years for the most primitive life to emerge but only a few million to go from the most distant protosimians to modern humans. Of that, the most dramatic changes happened in only 500,000 years, a blink of an eye in geological terms. Hell, if you want to go that far, acceleration is a fundamental aspect of the universe itself, with the rate of expansion accelerating over time from the very beginning.