What will the world be like in 2050?

[Someone Depressing]

Poverty, the enviroment, prejudice and Bjork will probably get more severe as time goes on.

I'd like to say I'm optimistic about the future, but EA will probably still be around by then, too.

 

[MetroidNut]

I'm not an expert, but guessing the future based on what I know of history and current trends is a hobby of mine. Politically, I'd wager India and South America will be more important (they have large populations in relatively undeveloped countries; once they really start developing, it'll be as a big as China's rise). China will be a full-fledged great power (but not a superpower, they've got too many massive problems for that). America will still be a superpower (world's largest navy by far, overwhelming influence and major center of trade). Europe and Russia will be a little less important (the EU is a joke when it comes to foreign policy, and Russia is a broken-down superpower trying to convince itself it's still important). And Africa will be a little further on its long journey to recover from Europe (with the help of Chinese investment).

Space exploration will progress slower than expected, because it always does. China and maybe India will have likely landed on the moon; a Mars landing by this point is possible, but I'm still skeptical. Maybe a replacement ISS and/or a Chinese station. That's about it.

Consumer products will progress faster than expected, because they always do. Smartphones and tablets and PCs will probably be very cheap and/or very powerful. VR goggles will work pretty well by this point, and other peripherals might be on the market (light guns and such). Appliances will be full of computers and features and options.

Robotics and electric cars (the only plausible replacement for gasoline-fueled cars) both depend on one innovation: better batteries. If this innovation happens, electric cars may become economically viable and robots will be a lot more practical. I'm guessing no to serious cybernetics in our lifetimes, because it takes overwhelming acceptance of computers and robots before an invasive, potentially dangerous product like that becomes popular. Cybernetics will stay in the realm of amputees.

The environment is a lost cause. Nothing the US or Europe or Australia does about it matters, because developing nations like China and India won't pay extra to be clean, and they have a lot of people who'll want to drive a lot of cars. But it'll probably work out alright, because we're incredibly adaptable. It'll take more than a degree Celsius to kill us.

Overall, the world will have problems but global standards of living will improve and, barring global thermonuclear war, there will be no apocalyptic collapse. This is a very strong historical trend.

 

[Flames66]

Life has both gotten easier, yet harder and more complex. Because any time saved by any form of innovation will have been put towards what will be considered the standard amount of work everyone is expected to do.

This is the problem with advances in technology, they don't make life easier anymore, only faster. Life needs to slow down massively.

I predict that either we will overthrow corrupt, spying governments or we will be living in a futuristic version of 1984.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

Impossible to predict.

I´m going to go with the boring answer and say that it is essentially going to be the same as now. Most of all people will get up in the morning, go off to work, go home, hang out with the family, sleep, repeat and just in general try to make ends meet while having some fun in the meantime. Some things we have today will have dissapeared, I doubt the desktop PC is going to be around for one. Some thir world countries will have made major strides while some first world countries will have done the opposite. A lot of countries will be roughly the same. We will have had a few wars, a few famines maybe an epidemic or two. I´ll be 58 by then so I guess I´ll hopefully be watching my kids start to have kids of their own and those kids will probably have a childhood very similar to mine, they may a little better off or a little worse off but they will probably go to school, play with their friends and spend too little time doing homework and too much time playing video games.

 

[FPLOON]

I think, during that time, my grandkids would want me dead because my generation would be the only thing stopping them from nuking the Earth so that they can finally live on Mars or something...

...and I thought music couldn't get more diverse and subjective...

 

[Da Orky Man]

Let's have a thinky...


Population will likely be stable at between 9-13 billion
Space travel will have likely not advanced too much. Manned base on Mars, but nothing of any colonization
China will be having the significant teething problems that comes with having a large, well-developed middle class yet a relatively controlled nation, plus a significant demographic problem
India will be where China is now, maybe a bit further ahead
The EU may have slowly fallen apart in a relatively non-intrusive way, it may have become a supra-national nation, or simply not moved on a great deal.
The USA will likely remain the world's premier superpower, even if other are rapidly catching up
At least a few of these countries will have imploded: Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, possibly Nigeria, Belarus, Russia (unlikely, but possibly), Venezuela


Shall add more as I think of them.

 

[RiseUp]

The environment is a lost cause. Nothing the US or Europe or Australia does about it matters, because developing nations like China and India won't pay extra to be clean, and they have a lot of people who'll want to drive a lot of cars. But it'll probably work out alright, because we're incredibly adaptable. It'll take more than a degree Celsius to kill us.

It depends. Sure, it'll be impossible to stop rapidly developing nations from polluting, but we're growing closer to technologies that could remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere on a large scale. It's all a matter of who will eventually fund programs like this since, oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be much profit in saving the world as we know it. And whatever way things go in terms of environmental change, I'm confident that humans will survive it (though we'd have to relocate billions of people to higher ground because of rising sea levels), I'm more worried that the world will be worse for it. Half the species of animals on Earth are on track to die out before the end of this century, and nothing is going to change unless we take a step back and reevaluate our place on this planet.

 

[MetroidNut]

It depends. Sure, it'll be impossible to stop rapidly developing nations from polluting, but we're growing closer to technologies that could remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere on a large scale. It's all a matter of who will eventually fund programs like this since, oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be much profit in saving the world as we know it. And whatever way things go in terms of environmental change, I'm confident that humans will survive it (though we'd have to relocate billions of people to higher ground because of rising sea levels), I'm more worried that the world will be worse for it. Half the species of animals on Earth are on track to die out before the end of this century, and nothing is going to change unless we take a step back and reevaluate our place on this planet.

I'm incredibly skeptical that any form of carbon dioxide removal will ever stop being prohibitively expensive. Why would any government pay billions today to possibly save money in the distant future? If the political will to take that bullet existed, we'd have seen it.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Buildings will be the same, tech will be more futuristic in one way or another and there won't be any future car or robot servants.

That's the most realistic sounding one. I would say there may be some new buildings but I don't think we'll get awesome sloping buildings like in Total Reboot or, Mass Effect. I don't see why the Korean Peninsula wouldn't be reunited by 2050 as it's only a matter of time before North Korean does something too dumb or, the right people die off at the right times. I don't see there being civilian Lunar, Martian or, orbital colonies but the ISS may have expanded quite a bit by then. If we can get some kind of artificial gravity thing going than the ISS may even expand to the point where it can harbor visitors at the very least. Also, when it comes to tech, I imagine planes will or could be flown without a pilot being in the cockpit. I imagine this being more popular with military craft at first, like smaller fighters or what have you, but eventually, when the tech is made reliable enough, commercial airlines could see remotely-controlled flights. When it comes to society I have no idea. The US has a lot of debt to consider, not to mention infrastructure that needs repairs. If organized religions started paying taxes we'd be absolutely set but that's not going to happen unless all of their influence is cut off but no President, Councillor, Prime Minister, etc would risk that kind of back lash. That being said though I'm sure we're well on our way, in the US, to having a President or Madam President who is openly not-straight. I'd love to see if the spouse is referred to as the "First Lady, First Man or, First Partner".

Half life 3 will be released.

Yeah, but we won't have a fourth...Valve will learn to count to 3 only to leave us hanging when it comes to 4!

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

As a cynical pessimist, I think we may actually see the rate of technological advancement slow down. The standard of living will also probably drop for quite a few people as well. The main reason: resource depletion. Our beloved technology which has provided such a high standard of living for the western world requires a LOT of resources to keep up. Those resources are running a bit low and replacement sources seem to be in a bit of short supply. Depending on the time when peak oil fully hits, rare earths get more and more expensive and thus drastically increase the cost of electronics, etc., etc., etc., we may see a reset on the nature of our more "advanced" societies.

On a lighter note, back in 1985 I made an off-the-cuff prediction that the human race would be effectively extinct by 2235 as a direct result of shortsightedness and outright stupidity. Did I mention I was a cynical pessimist?

On a truly lighter note, though, I have had a perfect 100% failure rate on all of my greater doom-and-gloom predictions and look forward to being proven wrong on this one as well.

Captcha: tune in

Yes, Captcha, I will. But what channel?

 

[Esotera]

The world will be a lot hotter.

As for politics, I assume that it will become a lot more progressive as it tends to over time, and probably a lot more decentralised. The internet is already changing the voice of the citizen, so imagine what it'll be doing 36 years from now...

Technology - really hard to predict as we're already at a rapid rate of change. Everyone will be able to get their genome sequenced if they desire for very little cost, and we'll see treatments based on genetics come into the mainstream. Computers is the big wildcard here, if they keep getting faster at the rate they currently are, there will be a serious prospect of developing a true AI.

Society - chilled out, well educated, and making good lifestyle choices such as eating healthily. In comparison to the people of today, anyway.

 

[Do4600]

I think it's going to be like it is now, yet more so. I think the most realistic depictions of the future are found in films like Akira, Blade Runner and to a slightly lesser extent Ghost in the Shell.

I think by 2050 you'll see moderately advanced Arcologies in many major world cities, if the recession hadn't happened, the Crystal Island Arcology would probably be in the final stages of construction.

Spoiler

I think it's likely that nearly every person in the industrialized world will be wearing a computer that augments their reality in real time allowing them to perceive the world with a rich overlayer of information, think contact lenses that link to your cellphone, we will be closing in on figuring out how to hardwire that technology to the brain with implants.

Spoiler

Microchips will be so inexpensive that you will be able to embed them in nearly anything. "Electricity is nearly invisible now, everywhere and nowhere,when we enter a room we look for the lightswitch, we assume the walls have electricity, in the future we will assume the walls have intelligence, intelligence will be invisible, everywhere and nowhere." -Michio Kaku

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, either by then someone has already won or whoever has the higher score wins then.

OT: I'm hoping it'll be more possible and acceptable to modify and improve yourself with various body augmentations, ranging from anything from devices that inject certain things like adrenaline, hormones or medicine when you need it to hydrolic pistons to make muscles stronger.

What I'm also hoping for, but really doubt it will ever happen is a character creator so you can change how you look in real life whenever you want. From the comfort of your desk.

 

[Me55enger]

I think it'll largely be the same as it is now.

The problem with the future is that you never really notice you're in it, and because of how it's shown on the silver screen, you don't really care. Instead you're sitting in 2050 wondering what it'll be like in 2100.

Either that or exactly how it is in The Windup Girl.

 

[Fijiman]

Well if we're not all dead, the world will more or less be the same as it is now but with shinier, more complicated technology. We still wont have flying cars though.

 

[RiseUp]

It depends. Sure, it'll be impossible to stop rapidly developing nations from polluting, but we're growing closer to technologies that could remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere on a large scale. It's all a matter of who will eventually fund programs like this since, oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be much profit in saving the world as we know it. And whatever way things go in terms of environmental change, I'm confident that humans will survive it (though we'd have to relocate billions of people to higher ground because of rising sea levels), I'm more worried that the world will be worse for it. Half the species of animals on Earth are on track to die out before the end of this century, and nothing is going to change unless we take a step back and reevaluate our place on this planet.

I'm incredibly skeptical that any form of carbon dioxide removal will ever stop being prohibitively expensive. Why would any government pay billions today to possibly save money in the distant future? If the political will to take that bullet existed, we'd have seen it.

I know it's a long shot in terms of someone actually committing to the idea, I'm just saying the technology is there.

 

[Gaijinko]

I think the UK will go all Code Geass on everyone by then, we are being relatively quiet at the moment but its coming, the UK mecha program is in advanced stages! now they don't blow up at princess bride level insults.

 

[babinro]

I don't see many good things in our future due to issues such as global warming, over population and peak oil. Governments haven't shown a willingness to fundamentally shift how things are done and as a result we'll have a pretty terrible period of time where society learns to adapt.
Translation: More wars and greater class separation on a global scale.

A couple of thoughts I'll throw out there:
- 'sin' taxes levied on parents who have more than one child
- genetic modification of children (IE: removing an illness prior to birth and other such things)
- no more game consoles or personal computers (no more need to sit in a dedicated location to play games/etc)
- cashless society at least in some countries (physical currency is increasingly useless for many of us as is)
- vehicles will automated and drive themselves in most developed countries / major cities
- no more postal service (handled online)
- no more newspapers (I'm actually surprised they exist now)
- drone delivery of items is commonplace (houses could have drone landing pads for delivery of small packages, food)
- 90% of office jobs as we know them are done from home
- no major changes in terms of outer space (no space stations/starships/colonies as you'd see them in most sci-fy shows)

Note: the above points tend to exist already but I list them with the intent to say they have become the expected 'norm' for developed nations.