<p>What do you think the world will be like in 2056? (Will people live to 150? Will robots take over the world? Will we be all dead by then due to a nuclear war?)</p>
<p>I’ll start:</p>
<li>Appearance of babies can be controlled by genetic engineering. Height, weight, eye color, skin tone, you name it.</li>
<li>People will live to 120.</li>
<li>AIDS and cancer cured.</li>
<li>First human being born on the moon.</li>
<li>Nuclear-powered vehicles, which can fly.</li>
</ol>
<p>Well, 50 years ago (ok, make that 40 yrs ago) I thought by 2006 we would all be zipping around in prepetual motion flying machines… but here we are driving the same old 20 mpg fossil fueled internal combustion beasts…</p>
<p>nothing too spectacular i bet. probably some important advances in medicine and energy sources. However, I doubt there will be any sort of leap in technology like 50 years ago and today. The problem stems from the fact that the increase in computer speed is slowing down, and can’t maintain that speed doubling every 12 months.</p>
<p>Unless there is some break through in computer technology (for example some sort of chemical based computer) then I don’t think there will be any crazy changes.</p>
<p>funny thing - remember back to the future 2? its only 9 years till 2015! no flying cars or hoverboards i guess :-(.</p>
<p>jags861, the law is actually 18 months - and I beg to differ about if they can maintain the speed increase. Scientists could if it was logical to keep on expontially doing so. Since it’s not, the limit on funding, thus confounds Moore’s Law. Currently, it’s keeping fairly in pace, but I don’t doubt that one day it might be a bit on the sides of worthless to constantly meeting this demand.</p>
<p>Then again, by that time, Quantum computing may have arrived.</p>
<p>Also, it makes no sense as to why this would be the bottleneck upon advances in technology.</p>
<p>Energy is the key. Cheap petroleum drove the economic boom of the last 60 years, but it’s not so cheap anymore, and we’re starting to pay the environmental price (funny how there’s always a price, eh?) </p>
<p>My predictions? </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Less physical travel, more virtual contact. Hi-Def holograms will give the experience of being “there” without the physical/energy cost of actually transporting your body to a place. </p></li>
<li><p>Most work will be performed at home, except for manufacturing, farming and distribution. Students will continue to attend schools and colleges in person, however, and people will continue to refer to it as “the best X years of my life.” </p></li>
<li><p>No nuclear vehicles, no people living off-earth. There will be bad diseases. Maybe the same ones as now, maybe different ones. But still bad.</p></li>
<li><p>People will live about the same length they do now. Societal condemnation and prohibition of suicide for people over 80 will have lessened, but issues relating to the concept will continue to roil society.</p></li>
<li><p>There will be conflict in the Middle East. (Easy one.)</p></li>
<li><p>Sex will be obsolete. (Well, it will be for me, and I’m not interested in your sex life, thank you very much!)</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>There may be people living off-earth, but it will be a small group in the Biosphere. I don’t think that we are ever going to get very far with moving people off of the earth, simply because the materials to make habitable structures would have to be exported from Earth. Also, that pesky water issue!</p></li>
<li><p>The space elevator will be made.</p></li>
<li><p>Human cloning will have happened, with disastrous results.</p></li>
<li><p>The US will use nuclear power.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) Energy production in the world continues its decades long decline. Oil production will be, optimistically, a quarter of current production. US supplies are less than a tenth of 2006 supplies.</p>
<p>Nearly all North American and European natural gas supplies have been used up forcing mass migration from the North further south in North America. In Europe, the rich will be supplied with gas possibly from Iran or Russia, if the gas isn’t stolen from the pipelines. Everyone else has to bite the bullet. </p>
<p>Coal production continues its decline as well, as is Uranium and Thorium. They’ve all declined between 10 and 50 percent of their highest production rates in the '30’s and '40’s. Electricity production continues to wane in its availability.</p>
<p>2) The decrease in energy forces agriculture to have major problems supplying food to the world’s people and thus the population has naturally declined greatly.</p>
<p>3) The US has split into several smaller nations. Isra’el is but a faint memory as it was the first nation to dissolve and be eaten up by her neighbors following the crippling tightening of oil exports in the mid to late '10’s. </p>
<p>The Middle Eastern nations have revolted long ago, redrawing the boundaries with much more attention to ethnic and religious groups. </p>
<p>4) America is still in Iraq. I had to add that one.</p>
<p>CC forums continue to absorb more and more human enterprise, leading to less driving, less manufacturing, fewer wars, and an end to global warming.</p>
<p>Well, the digitization isn’t meant to replace the physical works, but rather, make copies of them available to those who wouldn’t otherwise have access. As long as the physical copies are handled carefully like they are now, losing digital copies would mean [simply] having to rescan them. Plus, secure redundant off-site backups should mitigate the risk ;).</p>
<p>Well, Dadguy, why should we insist upon that? Can’t we simply continue to purchase print copies? Personally, I would hate to read a book by staring at a computer - I enjoy being able to leaf through the pages at will; like the fact that it’s easier on my eyes; enjoy being able to lend books to my friends; and like the portability and the fact that books don’t need batteries.</p>
<p>The business leaders who are working to digitize everything are doing it because they see a market for it. So long as the market for print copies also exists, we will be fine.</p>
</p></li>
I had to add that one.</p>