Re: Re: Re: A few predictions for the next 50 years
Originally posted by Mindship
Practical, functional? Being used for Big Questions? Or still experimental?
Practical? No.
Functional? Yes.
Experimental? Kinda. Made it factor the number 15. Built a quantum computer based universal-Turing machine. (didn't work very well but the universal Turing machine is the basis of computing)
Big questions? That will always depend on what you count as a Big Question.
Re: Re: Re: Re: A few predictions for the next 50 years
Originally posted by Symmetric ChaosKewl. As for the Big Questions: what're the Crays doing these days? I would think w/in 50 years, we'll have Quantum Crays humming away.
Made it factor the number 15. Built a quantum computer based universal-Turing machine.
Re: A few predictions for the next 50 years
Originally posted by Mindship
The discovery of extraterrestrial life.
Jewish/Asian/Hispanic president.
Limited practical fusion.
Quantum computers.
Smarthouses.
ET? hmm, still don't think it will happen. what form of life are you predicting?
a woman will come before those others methinks....
fusion, eh? i can go along with that in a limited sense. 👆
smarthouses. 👆 just don't think 50 years will be enough to see them affordable to the average person--though again i can see it happening in a limited sense to the general public.
china's population will begin seriously declining--too many men is already a problem over there. that could spill over into some aggression that may cause the world further problems down the line....
what won't happen? a cleveland team will NOT win a championship in anything that matters and the lions STILL won't win a superbowl.... 🙁
Originally posted by leonidas
nanotech will be big in the next 50 years i think as well.
Another thing we already have!
The way that history gets filtered down to us makes it seem like new developments will burst visibly onto the world stage the moment they're in working order. But with a few exceptions (like the lightbulb) the reality is that it gradually becomes ubiquitous. We've be working on the scale of atoms since the 1970s when my grandfather worked at Bell Labs with devices that set down single layers of them. Nano-scale transistors are the basis of the iPhone. Science site report on nanotech not as a speculative area of study but as practical, if very young, field of engineering.
We're living in the future and most of us don't even know it!
Consider that in 2002 the film Minority Report had a computer interface controlled by gestures. That bit of science fiction technology involved special glove. In 2010 you can go guy a Kinect, a toy that lets you interface with a computer screen based on your gestures with no need for special equipment beyond the camera. (yes Cracked made this observation first, but it was a good one)
i didn't say it would be discovered, silly. 😄 i know it's around and i know some of the limits. what i meant was that it would become far more prevalent and much more ..... public? especially in combatting the energy crisis and the environmental concerns. MIT is really pushing the area i think. it should be much more practical in the next few decades.
though according to freeman dyson, the environment and global warming really isn't much of a problem.....
Originally posted by leonidas
i didn't say it would be discovered, silly. 😄 i know it's around and i know some of the limits. what i meant was that it would become far more prevalent and much more ..... public? especially in combatting the energy crisis and the environmental concerns. MIT is really pushing the area i think. it should be much more practical in the next few decades.
I don't see nanotech becoming more public in the near future. The real advances I expect will be in material engineering. We'll use nanoconstruction to tailor materials to the specification we want with incredible accuracy, the highest quality products might have proprietary molecules as part of their design. It will make medical testing tremendously faster, early "lab on a chip" products are already in the works.
Originally posted by leonidasNot sure. I would think signs of, or actual, Martian microbes would be first to be discovered. But it seems we're also getting very good at detecting extrasolar planets that are more and more Earthlike. At some point (hopefully in our lifetime), we will be able to analyze atmospheric content, and along with other parameters, conclude whether or not a target planet has life.
ET? hmm, still don't think it will happen. what form of life are you predicting?
I'm not optimistic about any kind of prime-number signal from the stars.
a woman will come before those others methinks....Agreed. But after that...I'm going with one of those three.
Outside of technology developing, I don't think we can predict the future very well at this point; social and political landscapes could transform in any number of ways, depending on how they react. I would guess that the US will continue to become more conservative relative to international standards.
I feel like some of what's going on is reruns with variations. I'll throw my hat in the ring.
1. The global economic situation and standard of living will continue to deteriorate with several European nations spared of the crisis almost entirely.
2. As corporate power tightens, a series of leaked exposes such as wikileaks and strikes will invigorate protests globally. Governments, including in the United States will respond lawlessly and violently.
3. This will be followed by a period marked by a series of high profile attacks and assassinations against politicians and captains of industry which will be condemned by the media but publicly popular.
4. A true reformer president will be elected who will stand up for the peoples' interests. He will be assassinated leading to an extreme cultural backlash against the right wing. The vice president will take over and aggressively renegotiate trade policies leading to a manufacturing boom in America. Universal healthcare and many other European style socialist policies will become reality. Several politicians from past administrations face serious criminal charges but most die or are ruled unfit to stand trial before justice is served.
5. After initial tensions, as America rises, China realizes that much like France and Germany, it's economy is too intertwined. This results in better relations and liberalization of Chinese government and culture.
6. The government of Iran collapses and is replaced by a secular democratic government called the United Republic of Persia. Its resources make it a major economic power creating tension with Israel. Israel goes through massive reforms as much of the old government is voted out and changes the way it treats its Arab and Persian Jewish/Mizrahi population. This results in a loosening of tensions between Iran and Israel.
7. With the development of nanophotovoltaics and increased use of vegetable materials for the manufacture of plastics, petroleum becomes nearly worthless leading to many Arab countries liberalizing in order to survive. Terrorist groups lose their funding as monarchies collapse.
8. Russia becomes fascist. Belarus collapses and is united in a union with Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. A Russian invasion of Europe is halted by Belarus launching a secret arsenal of unaccounted Soviet ICBM's taking out many military bases and destabilizing the government, leading Siberia and Chechnya to declare its independence.
9. North Korea collapses and is absorbed by the south.
10. As female empowerment and gay rights increase in prevalence globally, birth rates stabilize and overpopulation becomes far less of a concern.
Originally posted by The Dark Cloud
Darth Jello, aren't we the dreamer. You have too much faith in humanity. The only one of your predictions I agree with is #9.
an old, drug abusing reckless celebrity will die and it will shock the world...
http://weblogs.variety.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/19/bettywhite_2.jpg
1: China, India and eventually Brazil will invest largely in infrastructure projects to increase their global power and as such will become 3 of the major economies of the world with China outstripping the US and the European Union. With India and Brazil both taking over Japan to become the 4th and 5th largest economies.
2: Tensions over Taiwan will surface between East and West with the eventual decision being that their respective economies are far more important than the relatively small so called "Tiger" economy. Deals will be struck and manufacturing will be moved elsewhere from Taiwan.
3: Oil production in the traditional middle eastern countries will begin to falter and development will shift to Africa (Nigeria and South Africa). Technological developments will also allow more efficient harnessing of tar sand fields leading to Canada having a larger part to play in oil production.
4: Scotland will win the World Cup
5: The Rolling Stones will still be touring.
