What the future holds....... (long term)

[Jumbo_Holden]

What do you think the future holds? in the long term?

Im not writing a science fiction novel. This what I geniuely think the future has in stall for us.

Technology will get better and more advanced. In 100 years times we will have technology that works togther with living tissue. We will have AI in super power computers and medical advances beyond our wildest dreams, huge cities with tall buildings and intergrated AI with them.
One day all the worlds natural resources of Oil, gas and coal get completly used up and the worlds global econmy total colapses as mankind goes to war and fights over what is left. Whats left of humanity becomes nothing more than cave men living in the great but empty cities hunting the buldings and empty landscape looking for food and water.

It will happen.

[MackemX]

I don't have a clue but I wish I was around to see it but then again I don't

[jimmalenko]

Can I get half a kilo ?

[MackemX]

Can I get half a kilo ?

can I get you anything else?

[AlecWest]

What do you think the future holds? in the long term?

In the long-term? Probably "death" .

At 55, I have less of a future to look forward to than most people. But, before I die, I suspect I'll see a nuclear confrontation of some scale. After that, I suspect that all the fancy gizmos and gadgets we envision will be less important than having a drink of clean water and a bowl of untainted beans.

However, if we manage to avoid such a catastrophe, I predict a 3-tier power structure in the world:

1) Workers - people educated with just enough knowledge to operate the dumbed-down software that controls functionality.

2) Bosses (industrial/political) - same old same old.

3) Technologists - the people who know "how things work" ... and begin to exert their power on bosses and workers.

Hehe, even the CEO of Exxon Oil is not as powerful as the technologist who can wipe his company's computer data clean given the right provocation to do so.

[BJ_M]

be blasted back to the stone age

[Cobra]

I hope that, someday, humanity will grow up. As a race, we're immature and, quite frankly, stupid. Fighting amongst ourselves all the time over skin colour or nationality. Yeah - that's really productive...

Notice how we as humans tend to unite against a common threat? Perhaps we will all pull together as Homo sapiens when we are all threatened equally.

[BJ_M]

need an alien warmongering race to swoop in ...

fairly unlikely i think at this point

[thecoalman]

One day all the worlds natural resources of Oil, gas and coal get completly used up and the worlds global econmy total .....

Actually the end of oil is a lot closer than many realize, worst case scenario is that it will run out within 30 years. There's a thing called peak production, at some point it requires more energy to extrct the oil that what you can get from it. Many of the worlds largest reserves are gettin to this point. As more and more become unsuable with little to replace their output it will peak. From there they expect a steep decline. This happened in Texas during the early 70's. The key word here is steep, it won't be a gradual decline. There's very few new oil deposit being discovered. The lagest in Saudi Arabia discovered it the 50's or 60's for example is still producing only because they are pumping water into it.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/feature_articles/2004/worldoilsupply/oilsupply04.html

Coal although more plentiful than oil,especially here in the US with nearly half the worlds supply is also a finite source. At current energy needs the US could supply itself for well over a century or longer.. I forget the exact timetable and am too lazy to look it up right now. :P

All of this is moot though, there are plenty of energy sources besides oil and coal. Wind, ocean currents, solar.... even the the heat generated within the earth itself. Once it becomes profitable to exploit these resources they will be.

[Epicurus8a]

Nanobots

[Faustus]

I don't know about you jokers but I'm arranging to get off this rock before Jumbo_Holden's prediction comes true.

So long bitches!

[hech54]

All we are is someones science experiment gone wrong. Those saucer-like objects we see in the sky are really other beings stopping by to laugh at how much we have not progressed since they dumped us here.

You guys didn't know this stuff already?