What's going to happen?

[MarkBarbieri]

What are your predictions for the world 10 years from now?

Do you think that you'll be better off, worse off, or about the same?

Will our economies have long since recovered or we will be mired in a decade long depression?

Will energy prices be higher, lower, or about the same?

Will we be taking meaningful action to combat global warming, still arguing, or will we have agreed that it was a big nothing?

Will house prices be higher, lower, or about the same?

Any wilder predictions - all movies will be 3D? Cars will be almost obsolete? The Mac and Linux will have almost entirely replaced the Windows PC? Cars will drive themselves and we'll all be passengers?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'll make a few predictions:

1) Home phones will be practically obsolete. People will have migrated entirely to cell phones.

2) Few people will watch regular TV anymore. Everything will be video on-demand, video downloads, etc.

3) Energy prices will be a little higher than today. They'll be roughly on par with early this year - $100/bbl oil. We'll still get most of our energy from fossil fuels. Coal will be cleaner. More oil will come from unconventional sources (tar sands, shale). Solar will be popular only for non-grid locations. Wind will be a small but significant source of electricity. We'll be building more Nuke plants, but they won't be our leading electricity source.

4) Nothing meaningful will have been done about global warming despite a decade of debates, programs, regulations, etc. By 2020, the topic will have faded in importance and we'll be focused on some other "end of the world" scenario.

5) The China "miracle" will have stalled. They'll be a huge player in the world economic market, but they'll still be much poorer per capita than any of the G7 nations. Their economic growth will have slowed.

6) Anti-western terrorism committed in the name of Islam will continue to be a concern. It won't be much worse than the last decade nor will it be much better.

7) Electronic books will outsell paper books in the US in 2018.

 

[Galahad]

Ten years from now:

1) DW and I will be retired and doing everything we can to enjoy life, help our fellow man, and stave off Alzheimer's.

2) Our sons will be professors - One in Physics, one in Music. They will be happy and dedicated and complain a lot about their salary and the lack of support for higher education.

3) Rush Limbaugh will be suplanted by something or somebody even more incredibly idiotic. A Republican will be elected President in the year 2016 or 2020 and conservatives will think, once again, that they have finally convinced the electorate.

4) None of the technological predictions made this year will have come true - but we will probably be closer to them than we are now.

5) We will not be in the current recession/depression - but I'm not sure whether the next one will have started yet. There will be a next one.

6) They will still play Barry Manilow music to torture terrorists.

 

[Disney Doll]

I'm thinking about the same (which isn't bad at all) to maybe slightly better off.