This is a thread for predictions; predictions about what life will be like in the future, what you would like life to be like in the future, and what you think life needs to be like in the future if we're to achieve world peace and shit. 3D printed chocolate bars - I'm calling that shit right now, 3D printed food in general will be all the rage, and then eventually the social norm. Some animals will get their rights upgraded, gorillas, dolphins, elephants... I can totally envision a future where humanity exists digitally inside of a supercomputer and raises primates as the new sentient life form on the planet. World Peace! What can I say? I'm an optimist, and, despite all our shortcomings, I think we'll get there sooner rather than later.
Amazon becomes so massive that it gives free 30-minute shipping to all Amazon Prime members, making it faster than physically driving to your nearest physical store. Walmart and every other department store falls. As does hardware stores, grocery stores, basically every store. Amazon buys out Google, Lockheed Martin, and every other major corporation in the United States. Drug cartels from Latin America can't keep up with the United Suppliers of Amazon's free 30-minute shipping of all drugs, and they are bought out by Amazon. Agents from the Central Intelligence Amazonians infiltrate the governments of all North and South American countries, and facilitate the consolidation of them into the United Suppliers of Amazon. By now, all of politics has been consumed by Amazon. Democrats and Republicans have been replaced by the Research and Development party and the Marketing and Public Relations party. Citizens cast their vote through buying products on Amazon, and elections are determined based on which party generated the most revenue in sales. Sweeping education reform is achieved--the new grade levels are field laborer, field labor manager, janitor, janitorial manager, package deliverer, package delivery manager, line worker, line work manager. Secondary schools and post-secondary schools branch off in specialized areas. Instead of the golden rule, young students are taught that the consumer is always right. The rest of the world grows to fear the USA, but continues to funnel money into the country because 90% of all music, entertainers, TV shows, movies, and video games are exclusively licensed with the USA. Plus, they really like the free 30-minute shipping. Instead of infiltrating or conquering the rest of the world, the USA chooses to rewrite all textbooks to inculcate the next generation of students in foreign countries. As this generation comes into power in their governments, they openly push for merging with the USA. In time, all countries are consolidated into the USA.
Hmm. In a fairly long time from now, but not quite as far as to almost anything being possible, we might have a new form of gory gladiator games. Imagine printing out an avatar of yourself that you mentally control, but without experiencing pain, you'd go out into the arena and get hacked up. Really messy and yummy. Hell of a sport! And in a future more distance than that, once we have the human brain all figured out and can make any bodily change that we want to make, we could be anything we wanted to be at any time. No reason for everybody to do the exact same thing. For some time you could get rid of your physical form and join with an internet of everything, a consciousness full of all known and shared information. Then print yourself a physical form of organic nanobots that can change shape at will. Turn yourself into a dragon or a lord of the rings Uruk-Hai orc. Maybe you'd alter your brain, increasing its ability to experience and enjoy music to a point far beyond what we are capable of. For some time you could remove all violent tendencies of the ordinary human brain to do what ever you want to do that doesn't require anything violent. And later on you'd acquire a brain that loves to enjoy a good bit of violence to plug yourself into a matrix that simulates an experience that you choose. An AI simulates what it imagines a lifetime of memories would be if you were to want to experience what it's like to be Hugh Jackman's Wolverine for instance. In a simulated reality, adamantium claws or a lightsaber could be made to feel as real as you imagine them when you watch the movies. Ever wanted to be isolated in a house in Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Or just simulate a sandbox reality where you can be a super hero, super villain, or a god that changes what ever you want at will. When you imagine a technology that can fully manipulate our brain or even reshape it in accordance with our specifications, suddenly anything seems to become a possibility. Another fun technology to imagine is when we understand exactly how genes work, we could quickly invent a new form of life to keep as a pet. Ever wanted your pet dinosaur? Or make up your own nightmarish Cronenberg body horror pet? Futurology is such a fun thing to explore. It's hard to properly fit it into a fictional setting, at least if you want to make a story with conflicts. I'd opt for just showing the journey of a person enjoying that place and show some of the adventures he or she or it experiences as it goes about exploring. Like Adventure Time and Rick and Morty, this would be a very fun adult swim cartoon sort of idea. Maybe one day I'll try to put it forward to those guys and see if they'll like it!
I can see religion going extinct, or better still, abolished. I can see people becoming symbiotic with computers, using their mind to control technology, which has already begun. I can see optic manipulation drastically changing the way military, security, and general defense is viewed. I can see society, even in developed countries, becoming highly segregated, not only through the effects of wealth and poverty, but also through the quality of education. This also is already happening. I can see the global population rising to the point where our ecology or economy can't support it without having a drastic impact on the planet. Natural resources will run thin, and because of the population, there will be a massive demand that can't be satisfied which results in conflict, both foreign and domestic. I could go on like this for a while, but those are my predictions.
The sky-line is dirty: drones become new hornets, buzz through open windows - everywhere. Also, driverless cars become endemic, or epidemic at least, I need my dictionary. Driverless cars all over America, gridlock. Small boys destroy driverless cars for kicks - with their bazookas. Everybody in America owns at least several bazookas in their armoury. Here in the UK, I, resistance leader, am constrained with my crossbow. Blame the politicians, but I cannot blame anybody but my very self, constantly in council of the world here on facebook, my decisions and your decisions are always instant through the blink of an eye. Scientists you see, they say 'trust your instincts,' and now that is all we do, mmm, mmm, froth, foaming. I really should edit
