darkSpyro

I honestly thought you meant our personal futures. But if it's just general world issues then yeah, I agree that another world war may happen again eventually (hopefully when I'm too old to care). I also think that children in the future will suffer, since the population appears to be just growing, and the world will eventually run out of resources to support the increase in population (learned this from Biology teacher btw). And hopefully, like I said before, this will happen when I'm too old to care. Which I think probably will. I honestly don't think real threats to human kind will happen until a much later time.

Really bad.

Looking at today, we're studying the wrong things and funding the wrong things.

While it is impossible to do anymore than speculate, since all it takes is one little thing to totally change the course time takes, from what I can make of things, society will need to really innovate and re-think a lot of things if this race is to really progress and if humanity doesn't want to turn into pure anarchy.

As long as we take at least small steps towards a bright and developing future, I think we will be OK. Of course, this even differs from country to country.

In all honesty, I really don't like to make generalisations, especially not one as grand as this.

For the sake of consistency and a general answer, I will keep my answer within the context of 25 years from now.

Robotics will become a thing, but robots as we've always imagined them will either not exist, or be very primitive forms of such while still be in experimental phases. Such technology will be regulated to scientists, lobbyists, and all the other important people, with the public more or less not having access to them outside of the rare convention appearance. They would not be available for retail and standard use probably for another decade or so. Again, I speak about standard, traditional, The Jetsons/I Robot style robots. Not the kind of robotics that exist today in factories or even in our houses (Roomba?). Nanomachines will also be in the EXTREMELY early phases of development, and would be in that development largely for medical or engineering purposes.
People will likely have fear of this growing technology, afraid that all of this will lead to robots taking over the world either in the form of terminators or gray goo (look it up). Protests will be a regular thing and it would be a hot button issue in political discussion, especially if the government has some form of regulation of this developing technology.

Computer eyeglasses will probably be the next big technological craze and leap forward in the same way that smartphones were. Everybody will be wearing Google Glass or iGlass in every day life and become more globally connected on an easier and larger scale, though probably become more distant and isolated from the people around them (see: Wall-E, but without the fat people). VR will also play a part in the big craze, especially now that Facebook owns Oculus (for better or worse, probably worse) and intend to use the device to further advance social interaction through the web.

We will have hopefully perfected an alternative source of fuel over fossil fuels or natural gas. Hydro or solar energy will be slowly entering public use and electric vehicles will be the norm. Flying cars still won't exist, at least not in the way we imagine them. They would probably be more like little planes with wings and all, and the ability to drive in the road and be street legal.

Video games will probably have not only regularly used VR, but even go beyond it. Significantly more advanced motion controls or photorealistic graphics will be common. And chances are that games will exist that will be capable of taking you (your facial features, body type, etc.) and put it into the game you're playing, making for a more personal and "realistic" experience. Games and gaming consoles will be fully digital and physical discs will be a thing of the past. Sony is the most likely of the big 3 right now that would still produce gaming products, and the PS7 will sweep the world off its feet. Microsoft MIGHT still be around, though I'll get to them in a moment. And Nintendo, sad to say, would probably no longer be in the hardware business and would instead be devoted to developing and publishing their titles on other hardware. PC gamers will still circlejerk and insist that it's the only proper way to play games. Half Life 3 still won't be out.
This is all implying, however, that video game specific machines still exist. X1 and even the PS4 to an extent are both trying to prove themselves capable of being multimedia devices, and it's not farfetched to believe that by that point in the future there will be machines that are capable of handling games, movies, music, standard TV, and much more, making standard consoles obsolete.

And chances are that our privacy and the definition of the word will at least vastly different from what it is even today. Growing technology likely means more ways to be watched. Provided this power isn't abused it wouldn't be that much of a bad thing. But since it would be should we reach that point, one can't help but feel a little worried.

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Growing technology also means more advanced and dangerous weaponry. It will reach a point where the big nations that own these weapons will be more cautious than ever about engaging in direct physical conflict (a la Cold War). Diplomacy will flourish, even in other nations where war is commonplace today.

The world economy will get a major overhaul in some form. The US economy in particular will have to make major changes of some form or else collapse (or at least lose significance on the world stage, which is already happening). The EU will likely still exist and it wouldn't shock me if its influence spread further out into the world, or that other parts of the world organize connected regional economies similar to theirs.

Gay and trans people will have equal or similar rights to everyone else. Pot will probably be legal in many countries (and at least a few states in the US). People will find some other thing to rally against and claim doesn't have proper rights that we liberals today will see as being going too far. Guns use will finally start to decrease in the US................maybe.

New alliances will form. North Korea very likely won't exist in the state that it's in today, though a unified Korea is something I'm not quite sure of just yet. Due to more diplomatic talks in Africa and help from other sources, fighting will decrease and a few nations in the region will see some form of economic growth, especially if they cooperate with each other. I don't know about the Middle East.

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TV will likely be similar to what it is today, though with issues more closely related to the issues of their time, with SOME shows dealing with issues of the past or today. The War on Terror will be seen similar to Vietnam; a time of heroism and some good deeds, but mostly of mistakes and something that wasn't worth it.

Movies...............I don't know. Maybe 4D will become more commonplace. Oscar-bait will still be a thing though and we will continue to glorify World War II.

Music is also something I don't know. I don't think anybody even 5 years ago saw EDM, dubstep in particular, becoming as big as it is now. And since these past couple of years have had differing sounds dominate the year-end charts each and every time (singer-songwriter ballads in 2011, foreign indie hits in 2012, and disco throwback in 2013), even predicting THIS year is a challenge. The closest I can think of for music in that far of the future is this one part in a Get Lucky video where the remixer throws in what he feels 2020 music could sound like.\

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That's all I can currently think of. Keep in mind that this is all a semi-realistic optimistic viewpoint of the future. I want to believe that there is still good in the world and that there are positive steps in the right direction, as well as that the need for bloodshed and warfare falls by the wayside.

To give the short version, me being the paranoid person I am, I'm incredibly worried the Yellowstone caldera will erupt, destroying the western half of North America, and spitting up enough smoke to cause climate change on the scale of a 10ºC decrease in global temperatures every year for over a decade (according to researches at the University of Utah, anyway). The recent string of earthquakes in succession all along the west coast of the Americas only makes this fear worse. >.>

^I think so long as we decrease the use of fracking we'll be a little more safe and not worry too much about such a thing happening for a longer period of time (in which by then we could have developed a way to combat it).

Quote:

And Nintendo, sad to say, would probably no longer be in the hardware business and would instead be devoted to developing and publishing their titles on other hardware.

Considering your given time frame of 25 years, there is no realistic reason to believe this will happen. Nintendo have so much money in their bank reserves, they could halt production today, and their bank reserves could pay all of their bills until the 2050's, where they would then find themselves bankrupt. They wouldn't halt production, though, there is no reason why they would, and they had an investor meeting that outlined some of their plans for the next 10 years.

Just because the Wii U isn't a success on the scale of the Wii (and likely never will be), it doesn't mean Nintendo are doomed to go in Sega's direction, not in the slightest. You cannot expect to have a success as great as the Wii in the generation immediately after, especially considering the marketing. The Wii U is more comparable to the Gamecube, in the sense that it's profitable, but unless they do something really spectacular, it's not going to win the console war this generation in terms of sales.

For comparison, Sega's downfall from hardware development to software development was the result of a long series of flops (Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, the Dreamcast to a smaller extent) and internal disputes. The only flopped console Nintendo has ever created is the Virtual Boy (which didn't even hurt them that much). And there are no huge disputes within the company.

The Wii U is doing better as of late though (better than the Xbox One in fact), and is bound to do even better as time goes on. It's also the only system this generation that currently has games for most audiences that are truly exclusive since the release rate is increasing and there are quite a few games already released right now (Xbox One's exclusives generally come to PC and there are not many to begin with, and Sony is REALLY taking their time, it's worse than the Wii U's initial situation. I bought the Wii U four days after it's release, and my brother bought the PS4 on it's release, and I can safely say that the Wii U had more appealing games on it's launch than the PS4 has even now).

If anything, Sony are in huge trouble...
(I'm posting this video for the collection of events it lists regarding Nintendo and Sony, not to talk down to Sony fans, even though this guy's tone is condescending. Sony fans really need to wake up though. The title is sarcasm, just in case you think I posted the wrong video at first)

real life waifus

Quote: sonicbrawler182

*Nintendo will be alright*

I don't entirely look towards the current status of the Wii U for my claims, but also the growing trend of wanting game systems to be more than just game systems. Nintendo has said in the past more than once that they want to exclusively be about games. And while that's fine and dandy, especially to hardcore purists that don't want no TV in their games, that's not where things seem to be headed. Sony and especially Microsoft are trying to make their systems not only for playing games, but also to enjoy other forms of media on them. Wii U may have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon(?), but the other two systems have a lot more to them as well. People won't be looking to buy into future Nintendo systems if they continue to be exclusively for games except for the few people out there that are still aware of what they do and can bring (which don't get me wrong is great stuff and I'd still be buying too). The popular, mainstream audience will instead pick up devices that can do all in one.

Best case scenario then would be that Nintendo systems exist as machines for people that exclusively play games (and more exclusively play Nintendo games). Of course to us in the realm of gaming that's a large amount of people, but that number seems a lot smaller when Average Joe or Normal Nancy choose to buy the newest Microsoft box so they can watch their favorite movies digitally. It would reach a point where, to the common eye, Nintendo products would be labeled as "niche", or a product of older times.

Quote: CAV

Quote: sonicbrawler182

*Nintendo will be alright*

I don't entirely look towards the current status of the Wii U for my claims, but also the growing trend of wanting game systems to be more than just game systems. Nintendo has said in the past more than once that they want to exclusively be about games. And while that's fine and dandy, especially to hardcore purists that don't want no TV in their games, that's not where things seem to be headed. Sony and especially Microsoft are trying to make their systems not only for playing games, but also to enjoy other forms of media on them. Wii U may have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon(?), but the other two systems have a lot more to them as well. People won't be looking to buy into future Nintendo systems if they continue to be exclusively for games except for the few people out there that are still aware of what they do and can bring (which don't get me wrong is great stuff and I'd still be buying too). The popular, mainstream audience will instead pick up devices that can do all in one.

Best case scenario then would be that Nintendo systems exist as machines for people that exclusively play games (and more exclusively play Nintendo games). Of course to us in the realm of gaming that's a large amount of people, but that number seems a lot smaller when Average Joe or Normal Nancy choose to buy the newest Microsoft box so they can watch their favorite movies digitally. It would reach a point where, to the common eye, Nintendo products would be labeled as "niche", or a product of older times.

Reveal Spoiler

We may complain now about X1's focus on TV and other things that aren't video games, but we often complain about that because we already have Smart TVs or Blu Ray players capable of those things. I feel like in the future there will be manufactured machines that come with all of these capabilities in one, including the ability to play video games.

The vast majority of average joes aren't even aware of the TV capabilities and what not of games consoles, so this is not an issue for Nintendo. Most people just use their PCs for the llikes of Netflix and stuff anyway.

If anything, PCs will be getting more and more geared towards being all in one machines, and already are. Game consoles are called as such for a reason. If anything, exclusively focusing on gaming will give Nintendo an edge, because that's more of their budget being poured into the game side of the console, leading to more innovative features.

One of the things Nintendo did outline in their investor meeting is that they do intend to branch out beyond their typical games. They noticed that there is a blue ocean in the health market, and having seen the success of the likes of Wii Fit and Brain Training, they plan to make a system that's completely designed for mental and physical fitness, that will have cross compatibility with their gaming consoles. This is something Microsoft and Sony will not be doing, meaning Nintendo will have no competition in from them in this regard. So while Sony and Microsoft compete for making an all-in-one media machine, Nintendo do their own thing regarding encouraging healthy living.

However, my main point is, Sony will not be the best off if they keep going the way they are going. As stated in that video, Nintendo is now worth more than Sony. And that's not just the Playstation brand. That's the ENTIRETY of Sony. If Sony can't get recover this generation, they are pretty much doomed. Not that I think they won't, I have faith that we will see another Playstation, but that's just nostalgia talking, really.

Environmentally it will be catastrophic. Just a few degrees temperature rise and wham, melted ice sheets raising the sea level, bye bye Holland, Kiribati and Bangladesh you will be underwater. There will be environmental refugees flooding New Zealand and Australia from the islands in the Pacific around Malaysia that no longer exist. Bye bye polar bears and numerous other species that will die from loss of habitat. That means bye bye the traditional way of life for the Inuit and hello mineral mining and exporting for Greenland. Under the permafrost lies rock that contains metals like copper and zinc. The albedo effect will worsen, causing the ice to melt quicker.
Super droughts will occur in Africa and diseases like the plasmodium parasite malaria will spread as new habitats will be created for its vector, the female anopheles mosquito. Mass famine will kill millions in Africa, richer countries like the US are already being forced to donate environmental aid by the UN to help Africa prepare. Canada and Australia are refusing to donate. Africa will be in a worse economic state than it is in now. It does not have the money to deal with climate change.
Mass extinction will happen from a change in habitat for many species.

This is the depressing stuff I get to learn in A level geography. I need to know it for my exam lol.


Disease wise I think they'll find a cure for alzheimer's and dementia.

If a future eruption from La Palma triggers half the island to slide into the ocean. The Resulting Tsunami may be the worst in recorded history. It could very well happen in the next fifty years.


And besides, with the potential of Yellowstone. We're simply not ready as a species to combat the harsh effects of the aptly named "Mega-Disasters" that could happen at any time.



So many terrible things could happen before we've earned the right to call ourselves an interplanetary species.

If our technology would ever reach interstellar capabilities, then our future might actually start looking prosperous.

Simply put: Until be become a space-faring species, our future will be overshadowed by threat of quite a few inevitable events. Thus making it look bleak. What would be the point of advanced robotics or PCs with the power of several supercomputers if a comet as large as a city comes crashing into Earth?

But, as I'd like to say. We should Hope for the Best, and Prepare for the Worst.

Therein lies the problem. Money. The fact that we're conforming to a self-imposed value is restricting our progress more than religion ever has or will, but let's not bring spiritual belief into this.

We operate on money, yet we created it. We've built our civilization(s) around it, so when the system fails, so will we.

We don't actually need money to reach other places outside of our atmosphere. Not really.

I was going to write something long and supposed-to-be thoughtful to this topic but I didn’t. I realized that doing a whole SWOT analysis about the potential future of mankind would require too much time to create. But I might try to say something nice in a nutshell.

Our future is solely dependent on how we manage to preserve our resources. If we keep on going on living in our current needlessly high-consumption ways, we can surely kiss our behinds goodbye. The controlling of pollution and protection of the nature which gives us all the main resources is essential in battle for survival. This is our only planet on where we can live. Colonization of space can happen then when a new ideal planet is found and we develop Death-Star-like mode of transport on which we can live for many generations and provide vital resources for our well-being from the materials of space. So finding sustainable renewable nature-friendly energy sources is vital for our survival.

Other resource is human resources. Currently the growth of world population seems to be happening in the wrong parts of the world. And those places are wrong because those areas already have a serious lack of everything; especially clean water, food and medical supplies. If we cannot find a humane solution to rapidly increasing population of the world, it will lead to catastrophes. A huge number of people will become resource refugees, conflicts of interest will happen and armed conflicts will take their respective places.

With corrupting nature and number of non-healthy people, the groundwork for a huge new global pandemic is perfectly done. I believe that in the future the biggest challenge for human race is a whole new type of deadly virus. It is a planet’s way to balance itself.

Other way of balancing itself, nature can be cruel. Gargantuan earthquakes and active threats of big volcanoes and of course supervolcanoes worry me quite much. Because theoretical possibilities are that those natural disasters can cause a genetic bottleneck practically bringing human evolution thousands of years to back-track.

And of course the most horrible threat is the threat from the outer space. Meteors, asteroids and other near-earth objects possess a threat of instant extinction. It is the great unknown against which we don’t have proper defence mechanisms.

So I must admit that I am quite a pessimistic guy when it comes down to speaking about our future. The future depends on that how we react to the threats and develop technologies etc. to fight against them. Even though I must say that some of those threats are better just to let happen and then regroup our abstract and tangible resources.

I'm worried with overpopulation as of now. There is a limited amount of space and food on Earth, and with our current rate we'll overpopulate the Earth and starve. This becomes an even bigger problem when, with medical advancements, the average age to live to is over 125 years.

I believe that the world will just continue to get worse then it is now, until we finally destroy ourselves fully.
Also, Mankind will never travel the stars. I just don't ever see that happening.....

Quote: kardonis

I'm worried with overpopulation as of now. There is a limited amount of space and food on Earth, and with our current rate we'll overpopulate the Earth and starve. This becomes an even bigger problem when, with medical advancements, the average age to live to is over 125 years.

Overpopulation in terms of space isn't too much of a problem: http://persquaremile.com/2011/...ed-in-one-city/ this shows that you could pile the entire world together at densities that already exist and take up not too much land space at all, and even then there's plenty of barely-habited areas already on Earth for people to expand to (Note: map is from 1994, so potentially unreliable) http://flatrock.org.nz/static/...lation_1994.jpg. Foodwise, I think you're onto something. Heard several times our diet is unsustainable, mostly from veggies/vegans but I think there is scientific research saying so, and the more mouths to feed the more stress is going to be put on production unless there are changes in our eating habits.

As for the future, I personally think we'll start seeing more people in bigger cities due to multiple factors:

1. Climate change - coastal erosion and flooding forces people inland.
2. Economy - increase in automation means manual, unskilled work is drying up, which will force people to seek work in large population areas.
3. Immigration - incredibly easy to migrate thanks to advancements in transport, which will only get easier

As a result of this, with more people coming together in one place, I believe certain languages will start to die out. With so many people interacting together a universal tongue becomes important, so the more spoken a language the more likely it is to survive. English, Spanish, Hindi and Mandarin will probably survive (and possibly French because of L'Academie Francaise *rolls eyes*), but as for the others I'm not sure.

I think that the future is not set in stone. We may be heading in crrtain ditections, but we could change if we wanted to. We won't though.

Well, I don't believe that Humanity will ever travel the stars, unfortunately.
We're too war-like to ever get to that stage.
I believe that we will simply continue to wage war on each other to the point where we just destroy ourselves, physically AND spiritually.

Quote: Samius

I fear that in the future, human beings will become too prosperous for their own good. I fear that our lack of care and worries will stall or take away our need to develop ourselves and the world around us.

Have you read Dan Brown's novel Inferno? It highlights the issue of humans becoming too prosperous, but not in the sense of complacency of those around us, but rather overpopulation and the issues that arise from it. What are your thoughts on human sustainability? I know you mentioned populating the moon and other areas of space, but is that an inefficient or band-aid solution to the effects of procreation?

A mix of Stephen King's The Stand and Wall.e.

It's already looking like we're relying too much on technology, and a simple epidemic disease would shake humanity enough - imagine, not enough people working to supply electricity, delivery food etc to shops, no more petrol/diesel being refined - everything would practically shut down and there would be mass panic. This is what I fear for the future anyways, that or an EMP or a few other things like that..

Quote: kardonis

I'm worried with overpopulation as of now. There is a limited amount of space and food on Earth, and with our current rate we'll overpopulate the Earth and starve. This becomes an even bigger problem when, with medical advancements, the average age to live to is over 125 years.

Agreed, although we could find more room on the planet for ourselves, where will the space for all the plants, trees and animals needed to sustain us go?

Quote: cowpowa23

I believe that the world will just continue to get worse then it is now, until we finally destroy ourselves fully.
Also, Mankind will never travel the stars. I just don't ever see that happening.....

Your not alone there, I think Mars will be the furthest we will get if even that..

well.......

in the 60's, a man hypothesized that in 1999, we would live in a very advanced future, with metal roads, sidewalks, houses, and many bionics.
he wasn't even close, so he literally, "ate" his words.

personally, by 2050, i believe life wouldn't really change, just with stuff like, more advance cameras, robots helping the elderly (not pets, more like toys)---
--- *who could replace our furry friends?* and no flying cars!

i believe, it won't really change, actually, just some new technology for safety and convenience, *not TOO convenient though.*

it probably won't look like the jetsons anytime soon, or never in time, but, the more we build, the worse it gets.....

personally, i believe time travel isn't possible, also teleportation, but hell, i mean scientists already made a cloning machine and a mass producer (i think), so, we could be on our way to teleportation soon, but like i said, the more we build, the more we're impatient, bad things will happen.

we can stop this right now!

EDIT: I'm also afraid for, if astroids and natural fires form, the radiation (from the asteroids) would clog the atmosphere and block the sun, creating another ice age.
from then, humans might create bionics to continue the human race, lacking one thing, a soul.

Quote: goldenrushducks

well.......

in the 60's, a man hypothesized that in 1999, we would live in a very advanced future, with metal roads, sidewalks, houses, and many bionics.
he wasn't even close, so he literally, "ate" his words.

personally, by 2050, i believe life wouldn't really change, just with stuff like, more advance cameras, robots helping the elderly (not pets, more like toys)---
--- *who could replace our furry friends?* and no flying cars!

i believe, it won't really change, actually, just some new technology for safety and convenience, *not TOO convenient though.*

it probably won't look like the jetsons anytime soon, or never in time, but, the more we build, the worse it gets.....

personally, i believe time travel isn't possible, also teleportation, but hell, i mean scientists already made a cloning machine and a mass producer (i think), so, we could be on our way to teleportation soon, but like i said, the more we build, the more we're impatient, bad things will happen.

we can stop this right now!

EDIT: I'm also afraid for, if astroids and natural fires form, the radiation (from the asteroids) would clog the atmosphere and block the sun, creating another ice age.
from then, humans might create bionics to continue the human race, lacking one thing, a soul.

I'm betting that by 2050, the only thing big new things would be more advanced phones and better holograms.

Speaking by technical terms, a plane would be a flying car.

I don't know if any of you guys already have heard about this, but this was unveiled a while ago - "Mars One" is going to be an unscripted reality TV series that follows a group of people on an expedition to start colonising Mars. Basically, the group will start trying to make the place suitable for human life.

Making a reality TV show for this may seem like glamourisation at first glance, but the purpose of creating the reality TV show is to actually fund the expedition.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/0...ate-television/

Also, this series is not going to have a definite end, the plan is to keep sending multiple groups of people up for as many years as possible, using the money made from the show.

It is indeed something I am most curious about.

Quote: Samius

Quote: goldenrushducks

EDIT: I'm also afraid for, if astroids and natural fires form, the radiation (from the asteroids) would clog the atmosphere and block the sun, creating another ice age.
from then, humans might create bionics to continue the human race, lacking one thing, a soul.

Well for one, radiation cannot "clog" the atmosphere. Asteroids are not radioactive (unless they contain radioactive materials such as uranium, which occurs naturally on earth as well), and temperature swings don't happen that fast that suddenly.
The "nuclear winter" that is the hypothetical climate effect of a nuclear war (or any catasthropic event where vast amounts of energy are unleashed, like comets colliding with the Earth) happens beause of the massive quantities of smoke and dust being flung into the athmosphere. Despite it's name, it has nothing to do with radioactivity.

Also, there is no such thing as a soul. It's not a concrete entity, it's a figure of speech. Our emotions are caused by electrical impulses in our brains. Human bodies are machines already, and have always been. We're just not made of metal.

i don't remember what the material was, but it went something like that. plus, (not trying to preach to much) our souls, are us. you were right about the emotion part, but if you believe in god, then it is believed he will take us (or souls) to his kingdom. sorry for preaching... i shouldn't act religious right now.

Quote: Samius

Quote: goldenrushducks

i don't remember what the material was, but it went something like that. plus, (not trying to preach to much) our souls, are us. you were right about the emotion part, but if you believe in god, then it is believed he will take us (or souls) to his kingdom. sorry for preaching... i shouldn't act religious right now.

Right, well I'm an atheist so I'll just dismiss those beliefs on my part. It's alright though, no harm done. You can believe what you want to believe.

Quote: Cynderfan507

Since people refuse to dispose of garbage the right way, oceans, land, everything will be covered in trash. People refuse to take precautions to prevent global warming. The temperatures will rise. People refuse to stop tearing down forest land to build stores that we don't even need. Wildlife will suffer more than it already has. We'll end up building on farmland. We'll have no food.

Don't worry, there's a point where there are too many commercial facilities for them to stay profitable. At this point people will automatically stop building more because it's just not worth it. Also, the less recources human beings have at their disposal, the more expensive they get.
As for food, it's also inevidable that once we don't have enough, we'll do what we can to get more.

My point is that everything we do right now is either because of want and/or need. The focus of that want and/or need will shift as our current situation changes. People aren't blind to their own needs, they just don't see a problem yet because they still have what they need. If there's ever a time when they don't, they'll place a lot more value on those issues afterwards.

exactly what i mean.
but for the ice age part, i still don't remember what the material was, smoke?

Prepare for crazy theories that will make you shake your head or go "whaaaat?" in spots:
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Technology will become so advanced to the point where we no longer need to perform simple actions that we use everyday, say, walking or going to school or driving or even getting up to use the bathroom. Despite several health movements the developed world will become (70-95%) morbidly obese and violent. Several developed countries including the US become a totalitarianist oligarchy with market monopoly and forced famines ala Stalin. The oil shortage leads to massive wars over the middle east and the fight for dominance over Europe's land as the population shrinks beyond repair. Another world war breaks out over fossil fuels and it's the US vs. China vs. Japan vs. Russia vs. the European Union. The four way war causes death an destruction as well as land increases, leading the world to look like this (I know, it's just a rough idea):

The climax of the war, let's call it "Mass Termination Operation" was over control of Africa and the mines (with smaller but still big conflicts over Australia and the Arabic world). The bloody battles led to another Holocaust of European citizens as well as most of Russia falling to a double-team of Japan and China. Japan instantly backstabs China with as of yet undiscovered nuclear weapons capable of terraforming that can wipe out the people without leaving radioactive decay, but had a vicious battle over Japan and the US, now called the Harmonists vs. Monopolists that ends in a nuclear apocalypse. FYI, Japan wins and slow replenishes the population.

Fun fact: Nintendo lived through this ~50 year conflict by turning to the weapon creating business to supply Japanese soldiers with liquid nitrogen and atomic guns. After the war, it converted back to toys & electronics, having total domination of the market until ~10 years later when Grencoz became a hardware creator.

The fun wasn't over; with a completely unified world of Asians we were prepared to meet extraterrestrial life. We adventured into space until an alien parasite hijacked the species and wiped out the population.

Quote: Dyno-Mite

Prepare for crazy theories that will make you shake your head or go "whaaaat?" in spots:
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Technology will become so advanced to the point where we no longer need to perform simple actions that we use everyday, say, walking or going to school or driving or even getting up to use the bathroom. Despite several health movements the developed world will become (70-95%) morbidly obese and violent. Several developed countries including the US become a totalitarianist oligarchy with market monopoly and forced famines ala Stalin. The oil shortage leads to massive wars over the middle east and the fight for dominance over Europe's land as the population shrinks beyond repair. Another world war breaks out over fossil fuels and it's the US vs. China vs. Japan vs. Russia vs. the European Union. The four way war causes death an destruction as well as land increases, leading the world to look like this (I know, it's just a rough idea):
[img]http://i.imgur.com/s8oHcdR.png[img]
The climax of the war, let's call it "Mass Termination Operation" was over control of Africa and the mines (with smaller but still big conflicts over Australia and the Arabic world). The bloody battles led to another Holocaust of European citizens as well as most of Russia falling to a double-team of Japan and China. Japan instantly backstabs China with as of yet undiscovered nuclear weapons capable of terraforming that can wipe out the people without leaving radioactive decay, but had a vicious battle over Japan and the US, now called the Harmonists vs. Monopolists that ends in a nuclear apocalypse. FYI, Japan wins and slow replenishes the population.

Fun fact: Nintendo lived through this ~50 year conflict by turning to the weapon creating business to supply Japanese soldiers with liquid nitrogen and atomic guns. After the war, it converted back to toys & electronics, having total domination of the market until ~10 years later when Grencoz became a hardware creator.

The fun wasn't over; with a completely unified world of Asians we were prepared to meet extraterrestrial life. We adventured into space until an alien parasite hijacked the species and wiped out the population.

this sounds like one of those youtube videos.

Well I've been taught in biology that due amount of births occurring more than deaths, our population is rising more an more, and the environment will eventually won't contain enough resources to support us all.

so yeah i'm a bit concerned about that

Another thing I want to touch on is that we're messing with evolution - modern medicine and keeping disabled people alive has caused everything to go out of whack and halt or progress as a species (which isn't close it perfect).

Quote: Dyno-Mite

Another thing I want to touch on is that we're messing with evolution - modern medicine and keeping disabled people alive has caused everything to go out of whack and halt or progress as a species (which isn't close it perfect).

This. Whatever happened to Darwin's survival of the fittest theory..still happens everywhere else.

That's also why the human race keeps getting all these (so far) incurable diseases, nature's trying to control the amount of us on this world - but yet we keep winning the fight. I just fear something big will wipe alot of us out.

Quote: katkerrykat

Quote: Dyno-Mite

Another thing I want to touch on is that we're messing with evolution - modern medicine and keeping disabled people alive has caused everything to go out of whack and halt or progress as a species (which isn't close it perfect).

This. Whatever happened to Darwin's survival of the fittest theory..still happens everywhere else.

That's also why the human race keeps getting all these (so far) incurable diseases, nature's trying to control the amount of us on this world - but yet we keep winning the fight. I just fear something big will wipe alot of us out.

Our modern technology allows us to trump nature - for now. Those incurable diseases? I'm sure they weren't as bad before modern medicine and they were forced to evolve.

Quote: Dyno-Mite

Quote: katkerrykat

Quote: Dyno-Mite

Another thing I want to touch on is that we're messing with evolution - modern medicine and keeping disabled people alive has caused everything to go out of whack and halt or progress as a species (which isn't close it perfect).

This. Whatever happened to Darwin's survival of the fittest theory..still happens everywhere else.

That's also why the human race keeps getting all these (so far) incurable diseases, nature's trying to control the amount of us on this world - but yet we keep winning the fight. I just fear something big will wipe alot of us out.

Our modern technology allows us to trump nature - for now. Those incurable diseases? I'm sure they weren't as bad before modern medicine and they were forced to evolve.

Fair point with our technology, but we'll be kinda screwed if we suddenly lost it all like I said in my first post.

Thats the problem - as our science knowledge and technology are improving, the things we can solve now will eventually evolve into bigger things for the future, maybe even into something that kills us quickly before scientists can get a chance to study it. Thats just my opinion anyways

All I know is one way or another it's going to be scary.

Quote: katkerrykat

Quote: Dyno-Mite

Quote: katkerrykat

This. Whatever happened to Darwin's survival of the fittest theory..still happens everywhere else.

That's also why the human race keeps getting all these (so far) incurable diseases, nature's trying to control the amount of us on this world - but yet we keep winning the fight. I just fear something big will wipe alot of us out.

Our modern technology allows us to trump nature - for now. Those incurable diseases? I'm sure they weren't as bad before modern medicine and they were forced to evolve.

Fair point with our technology, but we'll be kinda screwed if we suddenly lost it all like I said in my first post.

Thats the problem - as our science knowledge and technology are improving, the things we can solve now will eventually evolve into bigger things for the future, maybe even into something that kills us quickly before scientists can get a chance to study it. Thats just my opinion anyways

On the other hand, we have the great apes besides us actually evolving and becoming more and more capable. They can teach some to perform sign language...and they are shown to act like humans.

Fair points, I must say. To clarify for anyone saying reading that post and saying "uh, no! It IS a theory"! The fact is that species evolve. Evolution is a fact. However, the Theory of Evolution is our attempt to explain it using Natural Selection and Genetic Variation.

Quote: Samius

It's still here as well. Nowadays the "fittest" simply doesn't equal "best surviviors", because we don't need to survive in nature like we used to. You know how mankind evolves these days? Dating, it's how we choose our mates.
You don't need to be a caveman swinging clubs at wild animals to enjoy natural selection. Unless we manage to erase the variables associated with evolution it's a constant, and it will never go away.

Also, nature is not a conscious entity trying to wipe us out, Earth is not trying to get rid of us, the flora and fauna of our world don't hate us or anything.
Nothing wants us gone. That is a human abstractive, the kinda "us - them" mentality that we often employ. Nature is working by the laws of physics, and we are a part of that very same nature.

I am aware that of course we are still evolving, and that it's not a case of surviving anymore just basically carrying on, like how some scientists reckon our fingers will evolve to suit the needs of using smartphones constantly. I'm just sort of meaning the people that would be classed as "unfit" wouldn't normally survive, so the strong theory of survival of the fittest doesn't seem to effect us anymore as we find ways of getting around it (like a wheelchair to someone who can't use their legs).

Yes, I know nothing hates us, but the way creatures are naturally eliminated is by disease, infection, killed by a higher food chain predator etc. Nothing does indeed want us gone, but naturally our over-population will still be maintained by disease etc., and as seen over the years, if we keep curing things something bigger will come, even by accident. I know it's hard to understand that concept, and I'm not good at explaining things anyway, but thats just what I think will happen.

Quote: Samius

I wouldn't think so. There's a lot more of us than there used to, and we have more knowledge and the means to apply it.
Also, it's not possible for us to just "lose it all", thankfully.

Sorry but I will have to disagree here, it would not take much to shake humanity. Take an EMP, we naturally get them for century to century, it's never really effected humanity before because we've never heavily relied on electricity before. Say we get an EMP, wipes a good fraction (if not all) the electrical circuits out on Earth, suddenly theres no fridges, factories have no power (no food being manufactured into packaging etc), no transportation, no mobile phones, nothing like that - cut off from the rest of the world. There would be panic, particularly in larger cities, humans would naturally defend themselves and there family at the cost of others' lives, the population would decrease rather drastically.

Regarding the ability to create medicines, it is achieved through years of testing, sampling from patients, experimenting on patients etc. It can't just happen over night. Say we get some sort of advanced flu that strikes your lungs or something and kills you almost instantly, with the cells showing nothing more than just an ordinary flu. Scientists wouldn't know how to cure it, the patients would be dead too quickly for testing/sampling drugs, and even if they could get some information, it could just look like the common flu (which, is also not actually curable, our bodies just deal with that). Sure it maybe wouldn't come back if you got a cure, it's just getting a cure that's the key.

I don't explain it very well, but Stephen King wrote a similar idea in "The Stand", where America is ground to a halt by a mass spreading epidemic, where only a few thousand are naturally immune to it and have to survive and regroup. It's worth a read if your interested.