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Old 12-2-2011, 12:44 PM   #15
Cavernio
sunshine and rainbows
FFR Veteran
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 41
Posts: 1,987
Default Re: The world in 4000

Yes, I haven't said stuff yet.

I think that in 2000 years people will be living on the moon and mars, and probably not much elsewhere. I don't think we'll be able to 'teleport' in space or do faster than light travel, but that's just me. I think about 1000 years will be enough for the moon to be colonized, but not necessarily mars.
I also suspect metals will be akin to what plastics are right now; cheap and used everywhere that they can be, because with actual space travel we will be able to mine more than just the earth. (Yeah yeah, I that's like exactly out of any sci-fi universe, so not exactly my own idea, but it makes a lot of sense.) Meanwhile plastics and all products used with them will be very expensive, but we will still manufacture them for things that basically require them.
Food is also another thing that won't be nearly as cheap as it is now; food and personal space. The world will be hugely overpopulated, and by 2000, I bet the moon will be too. I think power will be super cheap, seeing as even now it's all around us just waiting to be changed into something usable, and might be rather like water is now: basically free for everyone. Also, you won't be able to colonize other planets without being able to get there in a decent amount of time, or be able to mine in space, etc, and space will be where the world turns to next to get resources and to have new space to live on.

But I don't think I can really say what the world will be like from a purely...societal point of view. All that I think I can say would be based on resources and reaching limits, and what technology will bring; lots of gizmos and whatnot that people use. I think we'll still have countries and there'll still be politics. There will still be poor and rich people, but what they have will be different. I think that due to overcrowding and therefore not as much food per person, the overall standard of living will be worse than now.
I think medicine will be much better, but there will still be a huge gap between who gets what treatment much like now. I also think that people will have more 'free' time, or at least time when they aren't paid for their work, simply because the people won't be needed to work as much, and hobbies and interests will explode at some point. I suppose if that happens though it will be a little opposite what we have now, where people make work for the sake of making work.
I think that perhaps what someone can buy with infinite money will be less than what a person can buy now, although I still think the poor people will have basically as low a standard of living as now.

I think that in probably only around 500 years we'll have fairly advanced AI's too, although what their role will be and if they will be mobile or anything, I dunno. Probably just helper AI's. I'm not sure if they'll have 'personality' attached to them. I'm thinking more like super advanced Google.

And that's as much as I've thought about the subject. It's really, really hard to predict, especially seeing how fast society can change even now, and then go back to something it was like a hundred years ago.
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