[LeslieMoran]

There will be growing conflict in Europe between the large muslim community, the agnostic/secular plurality and the smaller but influential Christian community. Look for armed struggle in France but a peaceful takeover in Germany.

[Suvuseh]

The impending ice-age caused by human-caused CO2 emissions(the 70's doomsayers will be "proven" correct). A geriatric Al Gore will claim he knew it first.

[flielagit]

Gore the Bore.


Cats will be running the show in 50 years.

[gastabegree]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
There will be growing conflict in Europe between the large muslim community, the agnostic/secular plurality and the smaller but influential Christian community. Look for armed struggle in France but a peaceful takeover in Germany. Europe has a small Muslim community.

70 years ago, it was widely believed that Catholics were taking over Protestant nations by birth, marriage and immigration. Oddly enough, this hasn't happened.

[avitalporatova]

The biggest problem will be the fallout on Apolyton after it's decided that OT posts really shouldn't have given +1s and postcounts are reduced retroactively..

[Eeaquzyh]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Meerkats will be running the show in 50 years. fixed

[Repwailia]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Cats will be running the show in 50 years. So...you're predicting no change?

[SAUNDERSAN]

If the USA was run by the majority of ACS posters, I'd agree.
This place isn't indicative of the USA though.

[fkjghfg]

Originally posted by Bosh
I predict that all of Oerdin's predictions will turn out to be wrong. Yeah, I'm willing to bet on it, too. Oerdin, if your predictions don't come true by 2056, I get to pick your avatar, OK?

[velichay]

Originally posted by Oerdin
50 years from now; my predictions:

America will have declined so much that few will wonder if they were ever a major power. The religious fanatics will continue to block scientific advances and ruin the education of children and as a result Americans are among the worst educated people in the former west.

France celibrates Islam Day or the day that the majority of the population became muslim. Islamic militants practically run the country.

There is no longer an Israel. The Jews don't breed fast enough while the Arabs never stop breeding and as a result the Arabs become the majority and vote to have the country annex by Palistine.

India is wondering how to feed it's 2.5 billion people; an increase of 250% in just 50 years.

China went democratic about 10 years ago but immediately their became major problems. All the various ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups started to demand autonomy and when the central government bulked they pushed for independence. There are now a half dozen states where the unified multiethnic empire used to be.

Europe is more united but still not reformed so that they are little better then a gaggle where each state has a veto. There doesn't appear to be any means to fix the whole mess. I think that in 50 years the UN will run the world as it nearly does now with its black helicopters circling every major city in the world. Homosexuals will ruin the morality of this country by introducing gay marriage and ever tighter pants onto the population. Interior design will become the primary occupation in the United States. Anti-religious zealots will continue to wreck our schools by imposing their anti-god rhetoric on the children of our nation and relegate our kids to atheistic boobs who garner their hopes and dreams in the latest George Clooney film.

Europe will continue to allow Islamists to establish ghettos in its major cities leading to more race riots throughout the latter part of the 21st century. The EU will pass another 50,000 laws regarding the naming of cheese.

France will continue to be run by a bunch of wheenies.

Israel will continue to covet their tiny sliver of land. Palestinians will continue to covet their tiny sliver of land.

India will become a superpower, but will occasionally suffer a few million deaths from disease, bad plumbing, terrible storms, and bad Indian cooking.

China will realize that they have an 80-20 men to woman ratio and will be to focused on finding dates to worry about anything else.

[bp9QxekG]

Duh? You aren't Canadian.

[MartZubok]

In 50 yrs (or so) is WWIII. After that they build the warpship, make contact to hot Vulcan chicks, create the federation of planets where you don't need money anymore, except when dealing with the Ferengi. /teh geekiness!

[ENGINESSQ]

I'd like a WWIII on two conditions:

1) not in Europe
2) no nukes
3) HDTV coverage

I said two? OK, there can be nukes then.

[NikolaAAA]

In 50 yrs smaller EU members like Canada and Russia will complain that the entire union is just result of a Greek-Finnish conspiracy for world dominance!

[Corporal White]

I will be 70 years old, and, being super-rich, will buy my new girlfriend an island for her 25th birthday. This will be a problem for the world as the inhabitants of the island will need to be relocated.

[Weislenalkata]

Any of four possible eco-disasters could be the biggest problem....if they happened. From most likely to least likely:

(1) Shutdown of the Atlantic Conveyer due to the influx of fresh water from the melting icecaps. The Atlantic will essentially form two layers: les-salty water on top, traditionally salty water on the bottom. This will cause the usual submerging of cold water in the far North Atlantic to cease, and this will in turn stop the northward flow of warm water from the Equator. Europe will be thrown into a mini-ice age.

(2) Mega-Tsunami drowns the U.S. East Coast. There's a volcano in the Canary Islands which has over the millenium has built up concentric rings of volcanic soil (which is impentetrable to water) and normal soil with is filled with water. If this volcano blows, all that water will be turned to steam, which will blow out the western end of the island, creating a tsunami so large it'll make the Indonesian one look like a ripple. It'll wipe out the eastern seaboard of the U.S.

(3) Eruption of Yellowstone, the largest supervolcano in the world. Poison gas and ash would kill nearly everything in the central U.S. These eruptions happen every 600,000 years or so, and it's now 40,000 years overdue.

(4) Comet hits the Earth -- If you don't think this can happen, ask the dinosaurs. Can't find any dinosaurs? That's my point.

[redDoodia]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
(1) Shutdown of the Atlantic Conveyer due to the influx of fresh water from the melting icecaps. The Atlantic will essentially form two layers: les-salty water on top, traditionally salty water on the bottom. This will cause the usual submerging of cold water in the far North Atlantic to cease, and this will in turn stop the northward flow of warm water from the Equator. Europe will be thrown into a mini-ice age. But if Europe is thrown into a mini-ice age, then the ice cap will re-freeze

[Paiblyelaxy]

Originally posted by LordShiva
But if Europe is thrown into a mini-ice age, then the ice cap will re-freeze True...it may take a few thousand years, but it will re-freeze--absent this planet going into a Venus-style runaway greenhouse effect.

[rikdpola]

...but assuming no eco-disaster and assuming that fission reactors come online in 2020 as predicted then I predict in 50 years, things will be fairly good for the world in general

Fission power will give us cheap and plentiful electricity.
This, in turn, will provide for cheap desalination of sea water, which will alieviate both the water shortage and the food shortage.

Having a multi-centric system of political power -- with many strong nations but no superpowers -- with lead to competition among them for spheres of influence. --But the good news is that (with a bit of luck) these powers will have learned the lessions of Vietnam, Iraq and the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan -- that 3rd-World countries cannot be controlled militarily by outside nations. This means that the competition for the loyalties of these lesser nations will have to be economic...i.e. "What can you, great power, do for my little country?"

My hope is that the economically powerful nations of the world will be forced to compete for these lesser nations by building up their infrastructions and their consumer classes.

In sum, in 50 years we will see: a 3rd World that is developing, a decreasing number of military conflicts, energy that is cheap and clean, and water and food that are plentiful.

[jabader]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
6. The New York Public Library will be converted to condominiums, its entire collection now available on the I-Civ, which neatly clips to your lapel. ...."No Miss, I'm not looking down your clevage, I'm reading your collection of Shakespeare."