Well, my high tech forum pals, maybe after yet another century of wars, genocides and crisis of all kinds, as if the twenties weren't enough, we'll finally come to notice that maybe technology and logical knowledge doesn't matter as much for the development of a species as a bit of political, social and spiritual intelligence.

It could even come sooner than that - I used to have a positivist way of looking at things and expecting it all to be solved within time, but now... Europe seems on the verge of an economical failure, China government won't last much longer, Africa will keep sinking and so on. And - almost like a grim spoiler to a twisted series -I believe we haven't seen the last of nukes.

In the long run, I expect mankind to either become extinct or be drastically reduced in numbers, living in cooperative anarchical communities with minimal impact on nature. We cannot outrun natural selection forever and, well, since sex is more evil than murder in our current society, you see what I mean.

My guess is the world will end when Shigeru Miyamoto dies...

Good one!

Global warming will never be a serious issue. Even if it does become one, we already have many great solutions to solving it. In the case of medium effects, solutions can be quite easy and cheap - painting the roofs of buildings in cities white, changing the colour of the asphalt roads to a slightly brighter color, and planting trees throughout cities, can reduce city temperatures by 4-5C in cities... more than enough to cover most estimations of temperature increase.

We'll never have a fossil fuel-related global catastrophe. Despite what people are led to believe, we are not running out at any kind of massive rate. Indeed, global proved reserves of oil continue to grow at a faster rate than what we're consuming the stuff. We've already begun phasing out fossil fuels in many aspects of our lives... even if it takes another 50 years, we'll be fine.

There will be no major conflicts between China and the USA. China is not the USSR. China is capitalist. China depends on the USA (and the rest of the West) to survive, and the West depends on China. Both China and the USA are too interlinked to even consider warfare.

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Now that I've told you what WON'T be happening, now for some of my predictions of what will happen:

- The current financial crisis will ultimately result in the return to hard money, (that is, currency backed by some form of hard value store - like the gold standard of old), first, however, we will have long periods of austerity and inflation (for the most part of this decade). What these hard currencies will ultimately result in, is a reduction in Government spending (harder to finance deficits with Government money), and ultimately, the end in socialism. I believe the 21st century will see the reversal of the greatest mistake of the 20th.

- Between 2015 and 2025, I believe that China's economy will collapse, possibly seeing greater recessions than what the USA saw in 2008/2009. This is due to an unhealthy mix of grossly-exaggerated property prices, and rampant inflation. During this period, I imagine that there will be a great shift in power within China, and whilst it may not emerge a fully-fledged democracy... many of the other political issues in China will be resolved. With a few blips here and there, China will continue to grow to become the largest economy in the world, albeit at a much slower rate (but, ultimately, healthier) than what it's currently doing.

- Technological breakthroughs akimba. During this century (2030/2040+) space travel will finally become a fairly "normal" thing, ultimately leading to a seemingly infinite supply of just about all resources. The result will be plummeting costs everywhere. Energy, food, healthcare costs will be a mere fraction of what they are today. As a result, global poverty levels will probably drop to less than 5% of the population by the time the century's out.

the average white guy like myself,is going to be the minority in the future,that's just a giving fact. if things are going like they are now,it'll be like the great depression all over again and the U.S. will no longer have the greatest economy in the world,that honor will probably go to china,once they buy the U.S. out. chaos will rule the streets and once the goverment starts cutting entilement programs,the whole Untied States will be one big ghetto,then you'll have all of these U.S. residents trying to sneak across the Canadian border,in hopes for a better life. My first statment is a fact,but the rest of it is just a guess. hehehehe

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-08-13/us/census.minorities_1_hispanic-population-census-bureau-white-population?_s=PM:US ---this backs up my first sentence.

And then the world economy implodes due to the explosion in the resource(s) the hard money is based on, causing massive devaluation? 

Whatever mistakes 20th century socialism has made were due to overreactions to the mistakes of 19th century capitalism.  The solution isn't to revert.  Hopefully they'll think of something better, with smaller overreactions.

(Besides, i don't know how you can call socialism the biggest mistake of the 20th century when communism is staring you in the face.) 

No, the value of money increases. If you have a currency backed onto a commodity, and the commidity suddenly increases, if you maintain a tight monetary supply, then the value of money skyrockets, and you'll be able to buy a hell of a lot with a single dollar.

No, socialism can be attributed to new technologies making central planning more feasible, and not enough controls over the expansion of Government. Unions emerged after 19th century capitalism... and I believe that private sector unions are a perfectly valid function of a democratic/capitalist society (public sector unions, not so much...), and are pretty much essential for workers rights. The end of socialism doesn't spell the end of private sector unions, which doesn't mean a reversion to the 19th century capitalism that we had, before.

And I meant, biggest mistake of the West/still going on, today. The only true communist nation left, in the world, is North Korea.

Socialism and communism aren't the same thing.

Yeah, thanks for that. I never said they were.