Things that Probably will happen:
1)The end of the world
2)We will run out of oil
3)Cheaper, better, cleaner fuel sources
4)Humanity will invent cures for several diseases
5)Nano technology will modify our current thinking of everyday life
6)Several better telescopes to replace Hubble
Things that Probably will not happen:
1)The end of the world
2)Meeting of extra terrestrials
3)Cure for cancer/aids
4)End of global poverty/hunger
5)Extensive exploration of space.
Here just a quick things I could come up with before going to class. Please, feel free to add and modify as much as possible.
5 comments:
naturally ill beg to differ on the space exploration...if it doesnt happen in the sense that the bid space-co's doesnt do it...i will do it!
Kartoshka, I noticed you put "end of the world" under both "probably will" and "probably will not" happen. Way to hedge your bets! :-)
We might run out of oil by 2050, though it would be more accurate to say that we'll run out of feasably-recoverable oil. As general energy prices continue to rise over time, more oil will become available which was previously cost-prohibitive to get before, such as shale oil or oil mixed in sand. By the same token, rising energy prices will also make alternative forms of energy more feasable.
The cure for AIDS may be a ways off; the virus mutates rapidly, so finding a cure is like trying to hit a moving target. There are some lines of research "in the pipeline" though, which may be able to act on all variants of the virus. I don't know that we'll have a cure for it by 2050, but I'm optimistic.
Similarly for cancer, there is a lot of money being poured into cancer research all over the world. Some types of cancer, if caught early, are already nearly 100% curable. Other forms, and more advanced forms, we still have much more work to do though. I would be surprised if we had a cure for all forms of cancer by 2050, but we'll surely have much greater survival rates for most forms, just as even today the odds of surviving cancer are significantly higher than just 30 years ago.
As for the extensive exploration of space, well I guess it depends on how you define extensive, and how far out you're talking about. At least in the field of cosmology, we've increased our knowledge more in just the past 15 years than in the entire previous history of the human race combined. I agree with you on #6, we should have some excellent Hubble replacements in the coming decades. I'm less optimistic on how far manned space exploration will have progressed, but I forsee a permanent presence in Earth orbit, a return to the moon, and maybe a 2/3rds chance of humans on Mars by 2050.
I hope, I hope, I hope I live to see it all.
GP, if you ever get into the space exploration business, I want in too!
you're definitly in buddy!
If you dont mind, i am in as well :)
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