Earlier this week I had the pleasure of having the year 2050 mapped out for me by Smithsonian Magazine, in their “The Next 40 Years” issue, complete with a positive message from Obama. Will our future look like this?
- Sophisticated buildings will be made of mud.
- Coral Reefs will be devastated.
- The catch of the day? JELLYFISH
- New cars will be given away, free.
- Industry will generate energy in space.
- Oysters will save woles from climate change.
- 2,000 new mamal species will be discovered.
- It’s CURTAINS for the world’s rarest dolphin.
- Farmers will plant spinach in tall buildings.
- The nation will meet the tests of the century ahead.
- The heartland will rise again. (The US gains 100 million people)
- The top US Social problem? Upward mobility
- By 2050, one out of three US kids will be Latino
- World War III will begin. IN SPACE
- Most Americans fear for the planet’s health
- Unless we conserve, more people will go hungry
- An ancient grain, fonio, will fight starvation.
- Afganistan risks turmoil for 40 years
- Glowing squid will lead to new antibiotics.
- Health workers will eradicate malaria.
- Science could enable a person to regrow a limb.
- Astronomers will discover life beyond earth.
- How will we avert the dinosaurs’ fate? Telescopes
- Brain scans will illuminate the infant mind
- Artists will run the world
- Novelists will need a new plot device
- Everyone will make his own music
- Secrets will reveal if young JFK was “vacuous”
- James Cameron will still be making movies at 96
- Stand-up comedy will no longer kill
- Native American youths will revive their culture
- US-Muslim relations will improve
- Evolution will continue, in reverse, humorist says.
- A medical lab will fit on a postage stamp
- Viruses will help build machines
- Goodbye, stereo, hello hyper-real acoustics
- Electricity will be harvested from your skin
- Crucial Energy will be generated with mirrors
- Your refrigerator will talk to you
- Reading will become an athletic activity.
Spongebob is super-psyched about #3.