The future: What do we do now that will be considered unthinkable in 50 years?

Rembrandt Brown

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From Vox-- Feel free to make your own predictions or post any of the articles you find interesting (whether here or in a new thread):

Hindsight 2070: We asked 15 experts, “What do we do now that will be considered unthinkable in 50 years?” Here’s what they told us.

Predicting society’s moral evolution on eating meat, kids playing football, 401(k)s, and more.

Some 50 years ago, in 1964, 42 percent of Americans smoked cigarettes. Smoking in bars and offices was normal and cigarettes were given to soldiers as part of military rations. Half of American physicians smoked. Ads for cigarettes bombarded the American public. That year, the surgeon general released a report outlining the health risks of smoking. Two years later, only 40 percent of Americans said that they believed smoking was a major cause of cancer.

Today, we know that smoking is bad for our health. We’ve banned smoking in most indoor public spaces. We stopped allowing tobacco companies to advertise and forced them to put warning labels on cigarette boxes. By 2001, 71 percent of the country said they recognized smoking was a major cause of cancer, and by 2017, the rate of smokers dropped to 14 percent. The habit is now looked at as a relic of the past, something we’ve come to accept as unquestionably harmful.

When we think about what common habits, social norms, or laws that are widely considered unthinkable in today’s world, a variety of past atrocities come to mind. We could point to bloodletting, Jim Crow-era segregation, and drinking and driving as being on the “wrong side” of history.

But what modern practices will we one day think of as barbaric? It’s a framework invoked frequently in political or scientific beliefs: Actor Harrison Ford recently said leaders who deny climate change are on the “wrong side of history.” President Barack Obama said Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine was on the “wrong side of history.” Filmmaker Spike Lee said that President Donald Trump himself is on the “wrong side of history.”

So what, by 2070 — some 50 years in the future — will join this group? We asked 15 thinkers, writers, and advocates to take their best guess.

Bioethicist Peter Singer says people will stop the habit of conspicuous consumption. “The ostentatious display of wealth, in a world that still has many people in need, is not in good taste. Within 50 years, we’ll wonder how people did not see that,” he writes.

Historian Jennifer Mittelstadt predicts that our volunteer army will be widely considered a mistake: “Fifty years from now Americans will observe with shock the damage to both foreign policy and domestic institutions wrought by our acceptance of an increasingly privatized, socially isolated, and politically powerful US military.”

For philosopher Jacob T. Levy, the very idea of there being a “wrong side of history” is wrong itself.

Other answers range from kids playing tackle football to expecting workers to invest in 401(k)s.


Here are the answers, with links to the analysis behind each prediction:
 

Rembrandt Brown

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How nonvoters allowed Trump to become president and why haven't discarded the electoral college soon after.

Along these lines, I'd say the two party system in America.

The problem in 2016 wasn't non-voters, it was about bigotry with no credible alternative. The election of a non-politician in 2016 and the nation's longest-serving independent in 2020 will probably be remembered as the beginning of that.

How terrible Trump is will be a separate issue and we will still be dealing with that in the form of whatever officially represents the Tea Party. (I think his stunning ignorance and incompetence will be remembered-- it is unlikely the presidency sees someone who rivals him in those respects in the next 50 years *fingers crossed*-- but, sadly, his politics and appeal won't be incomprehensible generations from now.)
 

gene cisco

Not A BGOL Eunuch
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They could have left the advocates out. Like Karen Swallow Prior and the abortion write up. Dr. Joy the vegan and her meat prediction for the future. Can't even have fun predictions for the future without folks pushing their agendas. :smh:

I love to hear what people with the least bias have to say about what will change.
 

Rembrandt Brown

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They could have left the advocates out. Like Karen Swallow Prior and the abortion write up. Dr. Joy the vegan and her meat prediction for the future. Can't even have fun predictions for the future without folks pushing their agendas. :smh:

I love to hear what people with the least bias have to say about what will change.
Who do you suggest? (Feel free to copy a good piece here.)
 

OUT THARE

It takes a nation of millions to keep us black
BGOL Investor
Breathing ... cause she n 50 years everybody will be dead
 

D24OHA

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Phone/tablet/computer addiction.....

I think 50yrs from now our society will acknowledge the dangers of the compulsion and obsession with these devices and will actively fight against them. Wether it is promoting living in the real world, limiting time in front of these screens, therapy.... Etc
 

Mt Airy Groove

Rising Star
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Eating meat will definitely be looked at differently 50-100 years from now. I think of my gluttonous consumption of meat 10 years ago and I'm like :puke:.

I used to eat a whole rack of ribs in one sitting. :smh:

It changes your perspective once you see how animals are being tortured and the effect on ones health and environment. #PlantBasedDrippin
 

dugington

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Third wave of feminists will be chastised by future feminists for turning a blind eye towards injustice for the sake of empowerment and not seeking equality.
Never.
The word injustice is solely reserved for women in the feminist mindset.
In fact, the opposite will be true: Groups will celebrate those who "did what they had to do for the cause."
 

Rembrandt Brown

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They could have left the advocates out. Like Karen Swallow Prior and the abortion write up. Dr. Joy the vegan and her meat prediction for the future. Can't even have fun predictions for the future without folks pushing their agendas. :smh:

I love to hear what people with the least bias have to say about what will change.

Why did you only comment on the content you'd like to cut?

"Agendas" have relevance. Climate change is going to impact how people live in 50 years whether you think it is "fun" or not. So will what we do about policing at mass incarceration at this moment.

An essay on a future with a defunded police would have been a valuable contribution.
 

lightbright

Master Pussy Poster
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The future: What do we do now that will be considered unthinkable in 50 years?

Nukkas whining about pics of women in their posts?....... :dunno:


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Curtwalk

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Going to school -I think they gonna stream school to you're house in the future

ban weed - Weed will be legalized and people will smoke everywhere like cigarettes

Political Parties

Cash


Sex work - will be legal and they will come to your house like healthcare workers and they will have ad's on their cars and buisness cards. They will also partner up with other businesses and bring food/ beer and weed when they come.


Nudity- Will be legal in certain areas They will have nude parks, nude clubs, nude restaurants, nude shopping centers.

Sexual harassment - Companies will have Monica Lewinsky s on staff and you can go see them on break. Small companies will have contracts with Sex care providers
 

Dannyblueyes

Aka Illegal Danny
BGOL Investor
Federal law

American States, or groups of states, will become independent countries inited under an international agreement the same way that European countries band under the EU. They will share currency, national defense, constitution, free trade, fluid borders and highway maintenance. Everything else will be up to the state/country.

Anti-socialism

In 2020 most of the Americans graduating college have no living memory of the USSR or the Cold war. Once these people get older and assume leadership positions they won't have the same sinister opinions of free college, medicare-for-all, Universal daycare, or any of the other social programs we now associate with the red scare.

Vaccines

They won't disappear per se, but covid-19 has made it clear that 21st century epidemics and pandemics can't be treated the same way as the diseases which came before. This means we're either going to have to come up with an entirely new method of promoting immunity or go back to the massive public health campaigns we had at the turn of the last century.

Bitcoin / cryptocurrencies

The two things which make Bitcoin stable are untrackable transactions made over an uncrackable blockchain. Quantum computing will change both of these things overnight

Rural areas

Once meat falls out of fashion a lot of the land we used to raise cattle will be repurposed into new cities and suburbs.

The recording industry

we're already at the point where most musicians can make more money playing backyard birthday parties than stadiums, 1 million Spotify plays, and 100,000 units sold combined. Why would anybody want to sign a 360 deal in that landscape?

Live streaming

This is not the future of entertainment. It's a temporary substitute for real human interaction

Caffeine

Like vaccines it won't disappear per se, but by 2070 it will no longer be the most widely used mind-altering drug in the world. That will be cannabis.

Hollywood

Reboots and live action Disney remakes have made it very clear that the American movie industry is running out of ideas. Eventually these Blockbusters will fail to make money and another country will take over the cultural zeitgeist.

That's all I can think of for now
 
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