Imagining the Future - Utopian or Dystopian?!

[Guest]

The recent discussions about Climate Change and Covid have made me wonder what the world will be like in 2030, 2040 and beyond. It's impossible to say with any certainty because society can change very quickly, as was the case following the 9/11 incidents. If someone had described our current predicament just three years ago, in November 2018, would you have believed them? Lockdowns, masks, vaccine passports? I suspect it would have sounded unlikely. In five years' time things might have changed more drastically - Pakistan and India might have destroyed one another in a nuclear conflagration, for example, with China also experiencing the ill effects of such a war.

Much has been made about the World Economic Forum's supposed claim that by 2030 "You'll own nothing and be happy", which seems ridiculous, given that it's just a little over eight years away. The actual article seems, at least in part, to make a lot of sense:

Quote

Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city - or should I say, "our city." I don't own anything. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own any appliances or any clothes.

It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price. It made no sense for us to own cars anymore, because we could call a driverless vehicle or a flying car for longer journeys within minutes. We started transporting ourselves in a much more organized and coordinated way when public transport became easier, quicker and more convenient than the car. Now I can hardly believe that we accepted congestion and traffic jams, not to mention the air pollution from combustion engines. What were we thinking?

Sometimes I use my bike when I go to see some of my friends. I enjoy the exercise and the ride. It kind of gets the soul to come along on the journey. Funny how some things seem never seem to lose their excitement: walking, biking, cooking, drawing and growing plants. It makes perfect sense and reminds us of how our culture emerged out of a close relationship with nature.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/shopping-i-cant-really-remember-what-that-is-or-how-differently-well-live-in-2030/?sh=51999ee61735

 

Not owning anything - not even clothes - seems crazy to me; it's not something I can envisage will ever work. However it's clear from the article that this imaginary world isn't some sort of pre-determined blueprint for our future, particularly as the protagonist refers to 'my bike' which appears inconsistent with his previous statement about not owning anything. The 'flying car' has connotations of Back to the Future, though I don't think it literally means a car that flies. 

I now work remotely 100%, whereas prior to lockdown I'd work from home maybe one day a week, so things have changed rapidly. I think 2030 is too soon for such a massive transformation to take place, but who knows? 

Some trends which will shape our future: remote working, drone technology, artificial intelligence (AI), health passports, CO2 reduction (i.e. greener energy, electric vehicles, lowering meat consumption).

Here's a thought, though - as we become ever more reliant on the internet to deliver products and services, what happens if it ever fails? Presumably there are contingency plans in place. 

 

 

So what do you think the future will bring? Any short, medium and long-term predictions? Will society be better or will it get worse?

Edited November 28, 2021 by AlbionSaint

[The Master]

 

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

 

[williemillersmoustache]

5 hours ago, AlbionSaint said:

The recent discussions about Climate Change and Covid have made me wonder what the world will be like in 2030, 2040 and beyond. It's impossible to say with any certainty because society can change very quickly, as was the case following the 9/11 incidents. If someone had described our current predicament just three years ago, in November 2018, would you have believed them? Lockdowns, masks, vaccine passports? I suspect it would have sounded unlikely. In five years' time things might have changed more drastically - Pakistan and India might have destroyed one another in a nuclear conflagration, for example, with China also experiencing the ill effects of such a war.

Much has been made about the World Economic Forum's supposed claim that by 2030 "You'll own nothing and be happy", which seems ridiculous, given that it's just a little over eight years away. The actual article seems, at least in part, to make a lot of sense:

 

Not owning anything - not even clothes - seems crazy to me; it's not something I can envisage will ever work. However it's clear from the article that this imaginary world isn't some sort of pre-determined blueprint for our future, particularly as the protagonist refers to 'my bike' which appears inconsistent with his previous statement about not owning anything. The 'flying car' has connotations of Back to the Future, though I don't think it literally means a car that flies. 

I now work remotely 100%, whereas prior to lockdown I'd work from home maybe one day a week, so things have changed rapidly. I think 2030 is too soon for such a massive transformation to take place, but who knows? 

Some trends which will shape our future: remote working, drone technology, artificial intelligence (AI), health passports, CO2 reduction (i.e. greener energy, electric vehicles, lowering meat consumption).

Here's a thought, though - as we become ever more reliant on the internet to deliver products and services, what happens if it ever fails? Presumably there are contingency plans in place. 

 

 

So what do you think the future will bring? Any short, medium and long-term predictions? Will society be better or will it get worse?

"It was certainly a rule and appeared to be a law that perfect AIs always Sublime."

[Abdul_Latif]

6 hours ago, AlbionSaint said:

So what do you think the future will bring? Any short, medium and long-term predictions? Will society be better or will it get worse?

 Not that different at all in your day to day.

There will certainly be increased use of affordable tech like VR, metaverse, but it won’t replace real human contact and interaction.

I can’t see the full Great Reset of the abolition of private property, but it’s possible that the eating of animals or killing of them becomes illegal and that we will have personal emissions quotas on travel.

Its also possible we may see some sort of whole continent governments, though not by result of war, more a necessity to share resources.

Edited November 28, 2021 by Abdul_Latif

[Detournement]

British society already has numerous qualities which would have been considered Dystopian 40 years ago.

What's considered normal in 40 years will be similarly offensive to our current sensibilities. 

[Detournement]

1 hour ago, Abdul_Latif said:

 

I can’t see the full Great Reset of the abolition of private property, 

The Great Reset is the opposite of the abolition of private property. 

It's the privatisation of everything but ownership concentrated into a relatively tiny class of oligarchs. 

Nature is currently being privatised without anyone understanding what's going on. 

 

[coprolite]

The WEF suggesting that everything we need will be free? Do they mention how we get there or who paid for that report? Because they're basically SPECTRE and i'd question their motives for antything. 

[mathematics]

4 hours ago, HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows said:

 

Tremendous album.

[Detournement]

22 minutes ago, coprolite said:

The WEF suggesting that everything we need will be free? Do they mention how we get there or who paid for that report? Because they're basically SPECTRE and i'd question their motives for antything. 

Where are they saying things need to be free?

Their ideology is 'Stakeholder Capitalism' where political decisions are formally made by WEF members and the pretence of democratic control is legally abolished over huge parts of society and the economy. 

 

[coprolite]

2 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Where are they saying things need to be free?

Their ideology is 'Stakeholder Capitalism' where political decisions are formally made by WEF members and the pretence of democratic control is legally abolished over huge parts of society and the economy. 

 

"One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price"

Reading- an underappreciated skill. To be clear- i don't believe this is what our Davos ovelords want. 

[Richey Edwards]

Who cares? We'll all be dead anyway.

[Detournement]

5 minutes ago, coprolite said:

"One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price"

Reading- an underappreciated skill. To be clear- i don't believe this is what our Davos ovelords want. 

The perils of reading the thread in reverse....

In terms of the claim of things being "free" it's pretty simple: they are lying. It's no different from the lies when water was privatised in England or the lies when the energy market was liberalised. 

A lot of academics are now talking about techno-fuedalism as a new mode of production existing alongside capitalism. This is quite a good intro to the idea by Yaris Varoufakis. 

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/techno-feudalism-replacing-market-capitalism-by-yanis-varoufakis-2021-06

[Detournement]

4 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

Who cares? We'll all be dead anyway.

Go a walk today in a town or city and you'll see lots of people who will be alive in 2100.

[Richey Edwards]

1 minute ago, Detournement said:

Go a walk today in a town or city and you'll see lots of people who will be alive in 2100.

No one will be alive in 2100.

[Abdul_Latif]

50 minutes ago, Detournement said:

The Great Reset is the opposite of the abolition of private property. 

It's the privatisation of everything but ownership concentrated into a relatively tiny class of oligarchs.

Yeah I realise that. I still don’t see it coming to pass that regular Joes end up without the right to own private property.

[Donathan]

2 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

No one will be alive in 2100.

Absolute nonsense.

[Abdul_Latif]

20 minutes ago, coprolite said:

"One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price"

Reading- an underappreciated skill. To be clear- i don't believe this is what our Davos ovelords want. 

That article, though published by the WEF is essentially a fantasy piece. 
 

It’s every bit as irrelevant to how the real world will turn out as Mad Max is.

Edited November 28, 2021 by Abdul_Latif

[SweeperDee]

I'm forever living in hope that the Earth will be get launched into a blackhole; that, or the Sun just decides "f**k it" and prematurely self-destructs. 

[Detournement]

3 minutes ago, Abdul_Latif said:

Yeah I realise that. I still don’t see it coming to pass that regular Joes end up without the right to own private property.

I don't think anyone will lose the right to own private property. The opportunity to own private property will become more difficult to access due to increasing costs and limited production due to carbon reduction.

Think about it like the housing market in the UK. Home ownership peaked in 2003 and has been decreasing since then. More and more people cannot afford to buy a home even though they have the right to. And we are now seeing a trend where homes are being bought up by financial institutions that is only going to accelerate the process.

Cars will go this way as well. There isn't enough lithium to replace petrol cars 1:1 or even close to it with electric. There doesn't have to be legislation it can be done by controlling wages and production.