Before we talk about the future, let’s talk about the past. In today’s time, about 60% of people say that life is worse today than it was 50 years ago for people like them. With that being said, it’s no secret that a good chunk of the population has agreed that quality of life has decreased. Yes, things like the quality of healthcare have significantly increased, but it seems that people were happier a couple decades ago. Following the pattern of this, it is hard to say whether or not life will be good in a century.
It is estimated that in 100 years, the population will grow to about 10-12 billion people. Because of needing more room to accommodate the growing population, forests will need to be cleared. Forests are pretty essential to our living conditions. They provide the oxygen we need to breathe, as well as provide water for us. Many animals will lose their homes, causing the decrease in animal populations.
Climate change has become a huge topic of conversation when it comes to the future. The climate has always been changing in every country and every season, but there’s been a constant pattern in each country. In 100 years, each country will become 6-8 degrees warmer, and this means that all areas will experience water shortages. Due to the scarce resources, like water and habituation, it is inferred that many conflicts and possible wars can start.
Because the temperature of the Earth as a whole will be getting warmer, the Arctic and many glaciers will melt, resulting in a lot of cities on the coast getting submerged underwater and being inhabitable. People are also speculating that there will be an increase in natural disasters, such as: wildfires, droughts, and floods.
From a technological standpoint, we are already much more advanced than 50 years ago. Imagine what 100 years in the future will do to our civilization. Artificial intelligence has been pretty prevalent, more so in the past couple of years, and it is expected to become even more advanced in a century. AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) will be pretty much everywhere, and in different forms. AGI will be able to advance faster than humans can, we can only hope that this is going to be a good thing for society, but based on fictional movies about AI, who really knows. Future generations could be living in the dystopian films we grew up watching.
We can’t live without technology in today’s time, and because of that, there have been less real-world interactions with people. In 100 years, virtually communication is most likely going to be the main form of communication and doing life through. Maybe Wall-E did accurately depict what life will be like in the future.
In conclusion, the world is changing so much and so fast, we can’t only make educated guesses on what will happen in 100 years. Whilst it may not affect us when the time comes, our future children and grandchildren will be at the heart of it.
