ROBIN WAYNE BAILEY'S PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR 2062
ROBIN WAYNE BAILEY'S PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR 2062
This is a follow-up to the previous post, in which I listed Robert Heinlein's predictions for the year 2000. As I mentioned there, in the February 1952 issue of GALAXY MAGAZINE, Heinlein looked forty-eight years into the future to share his view of that seemingly magical year. Look at them, if you like, and judge for yourself where he hit and where he missed.
I brought Heinlein's predictions up as part of a discussion during my New Year's celebrations. Part of that discussion followed on my Facebook page, also. But as the discussion evolved, I considered it a challenge to exercise my own futurist muscles. Like Heinlein, I've limited my predictions to basically fifty years to consider what I think the year 2062 might look like. I hope you'll enjoy and, if you like, discuss.
PREDICTION 1 -- We will continue to advance in the science of genetic manipulation. All fruits, vegetables and grains will be genetically manipulated to resist disease, insect infestation, and rot.
PREDICTION 2 -- Human cloning will be an established science. Most replacement organs and body parts will be produced by medical cloning technology. The first human clone will be revealed.
PREDICTION 3 -- A "sex tape" will be made by astronauts on a spaceship or a station and released on the internet.
PREDICTION 4 -- An international base will be established on the moon after a near-miss by an unpredicted surprise asteroid causes alarm and hysteria. The base's primary mission will be to prevent possible catastrophic impacts.
PREDICTION 5 -- In the growing Information and Tech economies, women will dominate the workforce. Traditional gender roles will flip. Traditional marriage will vanish to be replaced with a variety of arrangements, most based on short-term contracts that can be dissolved or renewed.
PREDICTION 6 -- Unmanned robot probes will have visited most of the planets and many of the moons in our solar system, but humans will still not have ventured beyond our own Earth-Luna system.
PREDICTION 7 -- Terrorism will increase in America. The attacks will not come from foreign enemies, but from home-grown Christian groups as religion is pushed farther and farther from the centers of power and to the fringes of society.
PREDICTION 8 -- An explosion of political parties combined with a rising tide of corporatism will bring an end to American democracy. America will continue to evolve into a two-class society. Hunger and poverty will become widespread as social safety nets collapse.
PREDICTION 9 -- As medical science continues to advance, most forms of cancer will become curable -- if you can afford it.
PREDICTION 10 -- As the "Cult of Youth and Beauty" continues its grip on popular culture, anabolic steroids will be refined, perfected and made legally available to an aging and longer-lived population.
PREDICTION 11 -- Eric Verlinde's theories of Entropic Gravity will be proven right, and the first simple experiments in functional anti-gravity will be underway.
PREDICTION 12 -- Neither communism or democracy will survive. The driving force and dominant political philosophy around the world will be unregulated radical capitalism.
PREDICTION 13 -- A third-world country will attack its neighbor with a nuclear device.
PREDICTION 14 -- As communication technology and social media continue to advance, face-to-face meetings will be considered vulgar and low-class.
PREDICTION 15 -- Large military forces will become so much symbolic saber-rattling. Real war will be fought cybernetically.
PREDICTION 16 -- Large, linked telescopic arrays on earth and in space will give us startling new views of our galaxy and fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe.
PREDICTION 17 -- Centralized computer systems will manage and regulate all traffic on roadways and highways during peak travel hours. Vehicles will operate on an increasingly diverse variety of fuels, including fossil fuels, electricity, solar power and grain-based fuels.
PREDICTION 18 -- Surveillance technology will continue to advance. Governments will know every move you make, every person you meet, every book or website you read.
PREDICTION 19 -- Public schools will collapse. Education will shift to the home and to "accredited" computer networks. Students will be safer, but they will not be smarter.
PREDICTION 20 -- Privacy will be considered an antiquated concept.
(Front-piece artwork by Charles Moll)