This is somewhat of a "science fiction" topic, but what might we expect to see happening to the human race in the next 50-500 years? Will there be a global government? Will we colonize other planets? Will there be inter-stellar travel? (Will we lick the "speed of light" problem?) Will we colonize other planets? Will there be an ice age? Will the poles reverse? Will we find a clean source of unlimited energy?

How would any/all of those things (or any others you can think of) affect mankind as a race?

(All "doomsday" scenarios are invited to be posted in a different thread.)

Well I doubt we will colonize other planets twice.

hhhmm, Ive always wanted to be a solesurvivor of a super flu, like on The Stand.

I think robots will do everything.....including doing the Robot.

I think it'll end up kind of like "Idiocracy".

I'll answer that when my robot brings me a beer.

Michio Kaku is a scientist who is not afraid to speculate, and use his knowledge to do so.

I wish we still had Carl Sagan with us, he was really good at that as well.

I'm afraid the end time is near. The cataclysmic apocalypse refered to in the scriptures of every holy book known to mankind. It will be an era fraught with boundless greed & corruption, where global monetary systems disintegrate, leaving brother to kill brother for a grain of overcooked rice. The nations of the civilized world will collapse under the impressive weight of parasitic political conspiracies which remove all hope & optimism from their once faithful citizens.

Around the globe, generations of polluters will be punished for their sins. Unsheilded by the O-zone they have successfully depleted, left to bake in the seering naked rays of light. Wholesale assassinations served to destabilize every remaining government, leaving the starving & wicked to fend for themselves.

Bloodthirsty renegade cyborgs created by tax dodging corporations reek havok. Pissed off androids tired of being slaves to a godless & gutless system, where the rich get richer & the poor get f**ked over and out, unleash total world wide destruction by means of nuclear holocaust, annihilating the terrified masses, leaving in its torturous wake nothing but vicious, cannibalistic, mutating, radiating, and horribly dis-figured hordes of satanic killers, bent on revenge, but against whom? There are so few left alive. Starvation reins supreme, forcing unlucky survivors to eat anything & anyone in their path.

Massive earthquakes crack the planets crust like a hollow egg shell, causing unending volcanic eruptions. Creatures of the seven seas, unable to escape the certain death upon land, boil in their liquid prison. Disease then circles the earth, plagues & viruses with no known cause or cure laying waste to whatever draws breath, and human-kind having proven itself to be nothing more than a race of ruthless scavengers, fall victim to merciless attacks at the hands of interplanetary alien tribes who seek to conquer our charred remains.

Interesting idea based on some new causes, but not a new idea.

There has been someone of every age that makes the same claim.

Zack375 said:

Sounds to me like a "doomsday scenario".

I would like to hope and believe that mankind as a whole would begin in the next 100 years to move towards complete social equality, no more caste system societies as it were, no more the haves and have nots. I hope there will be a global democratic social state. (not to be confused with communism) A state where there are no elected leaders only the masses themselves vote on every issue as a whole. I believe this could be made possible as our communication tech expands and improves. Hopefully health issues, environmental issues and resource issues will be addressed as tech improves. Only when earth itself has become a complete global community will it be able to start or join a interstellar community. This of course is just hopeful thinking here. I do trully believe in mankind's potential but whether it will be realised is another subject.

Would you go to Flagg or Abigail? lol



Assuming that we don't destroy ourselves I think amazing things are on the horizon. Technology is advancing at a phenomenal rate - ok, we haven't got fusion-powered hover cars or whatever we imagined the 21st century would bring (yet) - but day-to-day items we have these days were science fiction even a few years ago.

you mean robots will be having sex w/other robots

will they have baby robots

or will they just build them

and will there be a no marriage amendment for the robots

and will that create a war with the robots

I am reading a fascinating essay written by Bill Plotkin - Human soul and nature.


He speaks of moving from the industrial revolution of recent evolution- EGOcentric,......... into ECOcentric.

Where science, and spirituality, and environment will combine... we are seeing that now... the collective consciousness of what exactly the great mother, earth, is showing us...what damages we have created.

Even the economic declines happening globally... that the wheel is broken... it does need fixing, it DOES need reinventing...EGOcentric doesn't create a harmonious sustainable future.

I suspect populations will decline, more global eco-sustainable villages will be the norm, returning to simpler, and gentler methodologies, whilst incorporating new technologies that are ecologically safer, and also sustainable.

Either that or humanity eradicated, and the great mother, Earth, can get on with healing herself.

Take your pick..

A global Government? There may be, but mankind has been trying to accomplish this for thousands of years, but has not succeeded in doing so yet.

Interstellar travel? First was the moon, but we have yet to set foot on another planet, only robots. Our baby steps here are taking a while to progress in to big kid steps.

Lick the "speed of light" problem? I'm afraid the concept of time will baffle man forever.

Will the poles reverse? I think so, eventually. May take longer than 500 years though. The Earth kind of wobbles, which is why we have true north and magnetic north. Over time, this may bring another ice age where man currently resides. Hence the polar icecaps melting. The Arctic may soon become North America.

Obviously there is some source of unlimited energy out there, or else the Universe wouldn't be functioning.


Now, what kind of effect will be produced globally as the moon slowly spirals farther and farther away from earth? That is what is happening as we speak.

I thought the world was supposed to end on Dec. 21 2012?

Maybe mankind on earth, but the Universe I'm sure will continue to exist.

As for the speed of light problem: Reaching it is highly improblable because as anything approaches the speed of light the energy required to go any faster is exponentially increasing. However it would be alot more effecient to figure out if gravity is instantaneous or not.

The speed of light is not so much about speed, as it is time.

True. Einstein's theory of the relevance of time and as one approaches the speed of light time stops. But he also claims there is no space and no time, just space-time, which could be easily manipulated for "time travel" but only into the future obviously. **relatively easily if the technology exists.