What does the future have in store? Will we be living in a utopia or a dystopia? It's an age old question that's gonna keep being asked for millennia still. No one knows and the only way to find out is to trudge on. Still we can think about it. We can hope, we can fear and we can predict.

I'm not trying to be a prophet. I'm simply taking part in the #predictthefuture challenge that's going on. The challenge is focused on the future, something I do think about a lot. It's gonna be impossible to bite over everything the future has in store for us. Instead I'm gonna focus on a few key points where I present what I hope, fear and think the future has in store for us.

^{Source: NEK}

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Economics

An important topic that needs to be touched on. Economics is a blessing while also having the potential to be the root of all evil in my opinion. Economics is the driving force around everything. There's little that's being done in the world without economics playing a role. If that wasn't the case I believe the world would be quite different. We might not be as technologically advanced as we have become but in return I believe a lot of the problems the world is facing would be non-existant.

What I hope

For the future I hope for a society without money. A society where the earth isn't mined and expended for gains. A world where the eastern population don't work for pennies to make the western man rich. A world where sweatshops don't exist because they're cheap. A world where people can be free of the stress of money. How would this work? I have no idea. Still I hope for it.

Another thing I hope for is the decentralization of the economy. That we will see the use of things like bitcoin and other decentralized value networks rise up. That the world of economics will be more transparent.

What I fear

I fear that economics will never lose its footing. That greed will play a defining factor in the years to come. That we will be living in a world where preserving wildlife and nature isn't profitable so it will be sacrificed for gains. I fear that we will see further splittings in society between the rich and poor. I fear that money will rule our every thought and decision.

What I think

What I think will happen in the future is closer to what I fear than what I hope. I don't think economics will ever loose its place in the world. I think more and more decisions will be taken based on economics.

I do however think that we will slowly be moving towards a more decentralized form of economy. However we will still be strongly dependent on it.

^{Source: Regjeringen}

Overpopulation

One topic that I think about a lot when thinking about the future is overpopulation. Is our current society and way of living sustainable? How many people will there be in the future and how will we feed them all? This worries me.

More people equals more consumption. More consumption equals more emissions. More emissions equals faster climate change. Faster climate change equals disaster.

Frank Fenner believed in 2010 that humans would be extinct in 100 years and overpopulation would be one of the defining factors ^Phys.

What I hope

When it comes to overpopulation I simply hope that we manage to keep everything in check. I hope that education can help people understand how to work against overpopulation. I hope people understand that birthing children, beautiful as it is, has consequences outside of their own economy and way of living.

I'm not saying I want to prohibit people from birthing children. Far from it. If someone wants to have five children then that's their right and I can't and won't stop them. I just want people to understand the consequences.

What I fear

What I fear is that our population reaches a point where we lose control. We might already have reached it. A point where we're not able to sustain our own population. That we reach a point where we become so lackluster for resources that everything collapses. That we end up living in a world where everyone is poor and everyone loses. That we will be facing more wars over resources than we already are.

What I think

I think we're gonna end up somewhere in between. I think the problem will arise and that it will somehow be solved. I do however think we will react to late and have to turn to some extreme measures. For instance a world wide introduction of a One- or Two-child policy. In my eyes that's the most plausible outcome although I don't hope for it.

^{Source: UN}

Climate

Perhaps the biggest topic for the future. At least for me personally. What will the climate be like? Did we discover the threat of climate change to late or do we still stand a chance?

What I hope

Simply that we recover and can put the earth back to health. To accomplish this I hope for education to take root and make people understand the threat we are facing. The more people who know about and understand climate change the better. It's up to everyone to contribute. I hope for people to consume less so that mass production will halt. I hope that people will buy less and only when they need to.

I also hope that corporations and industry are forerunners and voluntarily start producing less. Halt demand by having less supply. Stop producing on the other side of the world. Produce at home. Yes, things will be more expensive but people will buy less of the things that they don't really need.

What I fear

I fear that we're to late. I fear that the work we're doing to limit pollution and halt climate change isn't enough. That no matter what we do we're facing certain destruction whether we like it or not. I fear that anti-climate activists will become so influential that less and less people believe in climate change.

I fear that wildlife as we know it will go extinct. That we will have no more forests and beautiful nature. The only animals we'll be having left are the domesticated ones that are of use to us. The rest of them won't have a home because it's been destroyed by climate change and human overpopulation.

What I think

I think we're on a decent and steady course. There's still a lot of work to do but I think, and hope, that what we're doing is working. I think that more and more people will become aware of the problem and will start reflecting upon the consequences of their actions.

I do however think it's still going to get worse before it gets better. The poles will continue to smelt and the sea levels will rise. This will cause a plethora of problems both to wildlife and to humans. A lot of species will become extinct due to losing their homes, but not all. We'll manage to halt the climate change before we face destruction.

^{Source: Miljøagentene}

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I'm gonna end it there for today. This ended up being both way more somber and longer than I thought it would be. The topics I picked out are topics that really get me going and that I have a lot of view points on. I tried to limit myself in talking about them but if I limit myself to much I won't get my point across.

There's still a number of topics I could touch in on but this is already getting long at 1300 words. I'll see if I might not pick up the thread on this sometime in the future.

This post was made as part of the #predictthefuture challenge, as mentioned earlier. If you haven't already you should go check it out! There's a lot of great entries and there's more coming in. There's even a prize of 30 HIVE involved. If you wish to participate you still have 3 days to do so if you wish for a chance at the prize. If you don't you can still write your own post about the future at any time.

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