Future Of The Human Race By 2050

Contrary to the many science fiction writings of our time, I do not see the universe in 2050 as being a civilized, well-adjusted, thriving community for mankind. I do not envision flying cars with happy citizens working easy jobs where manual labor is performed by machines and every human gets a life of leisurely chores to perform. Quite the contrary.

I see the future as a steady regression into idiotic policies fueled by greed and uninformed emotional nationalism. I predict commercial interests overwhelming every facet of our society, posting their corporate logos and advertisements everywhere as the population dumbs down.

Protester holding Adbuster’s Corporate American Flag (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

I envision greed and ignorance joining forces to create an ignorant mass of idiots and tycoons who shun education, art and beauty for money, material possessions and blissful ignorance. Said idiots will continue to vote against their self-interests as education continues its downward spiral and super PACs convince people that society needs more billionaires. Menial jobs with low pay and low educational requirements will be the norm by 2050.

Much like the 2006 film “Idiocracy,” I see a population growing less competent to handle society’s pressing problems. As the movie’s narrator explains: “… natural selection is indifferent to intelligence, so that in a society in which intelligence is consistently debased, stupid, irresponsible people easily out-breed the intelligent, creating, over the course of five centuries, an irremediably dim and sexually motivated dystopia. Demographic superiority favours those least likely to advance society. Consequently, the children of the educated élites are drowned in a sea of promiscuous, illiterate, proletarian peers. (IMDb, 2012: par 1)

I believe that the movie is not far off in its gloomy predictions. As David Hunter Tow (2012) explains, “It is proposed that increasing evidence for the diversity and ubiquity of life in the universe indicates a strong Darwinian selection effect, which in turn indicates that life is an integral part of the Universe, playing a major role in its evolution as a living ecosystem.” (Tow, 2012: par 1)

The dumbing down will occur in part because poor people have more children in their unplanned lives and poor people have less access to family planning opportunities or abortions. Poor people have lousier schools and deficient diets and they tend to be stupider as a result. The end consequence is that the educated elite do not reproduce in abundance and the intellectually challenged do. The end result has to be more people than any economy can sustain along with widespread poverty and ignorance.

United States lags behind many other countries in education achievement measures. (photo by canstockphoto.com)

Conservative principles against taxation shrink government and popular programs that assist the poor disappear, leaving them even more vulnerable to a life of too many kids and not enough of everything else. Basic subsistence needs soon replace opportunities for education and the dumbing down intensifies. Less taxes mean poorer schools and the results will become dramatic well before 2050. They are already showing up as the United States lags behind many other countries in education achievement measures.

It is becoming much more difficult for our society to accomplish great things. The for-profit war industry sucks enormous resources out of society to achieve counterproductive measures of human carnage, destruction, and pollution. Greedy corporations will lobby for additional government defense contracts while public works projects decline and the dumbing down continues.

By 2050, we will have too many unemployed and uneducated people with no means by which to support them, particularly in a hotter, drier, more-polluted world. We won’t be exploring space as many predict because there will be no money to further our space exploration efforts beyond what is already being planned. Unmanned probes will scour the solar system but humans will be struck here on terra firma forever.

Predicting Our Future Based on Past and Present Trends:

Predicting future events can be accomplished with some degree of accuracy by analyzing trends of the past. Humans make the same mistakes again and again. World events seem to replicate themselves, particularly wars. World War I was called the “war to end all wars,” but it didn’t. World War II came along a few years later and the nations of the world seem to make the same types of mistakes they made prior to World War I.

The Korean War preceded the Viet Nam war, which preceded today’s oil wars in the Middle East. It may be easy to predict that there will be similar wars in the future, almost exclusively fought over natural resources, particularly petroleum.

Analyzing trends in economic activity, politics, sports or world events can offer important clues into making educated guesses about what will happen in the future – but that is not the same thing. As the world’s population increases, more people need jobs and there will be not be enough jobs in 2050 to keep enough people employed.

Events from the past can predict what will happen in the future in some cases if properly read and analyzed by professionals in the field. It is possible to make predictions about the financial marketplace but they are based upon scientific evidence – not clairvoyance or dreams. When people do not have jobs and money, they seldom starve to death peacefully. There will be rampant increases in crime as conditions worsen.

Predicting what will happen in the world of politics is another uncertain area. It is nearly impossible to continuously predict what humans will do, even in predictable situations. Humans are far too complex to be completely predictable, yet we can make some generalizations based on what has happened in the past. Events in the past may be indicators of future events, but they must be correctly realized and properly read.

This involves more of a scientific approach to discovering the future than a mystical talent claimed by prognosticators, fortunetellers and self-proclaimed prophets. It is not likely that any special people have clairvoyant visions that will tell us what is going to happen in the years to come. I would put my faith more in professionals who study trends and past events to make educated guesses about the future based on some pertinent assumptions about human behavior.

How Energy Solutions May Play a Role In Our Future:

2050 will bring us a world of deforestation, industrial pollution, particularly from petroleum operations, overpopulation, cuts in education and other public programs, rampant capitalism and high crime rates. Rapid population growth and strong demand for oil will either deplete resources by this time or mankind will have come to rely on alternative sources of energy.

Pollution in pond at nature preserve. (photo by canstockphoto.com)

Since the United States imports so much of our petroleum needs and conservation measures are not followed here, it is to our strategic advantage to invest in and develop renewable forms of energy for the future. Investments are growing but the progress has been slow to date.

As countries like Germany and the rest of the European Union move toward increased use of renewables, it may eventually drive down the price of oil and coal, causing a paradigm shift in the way humans produce and use energy. Cutting oil company subsidies and increasing them for renewables would help create a stronger market for renewables and create companies able to compete for international renewable investment funding.

For the oil industry, the future means accepting and responding to the changing dynamics of the worldwide energy business, including alternative fuels and renewable energy sources. For mankind, alternative energy sources mean the difference between living in an over polluted world or cleaning up our act. Given the dumbing down effect on our population, I would expect the state of the universe in 2050 to be in sad condition as far as humans go.

References:

Discovery News (2011) “Earth Could be ‘Unrecognizable’ by 2050,” accessed online on May 18, 2012 at: http://news.discovery.com/earth/earth-unrecognizable-2050-resources-110220.html

Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb) (2012) “Idiocracy,” Synopsis, accessed online on May 18, 2012 at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/synopsis

Tow, David hunter (2012) “Future Portal: 2050” accessed online on May 17, 2012 at:http://f2050.blogspot.com/2012/04/future-of-life-in-universe.html

by David Aho

I am a retired corrections officer who has written extensively over the years for local papers and magazines. A father of three and grandfather of two, I devote my energies and inabilities to family, writing, golf, exercise and playing percussion. (This causes me to stay up late at night and drink beer, darn it.) My wife, Diane, and I live in Marquette with our German Shepherd, Gunther, who diligently pursues any manner of play that causes me to leave my La-Z-Boy. I am an alumnus of MTU and NMU and a Navy veteran of the Viet Nam era. I’ve been a small business owner, salesman, carpenter, auto body repairman, steeplejack, export company manager, cartoonist, corrections officer and I’ve written a crime-fiction novel called “Good Looking Out” which is based in Michigan and available through www.lulu.com under the pseudonym David Michaels.

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