Transhumanists and Futurists: How do you see your ideal world in 50 Years>

[Vash The Stampede]

I wish I was as optimistic as you:

A lot of people seem to have an obsession that humanity will obliterate ourselves into extinction. Either that or we'll continue as normal working 40 hours a week living day to day sad and depressed. I say follow the road of technology and you can see where the future will go.

#1 Money will be even more concentrated in the hands of a select few, with middle and lower class people struggling to survive.

The problem with this is automation. At some point governments around the world must deal with rising unemployment and the rich can't stay rich forever. Democracy is specifically designed for this. Things can change in an election. That doesn't mean the rich won't fight back, violently.

#2 The gradual shift to the right will continue, with political parties like the Republicans or Conservatives being considered as left wing.

Only in America, and it won't last. But in America I don't see a shift to the right either. We did elect a black president, and we'll likely elect Hilary over Trump when elections come around. Because sadly, it will be Hilary vs Trump. And I predict that Trump will fail badly.

#3 However homes are powered you will be charged ever more for it, either by energy companies or new forms of taxation.

That's already and issue you're seeing right now. Doesn't mean they'll win. And remember the world doesn't begin with New York and head straight west to end at California. Denmark is already nearly 50% renewable energy. Most solar power setups sell their extra power back to local utilities, so I don't think anyone is going to start charging taxes for it. Just means that utility companies are going to start shutting down over time.

#4 Any such cures would be prohibitively expensive and out of reach for the majority. Governments simply can not allow an ever increasing elderly population, and as such will limit the availability of such cures. Of course drug companies would rather sell 1000 palliatives than one cure anyway.

Except there's a thing called other countries. If Murica won't support it, or charge too much for the treatment, people will just fly overseas and get treatments done there. Lets say Taiwan has the treatments for cheap, then people will go there to cure their AIDS and have a relaxing vacation.

The very idea to limit treatments is absurd, not to mention that either way it would economically hurt the economy of America anyway. You know China isn't going to have a problem with this.

#5 We will never have full control, perhaps the government will but not individual citizens.

Like I said, other countries do exist and will offer the ability to change your genes. Also when did America dictate what you can or can't do to your body? Also if this goes underground, and it will if there's any resistance, what makes anyone think the government could stop it? They couldn't stop the war on drugs, let alone genetics.

#6 If aging were to be controlled, then so must the birth rate. One without the other would be disastrous. Perhaps you should watch Torchwood : Miracle Day to see why.

It was on the news recently that Europe is having a population decrease, which is mostly attributed to the lack of women in their birthing years having children. That isn't the case for America and some other countries but you can see that either way the aging population is growing and aging itself needs to be treated. Humans are pretty good at controlling birth rates on their own.

And it's not like we have a choice because diseases like cancer, heart disease, or diabetes are directly the result of aging. So you can't cure those without curing aging. Should we not look into Stem Cells to cure Stephen Hawking's Lou Gehrig's disease because it might make him younger? I want to see that f*cker talk with his mouth cause I'm getting sick of his robot voice.

Either we cure aging or we start euthanizing the elderly when they reach a certain age like in that episode in Star Trek.

[Kourvith]

- AI is the next big thing to change humanity, and it's coming very fast. Even semi-singularity can have a huge impact on so many things I can't even ... well from the top of my head : jobs, critical decision making (economics, politics, to life management), communications, relationships to others, art, content production, and of course, transhumanism. I'm not even sure the humanity would ever be prepared for this.

- Genetic manipulation is another beast.

- Nanotech.

- Overpopulation.

- Geopolitics.

- Space colonization.

In a nutshell, the next 50 years could be changing as quickly as following Moore's Law. Which is kinda logical, considering how technology has such an importance in our life.

[hrugner]

Interesting

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Off Topic: What's up with Alex Jones and his unintellectual bias and misunderstanding of transhumanism? He thinks us as some sort of demonic cult running a secret agenda to push the so called "elite" into a genetically and technological "superior" status to oppress the majority.

It's ridiculous...

No need for a cult to promote that agenda. Right now the wealthy have better access to medicine and nutrition enough to give them a healthier life should they want it. With more active human augmentation, the more wealthy will be able to afford to be superior to the majority in every way we can augment.

I'm not sure about Alex Jones, but this is my concern with the topic.

[Yarathir]

Ideal world? One where death (by aging) is a choice, not an inevitability.

That's all, really. If no one has to die as a natural cause of aging any more, then I can wait for the other developments.

Realistically, though? No such thing will happen, at least it isn't likely.

We'll have some small improvements, possibly some improved holographic technology, and there'll have been some significant medical leaps made, but I doubt our world will have changed much.

I could see artificial ("printed") organs and limbs becoming a much more prominent by that time, though.

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No need for a cult to promote that agenda. Right now the wealthy have better access to medicine and nutrition enough to give them a healthier life should they want it. With more active human augmentation, the more wealthy will be able to afford to be superior to the majority in every way we can augment.

I'm not sure about Alex Jones, but this is my concern with the topic.

I concur. In relation to my post, this is also pretty concerning.

[Vash The Stampede]

Finally found the article I was talking about. Population Map Shows Europe's Death Rates Are Exceeding Births. See the red? Red is bad. I would blame sexbots but that hasn't come to fruition yet. So instead I'll settle for feminists.

Anyway as you can see we probably won't have to worry about overpopulation.

[Techno-Druid]

Finally found the article I was talking about. Population Map Shows Europe's Death Rates Are Exceeding Births. See the red? Red is bad. I would blame sexbots but that hasn't come to fruition yet. So instead I'll settle for feminists.

Anyway as you can see we probably won't have to worry about overpopulation.

I've noticed that a lot of Europe, Japan and even China are having slower birthrates and higher amounts of seniors. Perhaps ultimately this would be beneficial for the future as simple and more complex machines start to take over many jobs. Of course this line of thinking could simply be some sort of fallacy.

[Kaleredar]

Finally found the article I was talking about. Population Map Shows Europe's Death Rates Are Exceeding Births. See the red? Red is bad. I would blame sexbots but that hasn't come to fruition yet. So instead I'll settle for feminists.

Anyway as you can see we probably won't have to worry about overpopulation.

Except, if people stop dying, then birth rates automatically overtake death rates pending that birth rates are anything over zero.

[Alefnir]

50 years? Not much. 38000 years? Probably this.

[Deleted]

Loads and loads of designer drugs.

[Deleted]

Interesting times indeed. Deus Ex had a few cool examples where it might be heading.

ps.

[Deleted]

As opposed to what? Refugees. Refugees. Refugees. Trump. Refugees. Refugees. Obama. Refugees. Refugees. Conservatives.

They're usually more entertaining

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

wtf is a transhumanist?

anyways, 2066 will see the human race start filling all water supplies with Brawndo.

[Zylos]

As opposed to what? Refugees. Refugees. Refugees. Trump. Refugees. Refugees. Obama. Refugees. Refugees. Conservatives.

You forgot feminists/SJWs.

[Techno-Druid]

They're usually more entertaining

Maybe to you

[Shadowferal]

All it takes is one meteor...or even the Yellowstone Caldera to blow up...

[Zephire]

You're asking for two different things. An ideal world is almost inherently not realistic. (--)

No, we fail to comprehend what our priorities will be 50 years in the future. That's not (--)

Dude, nice write up. I'll leave it to you to represent me since you've the same (for what it seems anyway) view as me. You also have way better understanding of the English language...

Completely agree with you so far!

[Fencers]

All this is do-able in my opinion:

- No religion or superstitions.
- Renewable clean & safe energy freely available to all humans.
- Education freely available to all humans.
- Worldwide unrestricted internet access freely available to all humans.
- Driver-less cars.
- Bio IDs.
- Medical care freely available to all humans.

[Shadowferal]

No religion or spiritual beliefs?

Never happen. Those ideas evolve.

A fascinating read: Oh Gods!

[hrugner]

wtf is a transhumanist?

anyways, 2066 will see the human race start filling all water supplies with Brawndo.

Someone who is interested in how people augment their self with technology. Research that focuses on behavioral shifts that come from smart phone use are "transhumanist"

[Techno-Druid]

You can be "spiritual" which means different things to different people, and not belive in God, religion, or superstitions.

I feel spiritual from looking at a sun rise, looking at different pictures of celestial bodies, etc. No religion involved.

I feel spiritual observing nature. Brings out a sort of natural feeling within me