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predictions for 2010 and beyond
Jan. 11th, 2010 11:57 pmThis is a semi-tongue-in-check response to several more serious versions of these I've seen in the last week, including a few here on lj.
1. Genetically-altered virus escapes containment and infects several 10s of thousands in the city where the research was being conducted. About half the people infected are dead within 48 hours, prompting the "traditional", Murdock-lead media to call it the "48 hour flu". In social media circles it's simply called "The U", in reference to both the Umbrella Corporation of the Resident Evil movie series, and the University from which it escaped. There is a subsequent backlash across all areas of genetic research. Funding is slashed, researchers go underground, many ending-up in China.
2. A true earth-like planet is discovered and repeatedly confirmed to exist. Just a little over 10 light years away and 1.5 times the size of our planet. For weeks additional information is suppressed, until some Chinese hacker cracks a JPL email server and pulls down the secrets: roughly the same distance from it's star as Earth is from the sun, Earth II (as it is immediately dubbed) also circles a medium-sized, nondescript yellow sun, and has about a 12 degree tilt, abundant water, an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a small south-polar icecap but the north pole is ice-fee, with an average global temp of 62 degrees F. Global-warming naysayers jump all over this as proof that human activity in general, and industrialization in particular, have nothing to do with global warming. The following year, more crude oil is pumped from the ground than in the previous three. NASA funding is slashed by more than half to fund government drilling in the Arctic.
3. After 45+ years of government ownership of Amtrak, and 8+ years of owning General Motors (America's last domestic auto maker), the government starts buying failing airlines outright. Within 10 years, there are only three domestic carriers in the US: Delta, Southwest (as the lone "cut-rate" airline), and United-American Air which is the government owned conglomerate of United Airlines, American Airlines, and a dozen smaller companies. Delta has to buy "franchise rights" to continue to operate, which are really thinly-disguised tariffs levied against the foreign majority owners of the company. Southwest is allowed to survive as the token competition, but has to hire the same TSA employees as Delta to server as "flight supervisors" in the place of flight attendants. No more drinks, peanuts, meals, or anything else other than sitting still in your seat for the duration of the flight. For travel over 2 hours, passengers are given a mandatory dramamine-benadryl cocktail to put them to sleep for the duration of the trip. Over 70% of the flights are under 2 hours, which is encouraged by the increasing use of "flight transfer taxes" of over $50 assessed by the TSA on every passenger for each connecting flight. Within the 10 years of government airline acquisition, the number of passenger miles traveled with the US drops by 40%. In the same time period, the number of TSA employees eclipses 1 million.
4. By 2025, the "official" US population peaks at 350 million. Real population is closer to 400 million, as illegal immigration continues despite walls, dogs, aircraft surveillance, and eventually land mines. Which leads to a game among Mexican youth of deliberately chasing chickens or other animals into one mined area to draw the attention of officials, while groups of people cross the border in other areas. In some areas south of Texas, it becomes a gang initiation rite for a teenager to set off a mine by himself, thereby proving his bravery and worthiness to join the gang. For a year, Brownsville, Texas is taken over by gang wars between the Vaqueros Zurdo and the Zapatos Solitario.
5. 2045: The United States defaults on it's debt and China dominates the world in economics and finance, industry, medicine (especially genetics), and nanotechnology. Manufacturing jobs start getting exported from China to the US, as unions are disbanded, minimum wage laws revoked, and child labor made mandatory. The Sino-American Alliance is created in 2050 as the United States as a unified political entity becomes a political vassal to their Eastern financial overlords. Americans continue to be placated with sports, pop music, fast food, and bad television, and barely notice that they no longer control their own destiny for the first time in nearly 300 years. NASA facilities in Florida, Maryland, Ohio, and California triple and quadruple in number of employees, budgets, and projects.
6. July 4, 2176: The first fusion-powered deep-range space craft launched by the SAA completes it's 20 year, one-way trip to Earth II.
1. Genetically-altered virus escapes containment and infects several 10s of thousands in the city where the research was being conducted. About half the people infected are dead within 48 hours, prompting the "traditional", Murdock-lead media to call it the "48 hour flu". In social media circles it's simply called "The U", in reference to both the Umbrella Corporation of the Resident Evil movie series, and the University from which it escaped. There is a subsequent backlash across all areas of genetic research. Funding is slashed, researchers go underground, many ending-up in China.
2. A true earth-like planet is discovered and repeatedly confirmed to exist. Just a little over 10 light years away and 1.5 times the size of our planet. For weeks additional information is suppressed, until some Chinese hacker cracks a JPL email server and pulls down the secrets: roughly the same distance from it's star as Earth is from the sun, Earth II (as it is immediately dubbed) also circles a medium-sized, nondescript yellow sun, and has about a 12 degree tilt, abundant water, an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a small south-polar icecap but the north pole is ice-fee, with an average global temp of 62 degrees F. Global-warming naysayers jump all over this as proof that human activity in general, and industrialization in particular, have nothing to do with global warming. The following year, more crude oil is pumped from the ground than in the previous three. NASA funding is slashed by more than half to fund government drilling in the Arctic.
3. After 45+ years of government ownership of Amtrak, and 8+ years of owning General Motors (America's last domestic auto maker), the government starts buying failing airlines outright. Within 10 years, there are only three domestic carriers in the US: Delta, Southwest (as the lone "cut-rate" airline), and United-American Air which is the government owned conglomerate of United Airlines, American Airlines, and a dozen smaller companies. Delta has to buy "franchise rights" to continue to operate, which are really thinly-disguised tariffs levied against the foreign majority owners of the company. Southwest is allowed to survive as the token competition, but has to hire the same TSA employees as Delta to server as "flight supervisors" in the place of flight attendants. No more drinks, peanuts, meals, or anything else other than sitting still in your seat for the duration of the flight. For travel over 2 hours, passengers are given a mandatory dramamine-benadryl cocktail to put them to sleep for the duration of the trip. Over 70% of the flights are under 2 hours, which is encouraged by the increasing use of "flight transfer taxes" of over $50 assessed by the TSA on every passenger for each connecting flight. Within the 10 years of government airline acquisition, the number of passenger miles traveled with the US drops by 40%. In the same time period, the number of TSA employees eclipses 1 million.
4. By 2025, the "official" US population peaks at 350 million. Real population is closer to 400 million, as illegal immigration continues despite walls, dogs, aircraft surveillance, and eventually land mines. Which leads to a game among Mexican youth of deliberately chasing chickens or other animals into one mined area to draw the attention of officials, while groups of people cross the border in other areas. In some areas south of Texas, it becomes a gang initiation rite for a teenager to set off a mine by himself, thereby proving his bravery and worthiness to join the gang. For a year, Brownsville, Texas is taken over by gang wars between the Vaqueros Zurdo and the Zapatos Solitario.
5. 2045: The United States defaults on it's debt and China dominates the world in economics and finance, industry, medicine (especially genetics), and nanotechnology. Manufacturing jobs start getting exported from China to the US, as unions are disbanded, minimum wage laws revoked, and child labor made mandatory. The Sino-American Alliance is created in 2050 as the United States as a unified political entity becomes a political vassal to their Eastern financial overlords. Americans continue to be placated with sports, pop music, fast food, and bad television, and barely notice that they no longer control their own destiny for the first time in nearly 300 years. NASA facilities in Florida, Maryland, Ohio, and California triple and quadruple in number of employees, budgets, and projects.
6. July 4, 2176: The first fusion-powered deep-range space craft launched by the SAA completes it's 20 year, one-way trip to Earth II.
