The History of the Earth: 2000 - 3000 AD

[Stefan Haertel]

What I believe is that, if the world keeps the current course, by the end of the 21st century, large-scale wars will have been fought for oil and water. The problem of overpopulation will shrink, as the western countries will have lower birth rates from year to year. My guess is that by 2100, the most populous country of western Europe will have a population of about 50,000,000, while the US will still be keeping well over 100,000,000. India and China will probably stay around 1 billion, but will never exceed it too far if they adopt western-style birth control. Africa will always maintain a balance of birth explosion and population reduction caused by epidemics, starvation and wars.

Many conflicts will flare up. Africa will likely experience another continental war. Some smaller African countires, like Rwanda and Uganda, will become rich and powerful, while uncontrollable ones such as DRC will remain powerless and might perhaps split up totally. Africa will probably experience the departure of some countries into a more wealthier age, while others will probably become poorer than is imaginable by now.

South America will probably become a stable continent where threats of civil wars and military coups will be extinguished by 2100. The continent will likely reach the status of North America or West Europe.

The USA will inevitably lose its position as world power. Most other countries will not tolerate the predominant position of the US for long and drag them into crises and the one or other war. The imperialist course will then not be carried by the population for long, as it will strain economical and political stability in the US. It is likely that future US governments will try to reduce democratic rights, which will not be tolerated by the population. By 2100, the US will either be isolated or a part of the international community without any special rights.

The European Union will probably become a state by 2100. It will span most of the European continent with the exception of some Balkan states, Switzerland and some former Soviet countries. Turkey and Georgia will probably have joined. In the first couple of years, the EU will be the leading light of democracy in the world, but it is likely that it may fall victim to dictatorial temptations by the 2060ies.

Asia will continue to be a continent of two extremes. India and China will become superpowers but will be unable to fight poverty and fully regard human rights. China will continue liberalization and slowly gain democratic structures, though it is unlikely that it will be totally democratic by 2100. There will still be governmental authorities, otherwise the country would break apart.
Pakistan, India, and China will remain hostile to each other and it is not unlikely that there will be a major war.
The Middle East will probably remain a hot spot, especially in the coming oil wars. After that, the countries might rapidly fall into poverty.
There will be no major change for the Far Eastern Asian countries. They will remain wealthy, although they will probably face serious problems by the end of the century.


Those are my prospects. I'd love to be stand corrected, at least if something would be corrected to the positive.

 

[Sir Og]

If the current globalisation process continues in the world economy, there will be a gradual unification in the wealth of different countries. That would also lead to a situation where the potential losses from wars would be far greater than the potential gains.
In the mean time humans would have to doscover a better energy source. It should use an aboundant and cheap fuel as hidrogen and should be able to produce a lot more energy than current sources.
There is a need for a signifficantly more powerfull energy source so that humanity can battle planetary scale disasters such as big meteorites, climate changes, earth quakes, shifts in the magnetic field etc. and start some teraforming projects.

The other major change in the not so distant future would be a signifficant reduction of privacy(Big Brother). There will be a need to control the population more closlely because whackjobs and terorist in the future would have a lot more deadly weapons at their disposal. The technological advancement would lower the costs for producing such things as rockets, nukes, biological weapons etc.

The most important thing however would be the development of AI. I think that if there aren't any major setbacks people would manage to make a machine capable of bettering the human mind. That would have huge implication in every aspect of people's lifes.

 

[Manverulin]

Many conflicts will flare up. Africa will likely experience another continental war. Some smaller African countires, like Rwanda and Uganda, will become rich and powerful, while uncontrollable ones such as DRC will remain powerless and might perhaps split up totally. Africa will probably experience the departure of some countries into a more wealthier age, while others will probably become poorer than is imaginable by now.

If Africa falls into continental war, I'd say African states would fragment, change, form, and disappear, according to what the people would think would have been suitable and not the borders that were mostly given to them by the European colonizers. I'd expect it to turn into a world war. There's probably a chance that South Africa might ask the Netherlands or someone for help. The UK might be dragged into this, I guess, helping the Commonwealth members (If other Commonwealth nations - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, I think, etc. - and other british allies, like the US, join in on the fun...). Then Egypt and other North African countries would band together...

The European Union will probably become a state by 2100. It will span most of the European continent with the exception of some Balkan states, Switzerland and some former Soviet countries. Turkey and Georgia will probably have joined. In the first couple of years, the EU will be the leading light of democracy in the world, but it is likely that it may fall victim to dictatorial temptations by the 2060ies.

I don't think that the EU will become a state, unless it's a loose federation. I think that Turkey might join, and if it does, and rids itself of its human rights issues, then I'd say that Turkey would become a major power in the making.

I believe that nationalism will rise, as more and more states are created (Chechnya, Tibet, Hawai'i, etc.), then, after quite a long while, fall, with people taking down borders, and eventually, forming a world government...

 

[Margim]

If we are talking one thousand years into the future...
- The Pyramids will be covered by a massive dome building project, a modern wonder of the world in itself, in order to preserve these wonders for future generations.
- Probably the west/north west of Australia will be a seperate country, created by refugees/migrants from the subcontinent trying to avoid rising global waters.
- The European Union will have united completely by the end of the 2100s into a solid national entity, only to have disbanded within the next 250 years. Germany, France, Spain and England will still be distinctively German, French, Spanish and British, but other smaller states will probably have been absorbed.
- A major South American city will have been destoryed completely by an earthquake.
- Nuclear weapons will have been used in a conflict - either Asia v America, India v Pakistan, or Israel v Arab States.

 

[NeoDemocrat]

China will become a Democracy
Ireland will be re-united into one country yet again
Scotland will break off again from Great Britain
World War will break out again, mainly America/Great Britain/Russia/Australia
versus China and other Asian nations.
America will fall into disarray and lose it's lead as main economic and military power. Baja California will become a state of the US

 

[Capulet]

India and Pakistan will make permanent peace by the end of this decade, guranteed, so don't worry about nuclear war. I think that nuclear weapons will not be used by an offical, recognized government because I'm sure the people who run them are not stupid. Expect China's economy to collapse when it's government does. The Arab Nations will run out of oil, realize how stupid they have been these last 50 years, and end up like Africa right now. The European Union will eventually contain Turkey, all the Balkan states, and eventually Russia. Switzerland will remain opposed. In the next 50 years, the US will gradually lose it's superstatus because of the useless wars we fight. Expect Poland to take a bigger role in international affairs. Expect Israel to eventually cede Gaza and the West Bank. Iran will take a bigger role in Middle East security. Iraq will stablize. And this is all within this century. The millenium is too much to predict..

 

[Furius]

I doubt the EU will ever contain Russia, there is far too much resentment from the former Soviet Republics in Eastern Europe. The absorbtion of Russia would lead to horror froom them as they worried about a tre-assertion of Rusian dominance.
Israel may cede Gaza, temporarily, like they are doing now (Sort of) to concentrate on the West Bank but that wont solve the problem.
I notice that all these predictions (Mine included) take a very one-dimensional tack. The either lead towards badness and oppression (especially Stefan Haertel's) while others lead to a world of happinness, and freedom. I am not sure I know which one I'd rather live in, actually, but I think neither path is really that likely. It might be on a regional scale but on a world scale, well the world dosen't really follow a theme.
So I think we can expect there will be a lot of bad but also a lot of good.
For example, perhaps we will fail to save the whales. But having witnessed that sadness maybe the dolphins will be kept safe.
And then there is the butterfly flapping its wings on Friday. Whatever happens in the next millenium will be grounded in the past.

 

[pkmink]

What I believe is that, if the world keeps the current course, by the end of the 21st century, large-scale wars will have been fought for oil and water.

Not if the power of Hydrogen is harnessed (see my post).

 

[Amenhotep7]

People won't be speaking English anymore, the moon will take a very long time to complete it's cycle, meaning there are low tides, China will have become democratic, almost no modern country of today shall exist in 3000AD, and a whole bunch of other stuff wil have happened.

 

[Manverulin]

I think that it's possible that when humans learn to manipulate genes and DNA and things better, that we will start to change our bodies for the better, but also 'create' new variations, or sub-species, of humans. Like amphibious humans, humans that do not need much oxygen to live, etc. All the different groups would want greater autonomy from each other, and equal power with the original humans, who created them. And we will be able to harness our psychic abilities much greater. This would all happen, of course, far, far into the future.

 

[pds3.14]

One: communism Vs. capitalism and socialism vs. free market will be remembered, but it won't be just today, that would probably be discussed in small bouts of change over the last and the next couple centuries.

two: Empires: American and European cultural dominance will definitely be important.

War on terror will be remembered, not necessarily as a good thing for anyone.

Internet, and almost all sort of incorporeal world-wide wonders.

Computing for the masses.

Whichever major powers die or come onto the scene will be important.

Secularization is of major importance.

SARS, MRSA, Bird Flu and Swine Flu have ALREADY started to be forgotten. They will be known as much as we know random little epidemics from any more than 100 years ago. Any disease that gets remembered will kill at least hundreds of thousands.

The modernization of Africa and parts of Asia and South America will be remembered, especially by those living there.

9/11 will probably be a widely known among historians and history students. Many will see it as an event that sparked the war on terror.

Few will actually know what exactly happened, I am not talking about whether the Gov't was involved or who actually did it or whether the buildings had demolition equipment inside or whatnot. I am talking about airplanes into buildings, what airplanes, what buildings, how big, who died, how many died, people may well have a different understanding of how many people are typically in a skyscraper (hundreds? hundreds of thousands?) and what size a typical airliner is (five meters? five hundred meters?). Commoners may also associate an airliner with a nuclear power source, or they may overcompensate for the time difference and assume it to be powered by coal and propellers.

They will also probably note the environmentalist movement as it pertains specifically to them.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Past future predictions about the past, interesting.

That one kid got the Japanese earthquake thing right, though no exodus I'm afraid.

 

[Lord Baal]

I predict that in the year 3000AD someone will necro this thread.

 

[otaman1]

Wow. This thread is 9 years old

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, it's not really 'history' if you first think about it

That is correct.

but if you think about it for a while, it kinda is.

No, you were right the first time.

So, pretend that you're a historian in the year 3000 AD. You're making a book or books that describes in detail all the major events since the primitive days of 2000 AD. There's a wide range of things to put in. Wars, scientific breakthroughs, the arts... What would you include?

Just thinking about what they teach from 1000 years ago, they don't go year by year. They talk about broad themes and major milestones with lasting impact. It's impossible to know what has happened that will lead to major impacts in the future. So I'd like to say the rapid advance of technology, the rise of non-European powers, or the spread of liberal democracy, but I don't have any basis to know what's significant.

We don't go by decade when we talk about things 1000 years ago, so the first decade of the 21st Century is too small of a time to know anything.

 

[ace99]

Few will actually know what exactly happened, I am not talking about whether the Gov't was involved or who actually did it or whether the buildings had demolition equipment inside or whatnot. I am talking about airplanes into buildings, what airplanes, what buildings, how big, who died, how many died, people may well have a different understanding of how many people are typically in a skyscraper (hundreds? hundreds of thousands?) and what size a typical airliner is (five meters? five hundred meters?). Commoners may also associate an airliner with a nuclear power source, or they may overcompensate for the time difference and assume it to be powered by coal and propellers.

This is more bizarre than 9/11 truthers. In what way would any of that knowledge be lost considering all the recordings (digital and physical) we have of it?

 

[Dachs]

This is more bizarre than 9/11 truthers. In what way would any of that knowledge be lost considering all the recordings (digital and physical) we have of it?

Knowledge has been lost before.

 

[ace99]

We may have forgotten how to make Damascus steel or Greek fire but we've lost all sense of what it looks like and when it was used. We have accounts of it, tapestries etc.... Unless our we were literally obliterated off the face of the Earth along with our technology I can't imagine that people would have so little knowledge of a plane or a skyscraper.

 

[r16]

ı think the suggestion is that what comes to mind will change for those who are not true experts on the subject . ı am continously surprised to see Roman legions in their green flannels in the movies , considering they were only in red in Asterix cartoons . Or maybe ı am even mistaken about the cartoon thing .

 

[Dachs]

We may have forgotten how to make Damascus steel or Greek fire but we've lost all sense of what it looks like and when it was used. We have accounts of it, tapestries etc.... Unless our we were literally obliterated off the face of the Earth along with our technology I can't imagine that people would have so little knowledge of a plane or a skyscraper.

I agree that the magnitude of the ostensible change in the understanding of what and how that sort of thing happened is implausible, but.

ı think the suggestion is that what comes to mind will change for those who are not true experts on the subject . ı am continously surprised to see Roman legions in their green flannels in the movies , considering they were only in red in Asterix cartoons . Or maybe ı am even mistaken about the cartoon thing .

The Romans wore green a lot in the Asterix comics.