Which of the following is the most likely catalyst for a new age on earth?

[Kyriakos]

New ages tend to start with scientific breakthrough, eg the industrial age, or new tech produced/developed in the built-up of some massive war (ww2).

I think that the catalyst for a significantly different society/global situation on earth will come from some new tech. Maybe the most likely (and ominous) would be a working SDI, cause it will lead to war very fast, while nuclear deterrence has been why we had no massive world war since ww2.

Other than that... a very significant tech would be something allowing instant movement of people from country to country, eg some sort of "beaming". Cause such a tech would act like an underground railway does in the confines of a city, ie it would link very distant territories and thus allowing the sense they are part of the same community.

 

[Samez]

I would go for a celestial body impact, supernova gamma burst or the Yellowstone vulcano going active.

 

[warpus]

Automation, an end of the 9-5 workweek, and the "Everyone must have a job in order to participate in society" mindset.

It's going to completely change the way our society is structured, and it won't be easy getting there. But the more technological innovation automates our lives, the closer we're getting to a point where something will have to give. It won't happen all at once, but we are getting closer to a time when these ideas will have practical implications as opposed to just something you think about

 

[Perfection]

Coal plants and border walls

 

[Lexicus]

Kind of confused about why 'climate-change-induced-civilization-collapse' isn't on the list.

 

[Kyriakos]

Kind of confused about why 'climate-change-induced-civilization-collapse' isn't on the list.

It can be part of "other"

 

[Gori the Grey]

I know the date for "peak-oil" keeps getting pushed back as we discover new reserves, but I think that when it does come, it will prove cataclysmic.

An antibiotic-resistant superbug could conceivably beat peak-oil to the punch.

Those are my two. Well, now Trump blowing everyone up represents a third possibility.

 

[Samez]

Hard AI will also alter our society and lead to a new era.
The moment human labour is no more neccessary for production, service and science and thus accumulating wealth we will either have to live in a society with 99% unemployment and poverty or in a communist utopia. ATM the first seems to be more probable than the second.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hard AI will also alter our society and lead to a new era.
The moment human labour is no more neccessary for production, service and science and thus accumulating wealth we will either have to live in a society with 99% unemployment and poverty or in a communist utopia. ATM the first seems to be more probable than the second.

Going by how few people own most of the money/valuables, it seems that already fairer societies could exist, and yet they do not. So i am not sure if more automation will really change what seems to be artificially kept (long working hours, menial jobs, loads of poor people with no time to think or react to lack of fairness by a few oligarchs).

 

[Catharsis]

Automation, an end of the 9-5 workweek, and the "Everyone must have a job in order to participate in society" mindset.

It's going to completely change the way our society is structured, and it won't be easy getting there. But the more technological innovation automates our lives, the closer we're getting to a point where something will have to give. It won't happen all at once, but we are getting closer to a time when these ideas will have practical implications as opposed to just something you think about

And then everyone will have lots of free time to join massive, sprawling volunteer armies! Hooray for bludgeoning!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Other/tech: Genetic modification (including/especially of babies --> designer babies) or "mind into computer" type crap further along...or basically any advancement that allows willful alteration of emotion and thought in the general sense.

Since modifying people genetically is already happening a little bit I think that's more likely than aliens (no evidence for it at all yet), global lethal virus (historical iterations of this were damaging but not by themselves "new age"), new transport tech (possible, but I don't know of any on the horizon that would qualify), or massive war (my next highest choice).

Kind of confused about why 'climate-change-induced-civilization-collapse' isn't on the list.

It's part of "other", and it should be considered unlikely. It can screw up world environment patterns, become more costly than controlling it would have been, and cause serious strife in the countries most effected (which is difficult to fully predict, for example Europe could easily get colder if it screws the Gulf stream)...but this is in line with other irresponsible human behavior over the past 2 centuries and there's no good reason to believe it will cause collapse of civilization as a whole or a "new age". I don't see it doing more damage to humanity than the World War 1/2 or especially more than a full scale war in the future between countries with WMDs.

 

[Samez]

Going by how few people own most of the money/valuables, it seems that already fairer societies could exist, and yet they do not. So i am not sure if more automation will really change what seems to be artificially kept (long working hours, menial jobs, loads of poor people with no time to think or react to lack of fairness by a few oligarchs).

Due to the automation low qualification production jobs are nearly gone in Western societies, so people now either try to get higher education or switch to service jobs, which are usually payed worse. Both fields are currently hard to automatize but as soon as there are ai(Turing proof) which can replace those people by either being better (smarter, more creative aso) or by beging cheeper at the same service level.
Good current example is the introduction of articels written by computers in newspapers. In some fields it is already umpossible to say if it was written by a program or by an author. (Sport reports is a often cited example)

 

[EgonSpengler]

I think virtual reality could be pretty tremendous.

As far as a huge disaster, I think the disease pandemic is a possibility, but I'm not sure a disaster alone would constitute a new age.

 

[The_J]

Other/tech: Genetic modification (including/especially of babies --> designer babies)

I actually think the Chinese might build an army of supersoldiers with it...or maybe Kim Jong Un will, who knows.

But then again, the last tech revolution were smartphones, so the poll is probably horribly wrong .

 

[Perfection]

Smartphones are just the first consumer application of the smart everything revolution. It really kicked mobile processing and connectivity into high gear.

 

[warpus]

I can't believe Smart toilets aren't standard here. After getting used to them in Japan we really need to make that jump in technology and acceptance, coming back to regular toilets after a month in Japan is like going from your smartphone back to a flipphone or from windows 10 to windows 95

 

[Birdjaguar]

As soon as the very rich can isolate themselves from any dependence on the rest of us, the next era will begin.

 

[warpus]

As soon as the very rich can isolate themselves from any dependence on the rest of us, the next era will begin.

They'll be able to do that once they don't need us to do work for them. AKA when they are able to automate their corporations to a large degree.

The problem is that they'll still need customers, and that's us. So they won't really be free from us, they'll need us to have money to spend on their junk.

 

[Birdjaguar]

They'll be able to do that once they don't need us to do work for them. AKA when they are able to automate their corporations to a large degree.

The problem is that they'll still need customers, and that's us. So they won't really be free from us, they'll need us to have money to spend on their junk.

If they have enough wealth, they only need access to what they want to consume. Income producing assets would be a luxury and susceptible to diversion by others. with Self sustaining enclaves and private travel between them the super rich would need little else and what happened outside of their enclaves might not matter at all.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Global warming/collapse of global bio-diversity/instability
Post antibiotic world
Advanced AI/augmentation/human cyborgs
Those badass tube vacuum transport things