What Will 2030 Look Like?
This question, obviously, is impossible to truthfully answer. However, thinking about the future implies reflection on the current state of humanity and what will be different in 10 years. Nowadays, in this big giant mess of things, my feelings fluctuate between having absolutely no hope for a promising future and seeing small positives that make me think of how good civilization has the potential to be.
Thinking about the future also triggers reflections about human history. Reading about history, from my perspective, is simply reading about unequal societies, injustice, war and violence throughout the human era. Even though we live in a world with so many cruel and harsh injustices, we are in many ways living in the best time human history has ever seen. Women and people of color have finally broken into many white male dominated fields, before COVID we were at a historical low for global poverty, hunger, and disease, and gay marriage has been becoming legal in a mass movement across the globe. Still, even in this hopeful state, civilization is as it has always been: Cruel and unjust.
In my stolen textile from that era, that message is what I want to get across. I want to combine three key points: inevitable overwhelming destruction, inevitable cultural change for the slightly better, and my personal growth through it all.
Now, I will answer specific questions about my future guesses.
- What does it feel, smell, sound, or look like?
- Personally, and not at a larger world scale, I hope I have the blessing of finding success in my field and pursuing my passions, supporting and being supported by a great group of friends and family, and living in a physical space that keeps me happy and healthy(I’m picturing nature, dogs, healthy cooking, and developing skills in hobbies I am interested in). Also, I would like to not live in the US.
- How do people travel?
- Electric car, public transportation, electric planes maybe!
- Unfortunately still: car overcrowding, mass traffic, planes with combustion engines
- How do people interact?
- Sadly, a lot of interaction is virtual. And I hate that, not looking forward to it. One of the most traumatizing aspects of COVID is the fact that humanity has accelerated to online and virtual work and will likely stay that way forever. The next epidemic is already here, and its loneliness.
- What do people eat, wear, or spend time doing?
- A mix of sustainable and fast fashion, based off of income/class sadly
- vegan/vegetarian revolution, however entire populations still swear by red meat
- People spend most of their time using tech and connecting not-in-person(and this legit breaks my heart loll)
- What are the environment and cities like?
- Scenario A: Complete and utter climate destruction.
- Scenario B: Somehow, we immediately and completely shift our entire culture to save the climate.
- Scenario C(the most likely one): We save some climate shit, lose most of it, but adapt as a civilization to somehow survive. Dystopian future arrives at an accelerated pace.
- Cities: Some cities have been decimated by potential nuclear war and infighting, others have developed sustainable green ec-hubs. New major cities pop up in previously developing countries and emissions increase anyway.
- The Environment: the great barrier reef is completely destroyed. However, tech innovations make farming and agriculture more sustainable. The duality of man, I guess.
- Do we have more technology or less?
- Wayyy more, for the better. Technology and a lot of its new applications give me a lot of hope.
- Unfortunately, also maybe AI overlord. Yikes.
- What happened between now and the next 10 years to make 2030 the way it is?
NOTE: I try not to hope too much, so im mentally preparing for some bullshit like this:
- Trump is re-elected
- COVID doesn’t stop spreading for years
- Cultural and actual revolution in the United States