After all, we all want to know what the future looks like.

Here are my 50 predictions for 2050.
I will regularly keep track of them and mark them complete when we’ve gotten anywhere.

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I got inspired to do this list by reading this article saying that by 2050 the collapse of human society will begin. They make some good points, mostly about climate change, and the overall mood is quite dark.

Clearly to pessimistic for me 🙂

So I came up with the idea to highlight 50 predictions for 2050 – both the good and the bad ones.

The list will be updated and monitored by me regularly as new science pops up, so make sure to check in every once in a while.

Also I will not explain my predictions in here, but rather link to articles that I will add over time to the blog.

The 2050 List of 50 Predictions

1. Climate change will impact our daily lives, we will wonder not only for the sake of an intact ecological system but also for economical reasons, why we have not done anything before.
2. Advances in light and display technology will transform how we build and construct. Appartment and Stores without windows will be a likely sight in 2050.
3. Cairo and Lagos will be the biggest cities on the planet.
4. China will be the greatest power on the planet – and struggling. They will have a leadership issue after Xi’s departure and a population increasingly struggling with the need for creativity and innovation.
5. Among the most advanced countries in the world are: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. What do they have in common? High Social Equality, highest IT literacy and adoption rate, ultra-modern cities and people that speak several languages.
6. Nuclear Energy will enter a renaissance, with it being the substitute for times of low renewable output and in remote areas.
7. Almost all electronic devices we use will vanish and be replaced by more user friendly devices. These will be more agile, easier to use and smarter. Kids born after 2050 will have a similar relationship to Keyboards that kids born today have to CDs.
8. Advances in research about neurology and soundwaves create perfect pieces of music for every situation and mood that we are feeling. This means that essentially, the need for music will be nonexistent. Listening to old music will be similar to watching an old 1950s movie – we do it for the art, not the entertainment.
9. In relation to the previous point – advancements in creative AI will lead to AI composing these pieces – not humans.
10. Interaction with Chatbots and digital assistants will surpass the amount of interaction with family members and friends.
11. Autonomous driving will progress significantly and lead to larger streets being divided up between an autonomous and non-autonomous section.
12. Society will be divided into 4 new classes – primarily along the lines of ownership and participation in technology.
13. Universal Basic Income will be a reality. Not from a socialistic perspective but from a capitalistic perspective.
14. Cryptocurrency will make up a big part of all financial transactions.
15. Mars will have an established human colony, potentially Venus, too. (Floating cloud city)
16. First science around quicker than light travel and planning for first prototypes will come up.
17. On the stockmarket the combined value of biotech companies is close to or will have surpassed the combined value of IT companies – the drivers: Massive prolongiation of lifetime, cognitive enhancements, physical enhancements, human-to-machine interfaces.
18. The larger masses of people that stay untouched from biotech revolutions will enter into a new age of Religion. Either the classical ones will get renewed or new religions will appear.
19. Countries with already high social inequality might enter periods of severe instability, where riots and fights might break out among the lower classes – what are they fighting about? Access to internet and IT-Hardware and Biotech-Hardware components and ressources. Mad Max style.
20. Battery technology has advanced so much, you’ll likely be able to drive several thousand kilometers on a single charge in an extremely light car (compared to todays weight).
21. Airplanes and Ships will run either on synthetic carbon neutral fuels or on hydrogen.
22. The world will have mostly moved to carbon negative societies, pulling out CO2 from the atmosphere and digging it underground to bring atmospherical levels back to pre-industrial levels.
23. … in progress.