My 25 Predictions for the next 25 years: From 2025 to 2050 (Part I)

 Nuclear fusion, lab-grown beef, trillionaires...and more!

Bonjour, tout le monde.

It's 2025. We're halfway through the 2020's and a quarter-way through the 21st Century. In my opinion, life on Earth is still a bit...normal. Now, that's not a bad thing. Life's good for a lot of people. I'm grateful for life. But I'd have imagined that 2025 would feel more...futuristic. Where are the lunar bases? Where are the flying skateboards? Yes, we've had a few major developments over the past few years, such as the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sphere, but it would be cool if we got some more futuristic technology or development.

I thought I'd write a post with 25 things I think will happen by 2050. Now, I'm not a scientist. I mean, *ahem* I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics, so I'm technically a social scientist (who cares?), but my predictions don't have much empirical evidence to support them.  All that aside, I think it's fun to speculate about the future. So let's speculate, shall we?

1. At least one person will have reached a net worth of 1 trillion dollars.

One common trend over the last few decades has been that the rich have gotten richer. In 2000, the person with the highest net worth was Bill Gates, at around $59 billion. (around $114 billion after adjusting for inflation) At the time of writing, Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has a net worth of around $383 billion, which is more than three Bill Gates' net worth back in 2000, even after adjusting for inflation. So by 2050, I'm pretty sure at least one person will be a trillionaire. That amount of money could buy you...100 billion takeout pepperoni pizzas.

2. Earth's human population will have passed the 10 billion mark.

When I was a kid, I read that the world's population was expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. Given that the world's current population is already at 8 billion, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that we'll have reached 10 billion people in the next 25 years. I don't see that as a bad thing. After all, humans are our planet's most unique and important resource. Governments will just need to figure out how to sustainably manage a larger population. Like how to feed them, for instance...

3. Lab-grown meat will be sold worldwide.

Cultivating meat in laboratories is one way in which scientists are attempting to produce an alternative to conventional meat. Currently, lab-grown meat can only be sold in three countries: Singapore, the USA and Australia. But its sale is under review in several other nations. I think we’re only a few decades away from walking into a store on any continent and buying lab-grown beef or chicken. I don't know what it'll taste like, but unless it's good, I’ll stick to my regular 100% natural burgers (well, maybe 70% natural, considering how modern agriculture works-).

4. Global temperatures will be at least two degrees above pre-Industrial Revolution levels. 

Governments and companies have been tasked with reducing carbon emissions to prevent global warming from reaching dangerous levels. Many climate scientists state that we must prevent global temperatures from increasing by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels. But given our current levels of greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that some large companies aren't committed to decarbonization acts as a signal to me that things probably won’t change for some time. 

5. There will have been a significant global recession.

This one sounds like a bit of a downer, but recessions can happen. Historically, sooner or later, there's usually something that causes GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to go down for a while. Will the cause be a pandemic like COVID-19 or a asset bubble burst like what led to the 2007/08 Great Financial Crisis? Hopefully not.

6. The first fully functional nuclear fusion power plant will be active.

I believe that nuclear fusion is the future of energy. It’s clean, it’s incredibly efficient, but it’s also expensive and quite difficult to sustain nuclear fusion reactions…for now. By 2050, we may just have a fully functional nuclear fusion power plant. Whether the plant will be able to provide energy for an entire town or city is another story. But just think about it. Imagine being able to tap into the same energy that powers our Sun and trillions of other stars in the universe. That's cool. 

7. A manned mission to Mars will be in its testing phase.

With the Artemis III mission set to land astronauts back on the moon within the 2020’s, we’re just a hop, jump and 225 million kilometers away from having a manned mission to Mars.  A manned mission to Mars will take lots of resources, as with current spaceflight technology, a trip to and from Mars could take between two to three years. But NASA scientists are already working on researching on how to prepare astronauts for a Martian expedition. By 2050, I'm pretty confident there will have been an uncrewed flyby of Mars by a spacecraft that will eventually carry humans to Mars, similar to Artemis I flew by the moon in 2022.

8. Robot domestic servants will be commercially available.

It's something many of us have dreamed of for years. Having a robot to do your chores, cook your meals, take care of your pets, et cetera. What was once science fiction is coming closer to becoming a reality, as several restaurants have already begun to use android waiters. Making robots that can help out around the house is a far more complicated challenge, but the fact that companies such as Tesla and Apple have begun developing robots shows that progress is on the horizon. Will there be robot 'house helps' available for purchase by 2050? Maybe. How much will they cost? Probably a ton. Well, we may have a trillionaire on Earth by then, so at least someone will be able to afford them...

9. Commercial airlines will have begun to offer flights via electric plane.

Electric Vehicles (EV's) are increasing in popularity, as many claim that they're better for the environment than their traditional fossil-fuel counterparts. I must confess, I'm quite sceptical about whether EV's are actually as environmentally sustainable as people claim they are, considering how materials to build EV batteries are extracted. Nevertheless, I must admit that they're market share is growing. By 2050, we should see electric planes taking to the skies.

10. The study of Artificial Intelligence will be mandatory in many schools.

Even if AI doesn't end up replacing all of our jobs or taking over our society, it's a revolutionary tool that we're going to have to learn how to use if we want to keep up with technological progress. Just as children around the world have to learn mathematics and literacy; by 2050, I'm confident that kids will have to learn about how AI works and how to use it, regardless of where they are in the world or what their future job or career will be.

Welp, this list is getting pretty long, so how about we end it here for now? Look out for Part II sometime in the future. I promise I'll get it out before 2050.

Sources:

The Week: https://theweek.com/tech/robot-servants-meta-apple

Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/

AEI:https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/animated-chart-of-the-day-worlds-top-ten-billionaires-2000-to-2022/

World Population Review: https://worldpopulationreview.com/

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/humans-to-mars/#preparing

Good Food Institute: https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis(I'd never have guessed I would need this website's services):https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator