Posted on 02/19/2015 10:25:00 AM PST by LouAvul
Some of us remember America of fifty years ago. Vastly, vastly different than what we see now.
In your opinion, what will America be in another fifty years?
We will all have flying carpets!
Compared to 1910-1960? Surely you jest.
I believe it is expanding exponentially and will continue to do so.
I did a presentation to my daughters class in the late 1980’s on technological change. I brought props and pictures. I showed them how my tennis racket from 1973 was pretty much the same as a tennis racket from 1890. Then I showed them a new carbon fiber tennis racket. Did the same with pictures of bicycles.
I then showed them one of our 12” data laserdisks in a sleave (looks like a giant floppy) and compared it to the 8” floppy from just a few years before.
I did a lot more to bring the point home. The point was this: Two things increase the speed of progress:
1. The speed and efficiency of communication.
3. The speed and efficiency of modeling.
And computers have dramatically increased both, giving us wild improvements in old items as well as new items we never dreamed of.
The invention of the printing press was one. The invention of the computer was another. But at the time of my presentation there was no such thing as the internet - ther greatest of all.
Between 1910 and 1960, most changes were mechanical. Computers were mechanical at the beginning but they went to relays and finally tubes. We had TV in 1960, but it has nothing in common with what we call “tv” today other than they both work on electricity.
And there is not much difference, really, between a Model T and a 1960 Chevy, technology-wise. But look at what we have today. Computers that allow a car to tell you what’s wrong with it. Computer manufactured cars. 200,000 mile dependability. Air conditioning that barely affects gas mileage.
And then there is satelite tech. Bluetooth, Wi-fi, Graphene, Nanotech, etc.
It is absolutely exploding all around us. The world literally changes as much in a month as it did back then in several years. And it will soon change the same amount in a week, and then a day.
It’s why we feel today like we live in the future. It changes too fast but it is constantly changing faster than it did the year before. People will snap. People ARE snapping.
What is currently known as “America” will be reduced to a rump state of perhaps Texas and a few surrounding states. Most of the remaining portions of the country will have either been ceded to Mexico, under muslim rule, or divided into cantons based on ideology.
The remaining shelf life of America as we know it is very short.
I scrolled really fast down the thread and briefly saw what looked like a red Barchetta, from a better managed time. Because that song was about the future, too.
I’m 58 now... thankfully I’ll be looooonnnnnngggg dead and my ashes long scattered somewhere in Ireland.
Placemaker
broke, separated by ethnic groups, and without Christianity..
ie dead..
yep..PG
WOW They perfected the Orgasmatron Finally!!
Yup.
IMO, It is our independent nature that has made the difference. Probably because most of our ancestors came from oppressive governments, mostly monarchies, and after suffering under oppressive rule and surviving the grueling tip from their home countries, they valued the freedom and independence >Liberty< that the United States offered. Unfortunately, we are quickly losing our way and forgetting how it once was.
Road Warriors
Mad Max
It will be a place in which to live a decent, moral life, society will technically have made you a criminal. The actual criminals will legally be the “law-abiding”.
In 2065...what was formerly the United States now exists as several polities- the Southern Union occupying much of the old Confederacy’s territory, but having its capital in Austin, because Texas is the predominate power in a regional republic whose economy is largely based on oil production. The old Northeast and much of the Midwest lies in the hands of the Northern Union, which still has its capital in Washington DC and still claims to be the actual United States, although that only means anything at the UN, where Red China and the Russian Empire (now under the rule of the Czars of the Putin dynasty) still recognizes that rump state. Most of California and Arizona succumbed to Mexican conquest during the Second Civil War of 2037. New Mexico, claimed both by Mexico and the Southern Union, is largely empty due to being a combat zone during the Mexican Incursion of 2044, and Santa Fe nothing but a radioactive ruin after the Southern Union deployed nukes. The rest of California, Oregon and Washington became an autonomous part of Canada in response to Russian aggression. The Russian Empire took Alaska into ‘protective custody’ during the 2nd Civil War, and Hawaii has maintained a precarious independence as the headquarters of the UN, due to the destruction of NYC during the war. Utah, Nevada,Colorado, Idaho, and Kansas are claimed by all sides, but in reality is a no-man’s land where skirmishes are fought periodically.
The 2nd Civil War ended in an armistice, with both sides employing poison gas and engaging in atrocities during the conflict that left most population centers in ruins. The Southern Union formed a constitutional republic of sovereign states, with a common currency and foreign policy, where marriage was specified as one man, and one woman, and citizens were required to own weapons to serve in their state militias, which remain active in repelling incursions from the Northern Union and putting down rebellions in what were formerly liberal enclaves, as well as turning back refugees from the Northern Union. Economically, the Southern Union practices capitalism and shows some signs of recovering, thanks to protectionist policies that allow for the growth of domestic industry, and to the exploitation of the oil of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Northern Union formed a parliamentary democracy and attempted to enact a full communist state, but only succeeded in creating a dictatorship by committee which has held power continuously since inception. The head of the Politburo of the Democratic Party is the actual head of government, regardless of who the prime minister is. The economy of the Northern Union resembles that of East Germany of the Cold War years- state controlled, technologically backward, unproductive, and agriculture largely in the hands of “cooperative ventures”, which are really collective farms. Christianity was abolished there, although pockets of Islam exist in some urban areas, which sometimes rise in revolt. Perversion and drug use are commonplace in the Northern Union, encouraged by the government as a way to prevent the ‘citizens’ from thinking too much about their predicament, which is a standard of living rapidly shrinking to that of North Korea.
Such is the world of 2065.
This is not the America my Great Grandfather,Grandfather, Father, Myself and Brothers fought for. My dear mother told me “ well we would all be speaking German now if not for our involvement” and I told her I would rather be speaking German than Spanish. It went over her head.
We are Russia, 1910.
So in 50 years we will be Russia 1960.
Actually Jesus will return within 50 years, and the world will be a different place.
What if you’re in row 10 of a mass muslim prayer and the guy in front of you has been eating cabbage?
America will be a thriving capitalist country with a an executive branch that is quite a bit weaker than today. The reason it is weaker is that after the realization finally dawned on the pols that the government is not capable of managing an economy as large as it had grown they slowly pulled away from trying to manage it. President Walker was instrumental in engineering this pullback and during this his administration the economy took off at hyper speed and Gross domestic product went through the roof.
America now controls the price of energy through market forces and the price for the btus is not just reasonable but reflects its inherent worth. This has been a real blessing to the world as more and more people have become middle class due to the reasonable cost of energy.
Society has become much more enjoyable as those who did not participate in the economy previously learned to take advantage of the opportunities.
The technology can be overwhelming but many people choose not to allow it to dominate their lives. Cable has disappeared and what can be best described as streaming is the norm. Most homes are just not that technology dependent due to taste rather than any barriers to using it. Kids still play ball and ride bikes just as they used to do.
The NSA still collects data on everyone and everything they do or say in public. No one cares anymore because the NSA is still trying to sort through the massive data tsunami of 2016. They are at January of that year and have been there for the last ten years.
Freedom of speech is alive and well with the political correctness of the teens dead and buried. It was found to be counter productive.
Oddly enough, gyrocopters have made a comeback and are quite popular. The are a bit different in that they are have a lot of computer controlled safety mechanisms which have made this type of transportation very safe and affordable. Sams Club carries 5 different models and Basspro has a large number of models painted in camouflage.
The global warming religion died after the great freeze of 2020 and the summers are now shorter than they used to be.
All states have shall issue ccw and most have constitutional open carry. The great surge of murders and crime posited by the anti-gun crowd never happened as the country became more and more polite.
The average American is a. Conservative and b. looking forward to the future.
And I still do not have my own flying car.....sniff.
There was nothing left but illegal aliens and muzzies..and they finally blew themselves and America up
Ron Perlman should’ve been in caveman. They could have saved a ton on makeup. My, they had nice teeth in those caveman days too!
Zug zug indeed!
Frightening thought.
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