We asked 15 experts, “What do we do now that will be considered unthinkable in 50 years?”

Vox ^ | 4/3/2019 | Various

[Borges]

Some 50 years ago, in 1964, 42 percent of Americans smoked cigarettes. Smoking in bars and offices was normal and cigarettes were given to soldiers as part of military rations. Half of American physicians smoked. Ads for cigarettes bombarded the American public. That year, the surgeon general released a report outlining the health risks of smoking. Two years later, only 40 percent of Americans said that they believed smoking was a major cause of cancer.

[Borges]

Most of them are Marxists talking about perceived "Capitalist institutions' they think will die out, but the Abortion article is by a Liberty U. Professor!

[ctdonath2]

Abortion.

[Borges]

The self driving car entry is up your alley. The reasoning is rather unrelated to the possibilities of the technology itself.

[CatOwner]

Vote. Pretty much anything in the First Amendment.

[rjsimmon]

Believe that there is no difference between men and women.

[esquirette]

Eating white sugar in any form.

[ClearCase_guy]

“Vote for Democrats”

People are walking away. I hope.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

And cold fusion will still be 10 years away from viability!

[Billthedrill]

Surgical butchery to pretend to be the opposite sex.

[DouglasKC]

Be white and heterosexual. But i don’t think we have 50 years left.

[SkyDancer]

Or 2nd. if we allow it to happen.

[Nuc 1.1]

Freedom today, unthinkable in 50 years.

[Drew68]

Abortion.

Actually, that's one of the predictions in the article.

Abortion will be considered unthinkable 50 years from now

[Bob434]

i remember smoking in hospitals

[Jeff Chandler]

Eating white sugar in any form.

Only if the propagandists are successful. The only problem with white sugar is its over-use.

[Busywhiskers]

Voting Democrat...

[Political Junkie Too]

Calling your enemies racist.

In 50 years, Africa will have finally emerged from tribalism, built a continental infrastructure, and will rival East Asia as a manufacturing entity.

Africans will take their place on the world stage.

-PJ

[Jeff Chandler]

i remember smoking in hospitals

I drank beer once in a pediatric ICU room. Heineken.

[ctdonath2]

Please elaborate.
Self-driving cars will be a boon: tell it where to go and you’re there; traffic will flow far smoother when most vehicles are automated.

Odd side effect: motels per se will disappear. Being able to drive a full trip in one shot (automatically recharging along the way) will leave passengers willing to just sleep in the car en route, rather than wasting hours of time sleeping (in some cheesy motel) without moving.

[higgmeister]

Bioethicist Peter Singer says people will stop the habit of conspicuous consumption. “The ostentatious display of wealth, in a world that still has many people in need, is not in good taste. Within 50 years, we’ll wonder how people did not see that,” he writes.

I'll only be 116 years old by then. The presumptive futurist needs to look back through history. Even Socialist leaders lived in excess. It may be lived in hidden enclaves but it will not by any means be gone.