What Will the World Look Like in 25 Years - Essay Example

? Many people wonder how the world will look in twenty-five years. What will change and what will be the same? It is hard to predict everything. In 1980, no one was predicting the invention of the internet other than a few forward thinking individuals that were technologically savvy. Even these individuals never dreamed of companies such as Google or Facebook that we use each an every day. We cannot predict everything, but with a little imagination, some technical knowledge and a look into the past, we can have a good idea concerning what the world will look like in twenty-five years. One of the most daunting ecological challenges facing the planet today is global climate change. Many dispute that contribution humans make to our changing environment. Over the next twenty-five years, our contribution to global climate change will be indisputable. The earth’s climate will continue to rise at a rapid rate. The result will be catastrophic in some areas while others will actually benefit from the rising global temperatures. In areas such as the Sahel in Africa, climate change will accelerate processes such as desertification. People living in marginal areas will be displaced at an increasing rate. This will lead to increased pressure on governments and international aid agencies. Unfortunately the worst effects of global climate change will be felt in areas that are already politically unstable and poor. This changing climate will cause an even greater divide between the rich and the poor nations of the earth. Other nations, such as the Maldives and other small island and atolls in the Pacific will actually disappear. The displacement of entire populations will be catastrophic economically and culturally for those affected and for the nations to which they flee. Despite all of this, there will continue to be individuals that doubt the veracity of climate change and how much people contribute to the phenomenon. Wealthy nations will continue to burn fossil fuels, even though they are increasingly rare and expensive, because they will still be more efficient than alternative renewable sources of energy. In twenty-five years the economy will still drive many of the decisions we make every day, even if they are not wise in the long run. The global economy will be radically different than it is today. The trend to breaking down trade barriers will continue, leading to further integration of governments into mega-nations. Europe appears to be fragile right now due to the amount of debt sovereign nations are carrying. Over the next twenty-0five years, the nations of Europe will see the wisdom in giving up more of their sovereignty in exchange for greater security. The European union will greatly benefit from a more centralized role from Brussels, Belgium, which will become the de facto capital of the unified European Union of Sates. Some important European countries such as Great Britain and Norway will continue to act outside the newly integrated union in Europe. This change in Europe will mean that the United States and Europe will dominate the global marketplace twenty-five years from now. China will have imploded as a result of totalitarianism and corruption. While still a powerhouse, China will see a fleeing of manufacturing jobs back to the safe havens of the United States and Europe when internal unrest threaten supply chains. The diminishing role china will play twenty-five years from now will benefit nations such as Vietnam and Indonesia but will actually hurt many other nations due to the trade ties they forged over the next twenty-five years. The global economy will enter a depression as a result of the collapse of order in China, but will rebound as consumers get used to buying less and paying more for it. The ability to communicate on a massive scale will also be radically different than it is today. Truly futuristic technologies such as hologram images and surgically implanted digital devices will allow busy workers and managers to communicate over great distances simply by sorting through a digital interface between implanted devices and human thought. This sounds futuristic, but twenty0five years is an eternity away when one considers the amount of advancement made over the past twenty-five years. Communication will be one of the few sectors of society that will continue to see massive advances in technology. Twenty-five years ago the internet was barely a factor in global communications and cell phones were the size of shoeboxes. Smaller, faster, cheaper and easier will be the buzzwords for communication devices over the next twenty-five years. Breakthroughs in technology that allow devices and the human mind to interface will still be cutting-edge technologies in twenty-five years, but they will be available and implemented, especially by the military in wealthy nations. Interpersonal communications will also be very different in twenty-five years. Direct connection devices that allow the sending of text and voice messages using impulses from the mind will eliminate the current social media we now enjoy. The internet will increasingly be used for commerce and less for social interaction. Over the next twenty-five years, the world will see a backlash against social networking sites. Sociologists and academics will begin to see a shift in the ability of individuals to function normally in society due to extreme mounts of time interacting digitally. Governments will increasingly monitor communication via the internet as a result in increasing terrorist attacks and disruptions caused by hacking societies that have grown up, like the Anonymous of today. The internet will become a battleground between nations, terrorists and global corporations and ideologically driven, technologically savvy hackers. Twenty-five years from now, we will look back on 2012 as the good old days of the internet, when access was safe, cheap and freedom reigned. The dangers of the internet twenty-five years from now will result in more face-to-face interaction for business deals and socializing. One sphere of human life that will be radically different twenty-five years from now will be education. The next two-and-a-half decades will see the dismantling of many traditional brick-and-mortal schools. The changes will begin in the developing world, as poor governments embrace the feasibility of digitally based delivery of instruction to students all over their impoverished nations. The educational equivalent of YouTube will displace many teachers. Benefactors in wealthy nations will support the development of instructional programs that make advanced learning possible all over the globe. Children in rural Nigeria will be able to access expert courses in Advanced Calculus. Teachers will no longer be necessary for the delivery of instruction, but will act as coaches and mentors. This diffusion of knowledge will allow for the expansion of opportunities to individuals in poor countries all over the world. It will take time, but developed nations will soon realize that the expense of building schools and the costs of administration and maintenance are silly investments when the information can be delivered directly to the students at home. As a result, the educational system will become decentralized in many wealthy nations. State curriculum will continue to be delivered, but groups of students will beet in cafe’s with mentors to do their work and learn their subjects. The tyranny of the desk will finally be overthrown and education will become the opportunity and the responsibility of the individual student as guided by a mentor and the state. A final major change over the next twenty-five years will be seen in the distribution of population and a widening in the gap between rich and poor individuals all across the globe. Human population will continue to increase over the next twenty-five years but not as rapidly as it has in the previous twenty-five years. The greatest change in population will be seen in developing nations that experience prolonged conflict. This will include the current nations of China, Pakistan and Nigeria. These heavily populated countries will actually see a net decrease in their populations as a direct result of internal warfare over the next twenty-five years. In each of these countries, conflict will arise over the growing disparity between rich and poor, as well as the lack of a truly democratic political structure. Individual freedoms and human rights will fuel the uprising in China and Nigeria. Pakistan will see conflict arise between entrenched ruling elites in the military and rebel forces fueled by religious ideology. These nations will decrease in population, but this decrease will be more than offset by increases in population in the developing world resulting in advances in access to education and medical technology. The proliferation of education via digital media will also cause huge migrations of people from developing nations towards wealthy nations. This migration will cause severe tensions between nations as newly educated individuals seek to immigrate while their home nations seek to retain their skills as human capital. Anyone can make predictions about the future. All of these opinions are based on events of the past twenty-five years and the belief that technology will continue to pay a vital role in everything from interpersonal relationships to commerce to education. The future is never certain, but it is possible to have an informed opinion and to make educated guesses if you keep your eyes open, study history and take a good critical view of the many societies that make-up the world today. Works Cited Harris, P. M. G. The History of Human Populations. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001. Print. Hoffmann, W. John., and Michael J. Enright. China into the Future: Making Sense of the World's Most Dynamic Economy. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons (Asia), 2008. Print. Karling, Horace M. Global Climate Change. Huntington, NY: Nova Science, 2001. Print. Pegrum, Mark. From Blogs to Bombs: The Future of Digital Technologies in Education. Crawley, W.A.: UWA Pub., 2009. Print. Zdzis, Hippe. Human - Computer Systems Interaction. Berlin: Springer, 2012. Print. Read More