The society

[Lewwings]

1. What are your thoughts of how society will look like in 20-50 years?

I believe that in the coming years, that the issues we are currently facing such as COVID-19, the recession, the China problem, the EU, the War on Terror, and the many migrant crises will start to reveal their impacts on our society and will lead to changing the way that we as a civilisation will interact with both outsiders, and ourselves.

I have no doubt that in the coming decades, our society will change in new and interesting ways as we face the music of our shifting environment. I don't believe that the world will be burning, but it will become somewhat unbearable if we keep at it like we have been, and I would like to think we would apply similar pressure to do so on other countries across the world like the US, China, and India, as well as aiding the African continent in adapting as the infrastructure to properly do so does not exist in great numbers.

While, this may a surprising view from a conservative, I would really hope that new measures to prevent further damages to our climate our introduced in the next few years and decades, I hold the view that doing so would only be in not only our national, but also our global interest to continue onwards. Coronavirus has shown us that we are less in control of events than we like, and it should be a cautionary tale of wisdom that we are also at the mercy of our environment. However powerful our governments can be, you can't negotiate with the climate, so adaptions to our way of life must be made (not all out restrictions left, right, and centre, but rather reasonable changes at a swift pace so that they can be fast but understandable).

2. Do you think that the current Corona Virus affects the society in future?

Anti-social behaviour will likely rise over the next few years, which is the bleak reality of constantly having to weigh up the risks of socialising with others thanks to the Wuhan Shuffle. However, an obvious get-around is the rise and potential domination of online socialising becoming the preferred means of interacting with others as it is infinitely easier to conduct, but it's possible that it could just miss that human touch.

I predict that by the end of this decade, a flurry of wanting to get out and go socialise everywhere will occur thanks to the incessant boredom and loneliness that came as a result of lockdowns. I think that the logic of "Carpe Diem" or seizing the day will become the prevailing national urge in our post-COVID world.

3. Do you think we will use more high-tech stuff than now or less or the same?

Technology is the future. Coronavirus has simply solidified our reliance on it to keep society somewhat threaded together. With innovation constantly occurring within our research and development, and with technology 'evolving' at an ever-increasing rate, it's very likely that things will be more 'high-tech' as we continue the bold integration of technology and our world.

4. Do you think that more EU states are going to leave the EU?

The European Union is in crisis and events of recent times has shown a massively overweight and suffocating bureaucracy that does nothing but clamp down on any new major initiatives and curtails progress in the name of an ever closer union. I can easily see the speed at which other nations leave either increase or decrease with the ramifications of Brexit becoming a reality. If Brexit becomes a success in the next few years, other countries with similar feelings of trying it out alone will be inspired to perform the same walk of fire to leaving the union. If Brexit happens to be a failure in the next few years, it will delay these aspirations but not completely kill them.

My reasoning for believing this is that without proper and real reforms in how the EU operates in the near future (I'm talking next 5-10 years), then the cracks will really start to show. Italy the biggest contender to bail, I predict Italy will leave the union within the next 10 years, followed shortly afterwards by Greece, and eventually Poland too.

Without reform, the EU will collapse under its own weight.

5. Which country do you think will be one of the strongest on earth? 

It's a big fight between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China in what could very well soon become a second Cold War, one that I hope America wins, but we will have a somewhat clearer idea by 2031. 

As for former world superpower, Russia, no large moves will happen since it's more or less stuck in a rut of still pretending to be a formidable world power while it's only real force these days is military strength, while the rest of the country continues to spiral into disaster.

Just some general thoughts. I do like the topic and theories that come with predicting the future, and if the forums stays up for a long-time to come, some of my predictions will either be proven or disproven. Problem with this sort of stuff is the world can change dramatically over the course of a few weeks (as we saw with COVID-19) or event worse, in a single day (9/11), but nonetheless, it's still a fun thought exercise in dreaming up some future path the world might take.

Excellent thread, RoCKy!