What will 2100 be like

That is another four billion people than we have today. So what will life in be like? The UN has a good track record for its population predictions. So with World Population Day upon us, what will the potential impact of this population expansion be, and how will it shape life in ? Africa will contribute nearly half of the global population by Most of the projected population growth is expected to come from Africa.

Africa has the highest rate of population growth currently, at 2. Rapid population growth is expected to continue, even if there is a substantial reduction of fertility levels in the near future, because of the large number of young people currently on the continent.

This in contrast to Europe, whose population is expected to shrink as fertility is below levels needed for full replacement of the population. Increased urbanisation is likely in a bid to support the sheer quantity of people. Nanorobots exist within the realm of possibility, but the question of when they will arrive is another matter.

This is likely by and almost certain by It's widely predicted that we will achieve this. What difference it makes will depend on what other energy technologies we have. We might also see a growth in shale gas or massive solar energy facilities.

I don't think that wind power will be around. This does look like a powerful trend, other languages don't stand a lot of chance. Minor languages are dying at a huge rate already and the other major ones are mostly in areas where everyone educated speaks at least one of the other three. Time frame could be this century. Eighty per cent of the world will have gay marriage Paul.

This seems inevitable to those of us in the West and is likely to mean different kinds of marriages being available to everyone. Gay people might pick different options from heterosexual people, but everyone will be allowed any option. Some regions will be highly resistant though because of strong religious influences, so it isn't certain.

California will lead the break-up of the US Dev 2. There are some indications already that California wants to split off and such pressures tend to build over time. It is hard to see this waiting until the end of the century. Maybe an East Coast cluster will want to break off too. Pressures come from the enormous differences in wealth generation capability, and people not wanting to fund others if they can avoid it.

Space elevators will make space travel cheap and easy Ahdok. First space elevators will certainly be around, and although "cheap" is a relative term, it will certainly be a lot cheaper than conventional space development.

It will create a strong acceleration in space development and tourism will be one important area, but I doubt the costs will be low enough for most people to try. Women will be routinely impregnated by artificial insemination rather than by a man krozier At the very least, more couples are choosing advanced fertility techniques over old-fashioned conception. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, in which an artificially inseminated embryo is carefully selected among other inseminated embryos for desirability, is becoming increasingly common in fertility clinics.

Using this technique, it's now possible to screen an embryo for about half of all congenital illnesses. Within the next decade, researchers will be able to screen for almost all congenital illnesses prior to embryo implantation. There will be museums for almost every aspect of nature, as so much of the world's natural habitat will have been destroyed LowMaintenanceLifestyles. I cannot comment on the museums but the Earth is on the verge of a significant species extinction event.

Protecting biodiversity in a time of increased resource consumption, overpopulation, and environmental degradation will require continued sacrifice on the part of local, often impoverished communities. Experts contend that incorporating local communities' economic interests into conservation plans will be essential to species protection in the next century.

This probability is too high if you ask me, but still, it seems it is more likely than not that we will be around as a species. So, we will probably exist, and there is the possibility that many of us will still be around in good health. What will the world be like in ? The world in will be hotter, with more extreme weather and more natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires. How much hotter? It is impossible to know right now, as it will depend on our actions during the next 80 years.

There are different scenarios , from the world being 1. There is a big difference between these two extremes, but note that even if we reduced all our carbon emissions to zero today, the world would still keep warming for decades due to all the extra carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. Our best-case scenario is a 1. Even with this best-case scenario, the sea levels will rise around 1 meter, displacing millions of people and forcing us to invest trillions of dollars to make our coastal cities and towns habitable.

In this best-case scenario, natural disasters such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and so on, will become more frequent and more intense. It would turn our lives upside down. However, the further into the future you go, the more chances there are that some of those rates will vary considerably, wreaking havoc in those projections.

Until recently, the consensus was that the world population would peak in around 11 billion people by the end of the century and then start shrinking as fertility rates go down. However, a more recent study projects a more rapid decrease in the fertility rate due to advances in women education and contraceptive use, with the world population peaking at around 9 billion people by Whichever way you look at it, the world at the end of the century will be home to many more people , and it will be more densely populated, with higher pressure on resources and an already strained environment.

All projections agree that most of the growth would come from Africa, tripling its population to 4. Asia would peak mid-century and then shrink, but continue being the most populous region globally with 4. This means Africa and Asia will be home to 9 out of the 11 billion human beings living on earth. This will have a considerable impact on the balance of power in global institutions and global markets, on the ways business is conducted, on the cultures having a more significant impact on the world, etc.

It is likely that Western ways of living and culture will take a back seat by the end of the century. What will be the World Order in ? Or will China take its place? Will it be a bipolar world with a new Cold War? Will we have more globalization, or will we go back to further fragmentation and distance between countries? Many things can and usually happen in geopolitics in 80 years, but it seems reasonable to think that the US and China will be the two superpowers dominating the world.

How they get along between them is another matter. As Kai-Fu Lee explained in AI Super-powers , AI will be the technology that will give power to countries, both economic and political, and China and the US are building an unassailable lead in this area. They are creating the necessary company ecosystems, and they have the data, the technology, and the talent to dominate the world of AI.

The vast distance between them and the rest of the world will only grow with time. The US is still the most powerful country in the world in many areas, and I believe they will remain to be so for a while. Will that last until the end of the century? It is difficult to tell, but in some measure, it will also depend on what the rest of the world does and the alliances the US is able to maintain or win.

This Pax Americana has enabled the globalization of the economy and society and culture , has increased global trade, and has brought enormous prosperity to America, but also to many other parts of the world. In the last few years, the US has taken a back seat and is retrenching from global institutions and somehow relinquishing its role as the world leader.

As I wrote last week , globalization is receding, and the world is generally becoming more nationalistic and localist. I think this is a short-term swing of the pendulum in the direction of de-globalization, but the general trend seems to be toward further integration. I think we will reach the end of the century with more regional blocs, more global collaboration to solve global problems, and a more prominent role of international institutions. I hope the world will become smaller, closer, and more integrated, not more fragmented and parochial.

Technology has been a significant engine of change in the last few decades. We are entering an Exponential Age with technological breakthroughs advancing at an increasing pace, so in the next 80 years there will be advances that we cannot even imagine today.

It is reasonable to assume that one of the main sources of technological progress will come from Artificial Intelligence. Many AI researchers believe that we will reach human-level AI in the next few decades , certainly within this century.