Things will change. Societies and cultures will change. The environment will change. We will adapt.
There will be challenges. There have always been challenges. We will overcome them.
There are enormous reasons for optimism. We are on the cusp of spreading out into the solar system. Everyday people have access to all of the knowledge in every library on the planet. We have the opportunity to become what our ancestors could only have dreamed of.
Don't let headlines or fatalism or tunnel vision distract from the big picture. We as a species are going to make it.
Without serious degrowth in the economy, something the type of economy we have won't allow, or mass genocide the human race will be beyond lucky to see the 2200s. Genocide being wrong, we only have one viable option and we will have to force it on those in power, if we are to stand any chance.
The spirit of capitalism is not going to return us, draped in the splendor of new technology, to spirit us away to a new, perfect home amongst the heavens where we will be absolved of our past planetary transgressions and all live in perpetual growth forever.
We've heard that story before and, this time, need a better solution.
We've got nearly unlimited raw materials and energy available in the solar system. Now we have the technology to utilize them. That's exactly what we'll do.
What society? All society? Western society? American society? Russian society? It's too broad a question, but-
The answer will always be greed over wealth and power imo. Greed drives basically all the evil in the world and pours down from top to bottom. We already see breakdowns in society when greed reaches levels that cause people to struggle to survive.
The response is almost always violent, until the balance of power is more equal. There are several nations around the world that are closer to collapse than people would like to believe.
Probably a combination of climate cascade effects and another pandemic.
The massive captive factory chicken and pig populations are a ticking time bomb, but changes to ocean current and weather patterns have the possibility of being more like someone flicking s switch.
Seriously on the bread: why is it so expensive, and why doesn't it fit in my toaster? I used to only buy the cheapest store-brand "bread" but it is so misshapen and falls apart before it even gets out of the bar, not to mention the lack of any taste.
Any recommendations for a good white bread? (White bread being the best kind for grilled cheese; my predominant factor in choosing bread.)
10-20 years, climate change will cause massive drought which will cripple the food supply.
Doesn't have to be a complete or even large collapse of society, but it'll definitely hit way way harder than what covid did. Mass starvation in every developing country, food hoarding, some governments pretending to care, some profiteering on limited supplies, the usual.
A lot of the current economic and geopolitical problems are actually solvable even in a final stance scenario. But no one can literally form clouds to replace lost irrigation or reverse climate change in less than a year. Desalination, even on max funding, would not be nearly enough to replace the water that comes from rainfall, especially huge river systems like the Indus, Nile, etc.
It depends on the society. European culture has forever to go for example, while the main Asian and American cultures probably have about three more centuries. I'm going by history when I make those predictions.
But I mean that's a good thing. Every culture gets replaced by a new culture at some point. We had the roman culture, the greek culture, ancient egypt, the inkas, babylonians.... They all went away. Currently we have our current culture. I'm glad it replaced the middle ages at some point. And I'm sure we're also not the pinnacle of cultures... Something else will follow, if humankind continues to exist.
~10 years. It will arrive sooner than people think. We are already in...
climate. ...the unpredictable zone of the climate change. The situation is worse than people are thinking.
On a less catastrophic note, millennials could be the last generation to die of natural death. The 2024 newborns will probably die of the consequences of climate change.
It will be another series of plagued like covid. Each new one will learn to mutate faster and faster until we can no longer keep up with vaccines to stop it. Time frame is probably a could hundred years.
Could happen multiple ways. Unpopular opinion on Lemmy who like to bury their head in the sand.
Western civilation is going to die from immigration. Places like the UK the largest cities are less than 50% white British. It's worse the younger down the age groups you get.
There is also the issue of population growth. I'm not sure our best and brightest are having the most kids anywhere in the world really yet world population increases.
The trajectory we are on is that we are doomed or maybe a country like China will make some difficult decisions that western countries won't and that will benefit them long term.
Best case scenario is AI gets to the point it can save us from ourselves. Which is the scariest thing of all.
Within the next 100 years maybe 200. The west will continue to weaken from multiple directions. The third world will continue to increase population and overuse their resources and miss manage the economy. Global warming will throw petrol onto the fire and mass immigration will happen. Some big war is also going to kick off and that will be the collapse of society (but I don't think so severe a new one can't be built). That will be the end of the West being the greatest place to live.
Seeing as this is a loose and free question on society I feel like I have hit some pretty key points that are already happening. Which of these isn't true?
Immigration changing society
Genetics and multigenerational values.
China doing things no other country will e.g. one child policy.
Global warming and destruction of the environment.
War.
AI having the possibility of being great or terrible.
Societies having limited lifespans. If anything this is the most likely to be inaccurate because societies can collapse a lot quicker
China made the difficult decision to do one child per family, which was a decision a western society would never make. It turned out horribly for China. Turns out there's a reason western cultures don't make "the hard decisions" like that.