What is something big or important that is clearly about to happen in the near future? Settling Mars? Self-driving cars? I mean, we can check “have any food I want delivered to my door” off the list, so I’m already happy, but how would you answer this question?
The 12+ people below have some pretty interesting ideas.
#15. They stopped taking our crap.
“A huge revamp in how we recycle, we used to send everything to China but they stopped taking our crap. China is focusing on China’s trash and we tried to do the same but many companies are getting very picky with what they will collect. It’s going to come down to some sort of compromise between consumer and producer to make less waste in general. Right now very little of what we put in recycling bins is recycled.
Edit: check out what Taiwan does to force citizens to recycle.”
#14. All you need.
“As Wi-Fi covers more and more of the country phone companies will lose their ability to charge exorbitant prices because telephony will be available everywhere(Magicjack will be all you need(all calls and texts running through the internet))”
#13. The 2000s.
“Children dressing up for their homecoming dance and the theme is “2000s””
#12. Fake news and devastating consequences.
“I live in developing country. The glut of fake news wreaks havoc in day to day life wherein not so educated people are not at all able to differentiate them and they treat whatsapp forwards as absolute truth. These fake news are impacting people on sensitive issues such as religion. If not controlled, these would have devastating consequences IMO.
Edit 1: People are asking about what it all has to do with religion. Some power groups use social media channels to spread false news about wrongdoings of other groups to incite hatred against particular religions and radicalize people leading to communal riots. This has all become part of vote-bank politics.
Edit 2: This is my first answer to cross 1K upvotes. Thank you kind stranger for the reddit gold :)”
#11. A student-loan recession.
“A financial bubble on student loans that’ll lead to a recession and a complete restructuring of the way student loans are given out.”
#10. An unlimited supply of corneas.
“The first human corneas have been 3D-printed by scientists. They cannot be used for human eyes yet, but in the future, the technique could be used to ensure an unlimited supply of corneas required for cornea transplants.”
#9. Fusion energy.
“Fusion energy. Every week a new result comes out where the plasma has been kept stable longer, at higher temperature, etc. With the international collaboration on building first prototypes of positive net energy fusion reactors, we will change the world overnight.
Free energy, very little pollution, basically forever.
Edit: this seems to be getting some traction. I’ll put a few things I found interesting here, since I cannot keep replying since I really have to get some work done today as well:
Many comments are skeptical and rightly so, fusion is a bit of a running joke that’s always ‘just around the corner’. I believe this time it’s different. This is a nice brief vid that does a lot better job of explaining why than I could.
The second most heard reply is that if it happens, it will be ridiculously expensive. Here’s a nice paper with a thorough analysis of the costs involved that impressed me. Hint: it’s not expensive.
Will we get other renewables faster and cheaper than fusion? Could be! We’ll have to see. I don’t much care as long as we get off the fossils.”
#8. Expanded nursing care.
“Within a decade or so there will be an explosion in the number of people in their fifties and sixties that require a place in a residential nursing care home.
If you look at the age of the population in care homes at present they are mostly very elderly people that in their youth and middle age had active jobs or lived active lives without even really trying. They walked to the store, walked to work or cycled, and the housewives were active in their day to day activities, not to mention the amount of people in manual labour. They also ate fairly healthy diets and in the main were not obese.
Today many people sit at a desk all day and eat rubbish. The vast majority do not keep themselves active or do any kind of resistance and cardio workouts to balance that. Obesity rates are such that we have people in their mid forties that find it difficult to mobilise themselves and have pain when walking or getting out of a chair.
I was speaking to an orthopaedic surgeon a while ago about this issue (connected to my work) and his view was that a lot of people are focusing on Diabetes as the ticking time bomb health wise when in reality the amount of health and mobility issues caused by obesity will hit just as hard.
So within a decade or two we will see the youngest population ever requiring nursing care due to immobility.”
#7. Brexit.
“Brexit. Not the vote, but the actual action of Britain leaving the EU. The deadline is on March 29th and there is currently no plan to solve the trade issues and border disputes that were solved by Britain being in the EU.”
#6. Civilians in space.
“SpaceX is launching the first test flight of their new manned capsule this weekend. When they launch, it will be the first human rated flight to launch on US soil since the end of the space shuttle.”
#5. A net positive increase in trees.
“For some positivity, we’re on the verge of having a net positive increase in trees rather than decrease.
Apparently were already at or near a net zero.
Doesn’t mean you should stop caring though.
Edit: oh… Uh… OK… Wow…
This where I say thanks for the gold?
Some people asked for source, I’ll have to find it I read this a few months ago.”
#4. It’s already happened.
“Last week, a Pakistani-based terrorist blew up a bus killing 41 Indian soldiers in the disputed territory of Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for the attack and swore revenge. Pakistan had replied saying that India takes revenge they will retaliate. Yesterday, a group of Indian fighter jets crossed into Pakistani Airspace conducted an airstrike on the terrorist camp in Pakistani territory. If true, this could start an Indian-Pakistani war, where both countries are nuclear powers.
UPDATE: Looks like the verge of happening actually happened, Pakistan shot down 2 Indian fighter jets and captured one of the pilots. India has also apparently shot down a Pakistani fighter jet”
#3. Organs from stem cells.
“Making organs from stem cells.
Hurry up already science! I need a kidney!
EDIT: Thank you all for the kind words and offers to donate your kidney. If you are seriously considering being a donor, please google how to become a living donor. It is the current best case scenario for those in need. My function is around 18% so there are others out there who have a greater need.”
#2. A new notion to space and reality.
“The launch of the JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE! It will bring us a new notion to space and reality.
Edit: apparently i’m dyslexic
Edit: thank you for the gold and silver, kind strangers!”
#1. No more malaria.
“Malaria vaccine. There are dozens of promising candidates in early trials right now and hopefully at least one will be highly effective and affordable. This will be not only a huge gamechanger for eliminating malaria and improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people, but it will also mark a huge scientific success as the first vaccine against a complicated parasitic organism. Hopefully we will gain key insights from this process to be able to develop new vaccines for other complex organisms, such as HIV, TB, and Influenza!
Also if you are an anti-vaxxer, fuck you.
EDIT: holy shit, this blew up
1) There is a currently approved vacccine RTS,S https://www.who.int/malaria/media/malaria-vaccine-implementation-qa/en/ that has completed stage 3 trials. It was approved in 2015, but is now rolling out in a pilot program to 3 major countries this year! However, the efficacy is non-optimal (prevented 40% of malaria cases in children over 4 years). Not to poo-poo this effort, but there are literally dozens of other competitors targeting different stages of the malaria lifecyle, and it is very likely at least one of these (or perhaps a combination of several) will be much more effective. https://www.who.int/immunization/research/development/Global_malaria_vaccine_pipeline_2015Sep.pdf?ua=1
2) To those worried about overpopulation (which is a very valid concern) check out this video by Bill Gates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obRG-2jurz0 (tl;dw: improving health does not lead to population growth, but rather population stability as families have less children)
3) As many have pointed out, a malaria vaccine is just one part of a multi-pronged approach to malaria elimination. We also need mosquito population control (despite growing insecticide resistance), better anti-malarial drug treatment (despite growing drug resistance), and new methods of detection and surveillance (such as rapid-diagnostic assays). Elimination this disease is one of the greatest challenges our race has faced, but I believe that we can do it. This is our generation’s man-on-the-moon moment. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/Malariaand https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6206767/
4) And to all the anti-vax comments and PM’s I received, my message above still stands. But if you are willing to have a reasonable discussion regarding the pro’s and con’s of vaccination programs, I would be happy to discuss with you. My only prerequisite is that we use only peer-reviewed journals and high-quality evidence to support our claims.”
Whatever it is, we’ll soon be living in a brave new world! (I hope…)
