Most future predictions are answers to the question: what will change 50 years from now?
Self-driven cars, machine intelligence, lab grown meat, efficient storage of electricity, quantum computing – all of these are ‘future’ technologies that aren’t widespread today. They all represent changes from the status-quo.
Here is a more important, but less explored question for predicting the future – what will remain the same 50 years from now?
Would we continue to converse with each other with warmth? Would we maintain close familial ties? Would we be as nationalistic as we are today? Will we crave a human touch when we are sick? Would work still play a major role in our lives? Would our school system stay the same?
While predicting the future, the things that remain the same might be more boring, but are more important. With things that will change, we have little or no control. But with things that ought to remain unchanged, we have the power to choose our destiny and craft our future.
Observations 