

Douglas Coupland's guide to the next 10 years - haasted
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-radical-pessimists-guide-to-the-next-10-years/article1750609/singlepage/

======
cgp
. the middle class does indeed collapse

. the collapse of the middle class will have easy to reduce the size of the
professional class, in particular doctors and professors as noone will be able
to afford their services

. everyone will continue to confuse having an smartphone and a flat screen
with being rich

. cars and houses will become luxury items, we become a renters society
(serfdom)

. the loneliness and islotation of the previous two decades will only
accelerate and increase with the advent of more mobile powerful devices

. the quality of human relationships will continue to suffer

. this will effect politics in a _profoundly_ bad way

. also, the birthrate will drop precipitously

. the gap between what we know we don't know, and what we don't know we don't
know will grow even larger - _more because of arrogance that we everything_
than humans actually learn more despite increased cheapness of information
(inability to separate signal from noise)

. the principals of the enlightment will be essentially dead for the majority
of the world

. something smarter than human _will_ arise

. the power of transhumanity or AI will be restricted to a solitary few -
noone will see why this is initially an _incredibly_ bad development for all
of the human race (well, maybe nobody outside this forum)

. a new dark age will arise as orwell's visions come to fruition

. the new dark age will be nice and short due to the effects exponential
evolution

~~~
Unseelie
Things smarter than humans do already exist, in most every specific feild.
Whether the 'hard problem' of AI can be solved remains to be seen, and the
current political/economic feedback in industrialized countries leads t a
different distopia.

As monopolies grow, wealth is focused into smaller and smaller groups, and
political lobbyists get more and more influence. Things stop changing, much
new research is suppressed because its destabilizing to the powers that be. We
don't get nanotech, or strong AIs, or supermedicine, not because they're hard,
but because they destabilize incumbent interests, and the incumbent interests
are huge, self interested, and hold all the money.

Moral of the story? Buy rental properties. Be a landed noble.

