Having been around in the sixties, as a kid. Many of the same predictions were made for now. Overpopulation, moon bases, world war, automatic cars, robots etc etc.
Certainly some of the technology stuff is true. That will develop as it is now.
My own predictions: Global warming will disappear and people will laugh at our fears and wonder what the hell we were thinking. That's beginning to happen now.
There'll be no moonbases, no one is going back to the moon except maybe the Chinese and that only for prestige. The money required to build a moonbase would never be recouped no matter how much water or helium or gold that's found.
They're might a be Mars mission but only one as it will be ruinously expensive and pointless as no one is ever going to colonise Mars.
Space elevators? C'mon, lets get real here. Pure fantasy.
We won't be out there colonising the galaxy unless someone come up with a warp drive that n
There will be no hypersonic airliners. There is no way something that expensive could be built unless governments get involved and airlines couldn't make any money flying them anyway.
There won't be a WW3, there will be regional wars as usual. What's new about that?
Automatic cars sound great, except you have to build roads to suit them. Who is going to pay for that? Answer: You taxes same as all the other airey fairy ideas above.
No, global warming is a painful reality. I don't see any signs of awareness of it slowing down anywhere, in fact, it's just about everywhere- and that's a good sign for the icecaps. We even go over it in French (albeit the teacher has some errors like thinking that CO2 causes the ozone hole; CFC's do it).
I think you underestimate the scientific value of space missions- research is somewhat like a slot machine, you just keep at it until it works or you're sure that nothing is there. In addtion, knowledge of climactic systems, geology, etc., gained there can generate income here, and that's neglecting the technology that we'll create to get us there. Don't forget the fact that sub-light propulsion and radioactive shielding will also improve, allowing longer missions beyond Mars.
Space elevators are perfectly reasonable, they're actually cheaper than rockets in the long run due to lower operating costs, reusabilty, and commericial opportunities.
I agree with the hypersonic airliners as long as hydrogen isn't cheap enough to burn en masse for the ramjets and scramjets. G-forces and maneuverability at lower speeds also pose problems. Perhaps take-off could be achieved by being towed to altitude and speed and then landing like a glider after a series of burns.
Automatic cars can be hybrids with secondary manual controls for dirt roads. You don't need roads built to suit them, either- LIDAR is giving them better eyesight than ever, and roads are already standardized for human drivers. AI would handle the rest and alert the driver if it couldn't. Don't forget GPS- it's pretty darn precise nowadays.
-Penguin
