We asked some of the boldest thinkers what the world will be like in 50 years. Here’s what their answers tell us about the future.
Isabel Allende
AuthorNovelist, feminist, and philanthropist, Isabel Allende is one of the most widely read authors in the world. Chilean born in Peru, Isabel has authored more than 23 bestselling and critically acclaimed books that have been translated into more than 42 languages. She has won numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She lives in California.
Who will run the world?
Hopefully humans. This is the case of “better the devil you know.”
More responses to Who will run the world?Which country will have the most powerful economy?
China
More responses to Which country will have the most powerful economy?How will we communicate with each other?
Telepathically via a chip implanted in the brain.
More responses to How will we communicate with each other?How will we entertain one another?
The usual ways: drugs, sex, music, and stories.
More responses to How will we entertain one another?What will we wear?
Outfits that look like a second skin in a color of choice and that fool identity-recognition technology.
More responses to What will we wear?How will we find love?
Those telepathic implants will wreak havoc in this department.
More responses to How will we find love?What kinds of stories will we tell?
The same 12 stories that humanity has been telling in different forms since the Stone Age, only in another media.
More responses to What kinds of stories will we tell?How will we get information?
Telepathically also, but the hard question is: What could we trust, if any?
More responses to How will we get information?What forms of transportation will we use?
Individual self-driving pods and flying devices.
More responses to What forms of transportation will we use?What will cities be like?
Some huge and messy, but most will break into smaller units as people dream of villages.
More responses to What will cities be like?What will our borders be like?
Mass migration at a global scale will be unstoppable, so borders will become permeable.
More responses to What will our borders be like?Will we have ventured to other planets?
Yes, but only by private corporations and the super-rich.
More responses to Will we have ventured to other planets?What will the biggest change to our natural world be?
That there will be a lot less of it.
More responses to What will the biggest change to our natural world be?Will our world be more equal or less equal?
Less equal.
More responses to Will our world be more equal or less equal?What’s your best prediction for the world in 50 years?
I will be dead, and with some luck the patriarchy will be collapsing.
More responses to What’s your best prediction for the world in 50 years?
