I was asked by @mold_time to make some predictions for 2050. Now, that’s a wack thing to do, because 2050 basically 30 years away, and 30 years ago I was a little infant. I don’t feel like I’m even capable of properly imagining 30 years into the future. But here are my thoughts about the future.

1. Almost everybody will be online.

I don’t think people think through the implications of this, particularly the cultural ones. There are currently still about 3 billion people who aren’t really online. We are still in the early days of the Internet.

2. English will evolve.

This is a direct consequence of 1. There are billions of people who don’t speak english, who will learn english as they come online, to interface with the global web. There will be many englishes. Indian english will likely be the largest bloc.

3. TikTok and its descendants will help inform a global sign language.

This is already happening. Kids are growing up expecting livestream videos to be normal, dancing on video to be normal, and they will be communicating with each other across language barriers. Their hand gestures and dance moves will sync.

4. There will be unprecedented culture wars.

Swastika: https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1414184600696287234

There’s going to be a big – hopefully non-violent – fight about the swastika, which has Hindu origins. The hope might be for cooler minds to prevail, but there are always people who want to fight, and they will drag everyone else with them.

✱

unfinished