This week I meditated, and through the strong empathy towards my crush I had a vision towards the future. I saw her in a small and non-futuristic apartment, implying the declining economic state. She sat with her husband in front of the table. She was leaning over the table, depressed,venting and crying about how miserable she is. Her husband was just sitting there apathetically, glancing at his hands at times. He had nothing to give her but be there.

With that, I envisioned a future I see as dire - children are sent to micro/nano factories made around the globe for money. They were probably her children, and perhaps why she was crying, among other issues

What do you think or see about the future?

[twilliamsjr79]

Four more school shootings in the span of the next 4 to 5 months. A plane crash in early to mid summer and a major actor dies just before fall.

A public figure gets really sick but doesn't die bounces back and makes a public appearance shocking people (The queen or pope).

I also see some type of good news coming out the midwest. Also an earthquake like in a eastern European country

[eskielover]

I see that everything that is happening in the world now was what was prophesied about back it the BC years.

Originally Posted by eskielover

I see that everything that is happening in the world now was what was prophesied about back it the BC years.

Can you elaborate?

[eskielover]

Originally Posted by Vibrating Obsidian

Can you elaborate?

Not on the forum...it would go against the rules

[NatsukiKuga]

I think that on the whole, things are going much better for the human race than they used to.

Fewer people worldwide are living in dire poverty. Global literacy is 80%. Famine is not a spectre over every person's head as it was decades ago. More people live in democracies than ever.

Sure, there's plenty to do yet, too many problems and never enough time, but history is littered with the tragedies of those who predicted catastrophe.

You have a point there. But the question is, what about western civilizations?

[NatsukiKuga]

Originally Posted by Vibrating Obsidian

You have a point there. But the question is, what about western civilizations?

For those of us in what used to be called the "First World,"

* We can expect to live longer than our parents, and our children longer than us

* Diseases continue to disappear as public health measures are developed and new vaccines are introduced

* We have the Internet, which puts the knowledge of the world at our fingertips, connects us with people with whom we never could before, and allows the delivery of services undreamt.

* Stuff is cheaper. We spend less of our income on food, clothes, and housing and can invest much more in education and healthcare

* Productivity continues to rise. Output per labor hour remains on an upward trend.

* New productivity tools are invented that used to be the stuff of science fiction. That gadget in your hand used to only be a telephone, and now it's a computer that used to take up the size of a room. And virtually everyone can afford one.

* We're more energy-efficient than ever. Economic output per unit energy continues to rise.

* Despite deniers' best efforts, global warming is an existential threat, and people are rising to meet it. Soon enough solar will be cheaper even than subsidized coal, just as natural gas has become in the USA.

* Best of all, there are more scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, and researchers alive now than at any other time on earth. More people are in school, and more complete secondary and pursue post-secondary education than ever. Not only are we smarter, but we're making ourselves even smarter than that.

There are always going to be blips. The USA has no end of drug problems and religiously applies medieval solutions. Some people refuse to vaccinate their children, cruelly exposing not only their poor kids but also the rest of us to transmissible disease. Some people like to pretend that there are too many people, when instead people are the only sources of the ideas that we use to make life richer and better.

But things are getting better in the developed world. It's just that you have to measure progress at the generational level, while you can only measure success at the temporary level.

I don't want to make this all personal about me, but I feel sad that I don't get to experience the goodness and positivity of life due to my circumstances

I 'saw' and sensed things as a very young child that were unexplainable. I was four and five and would see things that were completely out of my own context and personal experience (how would a four year old who had only seen a B&W television know what a burning plane looked like).

Originally Posted by justafriend306

I 'saw' and sensed things as a very young child that were unexplainable. I was four and five and would see things that were completely out of my own context and personal experience (how would a four year old who had only seen a B&W television know what a burning plane looked like).

With a chuckle I wonder if we're like the biblical prophets whose thoughts go unnoticed, unlistened or unaccepted (one person already said they'd be afraid to be with someone like me who has such visions about them)

[cool09]

I don't watch any news or read the paper. I do see medicine getting better and less invasive. But politics will always stay the same. For myself I see a bleak future.

[amicus_curiae]

Originally Posted by Vibrating Obsidian

This week I meditated, and through the strong empathy towards my crush I had a vision towards the future. I saw her in a small and non-futuristic apartment, implying the declining economic state. She sat with her husband in front of the table. She was leaning over the table, depressed,venting and crying about how miserable she is. Her husband was just sitting there apathetically, glancing at his hands at times. He had nothing to give her but be there.

With that, I envisioned a future I see as dire - children are sent to micro/nano factories made around the globe for money. They were probably her children, and perhaps why she was crying, among other issues

What do you think or see about the future?

Q

Q: “What do you think or see about the future?”

A: I can’t see the future,now can I? What do I think about the future? No use trying to stop it from coming, you know? I might die after 16-seconds or die in a dozen years. Future isn’t mine after dying, though. I’ll be gone and time will go on, I guess, and the universe will become what it was billions of years back and will break into another multiverse until the end of time.

[OblivionIsAtHand]

* We can expect to live longer than our parents, and our children longer than us

* Diseases continue to disappear as public health measures are developed and new vaccines are introduced

* We have the Internet, which puts the knowledge of the world at our fingertips, connects us with people with whom we never could before, and allows the delivery of services undreamt.

* Stuff is cheaper. We spend less of our income on food, clothes, and housing and can invest much more in education and healthcare

* Productivity continues to rise. Output per labor hour remains on an upward trend.

* New productivity tools are invented that used to be the stuff of science fiction. That gadget in your hand used to only be a telephone, and now it's a computer that used to take up the size of a room. And virtually everyone can afford one.

* We're more energy-efficient than ever. Economic output per unit energy continues to rise.

* Despite deniers' best efforts, global warming is an existential threat, and people are rising to meet it. Soon enough solar will be cheaper even than subsidized coal, just as natural gas has become in the USA.

* Best of all, there are more scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, and researchers alive now than at any other time on earth. More people are in school, and more complete secondary and pursue post-secondary education than ever. Not only are we smarter, but we're making ourselves even smarter than that.

Concur with all of this, with erratic dips here and there: I don't see all of these improving with straight consistency in the future. But I'll be the parade-rainer briefly.

Humanity, despite its longevity and incremental prosperity (I don't mean financially), will continue to fail if there's no effective way to eliminate selfishness.

Will humanity ever get on the same page? Probably not. But amazingly we have hurdled closer to equalization; technology has brought upon us more connectivity. Just, there's always that dissent. One wanting more than another. One's idea not lining up with another's idea. Unless we experience a Ray Kurzweil-ian-like virtual utopia (in the far, far future: I wouldn't guess we'll see a technological singularity in 2049 as predicted) where all's desires and whims are satiated within one's self-contained environment, forget it. Funnily enough, I have a whisper of optimism about it all. Just barely.

And, there's also the obvious: will we become transhumanist enough to flout death? Will we ever develop a means of restoring consciousness in the dead? While currently no empirical measures would suggest the possibility, I take small solace in the fact that there's always been technology or ideas that sprout up that were previously thought to be impossible. It still happens regularly.