2008 was known for the Great Bush recession.
2025 will be known for the Great MuskRat Depression that Trumped all other depressions.
This time though the U.S. will feel the brunt
Great Bush recession
I’ve literally never heard it called that, is this a non-US term? I’ve heard “great financial crisis”, “great recession”, or “housing crash” before.
Global Bird Flu Pandemic. Our Population will be cut straight in half.
Nuclear war
Ayyye same, do you think it’ll start with Israel and Iran too?
Israel, Iran, Pakistan, the USA, there’s many ways this could go
Donald Trump will either still be President, or be dead.
Or both!
-The internet will become something only old people use and will fill up with old people like radio and TV before it. Something new will be the hip new thing that kids use/consume, though it technically could be considered the internet
-Coal power plants will be phased out entirely in U.S.A. with some taking credit and others morning the loss of a purely economic conversion over to natural gas power. It will look like it is solar’s time to shine, but a “new” way of generating power which is cheaper and slightly cleaner will take over and slowly convert natural gas plants to whatever it is.
-There will be a detracted argument over whether or not what comes after current gen-AI is considered sapient and worthy of rights. While the debate will be straightforward in a vacuum, other semi-related topics will mix in including: the rich wanting their AI doppelgangers to keep control of the money/power they earned during life; something to do with sex and/or relationships because of course there will be; religious opposition until the poll numbers swap, then there will be some regions that view AI rights a helping the disadvantaged
-A young politician from the democrats will get elected on the back of anti-Trump hate. They will have in their first two years theoretically enough support to pass substantial legislation, but will be stopped by a small number of conservative democrats from doing anything substantial save for maybe one big accomplishment. They will loose the 2030 midterms to a bunch of republicans and a “grass-roots” organization that is paid for by rich business owners, but will come back to win the 2032 election against a rich republican from New England. However, they won’t have control over the congress and by 2035 will be a lame duck.
-Someone will scrap NASA’s current human space flight plans to promote their own plan, which in itself will be scrapped when a new administration comes in. By 2035, articles will be printing “it is a shame that no real current alive human has stepped foot on the moon”, taking a subtle dig at China’s AI-human that is currently building structures on the moon.
There will be a detracted argument
Probably meant protracted
The first two feel like they’re missing details. What are you considering the real internet? Do you mean nuclear power will take over?
Conservatives who are getting their face eaten will not learn a single thing from anything
Woah, look at Nostradamus over here
Famine will enter the American lexicon again.
We’ll have reduced the human body to basically just another machine and will be in the process of reverse-engineering it. So many new techniques and sources of data have come online all at the same time in biology.
This is in contrast to the current situation where we know a few things about select parts of the body in isolation.
Google goes offline for plebs, billionaires go mask off and start discussing population control via drones.
What do you mean by the first part?
You go on your computer one day, to find all your search engines give an error.
Drone attacks and drone based spying will be huge and hobby drones will be highly restricted.
As a casual drone enthusiast I’m already filling in all of my flying now because the free flying days seem to be numbered.
I saw an anti-drone fear article just today, actually. I hope this doesn’t happen, though.
It already feels overdue considering drones are quite popular for drug drops, even directly to prisons. Once some big events happen like high profile assassination, terrorist attack ir even something menial it’ll be game over for free flying.
Having a drone is such an eye opener tho and I really recommend getting one before it becomes too complicated to own one. Seeing your environment from 100 meters up is such a perspective change. Taking a drone on a road trip and thinking “I wonder what’s behind that boulder there” and actually being able to find out is a very grounding experience :)
Following the path of other regimes around the world, the USA builds their own “great firewall”, segmenting most people here away from the global internet. At around the same time, personal VPNs become explicitly illegal. We might also see the government seize control of at least one certificate registrar, if they don’t fire up their own, thereby “owning” TLS online.
On the upside, there’s a chance we will see more grass-roots efforts to reboot a lot of institutions that were co-opted by the rich. You’re just never going to hear about that through conventional channels. For instance: local newspapers with real journalism behind them. Or more small businesses with the intent to last, rather than sell. It’s possible that more of those things will be co-ops, union shops, or even Mondragon inspired. Either way, there’s a path forward for more community, real communication, and eventual prosperity, provided folks keep their heads and take things offline where necessary.
Trump will die and a new religious movement declaring him to be divine will gain a significant foothold among people who call themselves Christians in the US.
I think Trump’s loyalists are more after what he pretends to offer. As one uncle said, “He made me rich!” If you take away the potential earnings, there’s not much to the guy but bullshit. Like, he’s not even good looking enough to hang his portrait on a wall without getting tired of his face.
Major roadblocks to piracy and porn in the US. Piracy will never be eliminated, but the barrier to entry will become too difficult for most folks. I’ve subsequently been hoarding all of the media I can get my hands on in case this happens - I refuse to pay for 20 streaming services just to watch movies and TV.
Famine around the world. Global political instability + climate change + economic downturn = food scarcity.
A high profile political assassination in the US or Europe.
The first time a ceo or politician gets assassinated by drone-strike will cause some severe lockdown on those things.
No matter what country it happens in.
~the very last part at least~
The gulf monarchies’ oil will dry up, and they will collapse under their own weight.
… Probably not. But hey, a man can dream…
Upvoted for the only optimistic shit I’ve read so far
Too many western predictions :shrug: We’re already at rock bottom here, only positive news (incredibly rare)
As far as I can tell, the contingency plan is to continue pushing places like Dubai as a tourist destination and business hub. And, honestly, as long as that place continues to function as a major regional air-traffic hub, that might actually work.
I know some petrochemical engineers, analysts, and a tribologist. I asked them about exactly this. Their responses, to a one, is: the oil will not run out; it will just become too expensive to extract. Now, I’m just some jerkwad on the internet, and my anecdote is only that.
Yeah. I hope it will still affect them though.
Yep. There’s a lot more oil in the ground than oil we could pull out at today’s prices with today’s technology. And then with competition from cheaper renewables you have the question of if prices can stay this high forever, or if demand will go down sharply while the supply remains.
The end result is still that you get a peak oil production at some point, though.
They’re pushing massively into green energy. I think they are the next biggest investors after China if I remember correctly.
Yeah, they talk about it all the time here.
Here’s to hoping for their collapse 🥂
They can try, but they don’t really have the massive advantages there. With oil they basically get >1000% margins because it’s just there and ready to be tapped, and their whole societal structure is based around spending that money like it’s water.
