History of the Future: Part 2

As promised part 2 of my three part post of Random future musings.  And you didn’t think I would keep up with this did you?

Things that are different geographically: America and Canada have merged creating a super nation called Amerida, mostly because it sounds similar to America, but also because Pan Am threatened to sue if they tied to call it Can Am.  All of the states and provinces get to keep their names and governments. Seriously the two countries were already so similar that hardly anyone really noticed any difference. They’re still working on Mexico but instead of partnering with Amerida it is just expected to be adsorbed as a state sometime in the next ten years, besides AmeriCandaMex sounds like a Mexican restaurant.  It will likely be called: Old Mexico (we already have a new one) or divided into smaller states.

The environment will be a big concern in the next 20-50 years.  The hole in the ozone layer is still a concern but it will be determined that it is a natural occurrence and that people are not responsible for it.  It was always there we just couldn’t detect it before.  All of the world’s power will now come from solar and wind energy.  Because no one can agree on just one type of alternate fuel, cars will run off of a combination of technologies, including: electric (with solar chargers), hydrogen, ethanol, and grass clippings.  The grass powered automobile will come along sometime in the next thirty years; I know this for a fact because my brother told me he was going to invent it.  Of course he also told me that he wanted to rule the world, so I’m not really sure if it’s very wise to rely on what my brother says.

Another development in automotive technology is the self diving car.  More deaths will occur in vehicles that are driving themselves than there ever were while humans were behind the wheel.  One problem will be with the voice response commands many people will be in their cars talking on their cell phones and they will say something like turn left not talking to the car of course but just telling their spouse where to find the milk in the fridge.  But the car takes that command and turns left– right into a building. Also in 2038 it will be discovered that a fatal flaw in the computer program allows the manual controls to be overridden and control of the car given to a hacker.  People will be kidnapped while driving their own vehicles and murderers will cause car crashes just to see how many people they can kill at a time.  But at the same time, insurance premiums for people who want to drive themselves will be outrageous not to mention the fines the government will give you if your car does not contain an onboard computer.  They say that it’s to ensure roadway safety but it’s obvious that the government just wants the power to control your car as well.