I've never thought of this future-thingie. Mainly because i actually dont wait much to happen very soon. Somehow i feel its just gonna get worse but who knows? Im not really that type of guy who watches in the future

To that I say.
Cell Phones.

Think about how fast the innovation of cellphones --> smart phones / tablets has occurred.
Cellphones can do almost everything the Star Trek Tri-corder can these days, from scanning to data entry / receiving.
In the last two decades 4th and 5th generator psychiatric medicines have transformed the world to allow people to focus and work better.

Things are advancing. Just sometimes not in the way we intended or originally thought they would progress.
But I think that is what makes the future great, for all the best reasons.

The future we will have will probably be dark... I mean there are too many issues which are not going to be solved, as for instance hunger, environmental problems, and peace. The first and lattest could be solved, although human beings prefer taking care of their own concerns and will never be able to live together peacefully sadly.
About energy and environmental issues, it is way too late to tackle the issue. People only concentrate on the present and therefore only think about economic problems and not Nature. Therefore I don't know how humanity will survive the next century seriously...

Oh and btw, humanity is indeed exploring the universe to see how "it works". It could be generalized to all kinds of sciences, which are the only fields where humanity is truely making a step forward. That's why I choose the scientific path for my studies.

It's only getting worse to reach bottom then get a lot better. :o)

You know what the odd thing is? It's actually the less plausible expectations I had that wound up being correct.

We actually do have the flying car. Only now it's called a "roadable plane."
http://www.worldculturepictorial.co.....ar-fits-garage

Sadly, however, I don't really see that kind of peace. Not to get political or anything, but the 2008 election killed any hopes I might have of that happening in my lifetime.

No, I'm not an Obama hater. Just the opposite; it was the Tea Party that killed my hope for world peace. Because, when America elected a liberal progressive, instead of moderating their own ideas (or at least dropping the outdated ones), they got mad, exiled their moderates, staked out an even greater extreme for themselves and devoted themselves solely to hating anyone that ever ran Democrat, worked with a Democrat, voted for a Democrat, or even once lived in a region that ever voted for a Democrat.

Warning: the following links are all to Bill Maher videos where he expands on this:
On extremism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfHD36sWQBo
On opposition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaRYP1Amtt8
On division: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVoZUo17PLg

Which is, unfortunately, nothing new to politics. Whenever the progressives score a victory and push society a little closer towards the 21st century, the conservatives throw a tantrum, declare the other side treasonous, stake out a territory that they claim is where all the "real" people can be found, isolate themselves from, and demonize, the progressives as much as possible, and drag their end of the world back into the 19th century.

So, sadly, the only way I ever see a progressive world government ever coming to be is if the anti-progressives all isolate themselves completely and revert themselves to a complete dark ages bullshit form of government that is completely unsustainable and (after all attempts to invade the progressive countries fail) collapses in on itself with such a force as to wipe them out completely.

So I don't see world peace ever occurring in my time. But the way the anti-progressives of the world are all rapidly deteriorating, I do expect to eventually see them all decide they're tired of pretending they give a shit about peace, religion and democracy and all resort to fire-bombing. Which, strange as it may sound, I think will bring world peace a little bit closer to becoming a reality.

Thank you for proving my point.

I never said Obama was flawless. He's just a lot better than the drunken manchild who was sitting in the Oval Office for the eight years before Obama came in.

Speaking of which, that aforementioned drunken manchild is now a voice of reason in the G.O.P. He's one of the few left in the G.O.P. willing to acknowledge the current immigration system as flawed, and also one of the few who will say that the best thing the G.O.P. can do for itself is do what is best for the country.

The man who was once world renowned for his idiocy has now become akin to a voice of reason, not because he's become more intelligent since then, but because the G.O.P. that took is place is ten times more hateful, more divisive and more stupid than he and Frankencheney could ever dream of being.

The way things are deteriorating on "your" side of the aisle, we will see a day soon enough where even Sarah Palin gets accused of being a socialist. . . Oh, wait:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMs8ECCOvL0

No, you are never going to see NWO, all thanks to people like you. But what you will see is a day and age where the G.O.P. even attacks you for being a socialist.

World piece can never exist if there's multiple religions... Plain and simple.

I agree with you there, but i think I was talking about an even broader picture... I can't quite remember what it was... But if you think about the numbers, something has gone amiss. I think I'm sure of that. I just... dunno what.

The world has been moving on mostly as expected for me, and the future looks very promising for technology. my brother is going into biotechnology for this reason.

I think we have interesting times like the 60s at the moment, new concepts emerge in society especially in emerging countries where everything is changing even faster while being more interconnected globally

My opinion is that the near future is not going be as US-centred (in comparison to the 90s especially) but neither does China move in to be the dominant superpower. Its going to be multi-polar complicated world

I never was much into utopian or dystopian concepts even as a child in the 90s. I had my first computer when I was 5 - 6 years old and it was amazing observing developments like social media or mobile devices. It gave me totally new opportunities and I certainly would be a radically different, less open person today if it didnt exist

I think the world needs to focus on dropping oil, then we can do greater things. I would like to get focus on the stars, traveling and surviving in space, getting the space victory by traveling to Alpha Century.....(need to stop playing Civ IV). But people have such strong and passionate opinions they fight over it instead of compromising. That's the problem I think now a days, or what I think so anyways.

as soon as we invent interactive AI holograms i can touch, i'm getting an Eevee :3