If I was a Roman, I would be sitting in my comfortable triclinium eating sweet grapes and dictating my thoughts to a scribe.  It was the Roman custom of celebrating a double-faced god that started European celebrations for a new year.  It was meant to be a time of reflection, contemplation and future resolutions.  It is under these sentiments that I shall be looking back over the year to make my final calculations.  Luckily, I am not Roman, but I am mindful that over 2025 years have passed and many people, have tried to look back.  Since I am not any of these people, I am going to look into the future instead. 

In 25 years from now we shall be heading to the middle of the 21st century.  A century that comes with great challenges.  Since the start of the century there has been talk of economic bust.  The banking crisis slowed down the economy and decreased real income for people.  Then the expectation was that crime will rise as it did before; whilst the juries may still be out. the consensus is that this crime spree did not come…at least not as expected.  People became angry and their anger was translated in changes on the political map, as many countries moved to the right. 

Prediction 1: This political shift to the right in the next 25 years will intensify and increase the polarisation.  As politics thrives in opposition, a new left will emerge to challenge the populist right.  Their perspective will bring another focus on previous divisions such as class.  Only on this occasion class could take a different perspective.  The importance of this clash will define the second half of the 21^st century when people will try to recalibrate human rights across the planet.  Globalisation has brought unspeakable wealth to few people. The globalisation of citizenship will challenge this wealth and make demands on future gains. 

As I write these notes my laptop is trying to predict what I will say and put a couple of words ahead of me.  Unfortunately, most times I do not go with its suggestions.  As I humanise my device, I feel sorry for its inability to offer me the right words and sometimes I use the word as to acknowledge its help but afterwards I delete it.  My relationship with technology is arguably limited but I do wonder what will happen in 25 years from now.  We have been talking about using AI for medical research, vaccines, space industry and even the environment.  However currently the biggest concern is not AI research, but AI generated indecent images! 

Prediction 2: Ai is becoming a platform that we hope will expand human knowledge at levels that we could have not previously anticipated.  One of its limitations comes from us.  Our biology cannot receive the volume of information created and there is no current interface that can sustain it.  This ultimately will lead to a divide between people.  Those who will be in favour of incorporating more technology into their lives and those who will ultimately reject it.  The polarisation of politics could contribute to this divide as well.  As AI will become more personal and intrusive the more the calls will be made to regulate.  Under the current framework to fully regulate it seems rather impossible so it will lead to an outright rejection or a complete embrace.  We have seen similar divides in the past during modernity; so, this is not a novel divide.  What will make it more challenging now is the control it can hold into everyday life.  It is difficult to predict what will be the long-term effects of this.     

During the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries drug abuse and trafficking seemed to continue to scandalise the public and maintain attention as much as it did back in the 1970s and 80s.  Drugs have been demonised and became the topic of media representation of countless moral panics.  Its reach in the public is wide and its emotional effect rivals only that of child abuse.  Is drugs abuse an issue we shall be considering in 25 years from now?

Prediction 3:  People used substances as far back as we can record history.  Therefore, there will be drugs in the future to the joy of all these people who like to get high! It is most likely that the focus will be on synthetic drugs that will be more focused on their effects and how they impact people.  The production is likely to change with printers being able to develop new substances on a massive scale.  These will create a new supply line among those who own technology to develop new synthetic forms and those who own the networks of supply.  In previous times a takeover did happen so it is likely to happen again, unless these new drugs emerge under formal monopolies, like drug companies who will legalise their recreative use. 

One of the biggest tensions in recent years is the possibility of another war.  Several European politicians have already raised it pretending to be making predictions.  Their statements however are clear signs of war preparation.  The language is reminiscent of previous eras and the way society is responding to these seems that there is some fertile ground.  Nationalism is the shelter of every failed politician who promises the world and delivers nothing.  Whether a citizen in Europe (EU/UK) the US or elsewhere, they have likely to have been subjected to promises of gaining things, better days coming, making things great…. only to discover all these were empty vacant words.  Nothing has been offered and, in most cases, working people have found that their real incomes have shrunk.  This is when a charlatan will use nationalism to push people into hating other people as the solution to their problems. 

Prediction 4:  Unfortunately, wars seem to happen regularly in human history despite their destructive nature.  We also forget that war has never stopped and elusive peace happens only in parts of the world when different interests converge.  There is a combination of patriotism, national pride and rhetoric that makes people overlook how damaging war is.  It is awfully blindsided not to recognise the harm war can do to them and to their own families.  War is awful and destroys working people the most.  In the 20^th century nuclear armament led to peace hanging by a thread.  This fear stupidly is being played down by fraudsters pretending to be politicians.  Currently the talk about hybrid war or proxy war are used to sanitise current conflicts.  The use of drones seems to have altered the methodology of war, and the big question for the next 25 years is, will there be someone who will press THAT button?  I am not sure if that will be necessary because irrespective of the method, war leaves deep wounds behind. 

In recent years the discussion about the weather have brought a more prevailing question.  What about the environment?  There is a recognised crisis that globally we seem unable to tackle, and many make already quite bleak predictions about it.  Decades ago, Habermas was exploring the idea of “colonization of the lifeworld” purporting that systemic industrial agriculture will lead to environmental degradation.  Now it seems that this form of farming, the greenhouse gasses and deforestation are becoming the contributing factors of global warming.  The inaction or the lack of international coordination has led calls for immediate action.  Groups that have been formed to pressure political indecision have been met with resistance and suspicion, but ultimately the problem remains. 

Prediction 5: The world acts when confronted with something eminent. In the future some catastrophic events are likely to shape views and change attitudes.  Unfortunately, the planet runs on celestial and not human time.  When a prospective major event happens, no one can predict its extent or its impact.  The approach by some super-rich to travel to another planet or develop something in space is merely laughable but it is also a clear demonstration why wealth cannot be in the hands of few oligarchs.  Life existed before them and hopefully it will continue well beyond them.  On the environment I am hopeful that people’s views will change so by the end of this century we will look at the practices of people like me and despair.         

These are mere predictions of someone who sits in a chair having read the news of the day.  They carry no weight and hold no substantive strength.  There is a recognition that things will change at some level and we shall be asked to adapt to whatever new conditions we are faced with.  In 25 years from now we will still be asking similar questions people asked 100 years ago.  Whatever happens, however it happens, life always finds a way to continue.