[Daradon]

Predicting the next 50 years seems like a crap shoot to me. I have a feeling we are going to see a major change in even our own western lifestyle in the 30-50 year mark. Just from lack of resources. Oil, then water and food. Our demand is far outstripping our supply world wide and we're still increasing out population to boot.

To me if feels a lot like a petri dish with dividing bacteria. The first few divisions and doubles in population are no matter. Lots more room to grow. 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128 etc. It's no problem, you're only microscopic bacteria. But the end comes surprisingly quick when you split like that. IE, when you reach half the dish being full, you really only have one full cycle left.

I think we're nearing that final cycle. Aren't we on pace to double our global population every 30 years or so? 2% growth a year or something? With food and energy shortages with 6.5 billion people, what happens with 13 billion people on the planet?

How about 26 billion?

We are nearing a point where there is:

Either a) going to HAVE to be a major way in which we live, govern, and take care of ourselves, not just as a country, but as a planet of people with one goal.

Or b) a lot of people are going to end up dying through a smattering of wars, instability, and pollution. Whether it's a global catastrophe like a WW3 brought on by the changes of an overcrowded petri dish knocking us back down to sustainable levels, or simply a longer, more drawn out wave of constant violence and squabbling that just keeps the population maintained will be the only question.