THINQon : End of the decade

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Ellen Ambrose

End of the decade

Latest Post: December 26, 2009 at 1:47 PM

10 followers

Best wishes, in advance, for the last week of the first decade of the 21st century.

What will the world look like in 2020? What will be the major events of the coming decade? Any educated guesses?

And the more difficult question: When historians look back at our time, what will they identify as the major shifts we are living through?

This was the source of some debate earlier today; I thought I would put the question on the table here.

Reply to:

Martin Howells, Trained in pure mathematics, physics,...

December 26, 2009 at 1:47 PM

13 followers

This is not a balanced answer, just one from the interests which I have at present.

With any luck, preparation for return to the moon and construction of the moonbase. A filtering into our language of all the great names of features there, the craters of Schrodinger, Sulpicius Gallus, the valley of Taurus-Littrow, The Fra Mauro highlands, ejecta of Plato. Van de Graaf, Mendel! Dante, Riccioli, great names from literature and history and of course, the Sea of Tranquillity.

The rise of China, which has been astonishing. I personally have been in Shanghai and other cities and people are talking not about G20 or G8 but G2 - China and the USA. China has yet to properly define itself in the world and appears isolated still in the international community. What may happen there could be quite fascinating.

A big shift that I think has been happening is that people don't think independently much anymore. They rely on the internet. They like and want consensus. That already has had implications and may well continue to do so.