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What Will Life Be Like in 2050
What Will Life Be Like in 2050
In the financial world, things will be very different indeed, according to MIT
professor Simon Johnson, who thinks many of the financial products being
sold today, like over-the-counter derivatives, will be illegaljudged,
accurately, by regulators to not be in the best interests of consumers.
We will live longer and remain healthier. Patricia Bloom, an associate
professor in the geriatrics department of Mt. Sinai Hospital, says we may not
routinely live to be 120, but it's possible that we will be able to extend
wellness and shorten decline and disability for people as they age. AIDS
research pioneer David Ho says the HIV/AIDS epidemic will still be with us,
but we will know a lot more about the virus than we do todayand therapies
will be much more effective. Meanwhile, Jay Parkinson, the co-founder of
Hello Health, says the health care industry has a "huge opportunity" to
change the way it communicates with patients by conceiving of individual
health in relation to happiness.
In terms of how we will eat, green markets founder and "real food"
proponent Nina Planck is optimistic that there will be more small
slaughterhouses, more small creameries, and more regional food
operationsand we'll be healthier as a result. New York Times cooking
columnist Mark Bittman, similarly, thinks that people will eat fewer
processed foods, and eat foods grown closer to where they live. And Anson
Mills farmer Glenn Roberts thinks that more people will clue into the "ethical
responsibility" to grow and preserve land-raised farm systems.
And what will our culture be like? We may not get rid of racism in America
entirely in the next 40 years, but NAACP President Benjamin Jealous predicts
that in the coming decades the issue of race will become "much less
significant," even as the issue of class may rise in importance. Father James
Martin, a Jesuit priest, says it's even likely that we'll see a black pope.
Meanwhile, prisons expert Robert Perkinson says he thinks there will be
fewer Americans in prison in 2050, because we will realize that the current
high levels of incarceration are out of sync with our history and values.
Historian and social scientist Joan Wallach Scott worries, however, that
unless the countries of Europe figure out how to accommodate Muslim
immigrant populations, there will be more riots, and increasing divisions
along economic, religious and ethnic lines.