Where do you see civilization..

I'll give it a shot...

Continuing oil crisis for another 10 years as China and India need oil to fuel their growing economy. Continued high prices and demand make nuclear and coal power plants attractive again in the US. US turns to more electric power, with a shift to bio-fuel for autos and trucks.

This means more farmland growing corn for ethanol, and not grain for export. The "breadbasket of the world" no longer exports huge amounts of food, or imports huge amounts of oil. As a result the Middle East economies collapse and no one cares.

The European Union continues to be a great debating society as Europe slides into a socialist stupor. Birthrates continue to decline (the trend is starting now) and Europe fades into oblivion.

China and India compete for dominance in Asia. The winner becomes the new super-power challenging the Pax Americana.

I don't think commercial fusion power will be practical for a long, long, time but I would be happy to be wrong.

Who wants to try next?

All we need is the Drengin to attack Earth and humanity will finally be united.

A Galciv perspective:
WARS!! That is the history of mankind. We invent new ways to kill each other everyday!

Africa is going to be left to kill itself to death with AIDS and civil wars. (seeking a military victory on the african continent.)

North Africa will remain as it is. Probablly seeking a diplomatic victory.

United States has to keep being the technological capital of the world by some means...perhaps a new revolution in public education in business ethics and science. Else it will slowly cumble away. Each USA person now has a ton of more stuff now than in the 1960s. Seems like quanity has replace quality in food, movies, music, even video games (except for stardock). This increases our dependance on oil and cheap labor. We really do need a strong third political party perhaps made up of galciv fans. (seeking technological victory at worst, influential victory at best if there is business ethics & public education revolution) The secret to America is it's adaptability.

Russia: Now economic stabiliy has been established, a new russian president needs to free russian media networks from government ownership, else it will go the same path as china and be close friends with china. (seeking a neutral victory...see which way the wind blows..and joining it.)

The one government party China, the perfect example of evil always wins. Can you imagine a republican party in control for the last 60 years...killng and jailing anyone who tries to start another party? If natural resources are low and USA is weak...china going to "colonize" their neighbors, even certain african countries or pacific islands with oil. Either by political might(because of its huge population of cheap labor) or by military intervention. seems like every country grown dependent on cheap material goods from china. When can the avergage joe learn that buying stuff isn't buying happiness? (China seeking a influential victory with military as a final push.)

Europe wants to be a USA with it's EU. But the problem with Europe is that is has too much history and tradition, thus refuse to imagine a European with 50% nonwhites. Thus they tend to limit immigration, they even have "immigrant districts" in some of their countries. USA has always been a melting pot...it's culture always changing. Just give ethnic groups a few generations for assimilation...(back in early 1900s immigrants from italians, irish, germans, were considered aliens stealing american jobs). Skin color does make assimilation harder but asians, blacks are being to assimilate into america. American food culture has also changed...we have more choices chinese, vietnamese, mexican, indian, middle eastern. (Europe seeking a diplomatic victory).

India: seeking a diplomatic victory. Every body loves curry.

Middle east: it's corrupt governments is stuck in the past. Still can't get over the 6 day war lost to Israel. The 6 day war, perfect example of winning a war is base on information first, military second. (a minor race in galciv2, unless it people somehow can its governments.)

Ah although the negative birthrate is quite clear, i think the european union will be kept alive by immigration, and if it continues soon it wont be the european union, turkey may soon gain membership, and with the way Israel, is in the european football cup, and eurovision maybe the union will try to make Israel and countries around it join them.



just read this article i found on, makes me skeptical on ethanol for oil http://money.uk.msn.com/investing/articles/nicklouth/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4750649

hmmmm We should pout these in a time capsule and see what comes of it many years from now.

I'm going for 20 years, lol.

I see a few problems with oil, especially as Russia (2nd biggest exporter, sometime 1st if Opec slows the Saudi production) becomes more emboldened and hostile to Europe/America.

Food prices will go up in america as we convert farmland to grow corn (for fuel) and less corn and other produce is available for market. Also a resurgence in Nuclear power along with coal and natural gas.

We'll bounce around economically (some good years some really bad years) as our econmy evolves into a more global economy.

I do forsee a rise in ethnocentrism in America, fueled by racial tensions. (Hate groups are currently on the rise again, latching on to the immigration issues and targeting hispanic immigrants)

Crime will rise also. It's currently gone up for the last two years, and will most likely continue to do so for quite some time.

oh yeah, that warmer climate thing too. That might probably be getting bad for some areas in 20 years.

I do not think there will be an oil crisis. Because oil can only get so expensive before dramatically loosing market share to electric vehicles. Can you imagine how much more expensive oil would be right now if it wasn't for the threat from electric alternatives??

As for the future, my predictions are as follows....

everything will pretty much continue on the same until terrorists manage to nuke somthing. After that the world will change - allot! You will probably see the rise of the Antichrist yada yada from that point on.

So it would be a good time to invest into uranium mining companies then ?

Time to invest

I see China and India fighting wars. Posibily against each other, most likley against the rest of the world. That probably will be preceded by a cold war.

The polar ice caps will continue to melt, and America will continue to ignore it.

What few contries still have the queen of England on their coin will slowly drop what sembelence of a Monarchy they have.

McDonalds will become bigger and bigger.

There are a lot of possibilities for where the world could go right now.

For instance, 30-40 years from now (when my generation will be in full power), we could be in the midst of a global super-crisis. Food could be in short supply, cities flooding, and world wide deforestation, both from humans and nature. The majority of civilization collapses except in a few places. As time goes on however, people adjust and new ways of living emerge and the world begans to recover. However, the losses are incalculable and the damage irreperable. And all because of the irresponsibility of the previous generation. History would judge them harshly.

Another possibility is much brighter. Perhaps within the next few years new energy sources will be taken to heart, and the dark future above moved off of the world stage. But political tensions would be just as high as ever. People agreeing to disagree as usual. Things would move forward much as they have in the past, perhaps we might see space gain new precedence in the world stage, maybe not. Also we could expect to see fusion possibly taking hold (a trillion times more efficient than fossil fuels, and a million times more efficient than fission, and it is being seriously researched across the globe) in the next fifty to sixty years. Who knows, maybe we will recieve plans from the Arceans for a stargate!

We get screwed by Yellowstone and it erupts. In case you didn't know, one of the world's largest volcanoes sits right underneath the park. Where did you think all that geothermal energy came from? Cheese? It's already about, oh, 30,000 years overdue for a good boom. Result? Well, everything in 100 miles get incinerated, and the world gets a nice cloudy blanket for a good couple of years(I don't know exactly how long it would last). Most plant life dies because there's no sun for photosynthesis, and humans can't farm. People starve, civilization fails, and billions (yes, that's right, billions) die. However, we survived a similar eruption 70,000 years ago, and these days we got some nice, fancy gadgets to help us along the way. We would survive, but the dead would be too many to bury or catalogue. The largest groups of survivors would be the most well prepared and the occasional community that banded together for survival. Pleasent, wouldn't you say?

On Friday, the 13th of April, 2028 (correct year?) a meteor passes so close to earth that it actually goes below the orbit of our satillites. It wouldn't hit us. But seven years later it would come knocking on our door once more, and oddly, on the 13th of April. If it happened to cross through a certain region of space, what the astronomers are calling a "keyhole" it would be nudged just enough to collide with earth. Result? Well, minus a possible tsunami, see above. Why the 13th? Why not the 14th? Or the 12th? Ah, superstition.

That's all I got for now.

Fusion, hmmmm...., fusion.
In order to understand if fusion is possible in the next 50 or even 100 years (currently, the way scientists are going about it, I don't think it is) you have to understand how they want to achieve it.

They use what is called a tokamak device, basically a donut shaped structure that accelerates ions (plasma) around magnetic field lines contained within the "donut". This plasma follows the lines in a helical way (one of the main problems with magnetic confinement fusion).

However, fusion is possible because even now fusion does take place in a tokamak device, the problem is getting sustained fusion, which has not happened yet, and as I see it, will not happen until a different method is used to cause fusion. One of which is called laser fusion, where force is applied to a "pellet" of atoms from all directions by lasers until the atoms fuse. Sound familiar? The force in this process is directed inward, so the atoms in the pellet have no where to go but together (not th e case with magnetic confinement) this is how nature does fusion, gravity pulls the atoms together in the sun so they have nowhere else to go.

Point is, sustained fusion is a long way off.

As for the rest of the world, I don't see much changing, as long as everything is still about money, making money for yourself and you friends (for people in power) and pleasing those who voted for you (in all countries and political parties) everything will stay the status quo. The only way that anything will change much is if something huge happens, nuclear detonation (by anyone), giant meteor, Godzilla, etc.

But maybe if we are lucky the EU (or the US...maybe)will come to some sort of agreement to change the way we use energy, especially in cars, and take the lead when it comes to efficient cars and renewable power that the rest of the world will follow, but at the moment the US only vowed to "seriously consider" reducing emissions by half by 2050 and as far as I know the EU isn't much better.

Anyway that is my 2 cents.

1.continued dilution of seperate cultures in all countries due to the internet.The rise of the mono culture controlled by a monolithic corporation.Less competition in business.

2.the rise of splinter parties in politics due to the lack of confidence in the old dogs and polarization of same.People will find it harder to find a political party they can identify with.

3.a general lack of confidence in authority causing loss of faith in institutions,a spiraling of violence and crime statistics.

4.fights over fresh water and water rights around the world.

5.the continued genetic manipulation of plants and other living things and fights over native genetic makeups in other countries.

6.tech improvements and information blizzards with improved robotic hardware and software to manage your information and to triage the information as you specify.

Surgery and medical care will be performed by machines thus lowering the cost of certain medical practices.

7. a crisis of community as more people spend time interfacing with technology.The Byte World creates a new inner nonreality of expression. The barrier between reality versus nonreality becomes thinner.

Atomic War. The survivors emerge from giant underground vaults to begin a new life in the wasteland. The water purification chip fries in one of the vaults causing that vault to send people one by one into the atomic wasteland to find another chip before the super mutants get to them....

Who needs fusion on Earth? We have our own fusion reacotor located a nice and conveinant 90 million miles away!! Just put out an a@@# load of giant solar panels in space and you have all the power you ever need for the next 5 billion years or whenever the sun finally blows up and consumes the Earth. Just need a means to get the batteries down to earth in an economic way. Create an electric powered rocket somehow??

Ion drive or use of the Earth's magnetic field to propel modified conventional aeroplanes slowly into orbit. The latter would still require conventional rockets but none as inefficient as the (tech) tree NASA is barking up.

As for me, in 50 years I see society stealing the styles of the 2020s, which were in turn bastardised from the 1990s. Everything we predict now of technology in the next 50 years fails to happen, as have predictions made in the 1960s of what the year 2000 would be like. The human race continues to be as short sighted as it has been throughout the rest of its history and UK politicians are still babbling about how something must be done to avert climate change, only now they're in the attic of the house of commons as all of the other floors are flooded. Co-incidentally the New New Labour party have been in power for the last 20 years, as all of the original conservative party have died and those remaining are so similar to New New Labour the distinction is meaningless. Voter turnout is less than 50%, a pattern repeated across other democracies older than 50 years. People of Tokyo and New York and similar cities have filled in all the gaps between buildings filled with water with a suspended tarmac ground floor. Every time the water level rises a new ground floor is built and new stories are placed on top of the buildings, kept standing by the water and by virtue of having the previous ground floor filled with concrete. Africa has gained some wealth from the actions of more developed nations, however is still plagued by all the problems of its past. North America has a 99.9% majority of blonde, blue-eyed, white, straight, fundamentalist Christians owing to the 'majority-led' ethnic cleansing programs of 2031. The concept of 'The American Dream' has gradually been modified over the years to include the ownership of everything in the universe as the great American ideal.

Space travel even within our solar system is seen as the fallacy it is.

Wishful thinking tempts me into hoping that people have found a way to make stem cells work as cure for many diseases. Another possibility is that the bio-sciences like genetic research and health-related nanobot-research have seen great progress, leading to many life-threatening diseases and conditions being eradicated from humanity... at least in areas where people can afford extortionate sums every twelve months for these inoculations.

In short, people are still arseholes to each other.

Wow, some of you yankees have bizzarre ideas of what it's like over here!

The EU has no united immigration policy. EU members have an open borders policy, which means as an EU citizen I can move to any EU country whenever I like. There's even whole communities of migrant workers who move around following the seasonal work and similar (quite a lot from the newer East European member states).
For immigrants from outside of the EU it's still handled at a national level, although there are EU guidelines (and there is a push for a united EU common policy, but I can't see that coming to fruition while nationalists still hold a large influence in national governments). Immigration problems are dependent on the country. Over here in the UK legal migrants aren't a problem, it's Asylum seekers which are the main issue (both those making valid claims and those making fraudulent claims).
Immigration also depends on the country, not all immigrants are non-white. Here in Britain we see plenty of white immigrants (Recent events in Zimbabwe for example saw a large exodus of the white population to here). There are also sizeable populations of Russians, Slavs, South Africans and Australian ex-pats. Spain and Portugal sees the majority of it's immigrants come from South America, most of whom are of Spanish descent. In fact, the main 'coloured' migrants are to Britain (usually from former African or Carribean colonies, mainly Commonwealth countries), France (North African, though again sizeable numbers are of French descent originally) and Holland (North Africans again).
In fact, black migration to Britain at least has been dropping since the fifties, while Eastern European migration is rising. Most of the black population currently living in Britain are second or third generation British citizens.
It's not the black immigrants who cause the problem either, it's the governments. Germany wants to dictate economic policy, which none of the other members are happy with, many members complain about the voting agreement between Germany and France while Britain can't decide if it wants to be a full member or not. In addition, you also get the squabbles which have been going on for a few hundred years (Cypress refusing to accept Turkey's membership for example).

Here is what I would like to see realistically:

In the early century Global Warming (or the polite synonym Climate Change) was averted at the last moment, and though the greater effects were avoided, there are still reprecusions. New forms of energy assure us of no worries overshortages for many years to come. However, water is becoming an issue as the natural sources begin to dry up. Water Desalinization is a booming industry. The Moon has been colonized for some years now, as new platforms for getting into space have emerged, making it cheaper than ever. As a result, the Moon, rich in various minerals (namely titanium, if I am correct) has become a major producer of spacecraft, mostly for the many space stations going into orbit and for the growing number of people migrating to Mars. Despite a harsh climate, the red planet is getting both warmer and a thicker atmosphere due to terraforming efforts. Despite this, farming is becoming a major industry there, and the population is growing fast. It is expected that within a period of a thousand years (or less if several governments or corperations have their way) it will be much like earth, minus a few pounds. There are also people looking into ways of possibly cooling down venus and creating a fourth habitable world, though it is still a far distant thought. The internet has become obsolete due to new neural implants (the beginnings of such technology is already tested and proven), and the "interlink" has become it's replacement. However, the computer industry is by no means slow down it's progress. Terrabytes are considered just as miniscule as a single byte is today, and videogames are a worldwide phenomenon, and the have become a sport, with something similar to olympic games every several years.
However, all is not perfect in this world. Recent tensions have sparked possibilites of a third world war, and there is a raging ethical debate concerning DNA, where people are starting to "desiegn" how the children will look and what traits they might have. The ethics of it are in question. Several nations are causing worldwide trouble as usual, but nuclear tensions have settled down. The new fear is Anti-Matter weapons, similar in destructive power to nuclear weapons. There are also tensions amongst the martians, who are begining to get angry that they have not even been allowed to govern themselves, and that all decisions are made by the UN. Fears of a rebellion are rising, and a possible "War of the Worlds". There is also an argument over Antarctica as several corporations want to put mirrors in orbit to warm the continent and melt the ice to create more land. However, environmentalists and many scientists are protesting the idea, warning that the resulting floods would be cataclysmic to people on the coasts, and the environmental damage to the (small, but none the less very real) ecosystem would be irreperable. However, as usual, greed knows no boundary. The UN has made no verdict yet.
All in all, it is not that much different that the modern day world we live in. The story never changes, but the setting and the characters are never the same.