Anniversaries and Celebrations
Communications
Communities
Computers
A level of consciousness approximating that found in humans is achieved in a computer system. The system is aware of itself, its “thinking” processes, and its sensory inputs. The few remaining adherents to religion must now wrestle with the question of whether or not the system has a “soul”.
Education
The trend that accelerated in the last time period continues in this one: as more and more “mentally easy” jobs are automated, more and more emphasis is placed on education. The demand for greater mental effectiveness and more accurate and elaborate ideological development has intensified.
Public schools are still in existence but they have changed dramatically from their condition in the late 20th century. The emphasis now is on developing skills that will be transferable to new situations, rather than trying to memorize information which is only narrowly applicable or prone to obsolescence. History, the sciences, math, and writing are still taught, but with an emphasis on practical application. They are joined by classes that teach transferable “life skills”, such as mental effectiveness, personal health, career planning, ideology development, and government (with emphasis on participation).
Attendance is no longer mandatory by the secondary school level, and students have the option of attending a private school, or learning at home online, (from either a public or private service) or not participating at all. Nearly all do, however, as the importance of mental development is now a pervasive part of their culture. Those who don’t usually choose to pursue a career in one of the arts that does not require broad mental and ideological development.
Energy
The first commercial nuclear fusion reactor goes online. Nearly 100 years of research and development have gone into making this revolutionary energy source a reality. It produces far more energy per unit fuel than a nuclear fission reactor, and produces no radioactive waste. Oil is still the dominant energy source, but as oil prices slowly rise, fusion power will become more and more economical, and thus more and more widespread.
Environment
Global warming continues as average annual global temperatures continue to rise. Carbon dioxide concentration passes 500 parts per million.
Food
Government and Politics
Health and Medicine
For the first time, the human lifespan is extended beyond the original preset genetic maximum of 120 years. This marks the first in a series of subsequent extensions of the potential human lifespan.
Philosophy
The intellectual revolution that gained speed in the last decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st is now in full swing. The same forces that initiated it continue to prevail: economic pressure towards mindwork (and thus towards increasing one’s mental effectiveness), improved understanding of brain physiology and functioning, widespread knowledge of mental effectiveness techniques (such as problem solving, decision making, mnemonics, formal logic and so on), technological developments that provoked philosophical debates, drugs that enhance mental effectiveness, and possibly the amplification of general intelligence by increasing its genetic component.
Among the more noticeable effects of the intellectual revolution is a profound shift in the public’s religious beliefs, and thus their religious institutions. The vast majority of people are now agnostic. The general increase in intellectual development has resulted in widespread reexamination of many previously unquestioned ideas about religion.
Interestingly, churches survive, but they are now devoted to the celebration of the universal human values: altruism, knowledge, tolerance, mercy, virtue, fairness, and so on.
Industry and Work
The economy is now truly global. The less developed countries now compete successfully with their counterparts in the more developed nations.
International Relations
Recreation
Relationships
Heterosexual two-person relationships are still the dominate form by far. The marriage rate is high and the divorce rate is low. Loneliness is down because the pool of compatible people has been enlarged. Religious differences no longer prevent individuals from marrying, as the number of people who follow such dogma has shrunk to near nonexistence.
Science: Astronomy
Science: Biology
Science: Chemistry
Science: Earth Sciences
Science: Physics
Science: Neuroscience
Science: Sociology
Space
Transportation
Magnetic-Levitation (Mag-Lev) trains now run between the major close-proximity cities of North America, Europe and East Asia. Tracks are still above ground, and maximum speed is thus limited to about 700 kilometers per hour, due to aerodynamic drag.
Vital Statistics / Population
Long Shots