RichardBonham

I am going to operate under the following assumptions:
-the current global trend towards authoritarian governments will continue and become more prevalent
-balkanization will be the new norm: an atlas will show more numerous and smaller countries
-climate change (extreme heat, extreme humidity and sea level rise) will make large regions functionally unfit for human habitation by reasons of lethal heat and/or humidity, loss of coastal access, lack of potable water and/or loss of sustainable agriculture.
-we’ll be well into the technological curve for AI and robotics. We’ll have gone past the early stage where people over-estimate technological capabilities and far into the later stages where people will under-estimate technological capabilities
-if cash is still legal, it will be useless for all legitimate transactions because no institution wants it. If it still exists, it will only be useful for peer-to-peer illegitimate transactions: crime, drugs and sex.
-whatever is bad now will be worse

So: social taboos that exist today that will not be taboo in 100 years?
-slavery: we already see slavery in all but name in the form of privatized prisons and wage-slavery (work a soul-killing minimum wage job, or die/be homeless). What if the cost of being able to emigrate from a country or region that is uninhabitable is slavery, whether real or de facto? It’s the cheapest form of labor.
-murder: being deemed outlaw will make a comeback. An outlaw is outside the protection of the law, so killing an outlaw is not a crime.
-extortion: governments and government proxies (militias, death squads, religious sects) will exercise sanctioned extortion
-hoarding: if you are living in an unstable balkan state or are an unpopular minority in one, hoarding will not be pathologic
-civilian ownership of firearms
-racism and nationalism; best way to keep out undesirable climate refugees is to de-humanize them
-corporations being into every piece of the pie: a logical extension of the trend to privatization or “wanting government to be run like a business” is the replacement of nation-states by corporations or zaibatsu-like alliances of multiple corporations

I never thought I’d find myself rooting for Zuckerberg.