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“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” — Niels Bohr, physicist (1885-1962) "Everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. It just hasn't happened yet." -- Philips' Quantum Corollary to Murphy's Law
Today we risk a breach of competition lawsuit from Shirley MacLaine and attempt to predict the future. You've heard of time capsules where artifacts from the present are sealed for opening by people from the future. Phrased that way, it almost sounds like science fiction, doesn't it? Mystics tell us that time is an illusion, a human contrivance; that time has no beginning and no end. Oh, yeah? Try telling that to my sagging derriere. In a recent laboratory experiment physicists caused light to move backwards. If light can move backwards, then perhaps time can move backwards as well and we can finally know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. In the back of each month's edition of Wired magazine is a feature called 'Artifacts From The Future.' Here is a practical application I can already envision: a limited-duration time travel device to assist spatially challenged drivers in backing up a car. They would simply switch the device on, wait 10 seconds (while adjusting their hair) then drive forward. Sorry. I enjoy predicting the future, but find it much easier to predict the past where my track record approaches 100%. My future prediction rate has been close to 100% as well, it's just that some of the things I predicted haven't happened yet. See? I'm using that device already. Based on all that has happened over the past 200 years, here are some predictions for the next 100 years that I will place in an envelope and give to my children to open one day, long after I am pushing up begonias.
These predictions are not meant to be pessimistic. They merely extrapolate
recent and current trends into the future as I see
them developing. * The prices of gold and silver will go into orbit. * Gold and silver bullion (excepting numismatic coins trading at at least twice spot) will once again be confiscated by the U.S. government. * The so-called 'War On Terrorism' will last at least another generation. A future stage of this 'war' will include acts of terrorism on U.S. soil, including suicide bombings. * America will once again openly use a nuclear weapon against a declared enemy. * A military draft will be reinstated and will include women. * The America Empire will go the route of the British Empire. * The 21st Century will close with China running the show. * All forms of alternative, free market money will be criminalized and eliminated. * Metal detectors (and/or facial recognition scanners) will be in place at most shopping centers and public schools. * The United States economy will purge the credit excesses of the past 50 years by passing through the 'Fall' and 'Winter' phases of the Kontradiev Cycle. * Unfunded entitlement programs and an escalating war economy will cause the dollar to collapse. * Paper money will be eliminated, outlawed and replaced by mandatory debit and credit cards. * A rough coalition of China, Russia and various Islamic nations will unite to confront the U.S. militarily. * Islam will overspread the world and Christianity will go underground once again. * The filing of IRS income tax forms will be eliminated and replaced by an RFID-based system that extracts an excise tax from even the smallest transactions, at the point of retail purchase, in real-time. * A national financial account will be required of each citizen. It will probably be called the 'USA FREEDOM ACCOUNT' or something similar, and sold to the public as a necessity in order to combat financial terrorism. The account will consolidate all checking, savings, CD's, trading, IRA, 401(k), investment and other financial accounts into a single, master account (or at least you will have to login to this account first, prior to accessing your other, individual accounts). The government will use this account from which to deduct unpaid child support, taxes, fines, fees and other penalties. * Many nutritional supplements will be outlawed (as alcohol and hemp variously have been). * The airline industry will be consolidated into a single quasi-governmental entity similar to Amtrak. * A license will be required to own a domain name and operate a web site. * Web sites questioning the official version of reality will not be granted a license. * Positive biometric identification will be required for any user to logon to the Internet. * U.S. citizens will be required by law to carry at all times a federally approved identification card.
* At least one state (California? New Jersey?) will establish border 'check
points' and require anyone passing in or out of the state to 'show your papers.' |
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