janelane wrote:
In my "Engineering Design" class, we have to figure out what the world of 2020 will be like. Specifically, we are figuring out design processes for globally distributed design and marketing environments. I am curious what you all think of how 2020 will turn out, and the professor encourages us to ask people with opinions varying from our own. I can think of no greater variety than the Memestreams readership. What do you think? What issues (either same or different) are we likely to face? What will drive the above environments?

Some of the ones I have so far include:
communication
information availability
geographic location
government structure
language
outsourcing

I am interested to know what you have to say.

-janelane, obliged

Now for the voice of gloom and doom. What will the world be like? Yes, newer, smaller, faster computers, jobs wherever they are cheapest, national lines breaking down more and more.

Prior to 2020, I am afraid that I would consider "The Big One" likely. Either a massive earthquake at New Madrid, severing transportation from east to west, dropping buildings as far away as Chicago, and breaking dams all throughout the Tennesse river valley, ultimately making what Katrina just did to New Orleans look like a spring rain.

The alternate to that, would be one along the San Andreas similar to the one that caused the tidal wave across the Indian Ocean last Christmas. In that case 750 miles of crust moved, 200 miles greater than the distance from San Diego to San Francisco.

A California event would be less damaging because the effects would be far more localized, but as Katrina has demonstrated, we are not prepared in any way shape of form for even something orders of magnitude less damaging than either of those options.

Life in the middle ages was nasty, brutish and short. Without some serious action, so will life be in the United States in the 21st century.

RE: The Year 2020