Monday, April 14, 2008

World in 2100

How different would the world be in 2100. Will the theory of the clash of civilisations (Islam Vs West) be only a theory or will it be a reality. Oil has avoided this confrontation till now but will it be the same once the wells dry and the West finds an alternative rendering their Sheikh friends useless. Will China be the World Super Power. Will India be divided with every state being an independent nation.
So how will the world really be in 2100. I was obsessed with this question since my childhood. I generally liked to read books articles which were roughly written in the 1910s or 1890s, not becuase I had any special liking for that era, but only because I was obsesssed with this question. I wanted to know how different the world was 100 years ago and how people(writers) visualised how the world would change in the next hundred years and then I can compare that with how much of that has actually changed to know how far from reality their perception of the future was, and so probably our will be.
I read Savarkar and he predicted India will be a supra strong nation once freed- what with slavery and unfortunate foreign attacks being the only hindrances for a thinking and hardworking populace, a culturally rich society from achieving their own place in this world. It was surprising to see how things were so same then. Some of the things that he desccribed as the problems that we need to change havent changed - India's poverty, social problems like dowry, superstitions, caste and religious strifes.
As for technological progress,we always have been fascinated with the future. But even when the future becomes a reality, we are obsessed with the new future as if we never dreamed about the present. Scientific inventions reach so fast from the labs to the common man,get so easliy spread in the world. In just five to ten years the mobile revolution has seen people from New York to Nairobi carry phones in their pockets and be connected- always. Scientific progress is taken so lightly by people. Kids think gizmos as just another thing. So much so that thinking of the world in 2100, although we would think now be fascinated of what new technological revolutions will the world see, people in 2100 wont give those changes a damn.

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