[HN Gopher] Predictions for September 2031
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Predictions for September 2031
        
       Author : gallerdude
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2021-09-06 17:58 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.museum-on-the-coast.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.museum-on-the-coast.com)
        
       | tuatoru wrote:
       | How do people make so many predictions?
       | 
       | To make even one prediction, asking "what would have to happen
       | for this to come true?", and following that chain back to the
       | answer to the other question, "where are we now?" --all of that
       | takes me hours at best, often months.
       | 
       | A wish is not a prediction.
        
         | don-code wrote:
         | My hope is that the author, 10 years from now, will reflect on
         | _why_ he thought these things, and gain some profound
         | enlightenment from them.
         | 
         | I can identify many beliefs about the state of the present (now
         | the past), and the state of the future (now the present), that
         | I held around that same age, and that I'm now embarrassed by. I
         | had no fully-formed idea of what success looked like, save for
         | the meager success I'd enjoyed up to that point. Yet somehow, I
         | felt qualified to hold those beliefs anyway.
         | 
         | Case in point: I at 24 (roughly the same age as the author,
         | minus one year) was having a talk with a 37-year-old colleague,
         | where he brought up a statistic he'd read: $27 million was
         | self-sustaining - that, due to diminishing returns, you'd be
         | living the same lifestyle solely off the interest proceeds, if
         | you didn't work another day in your life. My first thought was,
         | "that's not fully out of the realm of possibility - that's
         | maybe even doable!" That was back when I was in the exponential
         | growth phase of my career - I'd just graduated college, and had
         | the word "Junior" dropped from my title shortly thereafter. I
         | now know that's ridiculous, and I look back at 24-year-old me
         | with some contempt for having thought it.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | iso1631 wrote:
       | > "My car can drive me to the closest local retailer without
       | human intervention - 50%"
       | 
       | How about "I need to drive to the closest local retailer without
       | human intervention". In many cities there's already the ability
       | to buy anything without leaving your home, hell even our village
       | shop will deliver at short notice.
       | 
       | "A lot can happen in 10 years. In 10 years I could be unemployed,
       | divorced, and an alcoholic. I could also have a PhD, billionaire,
       | and married to Zendaya. And there's a giant spectrum of
       | possibilities between those two paths."
       | 
       | You could even be an unemployed alcoholic billionaire with a PHd
       | who just got divorced from Zendaya
        
         | gallerdude wrote:
         | > You could even be an unemployed alcoholic billionaire with a
         | PHd who just got divorced from Zendaya
         | 
         | My initial draft had a line really similar to that, great
         | minds... Also, all things considered, I think that'd be a
         | better than average outcome. Alcoholism and heartbreak can be
         | overcome.
        
         | abecedarius wrote:
         | Classic story re that last line:
         | https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781618249203/9781618249203___...
        
       | bellyfullofbac wrote:
       | Somehow I first thought 2031 would be 20 years from now, and that
       | this was written by a 13 year old. Nope, it's 10 years away, damn
       | how time has flown.
       | 
       | If you're born in 1992 or earlier, the present is closer to the
       | year 2050 than to your birth.
       | 
       | Well, if I were a betting man, I would not bet a lot of money on
       | Trump still being around and fit for the 2028 elections (which
       | he'd have to win for him to be president in 2031). But I would
       | not bet a lot of money against it either.
       | 
       | Also, OP's fandom of 2 particular companies is obvious...
        
       | makach wrote:
       | In software development? Anger will consume you 80%
        
         | makach wrote:
         | But kudos. This is one of the most creative articles I've read
         | lately.
         | 
         | Your future is brights. Try many things. Getting kids is
         | definite one of the highlights of my life, don't fear becoming
         | a parent.
        
           | gallerdude wrote:
           | Thanks!
        
       | duckmysick wrote:
       | It reminds me of Metaculus, community-generated predictions about
       | various future events.
       | 
       | https://www.metaculus.com/questions/
        
         | gallerdude wrote:
         | I love metaculus! I also probably check PredictIt [0] daily. In
         | 10 years, since I have all of these listed as probabilities, I
         | can check my Brier Score [1]
         | 
         | [0] https://www.predictit.org/
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brier_score?wprov=sfti1
        
       | cgrealy wrote:
       | > Mickey Mouse is in the Public Domain - 70%
       | 
       | Honestly, I think it's more likely that we'll have ALL of -
       | superintelligent AGI - contact with a space faring civilisation -
       | the cure for aging
       | 
       | than I do that Disney will let copyright on anything go... :D
        
         | gallerdude wrote:
         | I hope both my probability is right and you're probabilities
         | are correct, leaving us with a >70% of all of above
        
       | mikewarot wrote:
       | That's a fun list. I wish you all the luck in your quest to
       | become a person good enough that Zendaya would want to marry.
        
         | gallerdude wrote:
         | Thanks! And I equally wish you luck on whatever improbable yet
         | possible dreams you may have.
        
       | inetsee wrote:
       | "I am a millionaire - 5%
       | 
       | I am an educated in the field of Computer Science, the field
       | known for startups. The only disadvantage I have here is
       | laziness."
       | 
       | I have reason to believe that my IQ is greater than 140, and my
       | area of expertise is software development. I am also a World
       | Class procrastinator. My net worth now (after retiring) is about
       | $million, but at least 2/3 of that is due to my wife, who is
       | exceptionally disciplined.
       | 
       | I think laziness reduces your chance of becoming a millionaire in
       | 10 years significantly.
        
       | zamadatix wrote:
       | Somewhat relevant:
       | 
       | Predictions by HN from 2010 on the upcoming decade -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1025681
       | 
       | Predictions by HN from 2020 on the upcoming decade -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21941278
        
         | abetusk wrote:
         | These are great, thanks.
         | 
         | Someone should do an analysis after the fact to see how well
         | the predictions went. We might even want to do them at smaller
         | intervals, like 1, 2 and 5 years.
         | 
         | The thing that's missing from a lot of the predictions is
         | verifiability, though. As in, some predictions are vague enough
         | so that it could be interpreted in a variety of ways. It'd be
         | good to make the requirement "here is a concrete measure for
         | which, if my prediction doesn't meet it, it will be considered
         | invalid".
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | I predict that in 2031 no major car company will offer self
       | driving technology (besides emergency auto breaking) in personal
       | cars. Even Tesla will stop offering what it has now. Reason: too
       | many lawsuits.
        
         | matthewfelgate wrote:
         | I don't think so. Lawsuits do not determine the long term
         | future; Economics i.e. the bottom line money does.
         | 
         | By 2031 most new cars will have lane keeping, emergency
         | braking, traffic light & sign sensing. And likely more. Almost
         | all cars will drive hands-off steering wheel on the highways.
         | By 2031 a big proportion of new cars will be electric.
        
         | gallerdude wrote:
         | Not a lawyer, but couldn't you make people sign a waiver before
         | activating the feature?
        
           | anthony_r wrote:
           | How do you make a third-party pedestrian to sign the waiver?
        
             | therufa wrote:
             | by bumping into them?
        
             | gizmo686 wrote:
             | You don't. The waiver between the ownee and manufacturer
             | specifies that the owner is liable. Beyond that point,
             | insurance solves the issue. Currently, the driver is liable
             | and is required by law to carry liability insurance, so
             | there is not much change from the consumer perspective.
             | From the insurer perspective, the relevent data point us
             | how often self driving cars mess up compared to human
             | driven ones.
        
             | iso1631 wrote:
             | Pedestrian would have the claim against the car driver
             | surely, the car driver would be unable to blame the
             | "autopilot", just like they can't blame cruise control
             | today.
        
         | floathub wrote:
         | In 2031, fully self driving cars will be just as imminent as
         | they are now :-)
        
           | air7 wrote:
           | this. There was a thread an Ask HN around the new decade with
           | predictions for 2030 and I wrote this too.
        
       | d_silin wrote:
       | For what's it worth, at 19 I forecasted myself to found a space
       | startup by 36. The dream came true, but a lot happened in between
       | those dates.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-09-06 23:01 UTC)