Real problems for the next century

[ralfy]

I don't foresee food ever really being a problem. We currently only use a small percentage of the land for food production and even less for habitation. If necessary we could ramp up food production considerably. Water is the only real limiting factor.
If really needed we could take to the oceans in massive oceanic-hydroponic farms that would make all of the current worlds food production look like a back yard vegetable garden. People would just have to change what sort of things they ate.

The real problem with food will be the same one we have today, how to distribute it and to whom.

There are multiple factors involved, including peak oil, soil erosion, lack of phosphorus, ocean acidification, increasing demand for food from a growing global middle class, major droughts and floods, rising sea levels, and more.

This explains why food prices increased considerably the last few years.

In general, we are looking at a growing human population with basic needs of which the ecological footprint can easily exceed biocapacity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ecological_footprint

In short, the earth can only allow for a footprint per capita of 1.8 global hectares, but that assumes that population won't increase further and the long-term effects of global warming and pollution (not only on water but also on soil conditions) won't take place.

 

[Svnla]

Clean potable/drinking water could be a problem.

Too many "takers" = growing (and fast) population of them vs. too few "givers" = declining population of them.

 

[norseamd]

this depends. eventually we will have enough desalinization capability to make clean fresh water but we will have to wait for plentiful energy for that. to have full use we will likely need fusion power. gen 3 or 4 nuclear power plants might provide for some of the ability though. the big problem might be in asia where china has the tibetan plateau which is the source of several major rivers that flow into other countries in asia. the mekong and a tributary of the ganges are two of the biggest. and china wants to divert both of them. so this could cause world war 3. remains to be seen what exactly china will do. the us is at fault for allowing both the reds to win over the whites in the russian civil war and allowing the communists to beat the nationalists in the chinese civil war. and they might have been able to do more about tibet. but know one ever put any thought to it.

food might be easier to provide for people than water

 

[yhelothar]

Artificial intelligence/Real intelligence/Machine learning

Real intelligence being intelligence created through realistic models of the brain. We are living in a data driven society. Empiricism drives technology and much of our decision making. It's deeply rooted in our epistemological philosophy. Data is growing increasingly vast and our limited working memory capacity of 7±2 items is starting to show.

There are incredible efforts to recreate the neocortical column, the basic unit of computation of the brain. This is how our brain represents information in a hierarchical manner, regardless which of your five senses or any additional sense you may input artificially. It all gets processed with the same algorithms. To create a working model of this that is endlessly vast and is not limited by our five senses nor the limits of our mortality would be immensely powerful.

We are currently blind men touching the elephant. With these developments, we can create a being that can put together the experience beyond millions of men.

 

[silicon]

Clean potable/drinking water could be a problem.

Too many "takers" = growing (and fast) population of them vs. too few "givers" = declining population of them.

i will second this comment as fresh water will become scarce. In north america there is still plenty of fresh water available but with demands from growing cities it will become scarce. If anyone has seen the movie soylent green, then IMHO, this is the world 50 years down the line. To feed a huge population, possibly 15 billion, requires a vast agriculture network...can this be sustained?

 

[norseamd]

i will second this comment as fresh water will become scarce. In north america there is still plenty of fresh water available but with demands from growing cities it will become scarce. If anyone has seen the movie soylent green, then IMHO, this is the world 50 years down the line. To feed a huge population, possibly 15 billion, requires a vast agriculture network...can this be sustained?

without the ability to desalinate water this could be a huge issue. food will be easier because of vertical farming. the diets will have to change more towards fruits and vegetables and fish. we might be able to take care of some of the necessary water intake with food if we can maybe figure out how to absorb the moisture in the air.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I think energy is the only issue that really matters. With enough power, we can really solve any problem. We're going to have to improve renewable efficiency (solar) and reduce our dependence on non-renewable (coal, oil, natural gas). Nuclear will probably be required, so we need to develop an international plan for long term waste storage, or develop reactors that can process long term waste into short term waste. With power, we can solve or at least mitigate climate change (natural and/or man made), we can grow enough food for billions more, we can create fresh water from almost any source, we can reclaim scarce materials from landfills, etc.

 

[norseamd]

desalinization requires huge amounts of energy so we need to get the nuclear power built if we want to avoid some problems in the next 100 years