2050 a.d.

Some thoughts I had on the year 2050, when it rolls around 48-or-so years from now:

• That's almost half again as far in the future as my age today. It's hard to imagine what I'll be doing then.
• I'll be 81 years old. I'll probably still be alive, as three of my four grandparents lived to at least that age.
• If I ever have children, by then they'll probably be at least as old as I am now. In order for them to still be in their 20s, I'd have to have kids in 2021 or later, which for me means age 52 or later. Possible, but not likely.
• We'll have had at least 6 more US Presidents by then. 2050 will be a mid-term election year.
• Odds are we'll have had at least four more recessions by then. Quite possibly one depression, too, as it seems like we're due to have one soon. We seem to have about one per century.
• My mortgage will have long since run its course, though of course I expect to refinance several times before then.
• What relatively unpopulated parts of the country will be burgeoning metropolises in 2050? Silicon Valley was still covered in orchards half a century ago. Will mass transit have undergone a revival, and will our cities be cross-crossed with rails, mono- or otherwise?
• The personal computer is only a quarter-century old. In that time, the old monopoly (IBM) has been supplanted by the new monopoly (Microsoft). It's hard to imagine what, 48 years from now, digital technology will look like. Will it be supplanted by something even more outre? (Biotech?) Who will control the industry, if anyone? Maybe we'll have gone through Vernor Vinge's Singularity by then.
• Comic books you buy today will probably be worth many dozens of times what you paid for them. Many comics from the 1950s which cost a dime are now worth hundreds of dollars. Of course, a dime bought more then than it does now. By 2050, a $3.00 comic today might be worth five thousand dollars. Though of course by then a brand new comic might cost $25.00 or more.

Myself, I figure that by then China will have gotten its political and economic act together and the U.S. will have even bigger issues to contend with.

The guy in the unit next to mine is selling his place - after 23 years - to move east to be near his children and grandchildren. His parents still live a few miles north of here in the house they built in the 40s, he told me. It must be kind of strange, to have parents whom you're leaving behind - as a grandfather. It must be doubly strange to be his parents, seeing three generations of their family living 3000 miles away. I wonder if they feel left out?