Usual disclaimers apply: probabilities are not exact betting odds, I try to give quantitive assessments wherever I can but many predictions are too vague to quantify etc. If I am still alive in 2030 I will try to give my subjective assessment to what degree I agree with the predictions.
Geopolitical 1. a China will become #1 economy in the coming decade, but will experience continued economic slowdown.
2. Taiwan put under siege by China (i) economically 80% (ii) militarily 50% conditional on (ii) the US will back down 90% conditional on the US not backing down this will lead to a nuclear exchange between US and China 10%
3. A missile/drone strike on an aircraft Carrier, crippling the ship 4%
4. India will commit what will later be regarded by a significant fraction of Western observers as genocide in Kashmir 10 % (low confidence)
5. Economic slowdown in the West (GDP/capita growth for 2020-2030 lower than 2010-2020) 70% - a plausible story is an aging population 6. Nuclear strike anywhere in the world 5% 7. a Continuing secularisation in the Middle-East 75% b continuing secularisation in the West 85% 8.a Subsaharan Africa continues making little gdp /capita gains 70%. b Population will continue to boom. Fertility will fall modestly 70% c Immigration streams to the West from 3rd World countries, particularly Africa will increase 70%
9. Smoking/drinking will continue to fall worldwide, party drugs (MDMA etc) will become much more widespread 70% & 70% 10. No economic Recession comparable with the 2008 Great Recession 85%
Politics & Culture Wars 1. Revolution in Energy will increasingly make present discussion around climate change irrelevant
2. a Trump does not win reelection 70% b conditional on Biden winning the primary, no crazy things (i.e. somebody dieing) Biden wins 85 %
3.a Conditional on it happening, Brexit impact on UK/England GDP per capita long-term will be negligible (< 2% of GDP counterfactually)
b conditional on (a), there will still be a significant fraction of people who honestly think that Brexit was a disaster. Most people 4. Higher education bubble in US will subside (echoing Vaniver, hard to make it more concrete, more know it when you see it)
5.a Traditional media will continue to fall into irrelevance, concentrate in a few major firms. Later into the decade I expect the decline to halt, traditional media taking a specialized role for particularly high authority/ high importance news. I model this as similar to Radio still having specialized uses. b (some) Youtube& Instagram stars will attain widespread fame and recognition in a much broader context as the Millenial generation moves towards middle age. But I do not expect them to displace current celebrity elite based on tv&movie stars, musicians, sports heroes, etc. c followup on b), the fragmentation of assigned status will continue in the West [but not necessarily globally, as globalization homogenizes cultures]. 6. What will happen with the Culture Wars? This is very hard to predict. Will the apparent trend of increased polarisation continue, or will the opposite occur? - Straight Woke memes will become less cool with the incoming generation of young people, mostly because whatever your parents do isn’t cool. But the ideas of social justice will continue their expanse, particularly in the Middle east, South America, South-east Asia & India: social justice memes are fundamentally fit in a world of increasing wealth & communication. Another fundamental force is the continuing expanse of English: new media like youtube, continuing globalization etc have given renewed impetus all over the world to learning English. Of course these movements generate their own antitheses; it seems like historically many conflicts arise from a modernizing center versus a lagging periphery. China & East Europe seem more like a wild card here: eastern Europe seems to have strong explicitly anti- Social justice political movements while China is a surveillance state with very strong hard-Nationalistic rightwing sentiments under the population. - Trans-rights increasingly accepted - Alt-Right ideas increasingly normalized (Likely) - It seems that moderate right wing parties are losing hearts and minds against more radical alternatives. - Identity politics/ voting along identity continues in strength (Likely) - increase popularity national unity/ decreased polarisation candidates in US. After Trump I expect a backlash towards more moderate, unifying candidates. - Right-wing populist parties in Western Europe continue to grow, will remain mostly out of governments. but at least one right-wing populist party will be in government in a Western European country that is not Italy
Tech 1.a More babies born with edits for medical reasons 85% b more babies born with edits for non-medical reasons 70% c babies born with explicitly IQ edits 60% d CRISPR or CRISPR like techniques cure >5 genetic disease 70% 2. a Discovery cure for (1) large fraction of obesity (2) large fraction of heart disease (3) Male Pattern baldness (4) Dandruff 10/10/20/20
b Conditional on a) this cure is available on the market 30% c conditional on a) this cure works by defeating some sort of germ/biological agent 20%/30%/80%/80% 3. Note: by mini-drone I mean a small drone that one would buy in the store, not the unmanned aerial vehicles and its siblings that the US military employs. a) mini-Drone attacck will kill major Political Figure 85% b) mini-Drone/drone bombs will be used in major terrorist attack killing many civilians 85% c) conditional on a or b, massive fear around drone warfare d) UAVs will become more and more dominant. e) Something I am not sure about: will thee US military start phasing out fighter aircraft for automated vehicles or is this perhaps one of those jobs that is very hard to automate? 4. Crazy person kills AI researcher because of vaguely AI risk type concerns 80% 5. Top ranked Starcraft Broodwar player trounced by AI by 2025 (70%) by 2030 (85%) 6.a SpaceX sends that Japanese Billionaire around the moon 55%, b conditional on a launch, it goes wrong 10% c SpaceX will land unmanned probe on mars by 2030 85% d SpaceX will land a human on Mars by 2030 60% e SpaceX will become wildly successful and highly valuable with Starlink technology 60%
f Tesla will be the largest automotive company by market cap at least once 70% [this is the only prediction that I can actually bet on, but I do not own Tesla stocks… you decide what that means] 7. Self-driving cars will finally become a practical reality -?? very uncertain, I have very little knowledge about this, I see convincing arguments for both sides. Certainly it seems that self-driving cars in some capacity—perhaps trucks driving pre-determined routes- will become a reality, but I remain uncertain. I predict I will update strongly one way or another on learning more about this subject. 8. Exoplanet that is an almost copy of earth discovered (i.e. habitable zone, water, same size etc)- Likely too vague to give quantitative estimate. 9.a) An AI will compose a hit song without significant assistance. (80%) b) AI-assistance in arts/creative professions such as writing (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism), music, as well as in daily life will be widespread.
10. DeepFakes will be huge. a) porn with DeepFakes will start seriously competing with real life performers b) remix art with deepfakes; i.e. reshooting the (dissapointing) ending of popular tv dramas, completely redoing old films, etc etc. c) value of videoevidence will be much less persuasive. This will have massive implications for court proceedings.
11. AI Autumn—the spectular developments we have seen recently with deep learning and related methods are unlikely to be equalled in the coming decades [just a regression to the mean argument here + there was somewhat of a compute overhang that is unlikely to be repeated] but the space of things to try seems quite large + the field is well-funded and attracting a lot of talent.
12. No Superintelligence by 2030; pretty clear. 95% Mostly a prior on complexity, reaction against hype etc. 13. a Satoshi Nakomoto (briefly) richest person in history 30% 14. >80% of cars on the road in US will be electric 80% 15. Working anti-aging intervention for mice 20% , working anti-aging for humans 10%, on the market 5%. 16.a VR entertainment will be the majority of the game market in terms of revenue − 70% b VR entertainment will be a decided minority in terms of time spent playing. − 70%. c VR porn will become a thing. Easy prediction here. 17. Military-grade lasers will evolve from mostly testing prototypes to usable weapons—somewhat likely Rationalist
1. In general, Rationalist memes will become much more mainstream
a) Existential risk, in particular AI x-risk will be regularly mentioned by mainstream media- Likely b) AI safety more generally will be a topic that commands at least 10% of the attention that global warming does—Likely
c) increased acceptance of cryonics & assisted suicide -Likely d) HPMOR and the associated rationalist memeplex will be atleast well-known enough to need little explanation in high-brow circles.
22.a) AI Safety will be a respected academic discipline 90%
b) MIRI-style research will be a decided minority within this discipline 80%
c) MIRI will not continue their nondisclosure policy in the present form 70%
23. Effective Altruism mainstreamed significantly − 85% Miscellaneous & Personal 1. I will become a parent 50 % 2. I change my specialization significantly 40% [It shocks me how high this is if I apply the outside view… generally applying outside view to oneself is distressing...] 3. I will die 1.28 % 4.a) Proof-assistants will be part of undergraduate math curriculum—not sure about this one; it is being done right now in an undergraduate program in London, and it seems to make sense. The undergrad math curriculum is already pretty full as is. Somewhat likely. b) (Homotopy) Type theory will be offered as a regular module in good European Mathematics/Compsci Bachelor or Master’s programs Likely
5. Programming will be offered as a serious stand-alone course at my high school. 65% 6. Significant developments in understanding agents based on Compositionality- somewhat likely
Usual disclaimers apply: probabilities are not exact betting odds, I try to give quantitive assessments wherever I can but many predictions are too vague to quantify etc. If I am still alive in 2030 I will try to give my subjective assessment to what degree I agree with the predictions.
Geopolitical
1. a China will become #1 economy in the coming decade, but will experience continued economic slowdown.
2. Taiwan put under siege by China (i) economically 80% (ii) militarily 50%
conditional on (ii) the US will back down 90%
conditional on the US not backing down this will lead to a nuclear exchange between US and China 10%
3. A missile/drone strike on an aircraft Carrier, crippling the ship 4%
4. India will commit what will later be regarded by a significant fraction of Western observers as genocide in Kashmir 10 % (low confidence)
5. Economic slowdown in the West (GDP/capita growth for 2020-2030 lower than 2010-2020) 70% - a plausible story is an aging population
6. Nuclear strike anywhere in the world 5%
7. a Continuing secularisation in the Middle-East 75%
b continuing secularisation in the West 85%
8.a Subsaharan Africa continues making little gdp /capita gains 70%.
b Population will continue to boom. Fertility will fall modestly 70%
c Immigration streams to the West from 3rd World countries, particularly Africa will increase 70%
9. Smoking/drinking will continue to fall worldwide, party drugs (MDMA etc) will become much more widespread 70% & 70%
10. No economic Recession comparable with the 2008 Great Recession 85%
Politics & Culture Wars
1. Revolution in Energy will increasingly make present discussion around climate change irrelevant
2. a Trump does not win reelection 70%
b conditional on Biden winning the primary, no crazy things (i.e. somebody dieing) Biden wins 85 %
3.a Conditional on it happening, Brexit impact on UK/England GDP per capita long-term will be negligible (< 2% of GDP counterfactually)
b conditional on (a), there will still be a significant fraction of people who honestly think that Brexit was a disaster. Most people
4. Higher education bubble in US will subside (echoing Vaniver, hard to make it more concrete, more know it when you see it)
5.a Traditional media will continue to fall into irrelevance, concentrate in a few major firms. Later into the decade I expect the decline to halt, traditional media taking a specialized role for particularly high authority/ high importance news. I model this as similar to Radio still having specialized uses.
b (some) Youtube& Instagram stars will attain widespread fame and recognition in a much broader context as the Millenial generation moves towards middle age. But I do not expect them to displace current celebrity elite based on tv&movie stars, musicians, sports heroes, etc.
c followup on b), the fragmentation of assigned status will continue in the West [but not necessarily globally, as globalization homogenizes cultures].
6. What will happen with the Culture Wars? This is very hard to predict. Will the apparent trend of increased polarisation continue, or will the opposite occur?
- Straight Woke memes will become less cool with the incoming generation of young people, mostly because whatever your parents do isn’t cool. But the ideas of social justice will continue their expanse, particularly in the Middle east, South America, South-east Asia & India: social justice memes are fundamentally fit in a world of increasing wealth & communication. Another fundamental force is the continuing expanse of English: new media like youtube, continuing globalization etc have given renewed impetus all over the world to learning English. Of course these movements generate their own antitheses; it seems like historically many conflicts arise from a modernizing center versus a lagging periphery.
China & East Europe seem more like a wild card here: eastern Europe seems to have strong explicitly anti- Social justice political movements while China is a surveillance state with very strong hard-Nationalistic rightwing sentiments under the population.
- Trans-rights increasingly accepted
- Alt-Right ideas increasingly normalized (Likely) - It seems that moderate right wing parties are losing hearts and minds against more radical alternatives.
- Identity politics/ voting along identity continues in strength (Likely)
- increase popularity national unity/ decreased polarisation candidates in US. After Trump I expect a backlash towards more moderate, unifying candidates.
- Right-wing populist parties in Western Europe continue to grow, will remain mostly out of governments.
but at least one right-wing populist party will be in government in a Western European country that is not Italy
Tech
1.a More babies born with edits for medical reasons 85%
b more babies born with edits for non-medical reasons 70%
c babies born with explicitly IQ edits 60%
d CRISPR or CRISPR like techniques cure >5 genetic disease 70%
2. a Discovery cure for (1) large fraction of obesity (2) large fraction of heart disease (3) Male Pattern baldness (4) Dandruff 10/10/20/20
b Conditional on a) this cure is available on the market 30%
c conditional on a) this cure works by defeating some sort of germ/biological agent 20%/30%/80%/80%
3. Note: by mini-drone I mean a small drone that one would buy in the store, not the unmanned aerial vehicles and its siblings that the US military employs.
a) mini-Drone attacck will kill major Political Figure 85%
b) mini-Drone/drone bombs will be used in major terrorist attack killing many civilians 85%
c) conditional on a or b, massive fear around drone warfare
d) UAVs will become more and more dominant.
e) Something I am not sure about: will thee US military start phasing out fighter aircraft for automated vehicles or is this perhaps one of those jobs that is very hard to automate?
4. Crazy person kills AI researcher because of vaguely AI risk type concerns 80%
5. Top ranked Starcraft Broodwar player trounced by AI by 2025 (70%) by 2030 (85%)
6.a SpaceX sends that Japanese Billionaire around the moon 55%,
b conditional on a launch, it goes wrong 10%
c SpaceX will land unmanned probe on mars by 2030 85%
d SpaceX will land a human on Mars by 2030 60%
e SpaceX will become wildly successful and highly valuable with Starlink technology 60%
f Tesla will be the largest automotive company by market cap at least once 70% [this is the only prediction that I can actually bet on, but I do not own Tesla stocks… you decide what that means]
7. Self-driving cars will finally become a practical reality -?? very uncertain, I have very little knowledge about this, I see convincing arguments for both sides. Certainly it seems that self-driving cars in some capacity—perhaps trucks driving pre-determined routes- will become a reality, but I remain uncertain. I predict I will update strongly one way or another on learning more about this subject.
8. Exoplanet that is an almost copy of earth discovered (i.e. habitable zone, water, same size etc)- Likely too vague to give quantitative estimate.
9.a) An AI will compose a hit song without significant assistance. (80%)
b) AI-assistance in arts/creative professions such as writing (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism), music, as well as in daily life will be widespread.
10. DeepFakes will be huge.
a) porn with DeepFakes will start seriously competing with real life performers
b) remix art with deepfakes; i.e. reshooting the (dissapointing) ending of popular tv dramas, completely redoing old films, etc etc.
c) value of videoevidence will be much less persuasive. This will have massive implications for court proceedings.
11. AI Autumn—the spectular developments we have seen recently with deep learning and related methods are unlikely to be equalled in the coming decades [just a regression to the mean argument here + there was somewhat of a compute overhang that is unlikely to be repeated] but the space of things to try seems quite large + the field is well-funded and attracting a lot of talent.
12. No Superintelligence by 2030; pretty clear. 95% Mostly a prior on complexity, reaction against hype etc.
13. a Satoshi Nakomoto (briefly) richest person in history 30%
14. >80% of cars on the road in US will be electric 80%
15. Working anti-aging intervention for mice 20% , working anti-aging for humans 10%, on the market 5%.
16.a VR entertainment will be the majority of the game market in terms of revenue − 70%
b VR entertainment will be a decided minority in terms of time spent playing. − 70%.
c VR porn will become a thing. Easy prediction here.
17. Military-grade lasers will evolve from mostly testing prototypes to usable weapons—somewhat likely
Rationalist
1. In general, Rationalist memes will become much more mainstream
a) Existential risk, in particular AI x-risk will be regularly mentioned by mainstream media- Likely
b) AI safety more generally will be a topic that commands at least 10% of the attention that global warming does—Likely
c) increased acceptance of cryonics & assisted suicide -Likely
d) HPMOR and the associated rationalist memeplex will be atleast well-known enough to need little explanation in high-brow circles.
22.a) AI Safety will be a respected academic discipline 90%
b) MIRI-style research will be a decided minority within this discipline 80%
c) MIRI will not continue their nondisclosure policy in the present form 70%
23. Effective Altruism mainstreamed significantly − 85%
Miscellaneous & Personal 1. I will become a parent 50 %
2. I change my specialization significantly 40% [It shocks me how high this is if I apply the outside view… generally applying outside view to oneself is distressing...]
3. I will die 1.28 %
4.a) Proof-assistants will be part of undergraduate math curriculum—not sure about this one; it is being done right now in an undergraduate program in London, and it seems to make sense. The undergrad math curriculum is already pretty full as is. Somewhat likely.
b) (Homotopy) Type theory will be offered as a regular module in good European Mathematics/Compsci Bachelor or Master’s programs Likely
5. Programming will be offered as a serious stand-alone course at my high school. 65%
6. Significant developments in understanding agents based on Compositionality- somewhat likely
Re: cure for dandruff, do you consider this adequate? https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pRibkeqBa2AxrpgT6/living-in-an-inadequate-world
Good point..! I also recently came upon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIe2oerd25c
I thought I remebered that some of the mechanisms were unknown.