Ask HN: A New Decade. Any Predictions?

1. A +$1,000 consumer robot, humanoid or otherwise (and no, a self-driving vacuum cleaner doesn’t count), becomes as mainstream as drones

2. China’s economy collapses and they are at war with multiple countries

3. A new kind of drug, primarily consumed in vape, form will sweep the nation - some will call it “Myst”

4. Air taxis (self-flying) become moderately common in urban areas

5. A major “terror” attack involving a swarm of remote-controlled devices will cause regulatory panic for weeks

6. Politicians will tell lies

7. The average global temperature will be lower than the prior decade, and Carbon Dioxide will stop being blamed for climate change

8. Cross-network gaming will, mistakenly, further commoditize game systems, resulting in a new surge in PC gaming

9. Minimum wage will increase to $96/hr for the 3,500 people still earning minimum wage - all others will have been replaced by robots and computers that complain less and get more done

10. Donald Trump will be reelected with 68MM popular votes and over 300 electoral votes, even though he technically looses electorally, because of a multi-state pact to cast electoral votes based on the winner of the popular vote

11. People will set up traps for self-driving cars (think Wile E. Coyote on the Road Runner)

12. We will still not have ever sent man to the moon

13. A kind of standing bed will become popular

14. Gen Z will surpass Millennials in total hours worked

15. Brexit... still waiting (though nominally done)

16. Queen Elizabeth II will no longer be queen

17. Ace of Base will reunite

18. Cigarette sales will be halved, in US per-capita terms

19. Saying the word Israel on internet will become illegal

20. Grocery shortages, including in the USA... majorly; the problem of the decade

I predict that most of these predictions won't come true.

1. Level 4/5 autonomous trucks everywhere. Speed-regulated, will probably have special lanes in freeways to pacify people. Cars will take some more time. 2. Global carbon emissions not reduced, we're all essentially screwed wrt global warming 3. About 50% of the US population is vegan or predominantly vegan 4. Google loses a lot of its sheen, becomes the equivalent of IBM in terms of glory (like air7's prediction) 5. Privacy becomes a major concern in China - young population growing up wants more rights, major anti-censoring/privacy industry

1. The next recession triggers a massive financial crisis (due to unsustainable debt and currency creation in 2010s) followed by a loss of confidence in central banks as various fiat currencies are destroyed in response.

2. As a result of #1, the dollar loses its reserve currency status, probably in favour of a basket of currencies like IMF SDR.

3. To restore confidence, states will be forced to peg their new currencies to something that can't be created at will, probably gold, but perhaps also Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.

4. Environmental collapse continues, causing mass migrations adding further fuel to nationalist and fascist movements.

5. Localisation becomes fashionable as globalisation gets blamed for many of the world's ills.

The UK has never been part of the European Monetary Union so Brexit doesn't make it any more isolated from EU's financial system than it was before.