1. VR/AR finally become a thing as the tech becomes small enough, powerful enough, and wireless enough to be a good UX. Facebook's investment in Oculus pays off as Oculus becomes their main profit center, and we transition to a Ready Player One reality.
2. The world faces increasingly alarming & extreme weather disasters. The damage will be utterly devastating and start to really hurt economies. Governments will still be inept at managing these crises. People who have the means will move to lower-risk areas like the Pacific Northwest, driving up real estate prices. Those who are poorer will suffer from homelessness. There will be massive encampments like we've never seen before of displaced families.
3. MDMA and psilocybin will be legalized for medical use and will revolutionize mental health care for depression and PTSD. Which is great because we'll all need a lot of mental health care.
4. Trump loses his re-election bid and ultimately flees the country to avoid consequences as the world closes in on him. He loses his US assets but is given safe passage by a foreign power he has had corrupt dealings with.
5. CRISPR is touted as the tech of the decade as it cures a major disease and appears to have incredible potential. At least one nation violates international ethical standards in their experimentation with CRISPR, igniting a debate over whether we have opened a pandora's box. There are protests and our CRISPR anxiety is evident in pop culture.
6. Americans finally catch on to the bidet/washlet craze thanks to an incredibly effective viral ad campaign.
7. Learning Chinese in school becomes more common because China has become the dominant world superpower. India rises to second, and US falls to third.
8. Bitcoin will cost $500k+ per coin, having peaked at 100-150k by 2022 and 500k+ by 2026. There will be a Silicon Valley-esque tv comedy about rich crypto bros that everyone hate-watches.
9. There will be a major pandemic that scares the shit out of everyone because we are woefully unprepared for it.
10. We're all going to become preppers by the end of the decade because there will be so many potential existential threats.
11. Water will become a lot more expensive, driving major innovation around desalinization.
12. Lab meat will have it's first big success a la the Impossible Burger as clean/lab meat tech becomes commercially available. There will be a thriving DIY culture around growing meat at home.