Ask HN: A New Decade. Any Predictions?

#2. Peer-to-peer mobile networks coupled with low orbit satellite networks.

#3. Privacy-aware end to end encrypted apps.

#4. End of fiat currency. A new global electronic money.

#5. Personalised 3d-printed medicine.

#6. Full immersion BCI VR spaces

#7. By the end of the decade digitisation of public administration will make space for direct democracy and fast-paced public projects based on real-time electronic voting.

2) The boomers will refuse to die, and life-spans will surge into the 90s. This will cause massive social upheaval as the ‘ok boomer’ phenomenon goes from a meme to a generational political crisis.

3) AR will have established itself as a threat to mobile phone usage, but will take another 10 years to achieve primacy over smartphones

4) Nation-states will coopt, regulate, and control cryptocurrency.

5) Hollywood will be transformed by deep-fakes. Old and dead actors will be resurrected and become the new stars (again).

6) The pornographic industry will be decimated by the rise of VR camming, and CGI with licensed deep-fakes.

7) ML will drive dating into a new era of automated matchmaking rather than swiping/chatting.

8) Claims will be made that distributed team efficiency has made hubs like Silicon Valley obsolete.

2020-2025

- Crypto currency receives its biggest test when the next recession hits. BTC value will collapse to the $100 - $1,000 range during this period, as hodlers make a "run" to reclaim spare cash to feed short-term monetary needs caused by the recession. This crash will be the optimal time to purchase cryptocurrency if one holds a positive long-term (10-20 year) view

- Foldable screen tech revolutionizes mobile. The stagnant decade (2010-2020) of boring and uninspired rectangular-slate mobile phones produced by essentially the same factory finally comes to an end. The 1995-2005 joys of flipping, sliding, bending, turning, and tapping physical keyboards returns, with unique phone designs that allow for greater personal expression

2025+

- By 2030, WASM / WebAssembly will be the dominant language powering Web Applications. Lot of cool tech here, but also a lot of problems and quirks to smooth out in that ecosystem in the first 5-7 yrs of the decade (by folks a lot smarter than I). We'll see a "jQuery for WASM" in the sense of a dominant toolchain that makes it accessible to the masses

- Privacy concerns reach a tipping point with the US population's mounting frustration over being categorized, packaged, and resold to the highest ad bidder. Rebellion against this will come from younger lawmakers initiating privacy bills, digital "timeout" vacations, and niche companies/apps that charge small fees for services that come with no tracking or advertising. Despite this, the growing number of IoT devices continue to turn every analog soul into a digitized event stream

- Electric vehicles are a significant (20-25%) chunk of the global automotive fleet. They've taken over niche markets where high torque and "clean" energy matter most. All 2030 pickup truck models by major brands will come standard as hybrids with electric motors

2. People will become more concerned about air pollution than climate change; emissions from combustion engines, brakes, and tires will be increasingly in the public eye. Office workers will become concerned about CO2 levels in their workplaces, and on their commutes. Many workplaces will install equipment to provide fresher, cleaner air.

3. Ebikes, electic scooters, and other relatively compact electric transportation quietly revolutionise commuting for people who live within 20-30km of their work.

4. Work weeks (or at least time in office) will decrease for many office workers. It will become normal for many people to only go into the office once or twice a week.

5. The combination of 1, 2, 3 and 4 above lead to increasing de-urbanization as people who can afford it seek to move to quieter places with cleaner air. Clean air becomes a major issue of inequality. Productive farmland around cities is converted to large home-office plots with lots of trees.

6. At least one climate change mitigation geoengineering idea will have a large scale proof of concept experiment conducted

7. Microplastics in the food supply / ecosystem will turn out to be not that serious of a health problem for people and most other animals (some animals will be severely affected)