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In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

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Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#31

Post by colmvp »

Since developed countries are experiencing population aging, I would guess if someone could help women prolong their window of having healthy births.

I say this because if you look at the last ten years, the rate of births in the age ranges of The birth rate of the United States is only as high as is now largely because of the immigrant population.

As more women in developed countries choose to have careers and go through higher education, the median age of pregnancies will continue to rise.

Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#33

Post by lutusp »

tspike wrote: post #29
lutusp wrote: post #24

Let's extrapolate from present trends. More robotics and automation means people will work fewer hours but still have disposable income. Medical advances mean people will live longer, healthier lives. Conclusion? There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present. So there will be many future opportunities in the areas of entertainment, computer games and trav…

I disagree about people working fewer hours. Work that used to be performed by humans has already been automated to a large degree. Rather than a uniform reduction in hours, the result appears to be a swelling class of unemployed and increasing hours worked by those who are employed. Those who have time do not have money and vice versa.

Yes, that's true, I wasn't extrapolating from present conditions, in which people really do work long hours, in many cases much longer than they need to. I was just imagining that people might suddenly realize they could have a lot more free time than they do now, without a serious decline in standard of living.

But current events certainly argue against this idea -- if anything, on average people are working more hours now that they did in the past.

Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#34

Post by mapist »

lutusp wrote: post #24

Let's extrapolate from present trends. More robotics and automation means people will work fewer hours but still have disposable income. Medical advances mean people will live longer, healthier lives. Conclusion? There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present. So there will be many future opportunities in the areas of entertainment, computer games and trav…

Clinical psychiatry and psychology are areas of neuroscience these days, so I don't quite understand the "historic meltdown" point, any references on that?

Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#35

Post by BjoernKW »

tspike wrote: post #29
lutusp wrote: post #24

Let's extrapolate from present trends. More robotics and automation means people will work fewer hours but still have disposable income. Medical advances mean people will live longer, healthier lives. Conclusion? There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present. So there will be many future opportunities in the areas of entertainment, computer games and trav…

I disagree about people working fewer hours. Work that used to be performed by humans has already been automated to a large degree. Rather than a uniform reduction in hours, the result appears to be a swelling class of unemployed and increasing hours worked by those who are employed. Those who have time do not have money and vice versa.

That's one of the main (first world, admittedly) problems of our time caused by stupid, backward work ethics (long hours == good; work efficiently so you can go home early == bad) and increasing life style expenses accompanying increasing income.

These two aspects make sure the majority of people stays unfree and hence doesn't have enough time at their hands for useful work or projects.

I'd say if we can manage to solve this problem we unleash tremendous potential for improving the human condition and life for everyone.

Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#37

Post by PaulHoule »

oracuk wrote: post #3

Agriculture. An aging industry, small margins for the older economic structure of small/medium holdings, little existing use of new technologies at scale. As the industry demographic shifts and as 'new' technologies such as drones, robotics, remote sensing, pervasive wireless data, vat-grown meat and mixed land/marine farming are adopted there will be a lot of money to be made feeding the world.

In some sense you're right, but you shouldn't underestimate either the innovation that is going on or the intelligence of farmers.

There's a word for a stupid or wasteful farmer, and that word is "broke". You can't make it in agriculture unless you can make it against fierce global competition.

Ten years ago there was a lot of apocalyptic talk about the opposition of organic vs. GMO crops but the truth is that organic and GMO crops have both thrived. GMO crops are getting better, yet organic methods are advancing too and are being cherry-picked by conventional farmers when they are competitive. Robotic tractors are a reality today.

Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#38

Post by yashodhan »

coldcode wrote: post #22

Most people won't see it when it first appears. Eventually you'll notice it when it's too late.

Perhaps the most astute observation in here. Lost count the number of times I've missed the 'the next big thing' when it was right in my face. Each time I tell myself that I'll pay more attention next time. But we all know the definition of crazy.

Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?

#39

Post by kbutler »

geuis wrote: post #21
worldsayshi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it make more sense to dig deeper into the crust first? When it comes to minerals mine-able from an asteroid.

We have already been doing that. This is potentially a long discussion, but basically there are a few factors. Heat. It gets really hot the deeper you go. There are a lot of mines already where it's very difficult for humans to exist for very long. Also, availability. There's a lot of stuff in the earth. But after 4 billion years gravity happened. All elements have different densities. Turns out a lot of the metals t…

TIL "heat from radioactive decay contributes about half of Earth’s total heat flux."

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n9/abs/ngeo1205.html

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/07/18/...

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