What the world will look like in a hundred years [Part Two]

The year is 2122. The world has changed. The world is still here, just, but the frozen North and South is no longer frozen. The Earth is boiling. In terms of economics, China rules; India has surpassed America; Africa is still rising; whilst Europe is a mess. The Royal Family has disappeared and over a million people live on Mars.

How things have changed so fast and so amazingly is beyond many of us, but then we can never predict things easily. But let’s take a quick run through things based on the four key factors of PEST: politics, economics, society and technology.

Politics

After the third world war, WWIII, triggered by the activities in Russia and their attack on the Ukraine, which started in the 2010s, the axis of power changed. China invaded Taiwan in 2023, America retaliated and the world was at war, not just Ukraine and Russia. World powers were divided by those who believed in free markets – America, Europe, Australia and some African and LatAm nations – and those who didn’t, notably China, India and Russia.

The war lasted through to 2026, when the nuclear bombs landed in Red Square prompted by Russia’s nuclear attack on Kyiv. Luckily, after this event, no nuclear activity has taken place ever since. Instead, humanity has tried to fly to the stars instead of blowing each other up. The colonisation of Mars and settlement of people there, and on the Moon, led to a gradual harmonising of the planet.

Europe, America, Australia and a number of nations were already in a collegiate, stacked up against their ‘opposition’ of China, Russia and India. The most interesting developments were in Africa and South America however. Many nations on these continents joined the Global Alliance (GA) and, by 2056, the G100 agreement created a group of nations across Earth who all held the same principles, namely: freedom, action and support.

These principles are now the bedrock of the GA which, today, represents more than 150 countries across Earth. The principles, as you well know, represent:

Freedom of thought, expression and information;

Action for those who are in need and against those who are contravening the G100 rules; and

Support for all citizens in terms of food, shelter, warmth and health.

This framework built upon the United Nation’s SDG17 (17 Sustainability Development Goals), which were failed to be met by 2030, as had been hoped, and created a new world order that all could sign up for.

Meantime, the destruction of the plainlands across Africa, the loss of most habitats in South America and Australia, and the extinction of many of Earth’s most beloved animals from Rhinoceros to Elephant to Lion and Tiger, had created an urgent imperative to consolidate the world’s resources in a new alliance.

Hence the Global Alliance (GA). Many world leaders now feel that the GA could not exist if it had not been for the movement of people to Mars and the Moon, combined with the loss of Earth’s biodiversity.

Economics

The 21st century proved to be incredibly difficult economically. The third world war and collapse of China in the 2030s, due to their debt burden; the 2040s break-up of the European Union; the global financial crisis of the 2050s; the rise of Polygon as the currency of the G100; the collapse of the US dollar in the 2060s; the Asia-America war of 2078; and more, all led to a different place.

Today, we live in a world that is unified, global and local. Governments have unified in a federated state of nations, all under the G100 Council. Of course, yes, there are local issues, but the consensus is a world army, a world service and a world force to defend ourselves against existential threats.

Interestingly, money has changed dramatically in the process. Sure, there is the G100 token based on Polygon, but there are still over 100 currencies that exist outside that system digitally, as well as another 100 or more currencies issued by nation states. Nevertheless, when the G100 token became the reserve currency of the world, after the end of the US dollar, the world order did change.

With all major economies tied to the G100 token, better known as the Goken, many things changed. We saw a new form of stability and unity, and this new form enabled us to much better interact and colonise planets. With the forthcoming expedition to create a further colony on Saturn, this has become a critical part of Earth’s exploration and colonisation of the solar system. Without such economic stability, all would be lost.

Society

It’s quite unbelievable that people a century ago owned things. Now we share everything. No one has a house or a car. Everything is pay-as-you-go using Gokens. We travel between cities in minutes and across the world in hours, unlike our predecessors who travelled in hours and days.

The fantastic thing about today’s world is how everyone is included and it is so much more egalitarian. Can you believe there was a movement a century ago called Black Lives Matter? Today, we know that every life matters and, thanks to the efforts of the G100, the recent loss of middle Africa was dealt with fast and swift, as was the loss of northern Latin America.

As you know, most equatorial countries were wiped out in the mid-2080s due to the Earth’s warming. Luckily we managed to save much of the biodiversity in these countries, and the people were displaced but the G100 managed to rehouse and support these people’s by moving them to the Artic and Antarctic communities which, today, are the most populous on Earth as one of the few regions we can inhabit comfortably.

The good thing is that people can move globally today, thanks to the G100 agreement of 2056. This agreement created the borderless world we live in today, where any citizen can travel to over 100 nations using Gokens. More than this, it allows the free movement of peoples, goods and services, which effectively has created a global planet.

Of course, North Korea and a few other nations are still on the fence in this global structure, but it is a far better world than that of a century ago, when nations fought nations and borders were closely guarded. The G100 society is one where everyone is included and war, racism or even irreligious extremes have gone away. We are the world, as USA for Africa once sang, has come true.

Having said that, relationships are still very hard in 2122. We struggle to form relationships and keep them, as everything is managed in a room in isolation. The restructuring of work and education to be home-based has fractured our societies, and dealing face-to-face has become so much more difficult. The idea of small talk and meeting has disappeared. In a recent survey by OnePlanet, it was found that only 1 in 100 people have real friends who they meet physically. This is a serious concern and is why the G100 federation has introduced the meet-and-greet programme. The idea is that we should meet face-to-face, and the G100 federation council offers 100 Gokens to anyone who is making a physical relationship happen. The Gokens can be used in bars and restaurants in any participating country, as long as you book your meeting beforehand on the G100 relationships service. Please try.*

Technology

As you all know, the last century was dominated by three technology firms in the West – Amazon, Apple and Meta – and two in the East – Alibaba and Tencent. When these companies formed the Tech Alliance under the G100 federation, they became uberfirms, like nothing ever seen before.

The merger of these five firms in 2061 created A, the company that now issues and runs all of our technology services. The creation of Embedded Everything is from A. Everything you touch, use, think is now part of the A network and recorded on the G100 ledger. Admittedly, that may be something that some don’t like ... but tough. You cannot live today without being part of A, as their advert states.

The only thing that sits outside this network is Musk Enterprises. After their founder, Elon Musk, died in 2068, Musk Enterprises started to use their space travel and boring services to work with the G100 federation council to create easy ways for us to move between cities, countries and between Earth and the Moon and Mars. We have a lot to thank for his benefaction, and the fact that he left all of his corporate assets to Earth and the G100 when he passed.

Meanwhile, if you’re excited by new technologies, the introduction of Earth 4.0 will give you a life. You may already have visited the holodeck and metaverse but, in 2123, we finally get to go into the holoverse. A is giving us all the tools to no longer live a real life. We can live another life. Every day in every way we can be more beautiful, more amazing, more confident, more wonderful, thanks to A.

If you want to be part of the holoverse, just think holoverse. Your mind will be there and we will welcome you. Oh, just don’t think holo. You don’t want to go there.

* we know there are no longer many bars and restaurants on Earth, but you can use this directory – Antiques For You – to find one near you