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The Outlook for 2024

The Outlook for 2024

Last updated on: January 3, 2024 at 8:08 am by Gene Veith

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The Outlook for 2024 2024-01-03T08:08:38-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We made our predictions for 2024, but other people have been making predictions too. In addition, there are a few things ahead of us in the coming year that we know will happen.

Things That Are Actually Planned for 2024

NASA is planning a manned flight to the moon in November. Not a landing but an orbit of the moon, followed by a return to Earth. The 10-day flight with four crew members will be the first time humans have ventured to the moon since 1972, over 50 years ago.

Not only the United States but half the world will be voting. As it happens, 2024 will be a “mega-election year,” with some 4.2 billion people–over half the world’s population–able to vote in over 70 countries. That’s a lot of democracy!

The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held July 26-August 11 in Paris.

Also, 2024 is a leap year, so February will have 29 days.

Predictions from 100 Years Ago about 2024

Mark J. Price of the Akron Beacon Journal gathered together predictions made in 1924 about what will happen in a hundred years. You have got to read the resulting article, From world peace to extinct horses: 100-year-old predictions about 2024.

The world peace prediction comes from the pioneering filmmaker D. W. Griffith. It isn’t just about peace, it’s about the way we will achieve world peace:

“In the year 2024, the most important single thing which the cinema will have helped in a large way to accomplish will be that of eliminating from the face of the civilized world all armed conflict,” Griffith predicted. “Pictures will be the most powerful factor in bringing about this condition. With the use of the universal language of motion pictures, the true meaning of the brotherhood of man will have been established throughout the earth.”

One of Griffith’s own contributions to bringing about “the brotherhood of man” was his movie Birth of a Nation, celebrating the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.

Taking a different position, Professor Leo H. Baekeland, president of the American Chemical Society, predicted that future weapons technology could devastate civilian populations:

“The largest and best protected cities, irrespective of their size or distance, will be continuously exposed to destruction and mutilation,” he said. “Death and torture of the inhabitants will occur whether they are slumbering in their beds at night or whether they are reading their newspapers in their comfortable clubs, or saying their prayers in church. There will be no way of safeguarding women or children, the old or the infirm.”

Archibald M. Low, a British scientist, writing about the new “wireless” technology, seemed to predict how it would develop into the internet and working from home:

“Doubtless in the future we shall be able to sign our checks by the rapid transmission of motion; we shall be able to trace criminals, send out their fingerprints, and carry on very many classes of business which, at present, require our bodily attention,” Low wrote.

“What a help to the man who objects to a large city! Why could he not conduct his business from his house in comfort instead of having his spats washed every week in order to maintain his financial reputation.”

Other true predictions were the problem of obesity and the rebuilding of cities to accommodate the automobile. False predictions were flying cars, overpopulation, a lifespan of 100, and that horses would go extinct.Most poignant was the question, ““What can there be left to conquer by 2024?” How about conquering our worst impulses? We don’t seem to have progressed much in that department.

Other Interesting Predictions for 2024

Experts consulted by CBS predict that the weight-loss drug Ozempic will become more available. Not only will it mean big bucks for pharmaceuticals, but it will also have a “ripple effect” through the entire food industry. Ozempic’s appetite reducing effects will cut demand for snack foods, and it will force restaurants and fast food providers to offer smaller servings.

CBS News Correspondent Nikole Killion predicted that Donald Trump will select a woman to be his vice-presidential running mate. Maybe Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose grilling of Ivy League presidents exposed the tolerance of anti-semitism on our elite campuses, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), or Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Technology predictions are largely centered on the development of applications for Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT-like generative language technologies. Insider Intelligence foresees big leaps in search enhancements, plus new AI-driven advertising techniques from Google. Another prediction is that we will start seeing generative AI app stores, which will be a catalyst for many other practical and widely-available applications.

Have you come across any other predictions from experts, would-be experts, pundits, prophets or false-prophets?

Illustration by Jernej Furman from Slovenia, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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