“It’s not hard to scare people,” John F. Kennedy once said. “Just say that there’s an outside threat from beyond, and it doesn’t have to be from outer space.” It’s true. We’re very easily scared by what’s unfamiliar. It’s a human trait that’s helped us survive for millennia. You see it in children, too: They’re more likely to believe in monsters than adults are. Now, I’m not saying that the future is all rainbows and sunshine. I’m just saying that the future isn’t as scary as it seems. Here are five reasons why.
The future is not as scary as you think
Those people running the world, whether they’re the current president of the United States or some villain you’ve never heard of, don’t know everything. They’re good at what they do, but not perfect. I can think of plenty of scientists who got it wrong with climate change predictions. (See: the Medieval Warm Period. It was cold. Until the 19th century, at least. Also, we know this is a problem because of the way Antarctica’s ice sheet is melting right now.) Scientists also aren’t perfect at predicting other things that might be harmful. Perhaps something will come along and wipe out the human race. Or perhaps a chemical or physical substance will cause people to lose the sense of smell or never able to see. But we always hope for best as we always do.
Fear of the unknown
It doesn’t help that most people don’t really know what the future will look like. The answer to the question “What happens in the future?”. Fear of the unknown can make us do some really dumb things. We’re more willing to settle when we have to, when we’re unsure. We put the needs of those closest to us before our own, whether that’s our health or our sense of security. We prefer a picture to a view because it’s easier to believe than it is to question. The future is scarier than you think as Fear of the unknown makes it harder for us to think. Here’s a quote that’s often attributed to Einstein, and it applies to most situations in life. “I have not given up the desire to know. I have acquired the habit of questioning everything .”There are many factors that contribute to the way our brains work. One of the biggest is the way our brains interpret new information. As we receive more information, our brains change and we adapt to new things.
Threats to the human species
We are heading towards a crisis of unimaginable proportions. Even if the entire human species survives climate change, mass migration and resource depletion, the long-term prospects for our survival are extremely bleak. We have a global population of almost 7.5 billion people, and climate change will inevitably result in a massive reduction in population size. If we continue our current trend of resource depletion, and fail to institute sustainable economic systems, it’s likely that the world’s population will drop to 3 billion by the year 2100. Not only that, but if the human race survives climate change, it’s likely we’ll have to contend with a renewed threat: Bacteria. Bacteria thrive in environments with a high concentration of oxygen.
The future is going to be better
The good news is, the future is a more positive place than it’s been in a while. As we’ve grown more technologically advanced, we’ve also learned more about what’s truly important. That puts less stress on us and makes us a happier, more optimistic bunch. We’re going to live longer as Today, life expectancy is about 79 for men and 81 for women. But in the next 35 years, life expectancy is expected to increase by a decade for men and increase another decade for women. As we improve the way we treat people with diseases, we’ll improve the health of all humans on the planet. Cancer alone kills about 7 million people a year. But we’re working on finding a way to keep cancer from returning after initial treatment.
The future is going to be more exciting
It’s easy to think about the future as some desolate, dystopian future that’s totally different than the one we live in today. But before you start fretting about how the world of 2050 is going to be like another Jurassic Park movie, think about all the technologies that we have today that we couldn’t even have fathomed. Just think about what we have today: smartphones that store all our data, self-driving cars, AR glasses, and VR (virtual reality). In the years to come, we’ll have advanced medical care, more powerful supercomputers, personalised healthcare, connected homes, cars that drive themselves, and more powerful computing. In fact, there are so many amazing things coming, that it’ll be mindboggling just how far we’ve already come.
Conclusion
As Kennedy said, “The future isn’t a thing to be feared, it’s an adventure.” Let me end by saying that these are just a few of the reasons I’m optimistic about the future. It’s what inspired me to write this article. But no matter what, I can’t stress enough how critical it is for you to stay well-informed about what’s going on in the world. We only have one life, and there’s no time like the present to do something big.