“What Is Something That Is Highly Likely To Happen In The Next 10 Years That Everyone Is Completely Ignoring?” (67 Answers)

The complete [end of] trust in anything we see or hear online.

Everyone is talking about AI taking jobs, but no one is preparing for the fact that within 5 to 10 years, video and audio generation will be so flawless, cheap, and instant that you won't be able to trust anything.

Phone scams will use a perfect replica of your mom’s voice asking for money. Political campaigns will feature high-definition, completely fake footage of candidates doing terrible things released hours before an election. We are moving into an era where "seeing is believing" is officially non-existing, and society is absolutely not psychologically or legally prepared for that level of epistemic chaos.

Probably some kind of modern day Great Depression.

onlyontuesdays77:

Between US debt, the collapsing populations of major manufacturing powers like China, and scarcity of non-renewable resources, there is a good possibility of this in the next decade and it's an inevitability by 2050.

Loss of entry level jobs...that's what's scary. If you fall on hard times you can pick up extra work but it'll get harder.

Pollinator deficits causing en masse crop failures.

Zealousideal_Pay2128:

I was going to say famine. Partly from lack of pollinators, and partly from reduced crop outputs due to climate change. There is going to be a reduced wheat crop this year in the US due to the ongoing drought. Could be a preview of what's to come.

Video evidence being unable to be used in court.

In like less than a year you’re going to start hearing about famine because nitrogen fertilizer largely passes to Asia via the straits of Hormuz. Less fertilizer in Asia means more crop failures, more famines, less food. Food prices rise in Asia they rise everywhere.

The Amoc collapsing.

Jeramy_Jones:

This should probably be the top answer.

When people hear “climate change” or the more antiquated “global warming” they don’t realize it’s not just gonna be warmer weather.

Destabilization of that current can cause all kinds of damage, both cold and hot weather, storms and stagnation in ocean waters. It’s a looming catastrophe what will change everything we know.

In ten years we will probably lose ALL the kelp on the west coast of North America. Right now the kelp is only 5% of baseline, but nobody recognizes the problem because it is underwater. The ocean keeps getting hotter, too.

Massive slowing in scientific research, then a resurgence. Or a major shift in where the majority of scientific research is conducted.

People seriously underestimate how much the US government supported science, and now that's been severely hampered. NCBI and a lot of other resources are globally used by scientists, and a lot of conversation science is in the US. The administration has cut a lot of funding to everything from cancer treatments to a gigantic women's health study.

The European Union has strong scientific support, but not quite the same infrastructure the US has built up. The political environment also makes it questionable how much support there is to build it up.

China is hungry for scientific and technological knowledge, so it may gobble up researchers.

People may be able to regrow missing teeth.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria will become a major global health crisis.

There's going to be a truly abysmal natural disaster that makes that location uninhabitable. The gulf coast of the US, specifically Florida or Louisiana, are just waiting for it and with the extreme ocean temperatures happening right now... it could be any day now. To think otherwise is to rely on hopes and prayers.

The absolute collapse of white collar jobs sectors, which will lead to an exodus to blue collar sectors, depressing wages there as well. 


It's going to be a new AI-caused Great Depression, but worse, because the only way out is a transition to a post-jobs economy. And no government in the world knows how to do that. It's unprecedented.  Plus they won't understand they need to until years of suffering force the issue.

World War III.

The crazy thing is we might be on the cusp already or in the starting phases. Remember no one involved in WWI and II knew in the beginning it was a World War right away.

A lot of people in their 30s and 40s right now are never going to own a home. Like actually never. And the conversation is still being treated like it's a temporary problem that's about to fix itself.

The eldercare crisis.

Boomers are going to start hitting their mid-80s over the next decade. That's roughly when the odds of needing significant daily assistance start spiking.

The problem is that there aren't enough caregivers and a lot of families can't afford the care that's available. The pay is [low] so home health workers are already in short supply, nursing homes can cost six figures a year, and Medicare doesn't cover long-term custodial care.

Over the next 10 years, millions of Millennials and Gen-Xers are going to find themselves choosing between becoming caregivers, quitting their jobs, or watching their and their parents' savings disappear.

Large areas of the planet will run out of water and the water wars will begin.

ChickenMarsala4500:

Water scarcity is already a problem in a lot of places, and we've mostly been ignoring it. It is going to get worse.

Not really ignoring, but I feel it's flying under the radar. The world's supply of Helium is dwindling rapidly. I work in an industry that uses a loads of He and we've been told to retrofit devices that use He to H2. So far it's not going so well.

In America, lots and lots of people are going to hit retirement age but be unable to retire. When they physically can't work anymore, and can't afford rent and insurance, we'll have a massive problem on our hands.

Use of AI will create depression levels of unemployment because we have no plan.