During a family dinner-time discussion recently, the question arose of what people in the future, say in 30 years, would look back on that we do today, and shudder. It’s an interesting question, because we can look back 30 years and shudder at some of the things that they used to do back then, and say to ourselves, “What were they thinking?”
Things that they used to do ‘back in the day,’ that are hopefully frowned-upon now, might include overt racism, ubiquitous casual sexism (scantily clad ladies in adverts, and wolf-whistling, for example), a seeming tolerance of sexual impropriety, and of sexual assaults (particularly of paedophilia by people in positions of authority in a variety of institutions), a tolerance for unsafe working practices, drinking on the job (including ‘liquid lunches’), an intolerance of non-mainstream sexual orientation, and widespread nepotism and corruption. You may say that some of these are still with us, and that nothing has changed, but hopefully things have moved on, at least in some areas of the world and on some of these topics.
So, I asked my family (in particular my two daughters, now in their mid-20s) what they think will have changed in 30 years and they had some interesting ideas. They thought that people will be much more aware of the many downsides of drinking alcohol (not many people realise that alcohol is a known carcinogen), which include liver damage, heart disease, and mental health issues, as well as increased risk of accidents. I love to drink beer with my buddies, but I usually have a bad night’s sleep afterwards, and I have absolutely cut down in the last few years. Less is more!
My family also feel that eating meat will be much less common, as its health effects become clearer, and partly due to its future likely increased cost - and environmental impact. Again, eating too much red meat - and most especially processed meats like sausages and bacon - leads to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. I remember years ago running down the Las Vegas Strip and seeing a billboard that stated ‘Hot dogs give you cancer.’ Wow. I think that’s probably an exaggeration, but I’ve steered clear of them ever since.
They suggested that petrol-powered cars will be seen as an incredibly-polluting anachronism. On the other side of the argument, a friend of mine who works for a big oil company suggests that EVs are polluting in a different way, and that petrol-powered cars are at the acme of technological development, and are actually very efficient. For myself, I think that in 2055 drilling for or digging up hydrocarbons and burning them - even in internal combustion engines - will be thought of as crazy. Sustainable electric is the way forward. However, I think that they (we?) will look back at today’s electric vehicles and laugh.
Smoking? It was banned from indoor spaces in the UK in 2007, amid quite a lot of angry muttering from smokers. Do you know what? Apart from the clouds of smoke that arise from the furtive smokers that cluster at the back door of some buildings, it’s very easy to avoid smelling cigarette smoke at all in the UK. Smoking rates have dropped, down from 22% in 2007 to around 12% today. On recent trips abroad, I’ve been astonished to find smoking allowed in airport terminals and even in restaurants. Again, Wow. Everyone knows the catastrophic health effects of smoking by now (don’t they?) - and that alone should be enough of a reason to give up (think of your grand-kids) - but apart from that, it smells bad. Imagine stinking out a restaurant with a five-minute cheeser. I rest my case.
I think that in 2055 they will look back at us, and our attitude to our phones, and think, “you poor, helpless fools.” These devices - and the apps that they run - have been precision-engineered to be addictive. The fact that kids can get online and find the most horrific material - porn, violence, and all the horrible rest - in a couple of clicks, in school, in bedrooms, anywhere - and that we allow this to happen to the people we love? Incredible. The fact is, we are about 20 years into an experiment on how these powerful but destructive devices affect society. The early results are not encouraging. Note how Silicon Valley types keep their own kids off phones and tablets. Expect strong age-verification by 2055 (and hopefully well before), but other than that, I just hope that we all grow a bit more backbone when it comes to using our devices.
Having just finished a shocking book called ‘The Doctor of Hiroshima,’ written in the ruins of the atom-bomb-blasted Japanese city in 1945, I’d like to think that the scourge of atomic and nuclear weapons - each capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people in an instant - will be gone from the face of the Earth. In fact, I think that rather than being less prevalent, by 2055 several more countries will have them.
So, alongside some improvements that may come in the next 30 years, some regrettable things are unlikely to change.
