What will the UK look like in 10-20 years time?

blunt_crayon

birth rates will have plummeted as chlamydia renders the entire population barren. only teenage mothers who haven't yet caught it will be able to breed. these infants will then will be responsible for the continuation of the nation. raised on a diet of chips and pepsi, their brains will not fully develop and evolution will gradually be reversed. illegal immigrants will seize the opportunity and take over the country.

that's what i read in the daily mail anyway.

ad9898_3

ninky wrote: »

but the alternative is knowing it. which could be a whole lot more unpleasant.

Definitely agree with this, wouldn't want to know anything about the future, I would however, make an exception for Saturday's lotto numbers.:D

ninky_2

blunt_crayon wrote: »

birth rates will have plummeted as chlamydia renders the entire population barren.

not in 20 years but i do think we will at some point see genetic make up influenced by civilization. previously reproductive succes relied mainly on the following;

a sexually aggressive dominant male
fertility of hosts
a consistent environment that guaranteed suitability for survival (food, climate etc)
co-operative protective instincts and skills (to protect young etc)

we now no longer need sexual aggression or high fertility to ensure survival so these are likely to show a detectable reduction in the population at some point. many will probably view these reductions as effects of environment / diet etc but they will actually be genetic changes.

consistent environment - man has been highly successful at adapting the environment to allow for larger populations, forcing out competing species and developing means of growing and rearing food rather than having to hunt and forage. we have been less successful in managing the impact our collective activities have on the environment (so far).

i also think (and hope!) our co-operative protective instincts and skills will need to increase to survive.

mambury

blunt_crayon wrote: »

birth rates will have plummeted as chlamydia renders the entire population barren. only teenage mothers who haven't yet caught it will be able to breed. these infants will then will be responsible for the continuation of the nation. raised on a diet of chips and pepsi, their brains will not fully develop and evolution will gradually be reversed. illegal immigrants will seize the opportunity and take over the country.

that's what i read in the daily mail anyway.

you can count on the good ol' mail for a giggle!

lostinrates

ad9898 wrote: »

Definitely agree with this, wouldn't want to know anything about the future, I would however, make an exception for Saturday's lotto numbers.:D

I'd like to know. It might be that the knots I get myself into would be unnecessary. It might be I could decide whether to put in an offer this week or not!:D

blunt_crayon

Have you tried the daily mail-o-matic headline generator?? http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

My personal favourite:

ARE MUSLIMS INFECTING CLIFF RICHARD WITH AIDS?

drc

One of the things that I think will happen sometime in the not too distant future is that there will be a worldwide 'cap' on how many children a woman can have. As someone else has said, the world population growth cannot be sustained and at some point all governments are going to have to come together to make a difficult decision regarding birth rates, like they have in China.

drc

blunt_crayon wrote: »

Have you tried the daily mail-o-matic headline generator?? http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

My personal favourite:

ARE MUSLIMS INFECTING CLIFF RICHARD WITH AIDS?

Some of those are very funny. I'd love to see a Guardian-o-matic if there is such a thing.

blunt_crayon

how would they actually enforce the cap though? it would be quite difficult to sterilise 3 billion women and infanticide is frowned upon.

ninky_2

blunt_crayon wrote: »

Have you tried the daily mail-o-matic headline generator?? http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

My personal favourite:

ARE MUSLIMS INFECTING CLIFF RICHARD WITH AIDS?

thanks for this b_c, will keep me amused for hours. shame they don't do a reality tv script generator. that would make life easy. (either that or i'd be out of a job...)