Good morning, John.
100 years ago, people listened to the radio and they drove around in cars and they often ate hot dogs on the Fourth of July. But in other ways, that America seems utterly bizarre. Like women had only just voted in their first presidential election, children frequently died of infectious disease, and if you wanted to go from New York to Los Angeles, you'd be lucky if it took less than a week. I think it is worth imagining—even in a world where immediate needs are quite pressing—what about our society today is going to seem just ridiculous in 100 years and what's gonna seem pretty normal. And look, I love reading when people did this like a 100 years ago to see what they got right and wrong, so I feel like I should contribute to the body of work. And if you're watching 100 years from now, I really would love to know how I did. Unfortunately, I'm super dead. So here's a list of some of and not all of the things I think people in the future are gonna think are super weird about the way that we live today.
Number one: people will not just get sick. There's this thing that we do right now where we get some kind of virus and it just sucks for a week. Like that won't happen to otherwise healthy people anymore. Certainly, folks who have compounding health issues will still get sick, but most folks with healthy immune systems will have those systems somehow optimized in such a way that they will simply not get colds, and they will think it's like adorable that in the past people got all sniffly and that was a normal part of life.
Number two: I don't think we're gonna kill very many animals for food, and we're gonna look back at the times when we did that with a kind of horror. I think particularly the kinds of foods created by chickens, who make up the vast majority of individual meat animals, will have been replaced with products that are both nutritionally and ethically superior. Oddly enough though, I bet we will still be eating a bit of beef. Because culture is harder to change than technology.
Number three: I think the amount of land we currently use for agriculture will be seen as outrageous. I think a large portion of the American interior will be wild. There will be more than 10 million bison in America. And since it's not like a good prediction if you don't take some real risks, I think there will be a nonzero number of mammoths ranging some of that area.
Number four: and I'm looking at you right now future if you're watching this 100 years from now. They're gonna look back at us and say "oh my God, they were so racist." But, they're still gonna be kinda racist in their own, like special, different ways.
Number five: all of this is pretty contingent upon them figuring out climate change, which I think they will do. However—and here's my risky bet—I'm gonna say geothermal power is a big part of that. And they're gonna be like "duh, anybody could have seen that coming." But no, as I sit here everybody thinks it's gonna be fusion, which I bet will exist, but will be a niche technology.
Number six: people will think it's pretty crazy that we worried about overpopulation. They will be in a very long struggle to transition into a world that is not economically fueled by a constant increase in population. And they will see our world as bizarre for having seen the opposite thing as a big problem.
Number eight: they will see it as disgusting and ridiculous that we walked around all day inhaling plumes of exhaust from internal combustion engines our whole lives.
Number nine: people will have a hard time imagining a world where the only minds that people had relationships with were biological. Artificial minds are gonna be a huge part of daily life. And I have no idea what those relationships are gonna look like or what those minds will do, but they're gonna think it's very normal that they have those relationships, and it's gonna be a very important and integrated part of their society, and it's going to be extremely weird, but they will think that it's normal.
And finally, number ten: a hundred years from now, Americans won't just not think about Twitter or X, they will not know what it was. They will barely know what Facebook or TikTok was, but hot take: they will still have phones in their pockets, and they will still watch YouTube videos. Now of course they will not be watching these YouTube videos, but I hope they are still watching videos made by Complexly. Or whatever Complexly becomes.
Complexly, by the way, is the company that makes SciShow and Crash Course and Eons and a bunch of other cool stuff. And we have just launched our own store, and to kick it off, a bunch of our products are on sale for up to 50% off. We've got amazing posters and shirts and stickers and mugs and $8 mystery pins celebrating our bizarre universe, and it all goes to help Complexly keep existing . And if you're watching 100 years from now and Complexly is still making stuff, it is in part because people bought a mug today. However, I'm sorry, the sale has ended for you because it it's been a hundred years and I'm dead. Also probably $8 for anything will seem impossibly cheap to you. Do you still have dollars? I bet you do. I bet you still have dollars. Anyway, people of the the present, go now to complexly.store before none of that stuff is available and also before you die of old age.
John, I'll see you on Tuesday.