887: Future Timeline

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Future Timeline

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Title text: Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.

Explanation

This comic uses the same strategy as comic 715: Numbers, in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs. It is a list of things predicted or announced by anyone at any time (the ones you see on Google search using "by the year..." or similar statements).

"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game Zero Wing; the same narration is famous for the internet meme "All your base are belong to us". As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find using Randall's methods, "War Was Beginning" was probably the only thing he got when he googled 2101 as well.

Certain events in this comic, e.g., "Social Security stops running surplus", are repeated multiple times. Also, certain bizarre events, like "Apocalypse occurs", or "Flying cars reach market", happen before rather plausible things, like "'Big one' hits California". Certain events, like "Japan is a robot-only country" or "Gillette introduces 14-blade razor" may be related to the recurring theme 605: Extrapolating.

According to some official projections, 'whites' will no longer be the majority in the United States by (e.g.) 2045 due to low birth rates and high rates of immigration. The title text is Randall's statement that, for both the US and Great Britain, there are so many sources that mention this, for any year he cared to search for and many using more far more doubtful sources (if any), that he decided that it was not worth flooding the chart with all these spurious repititions, even though he did include other less prolific ones.

This comic has similar features to 1413: Suddenly Popular, 1093: Forget, and 891: Movie Ages.

The predictions

Year	Prediction	Further Details	Outcome
2012	World population	Ever since the advent of modern medicine and the more efficient agricultural processes developed since the Industrial Revolution, the human population had been growing at an unprecedented rate. This has caused some people to worry about overpopulation, which would cause a scarcity of resources and overcrowding, and propose various solutions, most of which involve some form of eugenics. 7 billion is a landmark number because it is a multiple of 1 billion.	Close; Earth reached 7 billion in late 2011.
	Flying cars	For decades, flying cars have been a staple of futuristic sci-fi and technological predictions. So far very few of these predictions, which to tend to hover around 5–10 years from whatever the current date is, have come true.	Too early; a flying car designed for consumer use was first demonstrated in July 2021 , but has yet to go into production. You could argue that helicopters count as flying cars, but these are not affordable[citation needed] and hence not widely used by the general public.
	Canada cuts greenhouse emissions	Currently, the Earth is experiencing an unprecedented period of warming we call global warming, caused in part by greenhouse emissions, which are gases that help trap heat in the atmosphere. Countries have repeatedly gotten together and promised to stop emitting greenhouse gases, but so far they have failed to meet their targets.	False. Canada withdrew from the Kyoto treaty in late 2011, and its emissions in 2012 were 18% above 1990 levels (though its population had grown 26% and its GDP had grown 67% in that period).
	Apocalypse occurs	The end of a cycle of the Mayan calendar on December 22, 2012 has been used in popular culture as a basis for predicting the end of the world. Amongst other things, this included the film '2012'. Some people took this rather more seriously, and actually believed that the world would end on this date.	False.[citation needed]
2013	National debt paid off	For years, the subject of national debt (in the USA) has been a political point of contention. While both parties theoretically support reducing the debt or paying it off entirely, Democrats are more willing to spend to pull the country out of recessions in the economy and Republicans to cut taxes. The last time that spending did not exceed revenue begin under Clinton, a Democrat, and ended after George W. Bush, a Republican, said that this amounted to taxpayers being "overcharged" and taxes were lowered, followed by the Great Recession. Clinton at one point proposed paying off the debt by 2015.	False.
	Microchipping all Americans	Microchips are small computer chips, typically embedded in pets in case they get lost, that contain information about the pet. Some, more paranoid, people worry about the government microchipping everyone in an effort to monitor their activities.	False, although voluntary RFID implants do exist.
	Homelessness ended in MA	In 2008, the Commission To End Homelessness in Massachusetts, under Governor Deval Patrick, proposed a plan to all but eliminate homelessness over the next five years (hence the 2013 end-date on the comic).	False.
	Health care reform law repealed	A health care reform law, popularly known as Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010. Ever since, many Republicans have tried (in vain) to repeal it, disliking the idea that government should provide and require healthcare. However, President Joe Biden has stated to restore Obamacare.	Too early; almost repealed in 2017.
2014	US leaves Afghanistan	After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York on September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, due to the Taliban allegedly hosting al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization behind the attacks. The war has gone on since then, with the public growing increasingly tired of it. Public support then favoured a withdrawal, but for military and logistical reasons, the government could not simply move all the US troops in Afghanistan to their home. Therefore, the government promised to eventually withdraw all troops, initially planned to do so by the end of 2014.	Too early; the remaining US troops left Afghanistan in June 2021.
	GNU/Linux dominant OS	An operating system, or OS, is the software that forms the structure in which applications on you computer function. Some typical OSs include Mac OS X, Windows 10, and Linux. The first two of those three are commercial products, sold as a copy by a company. The last is an open-source OS, one that anyone can download and modify free. Typically, open-source software is used by a small number of socially conscious people.	False, although Linux-based Android dominated phones since 2011.
2015	New Horizon reaches Pluto	The New Horizon spacecraft is a U.S. space mission designed to go to Pluto and take photographs, collect samples, etc.	True. It reached Pluto on July 14, 2015.
	Healthcare law causes hyperinflation	The National Inflation Association warned that the healthcare bill would cause U.S. hyperinflation by 2015.	False.
	Millennium development goals achieved	Millennium Development Goals	False.
2016	Baby boomers begin turning 65	Baby boomers are individuals conceived in the years following World War Two, roughly defined as those born from 1946-1959. This isn't so much a prediction as basic math; if you were born in 1946, you turned 65 in 2011.	True.
	Android takes 38%/45% of market share	Android is a popular operating system for smartphones and tablets, created by Google. Market share is the percentage of all devices that use the product, in this case the Android operating system. These entries together are humorous because they cannot both happen at the same time.	Too late; passed these marks in 2010. Android OS's market share was already 84.4% as of the third quarter of 2014, showing that both estimates were overly conservative.
	Windows phone overtakes iOS	iOS is the operating system used by Apple iPhones. At the time of the comic, Apple's mobile OS is much more popular than Microsoft's. The article Randall found predicts that the tables will turn. However, Windows Phone was discontinued in 2017, with support for the last version (Windows Phone 10) ending on December 10, 2019.	False.
2017	China completes lunar mission	The Chinese space program has plans for extraterrestrial exploration, including a manned mission to the moon.	False. The first sample-return mission was completed in November 2020.
	Social Security stops running surplus	The first of many predictions about the United States Social Security trust fund program, all predicting its decline due to a variety of factors.	Too early. Occurred in 2021.
	US budget balanced	The United States federal budget outlines how much the US government spends on what in a given fiscal year. The budget is not required to be balanced, and so often more money is spent than is earned in revenue, causing the national debt to rise.	False. Still pretty negative.
	Newspapers become obsolete and die out	The increasing popularity of social media and online news has caused a steady decline in the popularity of print media.	False. Though newspapers (especially printed ones) are in decline, they are certainly not obsolete as of 2017, or 2022, for that matter.
	Cosmetic surgery doubles	Cosmetic Surgery	False. According to the ASPS (American Society of Plastic Surgeons), 1.6 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in 2011, while 1.8 million were performed in 2017, an increase of only 0.2 million.
2018	Social Security stops running surplus	Social Security again.	Still too early.
	Jesus returns to Earth	A number of Christians have attempted to predict the return of Christ (a.k.a. the second coming or the rapture) using clues from The Bible, even though the Bible and other religious texts says that "no man can know the date" and that it would be within the lifetime of some who witnessed Jesus's first appearance. Several predicted dates have come and gone.	False.
2019	Social Security stops running surplus	Social Security again.	Still too early.
	Every baby has genes mapped at birth	Gene Mapping	False.
2020	Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels	Scientists estimate that more than half of the fossil fuels in existence have already been found and that fossil fuel production will begin to decline due to the scarcity, causing prices to increase. At the same time, improvements in solar technology are causing the prices for solar energy to steadily decrease.	True, though only in certain cases.
	Keyboards and mice become obsolete	Computer input devices are beginning to adopt other inputs, such as trackpads, voice commands, touch screens, and eye tracking. While touch screens in particular are gaining widespread use with the rise of smartphones and tablets, as of 2022 desktop computers that use mice are still fairly common. And while voice-to-text has greatly improved, it still doesn't have the accuracy to replace typing. None of the other text inputs are as fast as a keyboard, and none are suitable for writing program code.	False. While touchscreen devices are increasingly common, desktop computers are still very much in use. Mice continue to be used alongside touchscreens and trackpads, and keyboards remain the dominant method of writing on computers.
	New Tappan Zee bridge constructed	A replacement bridge was announced in 2008.	Too late; completed in 2017.
2021	US debt reaches 97% of GDP	US Debt	Too late; reached in 2011.
	US unemployment falls to 2.8%	Unemployment in the United States	False: because of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment has actually increased.
	Restored caliphate unifies Middle East	A caliphate is a form of Islamic theocracy, centred around a Caliph, or successor to the prophet Muhammad. This prediction foreshadows the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which attempted but failed to create a caliphate in the Levant.	False.
	Lake Mead evaporates	Formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States (measured by maximum capacity). It hasn't reached its capacity since 1983, due to drought and increased demand for water. This is linked to global warming.	False, although water levels continue to fall.
2022	Kilimanjaro snow-free	At 5,895 metres, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world. Around 85% of its ice cover disappeared between 1912 and 2011, and it continues to recede.	False.
	HTML 5 finished	The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) began work on HTML 5 in 2004.	Too late; 5.0 specification released in 2014, but incremental updates continue.
	Newspapers become obsolete and die out	This is the second time this prediction has appeared.	False.
2023	Jesus returns to Earth (again)	Again.	False.
	US debt passes 100% of GDP	This references the common fear that US Debt will exceed GDP, possibly causing economic turmoil.	Too late; reached in 2012.
	All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest	Likely due to a combination of wildfire and deforestation.	False.
2024	Atlantis begins to reappear	Atlantis is the name of a fictional/hypothetical island, which is supposed to have been lost beneath the sea. It's not clear why rising sea level would make it reappear.	False.
	Orangutans extinct in wild	Orangutans are a species of great ape, currently classed as an endangered species, and found only in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.	False.
	China lands men and women on the moon	The Chinese space program has plans for extraterrestrial exploration, including a manned mission to the moon.	False; the Chinese government planned a manned mission to the moon for the 2030s.
	NASA sets up permanent moon base	There has been a lot of hype recently about finally returning to the moon, vis-a-vis Orion.	Too early; the Artemis program plans to put the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon, which will be flown up in four launches over the course of six years, beginning "no earlier than 2025"
	Female professionals pass males in pay	This prediction is an erroneous extrapolation from the current (at the time this comic was made) rate at which female incomes were catching up to male incomes.	False.
2025	World population reaches 8 billion	Given current rates, it seems unlikely it will take this long to hit 8 billion, but advances in birth control options and especially their availability in developing nations may slow the current rate considerably.	Too late. This number was reached in late 2022, although it may have been reached later as some countries overcount their population.
	Two billion people face water shortages	https://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/28-01-2008/103693-water_crisis-0/
	62 MPG cars introduced	62 miles per gallon, ~3.8 L/100km. 62 MPG is a very good mileage rate at today's standard, even though some cars can be driven carefully so as to attain over 100 MPG.
	US power fades	https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-us-power-will-fade-by-2025/	Hard to know what the precise metric for this would be.
2026	Atlantis emerges completely	Atlantis is the name of a fictional/hypothetical island, which is supposed to have been lost beneath the sea. It seems that it has taken 2 years for it to emerge completely.
	Rock Bands die out	https://bestbands.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/rock-bands-to-die-out-by-2026/
	US debt paid off	It’s 2026, and the Debt Is Due.
	Car accidents cease	Presumably, cars will be fully automated and able to pilot themselves at this point and will have fail-safes that prevent collisions currently attributed to user error. Car accidents will always be possible, however, due to mechanical and electrical failures.
	West coast falls into ocean	Most likely due to a significant seismic event.
2027	Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train	Japan's railway systems are famous for their "bullet trains", or Shinkansen. The Chūō Shinkansen is planned to be opened in this year.
	Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established	https://totse.mattfast1.com/en/technology/space_astronomy_nasa/moonmars.html
	Social Security stops running surplus	Social Security again.
2028	Tobacco outlawed	Tobacco products (cigarettes and chewing tobacco) have become more and more taboo in modern culture, with most public places and private businesses forbidding their use indoors and near places children congregate.
	40% of coral reefs gone	Many factors have been attributed to the decline of coral reefs, including mining, over fishing, and rising ocean tempteratures.
	US debt paid off	US Debt
	Social Security stops running surplus	Social Security again
2029	Social Security trust fund exhausted	The next stage of the collapse of Social Security. After years of deficits deplete the trust fund, the program will only be able to pay out as much in benefits as it takes in each year.
	Computers pass the Turing test	It is no coincidence that 2029 is the timeline for Terminator Movies.	Some computer programs already clear the Turing Test about 30% of the time.
	Aging reversed	Manhattan Beach Project to reverse aging by 2029
	Wikipedia reaches 30 million articles		As of July 2024, Wikipedia has over 63.2 million total articles, if all languages are included. The source being cited may have meant the English language Wikipedia, which has only 6.8 million articles.
2030	Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging	WWF press release - Climate Change Speeds Up Amazon’s Destruction referring to a report on the Amazon's vicious cycles.
	Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels	From the Global Cancer Burden to Nearly Double by 2030 article about the article from page 37 of Global Cancer Facts & Figures 2nd edition.
	Arctic ice-free in summer	https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091015-arctic-ice-free-gone-video-ap.html
2031	Computers controlled by thought	https://www.gizmag.com/future-mobile-technology/17554/	As of 2017, this is already possible, but still not used in any mass available devices as of 2022.
	Realtors replaced by technology	https://agbeat.com/editorials/will-realtors-be-replaced-by-technology-by-the-year-2031/
	Social Security trust fund exhausted	https://crfb.org/blogs/cbo-95-percent-confident-social-security-trust-fund-runs-out-25-years
2032	"Big One" hits San Francisco	San Franscisco is located on the San Andreas Fault, which is predicted to produce a magnitude 7+ earthquake in the 'near future'. This event is referred to as "The Big One".
	US elects first married lesbian President	https://4chandata.org/g/In-what-major-ways-do-you-think-the-world-of-2032-will-be-different-from-that-of-today-a20155
	Entire world converted to Christianity	https://www.goddiscussion.com/38920/christian-domininionsts-to-take-over-the-world-by-2032/
2033	Kilimanjaro ice disappears	https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/11/02/idUSL2210825
	India becomes superpower	https://www.facebook.com/pages/India-A-SuperPower-by-2033/151177191568098
	Europe reaches Mars	Specifically, a manned European mission. ESA's Mars Express probe landed in 2003.
2034	US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple	U.S. diabetes cases to double, costs triple by 2034
	US builds autonomous robot army	The concept of robots built for military service is another common element of science fiction stories. Unmanned Systems article, about the 2009-2034 Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap publication (details at Amazon).
2035	80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources	From fact sheet on Obama's State of the Union.
	Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size	From an IPCC report on The Himalayan glaciers that has been analysed in quite some depth. See for example detailed article on an anatomy of IPCC’s mistake.
	Arctic sea lane opens	Arctic sea lane could open by 2035
2036	80% of US has access to high-speed rail	Obama: 80 Percent of Americans Should Have Access to High Speed Rail By 2036
	Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth	99942 Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a probability of up to 2.7% that it would hit Earth on April 13, 2029.
2037	Arctic ice-free in September	Arctic sea ice decline
	Social Security trust fund exhausted	Social Security
2038	32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos	On 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038, the value of time_t rolls over, that is it will return to zero. time_t is a computing standard measurement of time; it is a count of the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970. time_t is used by most computer systems to store date and time information. It is recommended that new software should convert to a 64 bit time_t; indeed, most operating systems designed to run on 64-bit hardware already use signed 64-bit time_t integers. This would give an epoch of 15:30:08 UTC on 4 December 292,277,026,596 (292 billion years away). Of course, legacy systems may not be upgradable so action taken now should prevent this becoming a problem closer to 2038...
	"Big One" hits California	`The big one' likely to hit by 2038
2039	US population hits 400 Million	U.S. Population Projected to Hit 400 Million in 2039
	Severe heat waves become commonplace	Heat waves and extremely high temperatures could be commonplace in the U.S. by 2039, Stanford study finds
	Scientology becomes majority religion in US	Essay: Scientology in the year 2039
2040	Arctic summers ice-free	Arctic Summer Could be Ice-Free by 2040
	Nanotechnology makes humans immortal	Nanotech could make humans immortal by 2040, futurist says
2041	Social Security trust fund exhausted	Social Security
2043	World population passes 9 Billion	Population growth
2044	Mankind genetically engineered to be happy	Premise of the movie Zenith - further details are in the film review for Zenith.
	Childhood obesity reaches 100%	100-Percent Childhood Obesity Predicted by 2044
2045	Humans and machines merge	Ray Kurzweil predicts of a 'singularity' which will lead to a race of super intelligent beings.
2046	World's natural resources depleted	Peak uncertainty, when will we run out of fossil fuels?
2047	World ruled by banks and corporations	Future Schlock - the story of a world turned upside down in 2047
	Tobacco industry fails	Experts: Big Tobacco dead by 2047, possibly sooner
	US begins using autonomous attack drones	US Air Force prepares drones to end era of fighter pilots
2048	Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing	WWF report on unsustainable fishing.
	Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle	RyansWorld: Bathing Suits of the Future
	Entire US population overweight	Scientists Say Thin People Face Extinction in United States: Everyone Will Be Overweight by 2048 – And Less Smart (archive)
2049	$1,000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity	TechNotes: Trends in Technology
	Singularity occurs	The Singularity Is Near
	Fishing industry collapses	This tends to happen when your food-stock is extinct[citation needed] - see WWF report on unsustainable fishing.
2050	80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers	80% of world population will soon be in urban areas
	China controls space	Space Science & Technology in China: A Roadmap to 2050
	Sex with robots possible	Forecast: Sex and Marriage with Robots by 2050
	Cars banned from European cities	EU to ban cars from cities by 2050
	One million species extinct from climate change	By 2050 Warming to Doom Million Species, Study Says
2051	Atmosphere escapes into space	Conspiracy theory relating to Fallstreak hole or hole punch clouds.
2052	Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue	Social Security
2053	US budget balanced	OMB releases long-term projections for the FY2015 budget proposal
	Majority of Americans in prison	'Beyond Bricks And Bars' As Jails Overflow, The Lock-'em-up Credo Is Drawing Unlikely Criticism - From Prison Officials Themselves
	Cars driven by dogs		This has already occurred in 2012! However, it is not as widespread as the prediction may be implying.
2054	Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem	Hunger Could Be 'Unimaginable' Global Problem By 2054
2055	Atmospheric CO2 doubled	Carbon Mitigation Initiative: Stabilization Wedges
	Oil runs out	Peak uncertainty, when will we run out of fossil fuels?
	Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted	5 Valuable Metals That Could Vanish by 2055
2056	RFID-tagged driverless cars	RFID-tagged driverless cars on roads by 2056
	Robots given same rights as humans	Robots Given Same Rights As Humans By 2056
2057	150 Japanese settlers on Mars	Will Japan colonize Mars?
	Colorado River runs dry	Colorado River Reservoirs Could Bottom Out From Warming
2058	Smoking ends in New Zealand	Smoking to die out in NZ by 2058
2059	Humans have domesticated robots	Virtual necking, demography, and robots
2060	Human race lives in peace	ARAS vision/mission
	Extreme droughts across much of Earth	Extreme drought across most of Earth by 2060
	Global temperature rise reaches 4 °C	Avoiding dangerous climate change
	Oil runs out again	Oil may run out by 2060: HSBC
2061	Halley's comet returns	Halley's comet returns to the inner solar system (the vicinity of earth and the sun) every 75.3 years. The last time it was near earth was in 1985-1986. When it next returns, its closest approach to the sun will occur on 28 July 2061.
2062	Uganda hosts World Cup	Uganda to host world cup in 2062
	The Jetsons	The Jetsons was an animated science fiction sitcom that first aired in 1962. The show was set in the year 2062.
2063	First human clones reach adulthood	The Fall - Last Days of Gaia Diary #2
	Population of Moon reaches 100,000	Reading Eagle newspaper article from July 17, 1963 - Moon Population of 100,000 Is Predicted for 2063 and Air Force Predictions for 2063 (1963)
	Population of Mars reaches 10,000	Air Force Predictions for 2063 (1963)
	Spacecraft exceed speed of light	Physics as currently understood states that it is impossible to exceed the speed of light. A monumental shift in our physics would have had to have occurred for this to come true. This is a reference to the 8th Star Trek feature Film: "Star Trek: First Contact" where Zefram Cochrane performs the first human Warp Flight on April 5, 2063.
2064	Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels	State plan guarantees a hazy future for Texas’ wilderness areas
2065	Last coral reefs die out	From an article about a video called Reefs on the Edge set in 2065 where a 15-year-old girl tells her grandfather's stories of coral reefs, and their demise.
	Chernobyl cleanup complete	Chernobyl clean in 55 years time?
2066	Cyprus achieves its goal	This is from some forum posts on the decendants of Cypriots that lends support to the autonomy of Cyprus from Greek or Turkey.
2067	Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV	The article at Artifact of the Month: Slide rule, 1916 includes information from the International Slide Rule Museum that "in 1967, Keuffel & Esser Co. commissioned a study of the future, predicting that Americans in 2067 would live in domed cities and watch 3D television."
	Redheads go extinct	Are redheads going extinct?
2068	Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering	NASA Study Finds Clock Ticking Slower On Ozone Hole Recovery
	Lord Jesus rules the Earth from Throne in Jerusalem.	The Resurrections -- What Really Happens
	Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water	Alex Jones talks about chemicals that make people gay
2069	Public masturbation legalized	It's still not okay to Pull Your Penis out in Public
2070	World population peaks	Global population to peak in 2070
	City-scale flooding disasters	City-scale flooding disasters predicted by 2070
	60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources	What Is Alternative Energy All About?
2071	Europe's temperatures rise by 3 °C	Projection of Economic impacts of climate change in Sectors of the European Union based on bottom-up Analysis
	World summer temperatures rise by 5 °C	See "Air temperature changes in the 21st century"
2072	US retirement age is set to 75	Up to 70-80 years
2073	Oceans do not rise one foot	More like 2 feet
2074	Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million	UK to have 1 million centenarians by 2074
	Supertyphoons hit Japan	Super typhoons in store as seas warm
2075	US retirement age set to 69	Retirement age at 69? Deficit plan hits Social Security
2076	Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors	Multiple Authorship in Biochemistry and Other Fields (PDF)
	Social Security trust fund exhausted	Social Security
2078	Newspapers become obsolete and die out	The same prediction was made for 2017 and 2022. Even when most prognosticators agree that something will happen, there can still be much disagreement about when it will happen.
2079	US debt reaches 716% of GDP	US Debt
	Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest	Climate change causing demise of lodgepole pine in western North America
	Floods commonplace	Floods To Become Commonplace By 2080
	Religion marginalized	https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11347073
2080	Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP	Our debt problems are far from solved (PDF)
	UK population doubles	Britain's population to hit 110 million
2082	World population declines to one billion	Population: The Elephant in the Room
2084	Robot policemen introduced	Robotic cops set to stamp out crime by 2084
2085	US deficit reaches 62% of GDP	Paul Krugman Throws In Towel, Says We’re Headed For Another Depression
2088	Japan becomes all-robot country	Japan To Become All Robot Country By 2088
2089	World halts fossil fuel use	Fossil Fuels
2090	Global warming hits 7 °C	Models warn of 7C dangerous climate change by 2090. Climate change, especially global warming, is a recurring theme in xkcd.
	Global warming hits 4 °C	Summarized here. In reference to Andy Bowers, “Analysis: Scientists say global warming could affect California's drinking water supply,” NPR All Things Considered, June 22, 2001
2100	Global warming around 5-7 °C	Hadley Center study warns of ‘catastrophic’ 5-7°C warming by 2100 on current emissions path
	Sea levels have risen by a meter or more	Future sea level
	Joshua trees nearly extinct	Joshua Trees Nearly Wiped Out by 2100?
	Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous	Atmospheric CO2 concentrations during ancient greenhouse climates were similar to those predicted for A.D. 2100
	Germany tropical	Climate Change Predictions: A Tropical Germany by 2100?
	Emperor penguins extinct	Emperor penguins face extinction
	Arctic permafrost thaws	Surface Permafrost Could Disappear by 2100
	Rising seas flood coastal cities	Rising Seas Will Affect Major U.S. Coastal Cities by 2100
	Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts	Massive Loss of Rainforest Species by 2100
	All coral reefs gone	Coral Reefs Gone by 2100?
	Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor	Each iteration of the Gillette line of safety razors has one more blade than the previous one. MadTV has also parodied this. Over five years before MadTV did so, the Australian comedy group the D-Generation parodied the first two-bladed razor as the Gillette 3000 with 16 blades.
2101	WAR WAS BEGINNING	References Zero Wing, a 1989 Japanese computer game set in 2101, famous for poorly translated English and the source for "All your base are belong to us". See 286: All Your Base

Transcript

THE FUTURE

According to Google search results

Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:

"By <year>" "In year"

"By the year <year>" "In the year <year>"

"Will * by the year <year>" "Will * in the year <year>"

"In <year>, * will" "By <year>, * will"

2012

World population reaches 7 billion

Flying cars reach market

Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto

Apocalypse occurs

2013

National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans

Microchipping of all Americans begins

Homelessness ended in Massachusetts

Health care reform law repealed

2014

US leaves Afghanistan

GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS

2015

New Horizons reaches Pluto

Health care law causes hyperinflation

192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:

• Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated
• Universal primary education implemented
• Women empowered, gender equality reached
• Environmental stability ensured

2016

Baby boomers begin turning 65

Android takes 38% of the smartphone market

Android takes 45% of the smartphone market

Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones

2017

China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission

Social Security stops running surplus

US budget balanced

Newspapers become obsolete and die out

Cosmetic surgery doubles

2018

Social Security stops running surplus

Jesus returns to Earth

2019

Social Security stops running surplus

Every baby has genes mapped at birth

2020

Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels

Keyboards and mice become obsolete

New Tappan Zee bridge constructed

2021

US debt reaches 97% of GDP

US unemployment falls to 2.8%

Restored caliphate unifies Middle East

Lake Mead evaporates

2022

Kilimanjaro snow-free

HTML 5 finished

Newspapers become obsolete and die out

2023

Jesus returns to Earth (again)

US debt passes 100% of GDP

All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest

2024

Atlantis begins to reappear

Orangutans extinct in wild

China lands men and women on the moon

NASA sets up permanent moon base

Female professionals pass males in pay

2025

World population reaches 8 billion

Two billion people face water shortages

62 MPG cars introduced

US power fades

2026

Atlantis emerges completely

Rock Bands die out

US debt paid off

Car accidents cease

West coast falls into ocean

2027

Japan introduces new fastest maglev train

Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony established

Social Security stops running surplus

2028

Tobacco outlawed

40% of coral reefs gone

US debt paid off

Social Security stops running surplus

2029

Social Security trust fund exhausted

Computers pass the Turing Test

Aging reversed

Wikipedia reaches 30 million articles

2030

Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging

Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels

Arctic ice-free in summer

2031

Computers controlled by thought

Realtors replaced by technology

Social Security trust fund exhausted

2032

"Big One" hits San Francisco

US elects first married lesbian president

Entire world converted to Christianity

2033

Kilimanjaro ice disappears

India becomes superpower

Europe reaches Mars

2034

US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple

US builds autonomous robot army

2035

80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources

Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size

Arctic sea lane opens

2036

80% of US has access to high-speed rail

Asteroid Apophis hits/misses Earth

2037

Arctic ice-free in September

Social Security trust fund exhausted

2038

32-bit timestamps role over, causing Y2K-level chaos

"Big One" hits California

2039

US population hits 400 million

Severe heat waves become commonplace

Scientology becomes majority religion in US

2040

Arctic summers ice-free

Nanotechnology makes humans immortal

2041

Social Security trust fund exhausted

2042

2043

World population passes 9 billion

2044

Mankind genetically engineered to be happy

Childhood obesity reaches 100%

2045

Humans and machines merge

2046

World's natural resources depleted

2047

World ruled by banks and corporations

Tobacco industry fails

US begins using autonomous attack drones

2048

Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing

Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle

Entire US population overweight

2049

$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity

Singularity occurs

Fishing industry collapses

2050

80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers

China controls space

Sex with robots possible

Cars banned from European cities

One million species extinct from climate change

2051

Atmosphere escapes into space

2052

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue

2053

US budget balanced

Majority of Americans in prison

Cars driven by dogs

2054

Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem

2055

Atmospheric CO2 doubled

Oil runs out

Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted

2056

RFID-tagged driverless cars

Robots given same rights as humans

2057

150 Japanese settlers on Mars

Colorado River runs dry

2058

Smoking ends in New Zealand

2059

Humans have domesticated robots

2060

Human race lives in peace

Extreme droughts across much of Earth

Global temperature rise reaches 4°C

Oil runs out again

2061

Halley's comet returns

2062

Uganda hosts World Cup

The Jetsons

2063

First human clones reach adulthood

Population of Moon reaches 100,000

Population of Mars reaches 10,000

Spacecraft exceed speed of light

2064

Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels

2065

Last coral reefs die out

Chernobyl cleanup complete

2066

Cyprus achieves its goal

2067

Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV

Redheads go extinct

2068

Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering

Lord Jesus rules the Earth from Throne in Jerusalem.

Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water

2069

Public masturbation legalized

2070

World population peaks

City-scale flooding disasters

60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources

2071

Europe's temperatures rise by 3°C

World summer temperatures rise by 5°C

2072

US retirement age is set to 75

2073

Oceans do not rise one foot

2074

Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million

Supertyphoons hit Japan

2075

US retirement age set to 69

2076

Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors

Social Security trust fund exhausted

2077

2078

Newspapers become obsolete and die out

2079

US debt reaches 716% of GDP

Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest

Floods commonplace

Religion marginalized

2080

Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP

UK population doubles

2081

2082

World population declines to one billion

2083

2084

Robot policemen introduced

2085

US deficit reaches 62% of GDP

2086

2087

2088

Japan becomes all-robot country

2089

World halts fossil fuel use

2090

Global warming hits 7°C

Global warming hits 4°C

2091

2092

2093

2094

2095

2096

2097

2098

2099

2100

Global warming around 5-7°C

Sea levels have risen by a meter or more

Joshua trees nearly extinct

Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous

Germany tropical

Emperor penguins extinct

Arctic permafrost thaws

Rising seas flood coastal cities

Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts

All coral reefs gone

Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor

2101

WAR WAS BEGINNING

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Discussion

The explanation is really messed up. You can hardly tell where one year ends and the next begins. Can someone who's better at editing than me fix this, perhaps by putting a line across the page after each year? GizmoDude (talk) 19:11, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

This one slipped under the transcripting radar. I may do it. --Quicksilver (talk) 20:52, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Do not talk about radars, just do it. The transcript is done right now, but the explain section still does need a big radar!--Dgbrt (talk) 20:20, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Find the song! I have no idea so far but the repeating phrase "Social security trust fund exhausted" should match a refrain.--Dgbrt (talk) 20:20, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

They now have the dogs driving cars... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWAK0J8Uhzk Let's not wait for 2053.173.245.54.90 21:01, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Out of curiosity (I'm new to the standards of explainxkcd), are out of date pages considered incomplete? Or is it up to editors to chose when to update a pages explination. I would assume the former, except that would make maintaining the pages significantly more difficult. Also, referencing the Linux takes over. Since Android is now a part of the libux kernel,should thia be changed? It would definently put linux over the 50% mark. Mrmakeit (talk) 05:03, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Pages can not become out of date, as they refrence the meening of the comic at the time of creation. 108.162.216.209 15:24, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

I would change the 2nd paragraph to say that the entirety of the search results are a super long set-up and "All your base..." is the punch-line. Smperron (talk) 08:46, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

I would correct the entry in 2014 that says that the Taliban are the organisation responsible for the September 11th attacks. The more accurate explanation would be that The US believed Al Qaeda (the real organisation responsible) were hiding out in Afghanistan and that defeating the Taliban, and bringing stability to the country was an important stepping stone towards finding Osama Bin Laden. Of course we now know he was in Pakistan all along, but still that was the original rationale for invading Afghanistan.--141.101.98.192 15:27, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

This further details stuff is wrong about the comic. The lines are just random answers to Google searches. There is no explanation. I move to remove this table, or convert it into links or summaries of the articles in the links. This sucks. It is good enough as it is now without the table (as the table is random and the explanations on the table are incorrect. 108.162.216.209 22:12, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Let's get to work on the table then. I'm adding suitable references to incomplete sections to aid as jumping off points, from where further expansion can be done on a case-by-case basis. Can you provide some inspiration as to which explanations are most egregiously in need of correction? Pmw57 (talk) 01:44, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

As of 2014 I have noticed that a lot of US sites are moving from html to closed sources such as Adobe so the quote: "The prediction about GNU/Linux Operating Systems is ambiguous" is now fighting through government agencies. Users of Linux trying to access the volcano archive (once supplied by listserv using linux) now have to get access via Windows machines. This has to be the saddest computing news in a long time. Weatherlawyer (talk) 08:19, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

“The prediction about GNU/Linux Operating Systems is ambiguous, as Android (based on Linux) constitutes nearly 50% of the mobile OS market” — GNU/Linux refers to an operating system consisting of the GNU userland toolchain over the Linux kernel. Android is based on Linux but not GNU, therefore, it is irrelevant in GNU/Linux context. 108.162.230.107 11:18, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Can we change this to Incomplete explanation of the month? Foldark (talk) 22:03, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

2145:War... War never changes (the Great War happens) 173.245.54.252 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Is it just my reading, or does it say "ACHEIVE" instead of "ACHIEVE" where it says something about 192 UN member nations achieving millennium development goals in the comic? (It's under 2015.) --172.68.55.70 21:45, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

No, it reads like this for me too. (Even on the original comic page, where I'd expect it to have been long fixed already.) --172.68.11.87 19:35, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Some of these predictions seem very realistic. 162.158.59.172 00:22, 25 December 2016 (UTC) Jawa457

I am not sure if this needs to be added or not since it was not happening when the comic was produced and it is not the government doing it but a private tech company microchipping its employees in 2017 Google results since I do not know which news articles will disappear over time. 162.158.62.231 12:03, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

I think we can delete incomplete tag. -- -- 1337-PI (talk) 04:21, 26 February 2021 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I feel it would have been funny, if a bit confusing, if the first few years numbers after 2037/2038 started referring to, e.g. 1970, 1971, before suddenly "Year 2038 bug finally exterminated". You know it's gonna happen... at least to some poor schmucks somewhere in the world.--Twisted Code (talk) 12:52, 22 November 2022 (UTC)

The link is bad

Here's a working one. 162.158.93.27 14:57, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

How do I add an Incomplete tag to the top? It's now 2024 so more stuff needs to be added. -- Danger Kitty (talk) 20:18, 1 February 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

You just need the {{incomplete}} template.

e.g. {{incomplete|This page will need updating to account for facts known up until the start of 2024}}, but you might instead prefer a version that follows a comment format more of Created by THE 2024 EQUIVALENT OF A BOT - Needs to be updated to the current year. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. to blend in with the 'starter' version currently used and then tweaked... 172.70.90.92 21:12, 1 February 2024 (UTC)