What will life be like in 100 years? Working on the basis that the world isn’t destroyed by the end of 2012, it could be a lot of things. A lot of shit could have gone down between now and then. Like World War III… Or IV… Or V! Jesus! I don’t want to be around for that. Which is why it’s a good job I won’t be, unless they invent a way to live forever, in which case I’ll be out on the frontlines macheteing motherfuckers like there’s no tomorrow (because there won’t be, really).
Will the future be a colourful world where plant life, technology and architecture have been fused into symbiosis to create the perfect human living habitat, ensuring happiness in every facet of life and experience? Will it be a fiery, mechanical torture chamber inhabited by an oil-belching robot master race with humans bent into perpetual, engine-grease-soaked slavery? Or will life just be kinda beige?
Leo, 26 and Aurelie, 28 (left).
VICE: What will life be like in 100 years?
Leo: I think it would be solidly beige.
Aurelie: I think that people will develop a super power in the right side of the brain. Like a psychic power, not a logical power. More people will see ghosts and deal with invisible urges.
Leo: No. Beige.
Aurelie: I also think race, the way we categorise people, will be totally different. We’re not going to categorise people by race any more, I don’t think.
Leo: Just by how much money they’ve got.
Aurelie: That won’t change.
Leo: Yeah, Europe and the West are going to descend into violence and murder again. The Chinese will rise up and make everything, like I said, monochrome, beige. Although they’ll call it red.
Because that’s lucky?
Yeah. But it will be beige.
Jay, 42: People will have lost their feelings and emotions. They will be replaced by a society where the Illuminati control everything. There will be one world religion, as opposed to all these different religions that keep fighting against each other, which is ridiculous.
What will we fight over instead?
Hopefully, nothing. A society where hopefully everyone will get on. It’s a utopia, that’s what I’m looking for.
Ifa, 47 (left) and Carroll, 74.
Carroll: The way things are now… Some of these youngsters, if they continue as it is, it will be hell. But I hope it’s not because there are a lot of good people around.
Will there be no good people left?
The good will ride the evil ones. I believe so.
Ifa: At the moment, things are unbalanced. There must be a balance. The whole cycle of the universe is changing. Their mind will come more to their consciousness. Technology, that will be frightening. Everything is going to be different.
I feel like you’re inside my head, Ifa.
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Sonny, 25: There will be very big houses.
Emmy, 33: I would like it to be like The Jetsons.
People have been saying that for a while, though. Like, 50 years already. Do you think there will still be any shops left?
Well, with the way the internet’s going, I don’t know. But people are very social, they like physical contact and talking to people.
Yeah.
And touching shit.
Tessa, 19 (left) and Joe, 23.
Tessa: Pretty apocalyptic.
Joe: Loads of cockroaches climbing on abandoned buildings, probably. They survive everything.
Tessa: The sea will be fine, a Waterworld thing might start happening. I love that movie. I think it’s going to be pretty Chernobyl-like. I think it’s coming to an end pretty soon, as well. I don’t know how, but something’s happening. You know there was a programme not long ago where they showed huge buildings with vines growing all over them.
And…?
Europe is going down.
“Jim”, 61 [Not his real name because he’s “under the mental health act”]: I think the world will have blown up by then. I’m not being rude, but I’m cynical as well as intelligent. We’re due a world disaster at any time. Every 50 years something major happens, we’re due it. No major wars, something is going to happen somewhere. There will be a major disaster and a whole change of life. If it the world does survive, the poor won’t survive anyway.
That does seem scarily plausible. So, we’ll just be in a wealthy world?
No, there will be two sets of people. A bit like the films where you see the wall and each set on either side.
So the future is Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
Joe, 20: I’m a bit of a cynic. I reckon in 100 years there won’t be too much change in terms of where we are in civilisation. I hope that we find peace. My overall theory is that eventually, as a race, we’ll either kill each other off or find peace.
It’s probably not healthy to look at things in such a linear way.
We’ll have to find ways to live more sustainably as well.
OK. What about hoverboards?
What are hoverboards?
Back to the Future, HELLOOO!?
Oh right.
Yeah, you said a lot of boring shit about sustainability and world peace.
Yeah. I did.
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