Future Scale:
How the future looks as of August 8, 2007

Brian Gongol


Year Years away Event Source Date of projection
2008 1 Burj Dubai completed Architectural Record 2007.07.24
2009 2 50th anniversary of Communist control in Cuba CBS News 2007.07.26
2009 2 First private commercial spaceflight of "SpaceShipTwo" Space.com 2007.07.03
2010 3 Retirement of Space Shuttle USA Today 2005.08.08
2010 3 Biofuels production causes decline in gas prices Dow Jones Newswires 2007.07.30
2010 3 Mass production of 50%-efficient solar cells University of Delaware 2007.07.23
2011 4 20th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm National Security Archive 2001.01.17
2011 4 4G cellular phone networks deployed in United States PC Magazine 2007.06.20
2011 4 Supercomputer built to reach 10 petaflops New York Times 2007.08.06
2011 4 O'Hare airport opens two additional runways City of Chicago 2007
2013 6 Medicare becomes insolvent Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees 2007.04.23
2015 8 Mass production of self-driving cars PC Magazine 2007.06.20
2015 8 Iran has its first nuclear weapon Washington Post 2005.08.02
2016 9 Utra-HDTV debuts PC Magazine 2007.06.20
2017 10 Domestic robots express emotions and provide companionship Daily Telegraph 2007.02.18
2017 10 Second Life exceeds size of the Internet The Register 2007.08.01
2018 11 Completion of modernization program at O'Hare airport FAA 2005.10.30
2019 12 Medicare trust fund exhausted Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees 2007.04.23
2019 12 Flexible OLED screens reach mass market PC Magazine 2007.06.20
2020 13 Launch date for asteroid interceptor with nuclear warheads Flight International 2007.08.03
2022 15 Annual increase in life expectancy exceeds 365 days Reason Magazine 2007.07.27
2022 15 Geni project creates alternative to conventional Internet The Guardian 2007.08.01
2025 18 India's population exceeds China's United Nations Population Division 2006
2025 18 0.6% of adults in US infected with HIV/AIDS United Nations Population Division 2006
2027 20 China's GDP exceeds US GDP The Economist 2007.06.28
2028 21 Medicare expenditures exceed Social Security expenditures Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees 2007.04.23
2028 21 Medicare and Medicaid consume 10% of US GDP Congressional Budget Office 2007.07.25
2029 22 Youngest Baby Boomers reach age 65 US Census Bureau 2006.01.03
2032 25 50th anniversary of EPCOT Center 2719 Hyperion 2007.07.24
2036 29 Near-Earth passage of asteroid Apophis NASA JPL 2006.10.19
2036 29 Bacteriophages widely used to prevent food-borne infections ABC News 2006.11.02
2040 33 Global warming eliminates most Arctic sea ice National Geographic 2006.12.12
2045 38 Global life expectancy reaches 75 years United Nations Population Division 2006
2046 39 Oldest Baby Boomers reach age 100 US Census Bureau 2006.01.03
2050 43 India's GDP exceeds US GDP The Economist 2007.06.28
2050 43 Russia's population falls below 100 million Radio Free Europe 2006.05.19
2050 43 World population reaches 9.2 billion United Nations Population Division 2006
2050 43 Medicare and Medicaid consume 20% of US GDP Congressional Budget Office 2007.07.25
2090 83 Worldwide temperatures average 7°F above 1990s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007.02.05