2020s Predictions from ASPR

A completely unscientific list of predictions for the next decade from ASPR:

·        The street sign and wayfinding industry will disappear as smartphones will render it useless. Those who work in the industry will face the same challenges that buggy whip-makers dealt with in the early 1900s.  

·        Climate change activists, who successfully made an enemy of the plastic straw, will go after the paper and newsprint sector. They’ll argue it’s an environmental threat to grow trees, chop them down, print things on them and drive them to people when digital communication is better for the Earth.

·        Al Gore will be venerated for trying to warn us.

·        The Economist reported that studies have shown software that mimics the responsive role of a tutor has turned a corner and now can actually improve learning outcomes, in addition to just being new and innovative. Further advances will greatly influence teaching and learning.

·        The worries about Social Security running out of money will need to be rethought in light of a decrease of U.S. life expectancy.

·        The question isn’t if Trump wins in 2020 or not; the question is what follows him, whenever that occurs. Americans always overcorrect (Carter after Nixon-Ford; Reagan after Carter; Obama after Bush). There will be a new spiritualism and respect in the public square that the current president doesn’t demonstrate.