Trends and Bets
The following are future trends I think will happen, or increasingly happen:
software: greater automation, more niches filled, higher-level abstractions, more leverage of Internet & smart, small mobile devices, more paper/physical goods/mediums augmented or replaced with digital approximations, standins, models, recordings or simulations
robots: more, better, cheaper, more broadly used, both in industry, home care and military
education: alternate, cheaper, faster, more efficient, more personal, more egalitarian, more informal
healthcare: alternate, universal, cheaper, more efficient, more/alt providers, bypassed insurance industry and/or better alternatives/reforms
political: better voting, resolving the political party problem, resolving the agency/representation problem, resolving the "idiocracy" problem, reducing the aristocracy/plutarchy problem; flatter; more restarts/revolutions/colonies/experiments, more sophistication, greater use of computer and Internet era technologies
banking and currency: there are many strengths but also some horrible flaws to the current mainstream government imposed/backed banking and currency systems; new technologies, ideas and grassroots political willpower is enabling new kinds of solutions and healthier or more efficient alternatives
privacy: more of it, and less of it; this is not a paradox, I'm saying the extreme ends will become more extreme due to changes both in law and technology (broad brush examples: think greater use of casual cryptography combined with greater use of say small flying surveillance robots by governments AND private citizens)
sexuality: more, more freedom, creativity, experimentation, acceptance
The above are not necessarily all of the future trends, just a subset. These are just those I am most confident are happening and will increasingly happen and grow. The rising tides, the expanding pies, etc. (Also note I am not necessarily saying that all of the above are good or desirable things, or that I agree with them, merely that I think they are going to happen, period.) And because I'm confident (enough) in these predictions, I think it's wise to place bets on each of them such that, if the prediction is right, the bet pays off in the form of increased wealth or other rewards. I have already placed bets in a few of these areas, and will likely place more. The one area it should be pretty obvious I already have a bet placed (but not intentionally) is in the area of software. I develop software for money. So the more that demand for software creators and maintainers grow, the greater demand for folks who do that for money. I didn't plan for that to happen, but luckily it has. I got into computers originally because I just enjoyed them and was fascinated by them.
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