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“What Is Acceptable Today That You Think Won’t Be Acceptable 100 Years From Now?”: 35 Predictions Shared By Our Community
“Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives; very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time,” wrote Voltaire.
Many institutions, attitudes, actions, etc. that people of previous generations found perfectly acceptable are frowned on today. Racism, child labor, blood sports - all of these are generally unacceptable today. So I asked the Bored Panda community to share their thoughts on what they think will be impermissible 100 years in the future. Here are all the answers!
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Climate change denial
Certain cultures being allowed to do bad things because it’s part of their tradition
"Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid." -despair.com
Religious exemption of medical care for minors.
Plastic packaging.
Celebrities being paid so much more than teachers and caregivers
Hopefully, sexual harassment and victim blaming
And stop excusing 'historic sex crimes' with - it was a different time. No it wasn't wrong was wrong. Just because there was a lack of prosecution years ago, that didn't make it OK. Prosecution is still far from good enough, and 20 years from now todays offenders might get tried and they will all cry and say 'but every one was doing it'
'9-to-5' jobs in offices. Maybe not 'unacceptable' per se, but I expect future generations to focus more on each person's individual productive hours and remote work (even more than now).
Absolutely. This whole nine to five is a joke. Do your best work when you're at your best.
Pay differences based on gender, trans/homophobia
Schools punishing kids for getting beat up and trying to fight back.
Or just generally schools using punishment for emotional issues at all. Consequences have their place but rewarding positive behaviour works a lot better. We don't teach our kids to negotiate properly either from an authority/ education perspective so the can also ask questions and understand why we are asking for specific behaviour to change, so they can't then do their own thinking and problem solving as well as self risk management (I work with young people in the criminal justice system and the stories I could tell you.. 🙃
I really hope it doesn't take anywhere close to 100 years! Wasting precious Helium on stupid inflatable single-use balloons or to make your voice higher. We have a limited supply on Earth that is rapidly running out and once it's gone, it's gone. The only other source is literally the Sun and it's not like we can mine that! And when it goes you can kiss goodbye to MRI machines (which use liquid Helium to work) and our ability to look inside your bodies and diagnose medical problems and save lives without requiring dangerous, time-consuming and often life-limiting or life-threatening invasive exploratory surgeries.
In 100 years we will have invented and developed imaging equipment that doesn’t require liquid helium and gives us even better images. I will not give up on humans.
Load More Replies... Balloons, even without helium are horrible environmental disaster makers. Balloons have been found in whale stomachs, and have killed other wildlife. The Mylar balloons often get caught in utility lines causing fires. Just find another way to celebrate
It's always pissed me off that the helium shortage is not more common knowledge, and that there aren't more efforts to preserve it. We're reaching a glass shortage, too, but no one cares. Humans mow down finite resources like tomorrow doesn't matter.
Silica/glass is not rare or uncommon... helium is at a shortage because the current known sources are running low. 100 years we will have devices that pull helium from he air, and recycle all our dumps for their glass, plastics, metals and organics.
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What? You don't wanna mine the Sun? Younger generations get lazier and lazier.
Too busy putting avocados on toast to give a damn about the helium
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Perfect example of a finite resource being frittered away on trivial human entertainment.
It isn't exactly 'finite' but it is limited. New helium is produced continuously through radioactive decay of natural isotopes in the earth's crust. Alpha particle radiation is literally the nucleus of a Helium atom. Once it picks up a pair of electrons from the environment it becomes neutral Helium.
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The moon has an abundance of helium 3 which in addition to being relatively near by is a prime candidate for clean fission reactors as on earth helium 3 happily becomes helium 2 and a spare electron
In fact, the abundance of helium 3 in the moon is often cited as a major reason to return to the Moon.
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We have 120 years of helium left at current use with estimated increases. Many things, especially medical machines, are being developed that dont need it. The alternatives are already here, just very expensive. This isnt as much of a panic as people think.
Still sounds like it should be banned, or at least slowly withdrawn from public sale.
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I had ZERO idea about this!!! I assume I'm in the majority aswell which is doubly worrying!
I refuse to buy helium for my stores - sales managers hate me but I make them use plastic “balloon sticks” instead. Balloon sticks suck btw but I like the environment more than I hate balloon sticks.
I hope just balloons will stop being produced. They're terrible for the environment!
This is misleading. Helium is used for radiology period. Not only MRI’s.
Used for NMR spectroscopy too, but I don't mind OP giving one strong example if it gets the message across.
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Helium is so light that it just leaves our atmosphere on its own, right? Maybe we will able able to (intentionally/unintentionally) make our own helium in the future
We already can make it - it is a byproduct of nuclear fusion - the problem is that we don't have a safe way of doing sustainable fusion. It may also be possible to harvest Helium from the edge of our atmosphere.
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You idiots. Helium from balloons goes right back into the atmosphere, from whence it was extracted.
Thankfully, MRIs might soon be able to not use Helium (for cooling the magnets). Recent advances in superconductors can yield advances in electro-magnetism that'll reduce the need for cooling.
... I never got why precious and rare materials are used as investment token or wasted in jewelry ... while jewelry still, at least, conserves it. The paramount of stupidity is eating or drinking leaf gold, so you poop it out again, while hightech and science can make actual use of that materials properties that, in the end, may serve us all a lot more than the nicest necklaces and most stable investments would ever even dare to try.
Again, were getting there. The price of helium is rising as it becomes more scarce, so that will soon stop this is and of itself, people aren't generally gonna be willing to spend $100 on a small balloon and then the industry will just peter out. Its kind of a bit sad, helium balloons are a lot of fun, but yeah, definitely not worth wasting a useful resource and the pollution they create.
This information needs to be much more widely available, I'm 40 and I had no idea MRI scans use helium or that it is in short supply. I'm sure if people were made aware of this they would stop buying baloons
While there is some reason to be concerned, it's not as doom and gloom as the poster makes it seem. I remember reading a report that said the world's supply of helium was down to 7 years... 15 years ago. We frequently find new sources in areas where we expect to find natural gas and in the past people let it just escape because it's value was so low. That's no longer the case and we still have the ability to find new sources. Is there going to be a day where we can't find more? Maybe, but we may also have the technology to create more by then (nuclear fusion).
Force retailers to STOP selling it then!! I know, Profits before People...
Helium is constantly being created. It is the byproduct of radioactive decay and is collected with natural gas as part of the oil and gas industry's work. We run out, then get more. It's yet another reason that we will never be without the oil and gas industry.
I'm pretty sure we can make it in a nuclear reactor. Alpha particles are helium nuclei, so we just need to catch them.
We're finding more and more sources of helium. The oil in the western mountains of North America has a lot of helium in it.
Helium is in such short supply and has gotten so expensive we no longer use it while welding aluminum at my work. We changed our processes to meet our welding requirements with pure argon instead.
This is truly a problem we can easily fix now. I'll never understand why we do things that are seriously hurting us that we don't need or would not even miss if it was gone. It's so crazy.
There is helium in the moon. Corporations are already planning ways to go mine it.
Helium is the second-most abundant element in the universe, but you are correct that there's a limited supply on Earth. However, if we get desperate there are other ways to get it, from "mining" gas giants (and even the moon), to getting it free and abundant as a waste product of nuclear fusion.
Of course we can't mine the sun but it gives us infinite energy that we can harness.
Mass treating mentally ill patients (especially schizophrenia) with dumbing-down medication so they just suffer in silence and not bother "other people" with the "noisy symptoms". I'm a medical student and all antipsychotics have their place and indeed are lifesavers but in my opinion, they are over-used and not ideal for long-term therapy. They do not solve the root of the problem, they just make it temporarily more manageable -which is great but we should not leave behind the end goal. TL;DR: subduing problematic mentally ill patients with medication for decades instead of searching for / researching other options.
I'm a licensed counselor with 25 years of experience, and this is inaccurate. Nobody wants to quiet them or dumb them down,they want them to be as healthy and productive as they can be in life,and that means taking away or muting the voices that tell them to hurt themselves or how awful they are. Would you prefer people suffer from their disorder?
Medicine not tailored to the person's DNA. Medicine, food, housing, education being a luxury item.
Unhoused individuals. People will be treated with dignity, housed, rehabilitated if it occurred is needed, taught skills, etc.
Their are perfectly fine small housing developments in Seattle I thought they were finally taking care of the HUGE homeless population. Guess what, they were for sale
Buildings and public places being inaccessible for disabled people.
Absolutely! There is literally NO excuse for not making buildings and places accessible
I very much hope the Prosperity Gospel will be frowned upon in future generations.
The treatment of my neurodivergent learners and students will evolve. In 100 years, forcing neurodiverse children to suffer, struggle, and undergo forced change will be over. We will focus on creating a more equitable school system that asks neurotypical people to support all students, as they are.
Yes please, I hope everyone can find the same care and learning environment as my brother .
"Cancelling" people and ruining their careers based on a rumour or allegation. There's nothing wrong with exposing sexists, rapists, abusers and all that lot, but at least put in some effort to fact-check the allegations and rumours before lynching the "offenders". People put in years of hard work to build a career and it just takes one attention-deficient psychopath to ruin all of their work. Also: ignoring victim statements because of the social position and wealth of the accused person.
Actually it might become wrong to expose the latter because it comes before a fair trial. Law is law and just because one person does a heinous act against humanity and caught red-handed, the law cannot just be exempted for one person and not another. There's already problems with people wrongly accused for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or mistaken identity or just situations taken out of context. I feel it's going to be unacceptable to stick a camera in a man's face accusing him of preying on children at a park when he's just with his son because some vigilante is itching to catch a predator.
Tolerance of attention-seeking deliberate stupidity (ie. flat-Earthers, anti-vaxxers, etc.) is likely to go down. Real, verifiable and researched information is widely available on these subjects and will only become easier still to access as time goes by. Such mindsets will be seen as intentionally being difficult as the ability to say that you've never had access to said information becomes more and more impossible to claim.
Idk I mean I sure hope this becomes unacceptable someday but I feel like there will always be someone who has "opinions" like this ya know?
Absence of universal healthcare and discrimination of people based on nationality, ethnicity, skin color, social status, etc.
I feel it's getting worse but might level out in 100 years. There may be another major pandemic. Universal healthcare has become threatened in some nations.
Hopefully, homophobia and transphobia won't be socially acceptable. I know so many individuals who have to hide who they are because their parents won't accept them, and could risk being disowned.
How people twist religion and take it a step too far. I hope that ends
Food wastage
How in the hell is this not up voted for? There is NOTHING wrong with freeganism. Okay not for he faint of heart but the sheer waste of food from high profile restaurants? There are more than enough persons who could easily be fed.
Personal freedom, free air and water (I'm a pessimist)
Free water is definitely on the list. Most natural resources are teetering on the brink, and I think water will be the first big divider. I am glad I am old and won't have to be here for the cataclysm. The planet can't go on as it is, and the change will probably only come with violence, and may well be too late even then. I still hold hope that we'll wake up, but then we get the donald trumps of the world...
The Republican and Democrat parties.
HOPEFULLY:
Racism, sexism, sexual assault, abusive relationships and HAVING TO PAY FOR MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS!!!
So... what, you want companies to just give you menstrual products for free? You know if they do that they'll go out of business, or just stop making menstrual products altogether. Then what will you do?
The glass ceiling. It is still around, although not nearly as obviously as it once was. When I was growing up, women were housewives and mothers. If they HAD to work, they could be teachers, nurses, secretaries, or any of the other 'women's work'. Now, women can choose any career, but in too many institutions, the good ol' boy network is as strong as ever, and actively screening out women and others. There are too many law firms, financial institutions and other corporate structures where promotions are based, not on ability, but on being 'one of the boys'.
My grandfather didn’t let me open a jar for him because I was “threatening his masculinity.”
Controversial one but: The death penalty
Of course these are based in the U.S. because it's where I am. But some are universal
People going hungry,when just down the corner is plenty..
Native American People on reservations or anywhere else they don't want to be.
Education being priced so far out of the range of anyone, that is a basic need to a majority.
The fact that if your grandma's grandpa was very very poor, and then so on, until the most recent generation, one is doomed to have to fight harder, and longer, for everything you get. Rich or even middle class privilege isn't even realized by those who have it, but the lack of it is glaring to those who don't.
Animals being allowed to breed into feral colonies, and go without homes.
Nursing homes that are paid by the state being so substandard.
Female centric birth control
Plastic overused until it comes out everywhere
Oil rigs, and transport ships
Police brutality
And this I hope is no longer tolerated
Hate.
Anything that a private company can do, the government can, and will, do worse, and at greater cost.
Media companies asking people to make content for free.
Eating meat from dead animals. I bet on artificially grown meal-like substance.
Note: this post originally had 68 images. It’s been shortened to the top 34 images based on user votes.
This article is not accurate at all. It should be "What do you hope won't be acceptable 100 years from now"
I was thinking that. We have no idea what they'll think or do. And history says that a lot of what we currently believe ferverently, they will find either hilarious or horrifying.
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I have an ongoing dream that the leaders will say, "We're going to war" and the military will collectively reply, "No." And completely refuse. Don't have any hope that it will happen, just wish it would.
Abusing animals and the planet. Hopefully 100 years from now both will have the same rights as human beings.
I hope so too! When I See deer I yell "Trust nothing on two legs!!! Good luck!!" Run bambi run!!!!
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Hooters and strip clubs. Hopefully lust would be less socially acceptable, or at least when wouldn't be shamed for it. Either way.
Breast and butt implants. Hopefully 100 years from now women will be smarter than that.
Cruises. They are just garbage dumpsters in our precious oceans.
Treating cancer patients with chemotherapy and radiation. Future generations will think we were absolutely insane for doing that.
Reminds me of the hospital sequence in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"
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In the US, employees not being guaranteed paid vacations, sick days, and parental leave.
I think with the way the world is going right now. Anything and everything will be acceptable. It's already happening now we make excuses and justifications for almost everything nowadays. Even if it's wrong people are just constantly making an excuse and justifying stuff that we know deep down is not okay. So I think in the future there won't be anything that's not deemed acceptable somehow. Humanity is already proving what I'm saying. Kind of like a free for all, screw you you can't tell me what to do future. Granted some people will know where to draw the line. But from what I've seen 1st hand, anything goes and there's not much anyone can do about it if we are not all on the same page. The amount of people I've seen justify things that are absolutely horrible is to damn high. It's only getting worse from what I see, very misguided and if you speak up about it all. People will get upset and say chill, it's not that serious, or it's a joke, or any other excuse to get away with whatever it is going on. Kind of sad when you think about it.
Well ... this is the optimistic part. The pessimist in me says, the minority with bad intentions and/or greed trumping ethical consideration of the results of their doing will get it their ways, as long as the truly caring minority remains a minority. I don't wanna sound like I'm perfect or so ... I'm not. But, it takes effort and belief of a majority, endurance and commitment and tolerance against the frustrating experience that it often not even not pays off, but leaves no other impact than you paying more (be it in time, be it in money, be it in social outcastery) and nobody caring.
Unfortunately everything related to in-group/out-group, politics, religion, conspiracies, money and having power over others will never die. It's human nature to judge, hoard, and exclude. Competition is crucial for survival and evolution. It sucks royally but it's not just humans and it's not going to change in any species ever.
Hypocrites, especially celebrity ones. Why are they still admired when time after time they get caught out in their lies.
This is weird but I think tubing like on a lake will be illegal cause two of my cousins have broken their joses
The recycling of content is getting worse and worse. Now BP is recycling whole posts. BP was fun while it lasted.
Sorry, I'm all for change, but most of these have been around for thousands of years. All of humanity. 100 years is a blink of the eye.
Sounds very optimistic. I want to believe it too, but when I see how it is now, I don't have much faith in humanity.
I know this will probably be disagreeable with a lot of people but being allowed to live an un-healthy life (both physically and mentally). The societal strain cause be people's inability (and freedom) to live unhealthy lives is really starting to show. I hope it becomes socially unacceptable to tolerate such things and have all of society as a whole push to make things better.
I hope that in the future we will stop treating domestic violence and sexual violence against men as a joke. We have to realize that male rape isn't a joke. Cutting off male genitalia shouldn't be "funny". I see a lot of media that is sensitive to every subject ... except male victims of domestic and sexual violence, and the problem isn't just that men are the victims. It's that ANY time we treat this kind of violence as a joke, it's bad for EVERYBODY.
Say you're a racist and/or homophobic piece of s**t without saying you're a racist and/or homophobic piece of s**t
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As a black person... it does tho?
Load More Replies... This article is not accurate at all. It should be "What do you hope won't be acceptable 100 years from now"
I was thinking that. We have no idea what they'll think or do. And history says that a lot of what we currently believe ferverently, they will find either hilarious or horrifying.
Load More Replies... I have an ongoing dream that the leaders will say, "We're going to war" and the military will collectively reply, "No." And completely refuse. Don't have any hope that it will happen, just wish it would.
Abusing animals and the planet. Hopefully 100 years from now both will have the same rights as human beings.
I hope so too! When I See deer I yell "Trust nothing on two legs!!! Good luck!!" Run bambi run!!!!
Load More Replies... Hooters and strip clubs. Hopefully lust would be less socially acceptable, or at least when wouldn't be shamed for it. Either way.
Breast and butt implants. Hopefully 100 years from now women will be smarter than that.
Cruises. They are just garbage dumpsters in our precious oceans.
Treating cancer patients with chemotherapy and radiation. Future generations will think we were absolutely insane for doing that.
Reminds me of the hospital sequence in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"
Load More Replies... In the US, employees not being guaranteed paid vacations, sick days, and parental leave.
I think with the way the world is going right now. Anything and everything will be acceptable. It's already happening now we make excuses and justifications for almost everything nowadays. Even if it's wrong people are just constantly making an excuse and justifying stuff that we know deep down is not okay. So I think in the future there won't be anything that's not deemed acceptable somehow. Humanity is already proving what I'm saying. Kind of like a free for all, screw you you can't tell me what to do future. Granted some people will know where to draw the line. But from what I've seen 1st hand, anything goes and there's not much anyone can do about it if we are not all on the same page. The amount of people I've seen justify things that are absolutely horrible is to damn high. It's only getting worse from what I see, very misguided and if you speak up about it all. People will get upset and say chill, it's not that serious, or it's a joke, or any other excuse to get away with whatever it is going on. Kind of sad when you think about it.
Well ... this is the optimistic part. The pessimist in me says, the minority with bad intentions and/or greed trumping ethical consideration of the results of their doing will get it their ways, as long as the truly caring minority remains a minority. I don't wanna sound like I'm perfect or so ... I'm not. But, it takes effort and belief of a majority, endurance and commitment and tolerance against the frustrating experience that it often not even not pays off, but leaves no other impact than you paying more (be it in time, be it in money, be it in social outcastery) and nobody caring.
Unfortunately everything related to in-group/out-group, politics, religion, conspiracies, money and having power over others will never die. It's human nature to judge, hoard, and exclude. Competition is crucial for survival and evolution. It sucks royally but it's not just humans and it's not going to change in any species ever.
Hypocrites, especially celebrity ones. Why are they still admired when time after time they get caught out in their lies.
This is weird but I think tubing like on a lake will be illegal cause two of my cousins have broken their joses
The recycling of content is getting worse and worse. Now BP is recycling whole posts. BP was fun while it lasted.
Sorry, I'm all for change, but most of these have been around for thousands of years. All of humanity. 100 years is a blink of the eye.
Sounds very optimistic. I want to believe it too, but when I see how it is now, I don't have much faith in humanity.
I know this will probably be disagreeable with a lot of people but being allowed to live an un-healthy life (both physically and mentally). The societal strain cause be people's inability (and freedom) to live unhealthy lives is really starting to show. I hope it becomes socially unacceptable to tolerate such things and have all of society as a whole push to make things better.
I hope that in the future we will stop treating domestic violence and sexual violence against men as a joke. We have to realize that male rape isn't a joke. Cutting off male genitalia shouldn't be "funny". I see a lot of media that is sensitive to every subject ... except male victims of domestic and sexual violence, and the problem isn't just that men are the victims. It's that ANY time we treat this kind of violence as a joke, it's bad for EVERYBODY.
Say you're a racist and/or homophobic piece of s**t without saying you're a racist and/or homophobic piece of s**t
Load More Replies... As a black person... it does tho?
Load More Replies... 