by Robert Blevins

Created on: September 12, 2009

Predicting the future of America is a risky business. However, here are twelve things that may become reality in the U.S. by the year 2020:

1) The Information Age is gaining momentum. It grows as all the stored data created by human beings everywhere continues to expand. By 2020, all real power in the U.S. will stem from the entities that control the most information. If corporations control the majority of information, then corporations will have the most power. If governments control it, then governments will have the most power. If people control their own information - well, you can see where this is going. The control of information is one of the biggest issues in America (as well as the world), although many people don't realize it yet.

2) If the scientists and researchers who support climate change are correct, most of the glaciers in America will have either shrunk dramatically or completely melted. If you live in areas where weather records are being broken each year, the effects will be cumulative, that is, as the problem gets worse, the faster it will get worse each year, sort of like an expanding circle.

3) It is likely that the United States, in cooperation with Eurospace and other space agencies, will establish a presence on the moon. If they don't put it underground, all the personnel could be killed in ten minutes by a major solar event, such as an outflow of protons from the sun, for example. We can only hope they protect the residents by making it an underground base.

4) We could be well on our way to a manned landing on Mars by 2020, but only if everyone can agree on the funding and the mission plan. This will only happen if other space agencies cooperate with NASA, and if they incorporate the International Space Station into their plans.

5) Today's big-screen plasma televisions will be selling at Goodwill for peanuts. By 2020, many people will be watching three-dimensional holographic projectors set up in their living rooms. You could compare this technology to the scene in the first Star Wars film where Luke Skywalker accidentally finds that video message from Princess Leia on the R2-D2 unit. ('Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope.') Soon after this technology becomes common, companies will create interactive films, games, and role-playing software. They might call it HV, for Holographic Video. This technology is already closer to reality than you think. It would be expanded to computers almost immediately for video email and

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