All we need is the Drengin to attack Earth and humanity will finally be united.

A Galciv perspective:
WARS!! That is the history of mankind. We invent new ways to kill each other everyday!

Africa is going to be left to kill itself to death with AIDS and civil wars. (seeking a military victory on the african continent.)

North Africa will remain as it is. Probablly seeking a diplomatic victory.

United States has to keep being the technological capital of the world by some means...perhaps a new revolution in public education in business ethics and science. Else it will slowly cumble away. Each USA person now has a ton of more stuff now than in the 1960s. Seems like quanity has replace quality in food, movies, music, even video games (except for stardock). This increases our dependance on oil and cheap labor. We really do need a strong third political party perhaps made up of galciv fans. (seeking technological victory at worst, influential victory at best if there is business ethics & public education revolution) The secret to America is it's adaptability.

Russia: Now economic stabiliy has been established, a new russian president needs to free russian media networks from government ownership, else it will go the same path as china and be close friends with china. (seeking a neutral victory...see which way the wind blows..and joining it.)

The one government party China, the perfect example of evil always wins. Can you imagine a republican party in control for the last 60 years...killng and jailing anyone who tries to start another party? If natural resources are low and USA is weak...china going to "colonize" their neighbors, even certain african countries or pacific islands with oil. Either by political might(because of its huge population of cheap labor) or by military intervention. seems like every country grown dependent on cheap material goods from china. When can the avergage joe learn that buying stuff isn't buying happiness? (China seeking a influential victory with military as a final push.)

Europe wants to be a USA with it's EU. But the problem with Europe is that is has too much history and tradition, thus refuse to imagine a European with 50% nonwhites. Thus they tend to limit immigration, they even have "immigrant districts" in some of their countries. USA has always been a melting pot...it's culture always changing. Just give ethnic groups a few generations for assimilation...(back in early 1900s immigrants from italians, irish, germans, were considered aliens stealing american jobs). Skin color does make assimilation harder but asians, blacks are being to assimilate into america. American food culture has also changed...we have more choices chinese, vietnamese, mexican, indian, middle eastern. (Europe seeking a diplomatic victory).

India: seeking a diplomatic victory. Every body loves curry.

Middle east: it's corrupt governments is stuck in the past. Still can't get over the 6 day war lost to Israel. The 6 day war, perfect example of winning a war is base on information first, military second. (a minor race in galciv2, unless it people somehow can its governments.)

hmmmm We should pout these in a time capsule and see what comes of it many years from now.

I'm going for 20 years, lol.

I see a few problems with oil, especially as Russia (2nd biggest exporter, sometime 1st if Opec slows the Saudi production) becomes more emboldened and hostile to Europe/America.

Food prices will go up in america as we convert farmland to grow corn (for fuel) and less corn and other produce is available for market. Also a resurgence in Nuclear power along with coal and natural gas.

We'll bounce around economically (some good years some really bad years) as our econmy evolves into a more global economy.

I do forsee a rise in ethnocentrism in America, fueled by racial tensions. (Hate groups are currently on the rise again, latching on to the immigration issues and targeting hispanic immigrants)

Crime will rise also. It's currently gone up for the last two years, and will most likely continue to do so for quite some time.

oh yeah, that warmer climate thing too. That might probably be getting bad for some areas in 20 years.

As for the future, my predictions are as follows....

everything will pretty much continue on the same until terrorists manage to nuke somthing. After that the world will change - allot! You will probably see the rise of the Antichrist yada yada from that point on.

I see China and India fighting wars. Posibily against each other, most likley against the rest of the world. That probably will be preceded by a cold war.

The polar ice caps will continue to melt, and America will continue to ignore it.

What few contries still have the queen of England on their coin will slowly drop what sembelence of a Monarchy they have.

McDonalds will become bigger and bigger.

Fusion, hmmmm...., fusion.
In order to understand if fusion is possible in the next 50 or even 100 years (currently, the way scientists are going about it, I don't think it is) you have to understand how they want to achieve it.

They use what is called a tokamak device, basically a donut shaped structure that accelerates ions (plasma) around magnetic field lines contained within the "donut". This plasma follows the lines in a helical way (one of the main problems with magnetic confinement fusion).

However, fusion is possible because even now fusion does take place in a tokamak device, the problem is getting sustained fusion, which has not happened yet, and as I see it, will not happen until a different method is used to cause fusion. One of which is called laser fusion, where force is applied to a "pellet" of atoms from all directions by lasers until the atoms fuse. Sound familiar? The force in this process is directed inward, so the atoms in the pellet have no where to go but together (not th e case with magnetic confinement) this is how nature does fusion, gravity pulls the atoms together in the sun so they have nowhere else to go.

Point is, sustained fusion is a long way off.

As for the rest of the world, I don't see much changing, as long as everything is still about money, making money for yourself and you friends (for people in power) and pleasing those who voted for you (in all countries and political parties) everything will stay the status quo. The only way that anything will change much is if something huge happens, nuclear detonation (by anyone), giant meteor, Godzilla, etc.

But maybe if we are lucky the EU (or the US...maybe)will come to some sort of agreement to change the way we use energy, especially in cars, and take the lead when it comes to efficient cars and renewable power that the rest of the world will follow, but at the moment the US only vowed to "seriously consider" reducing emissions by half by 2050 and as far as I know the EU isn't much better.

Anyway that is my 2 cents.

Atomic War. The survivors emerge from giant underground vaults to begin a new life in the wasteland. The water purification chip fries in one of the vaults causing that vault to send people one by one into the atomic wasteland to find another chip before the super mutants get to them....

Ion drive or use of the Earth's magnetic field to propel modified conventional aeroplanes slowly into orbit. The latter would still require conventional rockets but none as inefficient as the (tech) tree NASA is barking up.

As for me, in 50 years I see society stealing the styles of the 2020s, which were in turn bastardised from the 1990s. Everything we predict now of technology in the next 50 years fails to happen, as have predictions made in the 1960s of what the year 2000 would be like. The human race continues to be as short sighted as it has been throughout the rest of its history and UK politicians are still babbling about how something must be done to avert climate change, only now they're in the attic of the house of commons as all of the other floors are flooded. Co-incidentally the New New Labour party have been in power for the last 20 years, as all of the original conservative party have died and those remaining are so similar to New New Labour the distinction is meaningless. Voter turnout is less than 50%, a pattern repeated across other democracies older than 50 years. People of Tokyo and New York and similar cities have filled in all the gaps between buildings filled with water with a suspended tarmac ground floor. Every time the water level rises a new ground floor is built and new stories are placed on top of the buildings, kept standing by the water and by virtue of having the previous ground floor filled with concrete. Africa has gained some wealth from the actions of more developed nations, however is still plagued by all the problems of its past. North America has a 99.9% majority of blonde, blue-eyed, white, straight, fundamentalist Christians owing to the 'majority-led' ethnic cleansing programs of 2031. The concept of 'The American Dream' has gradually been modified over the years to include the ownership of everything in the universe as the great American ideal.

Space travel even within our solar system is seen as the fallacy it is.

Wishful thinking tempts me into hoping that people have found a way to make stem cells work as cure for many diseases. Another possibility is that the bio-sciences like genetic research and health-related nanobot-research have seen great progress, leading to many life-threatening diseases and conditions being eradicated from humanity... at least in areas where people can afford extortionate sums every twelve months for these inoculations.

In short, people are still arseholes to each other.

Here is what I would like to see realistically:

In the early century Global Warming (or the polite synonym Climate Change) was averted at the last moment, and though the greater effects were avoided, there are still reprecusions. New forms of energy assure us of no worries overshortages for many years to come. However, water is becoming an issue as the natural sources begin to dry up. Water Desalinization is a booming industry. The Moon has been colonized for some years now, as new platforms for getting into space have emerged, making it cheaper than ever. As a result, the Moon, rich in various minerals (namely titanium, if I am correct) has become a major producer of spacecraft, mostly for the many space stations going into orbit and for the growing number of people migrating to Mars. Despite a harsh climate, the red planet is getting both warmer and a thicker atmosphere due to terraforming efforts. Despite this, farming is becoming a major industry there, and the population is growing fast. It is expected that within a period of a thousand years (or less if several governments or corperations have their way) it will be much like earth, minus a few pounds. There are also people looking into ways of possibly cooling down venus and creating a fourth habitable world, though it is still a far distant thought. The internet has become obsolete due to new neural implants (the beginnings of such technology is already tested and proven), and the "interlink" has become it's replacement. However, the computer industry is by no means slow down it's progress. Terrabytes are considered just as miniscule as a single byte is today, and videogames are a worldwide phenomenon, and the have become a sport, with something similar to olympic games every several years.
However, all is not perfect in this world. Recent tensions have sparked possibilites of a third world war, and there is a raging ethical debate concerning DNA, where people are starting to "desiegn" how the children will look and what traits they might have. The ethics of it are in question. Several nations are causing worldwide trouble as usual, but nuclear tensions have settled down. The new fear is Anti-Matter weapons, similar in destructive power to nuclear weapons. There are also tensions amongst the martians, who are begining to get angry that they have not even been allowed to govern themselves, and that all decisions are made by the UN. Fears of a rebellion are rising, and a possible "War of the Worlds". There is also an argument over Antarctica as several corporations want to put mirrors in orbit to warm the continent and melt the ice to create more land. However, environmentalists and many scientists are protesting the idea, warning that the resulting floods would be cataclysmic to people on the coasts, and the environmental damage to the (small, but none the less very real) ecosystem would be irreperable. However, as usual, greed knows no boundary. The UN has made no verdict yet.
All in all, it is not that much different that the modern day world we live in. The story never changes, but the setting and the characters are never the same.