Some prognostications are absurd. Some sounded plausible at the time they were made, but then turned out not to come true. Others turn out to be entirely accurate.
As I see it, I have an opportunity in writing this article to either entertain you with wild and crazy predictions that will be fun to read, but almost certainly turn out to be untrue. Or, I could try my best to be accurate and maintain my credibility for the future.
Instead, I’m going to try to strike a balance by offering some serious predictions which are based on what I see as current trends, followed by some silly ones which I hope will not come true, but will make you laugh.
Since I volunteer with the mutual aid and educational organization Fr33 Aid, I’m going to focus on health and medicine related predictions, at least for the serious part.
First, the serious predictions for 2012…
The not-so-good news: the government will continue to grow in every sense.
Governments at every level will attempt to ban or tax foods, drinks, and habits that they don’t like.
The “war on drugs” will continue, putting lots of nonviolent people in jail, diminishing everyone’s civil liberties, and disproportionately affecting minorities. Drug abuse will not be recognized as a medical problem for which abusers need help, but instead as a behavior that needs to be punished.
Military presence and wars in the Middle East will continue, putting many people’s lives at risk and guaranteeing the return to the US of many military members with severe physical and psychological trauma, who unfortunately will not get the care that they need from the VA. Many will be lost to suicide.
Government will become more involved in the relationship between doctors and patients with more regulations and mandates. Mandates will also fall on patients to purchase health insurance from politically connected insurance companies.
Entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare will not serve the needs of those they are supposed to help, but will drive federal deficits higher, which the government will saddle our future children with paying off.
Currency inflation will continue, making it more difficult to get the same amount of health care for the same amount of dollars as in the past.
The good news: what remains of a free market, or perhaps those who find creative ways to get around red tape, will step up to fill the demand for health care, as well as other health related products and services
Home testing kits for things like cholesterol, blood glucose, and hemoglobin A1c will become less expensive and better in quality. More non-invasive tests will be developed, such as the glucose scanner that works by reflecting light off a patient’s eye.
More artificial body parts will come to market, like the replacement bladder that can be grown by molding cells around a balloon, or the artificial pancreas which combines a glucose sensor with an insulin pump.
Manufacturing processes for generic drugs will improve, allowing patients to access them more cheaply when they are needed. Drugs whose manufacturers are still being granted monopoly privilege (i.e. drugs under patent) will remain expensive since no competition is present to drive the price down and manufacturers must pay exorbitant costs to get them approved by the FDA.
Information about the reputation of health care professionals will become increasingly easy to access and share on the internet.
The internet will bring knowledge about diseases and health to people who could once only get that information from doctors, enabling people to in some cases make their own diagnoses, or question ones they were given by professionals, or just be empowered to learn more about their own medical conditions.
Mutual aid networks will grow, enabling people in need to access care from compassionate professionals.
E-Cigarettes will help many thousands of people quit smoking vastly more harmful tobacco cigarettes.
Genetics research will advance to allow people to easily and cheaply test to see what genes they carry, which may affect their risk for certain diseases. This will help people make lifestyle adjustments geared toward staying healthy.
Software algorithms will calculate people’s risk for various diseases based on data that is already known. It is already possible to calculate one’s risk for heart attack, stroke, and some types of cancer, but soon more algorithms will come into widespread use, and will be freely available through websites.
Information about natural disasters and epidemics will become more easily available in real time through the internet and through social networks.
New antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and vaccines will diminish suffering from infectious diseases around the world.
Medical hackers will build their own open source diagnostic equipment (like OpenPCR), devices, and drugs, for a fraction of the cost of currently available ones " and they will publish how they did it freely on the internet.
The even better news: all of these things were already happening in 2011!
Call me an optimist, but based on the “good news” above, I think the future is bright.
Finally, here are my silly predictions for 2012…
Aliens will land at the Porcupine Freedom Festival and report that they’ve searched all over the galaxy for freedom, and have finally found it.Bathrooms across the US will be occupied as a continuation of the Occupy Movement.Ancient Mayans will appear in a time machine and announce that they were just kidding about their calendar ending in 2012 and have tacked on a few extra years. Stephanie Murphy is a liberty activist in New Hampshire and is currently an MD-PhD student. She is a co-organizer, volunteer, and media liaison for Fr33 Aid. Fr33 Aid appreciates your willingness to volunteer or your donation if you enjoyed this article. Find out more at Fr33Aid.com/about.