I watched a video at work discussing the top five trends in 2030. And one of the sections in that video was titled – ‘Follow The Babies’. It talked about how the world population has changed and continues to change. A few decades ago, it was necessary to have multiple children as there was a need for labour on the farm, and also only a few children survived into adulthood. And then came the industrial revolution, which resulted in a reduction in farming – but the reproduction rate did not consider that, so many countries brought in child control policies. And then people had one or two kids.

The population continued to grow. And now, with social media and all that is happening worldwide, many people are consciously choosing not to have babies. And also, our lifestyle has made infertility a common issue among young couples. In some countries like Japan, young adults are not even marrying as the cost of living is too much.

So in the equation, what’s happening is the number of births has reduced compared to the number of deaths. And this has a lot of ramifications, some of which we may not even be aware of. To begin with, it means less of the younger population and more of the older population. Our life expectancy is increasing. What could this mean?

The retirement age will increase – as the world will still need some human labour despite all the AI and ML you can bring in. There will be a lot of ageing population – and the world will have to shift to that section of the population which is on the fringes now. This means that marketing ads will target that population segment, including more than just medicines and retirement homes. The sixty-plus-year-olds will drive the world economy. The gyms, offices, transportation etc., will cater to this segment more.

Young children will be a rarity, just like fantasy stories in which Elves who live for centuries do not have kids that often and when they do – they are precious. We may have a child-producing system with artificial insemination, etc.

There will be more AI – artificial intelligence and ML – Machine learning. Automation like self-driving cars will be the norm. All humans will wear health tracking machines instead of apple watches as that’s essential to the older generation.

The older generation will have to live a lifestyle that allows them to live happily until death. The sixties might be the new thirties. Both China and India are seeing a decline in their population. In a few decades, a small number of the young population will be supporting a more significant number of the older population, which will have ramifications on pensions etc.

The world, universe or nature will take care of itself as needed. They are brilliantly engineered systems, unlike humans, who, for the most part, are highly dysfunctional, with a few exceptions. Unless we clean up our act, the future world may not be to our liking.

What are you doing about your lifestyle?