[JediKooter]

Most Likely:

Geological Event - We already saw what happened in December of 06 with the sunami that followed the earthquake. We will see something like that again. California is close to being overdue, if I remember some of the articles correctly, I have read in the recent past.

Quick moving plague - With air travel and other means of transport, it's more than possible to happen. I'm surprised it hasn't already. Most seem to be coming from asia and there's lots of travel going there and coming back. All it would take is a mutation of SARS or something along those lines and BAM! There's our next pandemic.

Population over 12 billion - If Sarah Palin is elected president in 2012. The end of Planned Parenthood and most forms of birth control eleminated will all but assure reaching the 12 billion milestone. On a serious note...

I don't see much being done in the way of bringing most of the 3rd world countries out of their current state. One thing that 3rd world people know how to do, is have kids. 12 billion is not an unreasonable number to reach in my opinion. However (see below), that is if the world can even sustain a population that high.

Somewhat Likely:

Catastrophic event on food supplies - I think would effect those countries who rely on most of their food to be imported or that don't have mild winters. If this happens, I don't see the population reaching 12 billion. Lack of food for some countries may lead to what's next on my list.

Major Nuclear Strike - One would think a major nuclear strike would be stupid and endanger the food supply. No, what I think will happen is, a country will try to 'show' their might by nuking a 3rd party or long time enemy, to make the world see that they are a major player and demand their part of the food. Something like Iran nuking Israel. No major food resources being lost in that strike.

Other - People land on the Moon and Mars. I think NASAs goal is to get someone to Mars by 2040? I'll have to look it up to be sure. I think it is possible and I think it is a good idea. The world isn't getting any smaller and if humans want to continue their existence, we will have to start spreading out amongst the stars.

Unlikely:

World War 3 - Unlikely due to the fact that the players who could have started WWIII (USA/Soviet Union/China), didn't and now have too much money at stake in their economies to risk doing it to each other now. The smaller players wanting to be big players just don't have the resources to sustain a prolonged global war. So, I just don't see this as happening in my lifetime. There will still continue be conflicts like Iraq/Vietnam/Afganistan etc...though.

Great Depression 2 - It's possible, but, unlikely. There's different practices in place now than there were back during the Great Depression of the 1930s. But, who knows what could happen. Corporate greed knows no bounds...

Very Small but Non-Zero:

Flying Cars - I just don't see this happening. People have a hard enough time driving with the car on the ground. For the safety of the public, keep the cars on the ground. However, I WANT MY DAMN FLYING CAR ALREADY!!!!!

People land on a planet other than Mars - We are having a hard enough time getting back to the Moon, let alone Mars. Once those two have established permenant bases, then the possibility of going to another planet would be possible. But, which one? Venus and Mercury are too hot. Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neputne are all gaseous planets. Pluto seems to be the only planet beyond the asteriod belt that is rocky. Other than to try and establish a permenant base on Pluto, I see no reason to go there with manned missions. Now, if you are talking about landing on the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, that may be a slight possibility.

People travel out of the solar system - Speed & distance is still too great. The next closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away. If NASA could get Project Orion technology working (using nuclear pulse propulsion), we could reach it probably in less than a century.

Make first contact with sentient life - Not looking good with current technology

People exterminated by sentient life - Unless these other beings have figured out faster than light travel, next to zero of this happening

Other Human mass extinction event (<1% of population left) - There's always a small chance of this happening. More resources are needed to detect NEOs and give us enough warning to protect ourselves would be great.

Other Human mass extinction event (0 left) See above.

United States expands its "Empire" - There is always a very small chance of this.

Not at All:

United States collapses or is taken over by another country - I don't see this happening in my lifetime. However, it seems, every great country has had a collapse at one point in its existence.

Robots/AI take over (ala Terminator or Matrix) - As interesting as this would make things, it just isn't going to happen in my lifetime. I really don't think we've progressed all that far from "chess" playing robots. Granted, there have been some great strides in AI the last few decades, but, it being applied in a large scale is far far off in the future.

The Rapture/Judgement Day/End of Days - The Rapture...which version? Pre-Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation, Prewrath, or Post-Tribulation? Doesn't really matter though, as like the rest of the bible, this is a made up folk tale to keep the sheep in line.

Judgement Day/End of Days...If we are talking about the biblical and 2012 predictions. Nope, not gonna happen. In 1999, there were tales of doom and horror and destruction, just like in 999. Humans seem to have this weird predesposition with associating bad things with numbers. Much like 666 is attributed to Satan, but, conveniently forget that 666 was also the number designation for Emperor Nero. 616 is thought to be for Caligula. 2012 is just the end of the long count calendar and the start of the new long count calendar? Are you sitting down for this??? 2013.

Average age for global population is over 100 years old (66 currently) - Not going to happen in my lifetime. Too many 3rd world countries would need to catch up to the rest of us and I don't think the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation can do it on its own.


Wild Card:

Zombie Apocalypse - There's untold numbers of the dead already buried beneath our feet. We could, possibily, in a blink of an eye, be in the middle of world wide disaster. This would be a challenge like no other that humankind has had to face in the past and could very likely see the end of humanity. Prepare yourselves people, prepare...