Electric vehicles have been abandoned. There are no more child laborers on the sites where the materials needed to make batteries are extracted. There's no more toxic waste from the end-of-life of these batteries. We're back to thermal engines, but using a vegetable fuel, to hydrogen engines, and to atomic fragmentation engines. As the earth revolves around the sun on an oval circuit, it is now on a point less close to the star, and climate change is less obvious. But fears of change have had some interesting effects. We're more attentive to environmental issues

The smell of fresh coffee wafts through the air - kitchen nanobots know exactly when I'm up. The city is silent, hovering vehicles glide silently over the streets, because internal combustion engines only exist in museums. As I leave the apartment, the climate is more balanced than it was thirty years ago. In 2025, we were still dealing with more extreme storms and heatwaves year after year, but since then the world has taken the fight against climate change seriously. Cities are greener, buildings are covered in plants, and energy is entirely from renewable sources.Humanity has learned to live sustainably, and now we are looking not only to the future of the Earth, but also to the path to the stars. One thing is certain: between 2025 and 2050, there will have been many challenges, but our choices have paid off. Humanity has not only survived, it has thrived - towards a better, more conscious world.

I will have been retired for some time in 2040. I'm still doing pretty well for my age. My pension doesn't allow me to spend a lot of money, so I'm more frugal about it. However, over the years I have managed to update the furnishings in my flat so that I am now more comfortable and better off. I have also bought some more modern appliances which have made my life easier. I still like to work on my computer, which I replaced a few years ago with a newer one; I also have a smartphone. In the future, I only wish for good health - both physical and mental. I still like cycling, not the big climbs anymore, but on the flat I am still going. I bought a new road bike a few years ago and I am very happy with it. I also bought an electric mountain bike and it makes it easier to get up the Pohorje hills. I go hiking in the mountains from time to time, mostly in winter, especially when there is snow, which is not very often and not very much anymore. Life in the place where I live has changed more or less. People are still friendly. The place has changed more or less. Apart from a few newer buildings and houses and some modernisation of the local roads, there have been no major changes. The road connections to neighbouring places have not been improved much, but finally a section of the road to Rogla has been improved, which was planned about 25 years ago. The natural environment is also not much different than it was a few years ago, although the impact of climate change has only become more pronounced. There are more hot days in summer and occasional thunderstorms, while winters are milder with little snow, although temperatures occasionally drop below 0. Overall, life is more expensive. The prices of basic goods and services have gone up, so that there is not much left of the pension for pampering and treats. I would like to finally hit the lottery ;-). I am not too interested in the situation in the country, in Europe and in the world. I stopped following the media and politics after the corona. The media has become even more showman-ish in this time, social networks are not even trendy anymore because of untruths and inaccurate information. AI has become, as previously predicted, just a tool to help, and it is not as reliable as expected for anything more. Cars are still fossil-fuelled. Only cars owned by people with their own solar power plant run on electricity, because electricity has become too expensive and because there are occasional blackouts. Efforts to make nuclear power cheaper have still not been successful. We will have to wait another 25-50 years.

I would hope that in 2040 world leaders would be in their right minds and believe in the truth. The wars would be over and all the people of the world would be happy. Discrimination would no longer exist in any form anywhere in the world. All minorities would get along and understand each other. Technology would have advanced to help us instead of taking all our attention away from the irrelevant, artificial intelligence would be useful instead of leading us to destruction. Everyone would have a good and comfortable life and greed would be stifled.