Comment by nine_k

Since bold outlandish predictions are entertaining, here comes.

* A major mathematical breakthrough renders Quantum Mechanics an elaborate approximation of a simpler and weirder model, much like the theory of epicycles, very precise at the time, was a weird reflection of the heliocentric theory. It promises to solve the paradoxes of gravity in black holes, and involves parallel universes. Scientists work frenetically on testing it experimentally.

* A previously unremarkable effort to understand the structures which emerge in trained AI models makes a major practical discovery that allows to compress the models 2-4 orders of magnitude after the training phase, with minimal loss of precision. Computationally cheap, offline text translation comes to every smartphone; same with basic image recognition, voice recognition, voice synthesis, instant OCR, on hardware comparable to Raspberry Pi.

* Unexpected long-term consequences of COVID start to show as changes in emotional and cognitive spheres of significant numbers of previously affected individuals. While the changes are not always obviously detrimental, they freak the public out. More than that: every vaccine is found to trigger changes of similar nature.

* Twitter builds a fact-checking engine, using AI, Wikipedia, and the data from the Library of Congress; the first version only supports a few languages. Every tweet with more than 100 likes is marked by a rough epistemic score. Major controversies around religious questions force the engine to withhold any judgement of religious matters, after some uproar. Selling access to detailed and complex API of the fact-checking engine becomes a serious source of income.

* Russia, crushed by a military defeat and economic woes, fractures. Its president is said to be dead, and also to be alive in several different locations; the videos of his addresses are dismissed as deepfakes, by external observers and by other alleged presidential addresses. Nobody knows where the nuclear suitcase is; various military officials who control actual nukes deny allegiance to whoever now controls the suitcase. A bunch of new faces who previously were in the shadow emerge as being in control. The parts, weakened by the war, don't have the resources to fight seriously with each other for control over the terrain, and all plead to major world forces for support and demand recognition. Yielding the nukes found on the territories becomes the major condition of providing such aid and recongnition.

* A little-known company, for years secretly financed and now bought by Apple, unveils contact lenses that offer basic but an ultra-high-resolution, efficient, and polished augmented reality display. The lenses are powered wirelessly, through glasses or headphones, which also track head rotation. The lenses look so inconspicuous they can hardly be noticed, even looking face to face. Headphones and glasses are instantly banned from various exams; universities offer their own standard glasses of prescription strength to those who require them.

* One of the strains of oil-eating bacteria, initially designed to help remove oil spills, evolves to be 100x more efficient. An infestation is found on a shore after a minor oil tanker incident; presence is then discovered in a number of major ports and oil refineries. If uncontrolled, an infestation can render large amounts of liquid hydrocarbons unsuitable for fuel use within days. Airports, sea ports, gas stations, and military bases scramble for various solutions and disinfection measures.

* A major effort to build a private base on Mars, financed by a number of Earth's top billionaires, is announced. The base is planned to be ready for first human settlers in 5 years, and for permanent, self-sustaining inhabitants, in 15 years. The foundation is tight-lipped about who is going to inhabit it. Interestingly, both John Carmack and John Romero refuse to comment on their involvement.