“This book contains various forecasts and scenarios but its aim is not to predict the future. Anyone that says they can do this is either a liar or a fool.” This is the first line of the preface of my book. The trouble is everyone that’s read the book so far wants- you’ve guessed it- various forecasts and predictions. OK, to keep everyone happy here are some foolish predictions (and I’d be lying if I said they were all in the book).

1. In the future there will be a law passed in Europe that requires married men to be at home by 9.00 p.m. on Thursdays or else they will be fined 500 euros.

2. Patina will be big in the future. Women with facial lines will be highly desirable.

3. Eating watermelon becomes socially unacceptable.

4. Europeans stop buying Australian wine on the basis of ‘food miles’ and carbon footprints.

5. Australians boycott European food products on the same basis.

6. Intelligent packaging ‘networks’ will allow packs to speak to each other in your kitchen.

7. By 2050 Hollywood, the computer industry, neuroscience, and the pharmaceuticals industry will all have merged into one. This will enable people to spend days inhabiting what are quite literally other worlds.

8. We will discover that Osama Bin Laden was found dead years ago.

9. Carbon footprints will be a passing fad.

10. We will invent new things to worry about.

11. My book about the future will be a massive hit.