End of humanity? The most disturbing predictions for the 2020s

It's only human to be curious about what the future has in store for us. For centuries and across cultures, we have resorted to visions of the future from prophets, saints, and gurus. Here is a selection of predictions for 2022 and the years to come.

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More than a century ago, the Russian spiritual leader Nectarios of Optina made a prediction that shocked everyone who got word of it. According to reports at the time, God told Nectarios in a dream that mankind would end in the year '22.

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As Nectarios himself lived at the beginning of the 20th century, he thought that the end of mankind would come in 1922. As we know now, of course, that didn't happen. So what about 2022? Will this be the year in which the prophecy is fulfilled? Let's hope not.

Michel de Nostredame, aka Nostradamus, also referred to 2022. He described a year with three days of total darkness. Other seers added to this theory that a rain of fire would fall on the planet during those days.

In principle, if the world ended in 2022, we wouldn't have to worry about the next year anymore. But in case the previous predictions fail, the world should know that Nostradamus also predicted a major economic crisis for the coming years.

If that economic crisis actually comes, it would be the third major recession in twenty years. We could actually start speaking of a pattern rather than a shocking prediction.

Vasily Nemchin, a medieval seer, predicted the so-called Little Apocalypse for the year 2023. He didn't specify what it would be, so it could be anything. Or nothing. Some people say that his character was invented by Russian astrologers at the end of the 20th century.

(Photo: Instagram / @boroda_ychenika)

And if the Little Apocalypse isn't bad enough already, some Orthodox prophets speak of 2025 as the year when aliens will reach the world. Of course it will not be a courtesy visit but a colonization of humanity.

The arrival of extraterrestrials was predicted by the Bulgarian prophet Baba Vanga, among others. She lived from 1911 to 1996.

More predictions by Baba Vanga and Nostradamus for 2022

Austrian physicist Heinz Von Foerster (1911-2002) calculated - with what he considers a scientific method - that the end of the world would place in 2026.

At the same time, Nostradamus wrote in his quatrains, the Asian nation of the Tartars will become one of the most influential countries in the world. They allegedly succeed at this because they find a substance in their region that is valuable to the whole world. So 2026 promises to be an interesting year.

Baba Vanga predicted that by 2028, humanity would be exploring Mars and Venus. One reason for our research on other planets is to develop a new energy source that we'd apply on Earth. Elon Musk no doubt likes this prediction.

The idea of a new energy source pitted two famous seers against each other. On the one hand, Baba Vanga thought it would have to do with nuclear fusion, and on the other, Nostradamus suggested that it would be generated from sound waves.

It is of course possible that both energy sources will be widely used in the future. But it's also possible that we will have been extinct for 3 years by 2028. Who knows!

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The famous American inventor Raymond Kurzweil developed several voice recognition systems and is also known for his scientific predictions about the advent of artificial intelligence, the internet and virtual reality. His 'prophecies' about technology are astonishingly accurate.

Kurzweil predicted the invention of PCs, the Internet, and a wireless system for information transfer. For the future, the scientist predicts that artificial intelligence will be fully integrated into our daily lives by 2029.

By 2030, Raymon Kurzweil says, we will have completed our transition to a world of Internet technologies and products with artificial intelligence. We will be nearly completely absorbed in virtual reality and have fewer real social contacts.

In addition, Raymond Kurzweil predicts a scientific revolution in medicine and transplantation in 2031, when many clinics around the world will have access to equipment that can clone human organs for transplantation.

Read also: Chinese prophet Liu Bowen predicted the beginning and end of the Covid-19 pandemic