200,000 people migrate to cities daily around the world. Nearly 70 percent of the world will live in cities by 2050, closer to 90 percent in North America and Europe. 

The problem? 

Could there be a day in our collective future when violence becomes a thing of the past? Will it one day become possible to overcome our primal urge towards aggression? Can we find solutions to the poverty, lack of education, and mental illness that lead to most cases of violent crime? 

We’re all drug users. Whether it's booze, cigarettes, and weed or painkillers, sedatives, and antidepressants, experiencing altered states has been a part of the human experience for millennia. The only difference between our forefathers and today is that we have a better understanding of the science behind getting high. 

But what does the future hold for this ancient pastime? Will we enter an age where drugs disappear, a world where everyone opts for a life of clean living?

No. Obviously not. That would be awful. 

The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Sopranos, Scarface, Casino, The Departed, Eastern Promises, the public's fascination with organized crime seems natural given our love-hate relationship with this underworld. On the one hand, we openly support organized crime every time we purchase illicit drugs or frequent shady bars, clubs, and casinos; meanwhile, we oppose it when our tax dollars prosecute mobsters. 

The coming decades will bring about a stunning variety of unique crimes that previous generations would never have thought possible. The following list is a preview of the future crimes set to keep future law enforcement agencies frustrated well into the end of this mid-century. 

(Note that we plan to edit and grow this list semiannually, so be sure to bookmark this page to keep tabs on all the changes.) 

Education reform is a popular, if not routine, talking point dredged up during election cycles, but usually with little actual reform to show for it. Luckily, this plight of true education reformers won't last for much longer. In fact, the next two decades will see all that rhetoric turn into hard and sweeping change.

The college degree dates back well into 13th century medieval Europe. Then, as now, the degree served as a kind of universal benchmark that societies used to signify when a person attained a level of mastery over a specific topic or skill. But as timeless as the degree might feel, it's finally beginning to show its age.

The trends shaping the modern world are beginning to challenge the degree’s future usefulness and value. Luckily, the reforms outlined below hope to drag the degree into the digital world and breath new life into the defining tool of our educational system.

The teaching profession hasn't changed all that much over the past few centuries. For generations, teachers worked to fill the heads of young disciples with enough knowledge and specific skills to transform them into wise and contributing members of their community. These teachers were men and women whose mastery could not be questioned and who dictated and regimented education, deftly guiding students toward their predefined answers and worldview. 

But over the past 20 years, this long-standing status quo has crumbled.

Traditionally, most students would use the word ‘sluggish' to describe how their school engaged with new technology. Modern teaching norms have existed for decades, if not centuries, whereas new technologies have largely worked to streamline school administration than used to improve student learning.

We're entering a future where medications will be customized to your DNA and your future health will be predicted at birth. Welcome to the future of precision medicine.

In the last chapter of our Future of Health series, we explored the threats humanity currently faces in the form of global antibiotic resistance and future pandemics, as well as the innovations our pharmaceutical industry is working on to combat them. But the downside of these innovations is in their mass market design—drugs designed to treat the many instead of designed to cure the one.