The U.S. in 2111

In 100 years time, the citizens of the United States of America will have long since realized that their former way of life was both environmentally impractical and draining the earth of its resources. In 2111, we will see a very different population of people inhabiting the land. Instead of over 300 million U.S. citizens, there will be around 250,000. That's 30 cities of just over 8,000 people or 40 of just over 6,000, if everyone chose to live in an incorporated city area. A fair amount of the population however, will elect to live in rural areas as "part of nature" and live self-sufficient lifestyles.

As for the citizens who choose to live in urban areas, they will not be the "cities" we understand today and will be organized in a very different way. Instead of having networks of roadways and train tracks connecting one sprawling urban area to another or to its many suburbs, all towns will have walking and bike paths. Since there are only 250,000 people living in the entire country, cities will be significantly smaller than they are today and bikes will suffice for people to get from place to place. For longer distance travel, airplanes (or something similar to them) will still be used except instead of running on jet fuel, they will be completely solar powered.

After significant research in development in alternative energy sources, solar energy is much more efficiently harnessed and is able to be stored for months in case of long periods of bad weather. Schools, hospitals, police stations, homes, and all other living spaces will be powered using solar energy.

Most homes and probably almost all homes in the city will be apartment style, where each family has a floor of a tall building. Each living space will be half indoor and half outdoor and generally much smaller than what the average American family has today. The outdoor space would consist of a terrace where each family would have a garden and possibly animals (if they choose to eat meat). This food that they grow and care for would sustain their whole family. Entire apartment buildings may even begin to function like cooperatives where one family for example, specializes in grapes and another in lettuce and they all share their harvests among each other. American society in 2111 will strive to be completely self-sufficient an unwasteful with regards to food. Everything a person eats, they grow and vice versa.

I think that the three biggest differences in society will be the significantly smaller number of people living, the way in which energy is harnessed, and the way in which people sustain themselves. In 2111, instead of driving in our fossil-fuel burning cars to the grocery store to buy pineapple from Costa Rica, people will eat only what they can grow themselves or trade with another.