2016 Predictions Update - 10 years later
This post on 2016 Predictions was written December 2015. I've left the original text below unchanged. I've also added a 2026 addendum with what I got right, partly right and downright wrong. This is because with psychic visions, it's often the timing (and the way events unfold) that's hardest to pin down.
2016 Predictions Coming Up
Below is an overview of some of my thoughts and psychic visions concerning the future and my 2016 Predictions. We are now standing at the juncture of one of those defining moments in history. The world is about to dramatically change as we know it.
We haven't been in this position since the printing press was invented. It's an exciting but scary time. Although we don't have the church authorities or the government threatening us because we wish to disseminate information and spread the word, we now face a different type of information problem. And it's one that will bring up fear and worry for a lot of people.
Society is now entering a new kind of industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence, automation and digitalisation will be responsible for the loss of many millions of jobs in western societies. In Australia alone up to 5 million jobs will be lost. Some new jobs will be recreated but many people will have to re-skill and re-educate themselves in order to fill those positions. Many people will have to change not only their jobs, but also their industries.
Many jobs will be outsourced to 2nd and 3rd world countries where the costs of manufacture are substantially lower. All western nations will be affected and the transition will be absolutely monumental. Many countries could lose up to 40% of their current jobs. Here's some job tips for your star sign.
Predictions for High Risk Job Losses
- Administration, including office and retail admin
- Commercial Pilots
- Bookkeepers, accountants and auditors
- Retail workers, some retail shops will manage online but many jobs will be lost as customers source goods internationally.
- Bank workers
- Public Service and government officials
- Drivers ā taxis and public transport job which will be replaced by automation
- Factory workers
- Food production, preparation and farming which will be outsourced overseas in cheaper countries.
- Power industry workers
- Labouring, packing or routine type jobs will be at high risk.
2016 Predictions for Moderate Risk Job Losses
- Teaching, many jobs will go online and teachers will be sourced from cheaper countries.
- Pharmacists, robots will dispense medication, but Pharmacists can improve their 'bedside manner' to remain relevant.
- Flight attendants, numbers will be cut but still some required if there is an accident/incident.
- Restaurant, pub and bar staff, although where self -service isn't available they may be able to improve their service and be in more demand.
- Cooks but probably not chefs.
Predictions for Low Risk Job Losses
- Psychics, coaches, counsellors
- Artists
- Graphic arts
- Musicians
- Engineers
- Technologists
- Surveyors
- Scientists
- Mathematicians or jobs involving advanced mathematics
- Veterinarians, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and other medical professionals, although they will need to digitalise their work where possible.
- Hairdressers, massage therapists and beauticians
- Police and emergency services...there will be more of these jobs available.
Any job that requires creativity, empathy or human type skills.
The Retail Sector
Retail shops will be greatly affected by digitalisation and automation. Online shopping will dramatically trend upwards over the next decade. Asia will dramatically increase trade with Australia. If you're in bricks and mortar in retail, either get online quick and gear up fast or get out now. I see more 'kiosks' instead of actual shops. Eventually, China will be more powerful than the US and this is very worrying.
The Education Sector
Education will also be farmed out to Academics in a variety of countries as education goes online in greater and greater quantities. Those universities/colleges who do not offer distance education courses will become bankrupt. High schools will also offer distance education for many subjects. It may be that students only attend school 1 day per week to socialise and meet up with teachers. Of course, many parents will be working from home (if they are in fact working).
Manufacturing Sector
This sector has already been harshly hit - the trend has already started and will continue. Exceptions will be products that are creative and/or artistic in some form.
The Health Sector
Health, although a growth industry with many baby boomers now becoming older and suffering health problems; will also experience teething problems as medical professionals find themselves having to re-skill in digitalisation.
Already pharmacists' jobs are at risk through various government policies and automation bringing in automatic dispensing of medication. The trend towards more natural products will continue, so entrepreneurs would be well advised to pursue these avenues and look towards development of natural speciality items.
Many new cures for illness coming including new genetic technologies. I see a new artificial heart giving hope for those with heart disease. Also robotics will be giving new hope for those with organ failure and also other body parts that are damaged. I see advances in neuroscience and a greater understanding of consciousness and how the brain actually works. There's a greater understanding of life and death and what these states actually mean. There will be a blurring of the lines between life and death. Although death is not as cut and dried as many think.
The Banking Sector
Banking stands to lose a lot in the next decade. There will be major disruption in this sector. New technologies will emerge allowing seemless payments in all manner of ways. Many people will refuse to use banks altogether. Peer to peer lending will greatly increase along with crowdfunding. The way that banks work will be radically overhauled. Banks know this now, that is why they are trying to be nice š
Now might be a good time to consider letting go of any banking shares you might have. If you're working in banking, plan how to get out now and look at how you can re-skill yourself for other industries. If you owe any money to banks, pay it off as soon as you possibly can. Many loans have clauses hidden in the fine print saying they can foreclose on your housing loan whenever they wish to, even if you are up to date in your payments. Don't risk it.
Some banks will threaten bankruptcy and ask their governments for financial bailouts, especially in the USA, although this will occur in a number of countries. Your loans could be sold off for a song and then the new owners will come knocking for full repayment.
The Power Industry
Oil will soon be in decline as reserves begin to run out and become harder to obtain. Savvy business entrepreneurs will be looking at ways we can share power in a similar way to riders sharing cars. Entrepreneurs will look to the Uber and AirBNB models of sharing and better utilising existing resources in a number of different industries including power. We will have driverless cars and pilotless planes.
Power Transformation
New technologies will emerge using wave power from the world's oceans, solar and wind power will continue to grow in popularity. We already have electric cars, this type of technology will spread to public transport wholesale.
Fracking will be recognised as a crime against the Earth and will be linked to earthquakes in far away places. Fracking is a dangerous and injurious process to Mother Earth and she will not continue to allow it without consequences.
Australia will be the solar power capital of the world, with solar power spreading rapidly throughout all levels of society.
Whilst the transformation is taking place over the next 15 years or so, western societies will be further polarised into the 'haves' and 'have nots' and there will be many 'have nots'. Governments will cut benefits and social welfare dramatically. They have to as they can't afford benefits with an ever decreasing tax base. More people out of work equals less taxes and add into this mix - more baby boomers retiring. It's a recipe for financial contraction and disaster for many people.
Government Predictions
Governments won't have the funds to continue playing the patriarchal role of father doling out money. People will have to step up and take more responsibility for themselves and their children or drop out of society altogether. There will be no government safety net of any substantial means.
People will have to work longer and retire later, retiring in your 70's will be normal. Contract status will be the new norm, people will not want to be tied down as employees as they seek to make their own way, working and earning less overall. But some people will be happier for it as they improve their stress levels and learn to live on less, growing some of their own food for example.
With a decreasing tax base, governments will be forced to increase GST/VAT (up to 25% in some countries) and various other taxes. Company taxes will be lowered in many western countries as Governments seek to stimulate business, but it's a case of too little too late for many businesses who will go to the wall.
Multinationals vs Governments: The Power Shift
Multinational companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and Qantas will be forced to pay reasonable taxes in the various countries they operate in. They won't like it but if they wish to sell their services/products in those countries then they will have to contribute more. I see Google leaving Ireland who will become stricter with their taxation regime. I also see Google doing a 'deal' with a 2nd world country, possibly in Asia.
Regarding terrorism, I see it killing itself eventually. There is ferment from the inside rather than an attacker from the outside bringing them down. In fact western governments could even try by subterfuge to keep it going, as entire industries have now been built around terrorism. Terrorism is not the omnipotent force that many think. I see digital heros causing all manner of problems for terrorists. Terrorists cannot take the name of the Great Mother Goddess Isis and think there is no consequence.
And the Future...
I see western societies becoming more tolerant and compassionate in the medium-long term, largely because the authorities see the errors of history showing them the way forward. The world will become a more transparent and fair place to live in many places. When I'm old and look back, I will agree the world generally speaking, is a better place in the future than now, despite rapid and disastrous climate changes due to global warming. I am hopeful that when we get through all these changes, people will care more about each other. The changes will teach us all greater compassion for each other, the animals that are left and the planet as a whole.Ā The Rise of People Power is coming.
Itās now 2026 ā ten years on, and it feels surreal to reāread what I wrote back then. Iām going to leave the original article intact below, because it captures the mood of that time and the way the information came through. But I do want to add this short addendum for anyone reading it today, looking for context: what I feel I got right, what I got partially right, and what I got wrong (or at least wrong in timing).
What I got Right
The biggest theme I got right was the overall direction of society: we really did enter a new kind of industrial revolution. Digitalisation and automation kept accelerating and artificial intelligence became the giant lever that changed how work is done - especially for āinformation work.ā The general sense that people would need to reāskill, change industries, and stop assuming a single stable career path would carry them through to retirement has proven accurate. Contract work, sideāhustles, portfolio careers and āworking aroundā organisations rather than inside them have become normal for many.
I also stand by the core of what I wrote about retail: bricksāandāmortar has been heavily pressured, online shopping has kept trending upwards and we have seen far more selfāservice, kioskāstyle transactions. In everyday life, many of us now interact with screens and automated systems where there used to be people.
Banking disruption also broadly played out the way I felt it would. Payment systems became easier and more seamless, peerātoāpeer transfers became normal and many people became far less loyal to traditional banks. The āfeelā of money changed - less cash, more digital rails, more fintech, more people questioning what banks are for.
On energy, I still feel that the direction I described was correct: solar and wind kept growing, and the idea of households feeding energy back into the grid has become mainstream in a way that would have sounded unrealistic to many people a decade ago. The broader cultural shift toward electrification also strengthened - even when the infrastructure and politics lagged behind what the technology could do.
Half and Half
What I got partially right (or right in theme, wrong in timeline) Some of my āhigh riskā job categories were right in principle but slower in realāworld rollout than my visions suggested. Driving and transport automation, for example, has moved forward, but not in a clean, total replacement of drivers everywhere. The technology exists in parts of the world, but regulation, safety, cost and public acceptance have made this uneven and slower than a straightāline prediction. But it is happening slowly across many countries including Australia where some driverless cars have been approved for trials only.
Education did move strongly online and distance learning became normalised - but not in the neat, permanent way I imagined. In practice, it has been more of a hybrid future: online learning expanded dramatically, yet people still returned to ināperson schooling because schools are not only about education, they are also about social development and the practical realities of family life. Universities and training providers have certainly been pressured to modernise, but the outcomes have varied widely rather than collapsing all at once.
I also wrote about outsourcing and ācheaper countriesā taking a larger share of work. Some of that happened, but another part of the story has been that the work didnāt just move countries - it moved into software. In other words, it wasnāt only outsourcing; it was the replacement of certain functions with systems, automation and now AI.
Where I Muffed It
What I was wrong about (or didnāt see clearly) The biggest thing I didnāt see coming in the way it actually arrived was the disruption of creative work. In my original lists I framed creativity, music, art and āhuman skillsā as safer. What surprised me over the last few years is how quickly AI moved into creative and communications spaces - images, writing, design, audio. Meanwhile some handsāon physical work has remained harder to automate than people assumed. I still believe human creativity matters profoundly, but the commercial marketplace for creative work has been shaken faster than many expected.
I also gave some very large numeric jobāloss possibilities. While the direction of change and the pressure on many roles was real, the way societies absorb change is messy: new jobs appear, old jobs reshape, whole categories blur and the effects donāt always show up cleanly as āX million jobs vanished.ā Hindsight is always a great gift so I see the scale of disruption was easier to sense than the exact numbers.
Psychic Visions and Timing
Finally, I want to say something important about timing. Over the years Iāve learned again and again that timing is the hardest part of any futureāviewing. Sometimes a theme arrives immediately, sometimes it takes a decade and sometimes it arrives sideways - through a different mechanism than the one I assumed at the time. I've had some things happen within seconds of me seeing them in Spirit.... other things have taken twenty years, but they did still happen.
Overall, reading this now, I feel the āshapeā of what came through was largely correct: we have been living through a massive transition in work, money, technology and power. The details and timing were not always clean, but the world really did change - and it is still changing.
Although we may find ourselves caught in oceans of change, the real task is to learn how to float. So stay present, stay adaptable and let each new wave teach us how to move with it rather than sink.
