In 50 years...

[Ban my account ffs!]

What age will people be considered adults in 50 years or so?

I think adolescence will continue to lengthen and adulthood will be seen to begin at age 25, when brain development is more or less complete.  We are already seeing this happen.

What do you think?  Both legally and in practice?

[Del Tachi]

Legally, it will stay at 18.  Anything different would require a quite extensive reorganization of our economic and educational systems.  However, I feel like even today we don't consider someone a true adult until they have finished their formal education.  As more people chose to go to grad school or pursue professional routes, that means that "childhood" is being lengthened. 

[dead0man]

legally....18...not letting people vote, or make legal contracts, join the military,etc until they are 25 seems silly to me.  In practice, I have no idea.  One clearly isn't a "child" at 23 even if they still rely on other people to pay their bills for them.  They may be child like, they might not feel like an adult inside, but they are not children.

[TNF]

One would hope it would be reduced (as it should) to 15 or 16. Unfortunately we seem to be moving in the opposite direction, so I would wager 21.

[IceSpear]

In Oklahoma, apparently never.

[DC Al Fine]

One would hope it would be reduced (as it should) to 15 or 16. Unfortunately we seem to be moving in the opposite direction, so I would wager 21.

What exactly makes one an adult in your view?

[politicallefty]

I can't see it being anything more than 18. The minimum voting age is constitutionally protected to be no higher than 18. If anything, I could see efforts to reduce the voting age to 17 or even 16. The age of consent will surely never be higher than 18 in the US. I think 16 would be a more likely universal age of consent over anything else. In terms of the legal rights of adulthood, I cannot fathom the age being higher than 18. If it were to be anything else, I think 16 or 17 would be far more likely.

The only exception is the current, which is the legal purchase age for alcohol and marijuana. If the National Minimum Drinking Age Act were repealed, the states could naturally evolve to a lower age. Before that national standard, there was wide variation among the states. The only reason states are setting the marijuana age at 21 is because that's also the age for purchasing alcohol. Setting the age at 21 for marijuana is merely another unfortunate byproduct of the NMDAA.

[Beet]

One would hope it would be reduced (as it should) to 15 or 16. Unfortunately we seem to be moving in the opposite direction, so I would wager 21.

Precisely. When I was 15 or 16 I was just as smart as I am now at 30. Less knowledgeable, sure, less experienced, sure. But no less smart. However, we should take into account brain science; with the caveat that, just because the brain has not finished changing does not mean it has not reached a point of autonomy.

[Person Man]

Legally, it will stay at 18.  Anything different would require a quite extensive reorganization of our economic and educational systems.  However, I feel like even today we don't consider someone a true adult until they have finished their formal education.  As more people chose to go to grad school or pursue professional routes, that means that "childhood" is being lengthened. 

[TNF]

One would hope it would be reduced (as it should) to 15 or 16. Unfortunately we seem to be moving in the opposite direction, so I would wager 21.

What exactly makes one an adult in your view?

Sexual maturity should be the basis of how we define 'adulthood', in my opinion.

[courts]

One would hope it would be reduced (as it should) to 15 or 16. Unfortunately we seem to be moving in the opposite direction, so I would wager 21.

with the influx of mexicans i very much doubt it