• Question: Can you predict what you will look like in 20 years time accurately?

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      Asked by GingerMaddie to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 20 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Laura Finney

        Laura Finney answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        I look a LOT like my mum and so sometimes I think when I look at her, it is like looking at what I will look like in 24 years time (although hopefully slightly better since I don’t smoke and she does).
        I think based on your lifestyle and skin etc. someone could probably predict what you will look like but then a lot of other factors must be taken into consideration like if you use drugs etc. what your diet will be like. These are all things that can change and so I think you could only predict it based on your life now and we would have to assume it would not change.

      • Photo: Robert Williams

        Robert Williams answered on 20 Jun 2016:

        Yes and no.
        In my case I have ginger hair and neither of my parents had ginger hair – but one of my grandmothers did.
        Some people hardly change as they age whereas other change quite noticeably.
        The key thing is that if you did not have any photos from many years ago you might not realise that you are changing all the time.

      • Photo: Luke Williams

        Luke Williams answered on 21 Jun 2016:

        There are programs that can be used by police to age people effectively. There are even apps which will do something similar with a photo. Obviously, these apps aren’t quite as good as the real deal, but the police can be pretty effective with their stuff.

        Looking about, appears even more widespread than I thought:

        http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/04/09/see-what-a-child-will-look-like-using-automated-age-progression-software/

      • Photo: Ruth Patchett

        Ruth Patchett answered on 21 Jun 2016:

        I personally cannot, although I suspect I will look quite a lot like I look now with a few more grey hairs and wrinkles from getting baggier skin (hopefully some “laughter lines” too! There are scientists who can predict how we will look in the future as quite a lot is already decided by our genes but a lot also depends on how we live, if we smoke or drink alcohol, if we have good or bad diets, how much sunlight we are exposed to and so on. So it can be predicted but it doesn’t mean it cannot be changed!

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