What does the future hold?

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri May 03, 2002 4:21 am

No, not necessarily a maudlin take on current events. What is your vision of the future, as in a SciFi context? Where do you see humanity in 100, 1000, or 10,000 years time?

Are you a Trekkie? Everything is hunkey-dorey in the Federation.
Are you a Blade Runner? Earth is a trashed toxic-waste dump.

Do you have your own ideas or do you let SciFi work your imagination?

I must admit, I find myself drawn to the "Dark" future concept. Human kind continues to advance technologically into the stars but is unable to rid itself of the nastier elements of being human - corruption, malice, greed. Blade Runner, Alien that kind of thing. I sympathise very much that kind of thing - considering my part of the world is pretty much trashed to begin with.

Beldin · Post by **Beldin** » Fri May 03, 2002 4:32 am

Personally I imagine our future more along the lines of Frank Herberts "Dune".

We'll be able to slower the ageing process, enhance the capabilities and capacities of the human brain and in a very distant future we'll be free of the need for computers an their derivates except on an industrial level (production, space travel...) .

The other possibility that I think of is the final merge of man and machine. We COULD become a race of gengineered cyborgs.

I would like the first "future" better - but the second is possibly more probable.... and it's definitely a shame that I won't be around to see it....

No worries,

Beldin

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri May 03, 2002 4:51 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy
I must admit, I find myself drawn to the "Dark" future concept. Human kind continues to advance technologically into the stars but is unable to rid itself of the nastier elements of being human - corruption, malice, greed. Blade Runner, Alien that kind of thing. I sympathise very much that kind of thing - considering my part of the world is pretty much trashed to begin with.

Same here to some degree. I do believe that there is some good people out there in the world, however i do not think that they are in the majority. In this country the National Front have won votes at the local election....that is surely not a good thing. We will run out of Oil soon and it won't be long before people start preying upon each other for all manner of things, in a very Mad Max way.

I live in a lovely area, but farmers don't agree with any one else on anything, they have shot at each other, there is family splits all the things one associates with the Mafia....not farming.

If you look at who is in power in each of your respective countries, could you honestly tell me that you think they wouldn't sell out the country for themselves?

What do i see as the future?

I see everything becoming more centralised, Europe a united nation but with the same internal polotics they always have, so eventually it will break down, i see the US going the way of Rome. The rich getting on a rocket and going to the moon. All in all it doesn't look good from where i am. That is on a bad day....On a good day, i forsee much like Beldin, things wil lget better and we will learn to live as one world....and then there are the other days where i just don't care

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Fri May 03, 2002 5:26 am

I heard an interesting thing on the radio the other day, which is kinda relevent. Scientists have almost been able to get a special gas down to Absolute Zero (almost, but not quite). They did experiments on this ultra-cold gas, and found that they could actually slow down light. They could hsine some light in there and have it slow right down to a real-life speed. They believed that the future of computing would be like this: Information would not be stored by the intricate formation of positive/negativ logic gates, but by the intricate formation of light beams, held in near-stasis. You could store sentences as kind of morse code beams of light, just hanging in this frozen gas, and then extract them later. It would make computers not just become 10x as fast every five years, but millions of times faster every year! The possibilities are endless...anyway, I'm more inclined towards the William Gibson- definately post-apocalyptic hell, but with more emphasis on computers than (Blade Runner) robots.

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri May 03, 2002 5:47 am

I'm not so sure post-apoclaypse will occur (or apocalypse for that matter

). Humans have a penchant for prolonging their own suffering, not bringing about a mercifully quick demise.

I imagine it to be more of a slow, choking, strangulation - ekeing out over millenia, drawn along by our own self-illusion that we are advancing.

"Die Puny Mortals!" (where is Kayless when you need him?)

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri May 03, 2002 5:54 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy
I imagine it to be more of a slow, choking, strangulation - ekeing out over millenia, drawn along by our own self-illusion that we are advancing.

That is so depressing it is actually funny

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:08 am

I will go with Mad Max.

And yes I can built a V8 and I can put a 8:71 blower on it.

(Ever wonder why he had a clutch on the blower?? It would use more gas with it disengaged

Hollywood

)

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:28 am

I see the future descending into a spiral of even greater violence and wars.

All the whilst being unaware of the dramatic leaps being made my animals like apes and dolphins. And before you know it, we are slaving away on a human farm under the rule of one of those higher evolved species.

Fear The Dolphins...

Robnark · Post by **Robnark** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:30 am

And before you know it, we are slaving away on a human farm under the rule of one of those higher evolved species.

that's what the mice want you to think...

Rob-hin · Post by **Rob-hin** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:36 am

I'm quite positive about the futur.

Man will develop a clean way to keep the earth safe. Then we will go into space and set up a colony here and there. No alians, just us. There are alians but we can nerver reach them. So mankind is ok, with low life scum still existing since we ARE human.

More a scenario from Total Recal...

Beldin · Post by **Beldin** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:38 am

Originally posted by Robnark

that's what the mice want you to think...

Or other rodents....

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:55 am

@Sleep, LMAO!

@Robnark, LMAO!

Those pesky rodents.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:10 am

I envisioned Weasel packing all of us SYMians into his spacecraft and venturing forth to discover strange, new worlds.

Or, I'll just settle for the abysmal post apocalyptic planet wrought with famine, pestilence, and destruction. A planet that brings the few living together under various despots living in fear and snacking on the dead.

I really hope Weasel has a spaceship (with cheerleaders on board).

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:14 am

LOL.

But what if weasel crash-lands the ship on a barren waste-pit and we all end up snacking on the dead? I say we eat frogus *first*. Sure, he's all brain and sinew but then we don't have to listen to him any more.

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:22 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy
I say we eat frogus *first*. Sure, he's all brain and sinew but then we don't have to listen to him any more.

Agreed, but lets not tell frogus...

He may object to that idea.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:28 am

How do you think his legs would fry up??

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:34 am

*bounds in smiling widely* He guys! Sorry I had to go away, I was making you all Christmas cards extra early to make sure I don't forget! So whatcha all been talking about?

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:43 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy
Sure, he's all brain and sinew but then we don't have to listen to him any more.

In France, he would be considered a delicacy.

Dottie · Post by **Dottie** » Fri May 03, 2002 7:48 am

After the spaceship have crashed, There will be a long period of darkness, When everyone will live in fear of Gruntys pantless marines.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Fri May 03, 2002 8:04 am

I think that humanity will always live close to the edge of flourishing and destroying itself.

I am not a treehugger, but I think that if we don't take better care of our planet, we'll burn out our resources through overpopulation and pollution.

I think people are generally good and hard-working, but that we are easily swayed by charismatic leaders and ultimately give in to the lowest-common denominator (witness the success of Jerry Springer).

I believe that the gaps between the rich and poor will only continue to grow, and that the influence of powerful nations will continue to expand while the squalor in the poor nations will increase.

We are on the verge (or already have) many scientific advances which are of incredible benefit to all of humankind, but these advances will always be out of the reach of those who need them the most because the people who have and control these sciences will make them unaffordable to the common person.

I have a guardedly optimistic view of the future. I think that people are sedentary and are prone to following blindly rather than thinking critically. However, I also believe the people are capable of great good and that they generally want to do the right thing. I think that the future of Star Trek is too rosy, but also that the futures in 1984 and Blade Runner are too dark.