Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

The real world will no longer have real meaning, as the distortion of language continues, and the gulf between intention and perception widens (think Ministry of Truth). Colonisation of other worlds will not happen as there is no financial gain, no point. There is no ET, intelligent life is based on probabalities too remote to occur anywhere within our boundries. Utopia will never be achieved, those who work will work harder and longer, those who don't work will be demonised to levels beyond my current comprehension. God is dead, long live superMan!

Askan

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Bugger, I sound like a complete dreary pessimist (that how you spell?) there.
Well for a positive note the Australian Cricket Team will reign supreme for at least another 10 years. Muhahahah

Askan

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Thanks for the downer Askan. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Seriously, I agree with you in that a combination of gov/ corporate spin and public apathy is leading the world to the point where Big Brother can get away with anything and tell us the opposite is true.

However I think everything comes and goes in cycles. I think this authoritarianism will trigger a libertarian backlash. With comms technology (ie the internet) making it easier and easier to distribute the truth and hegemony internationally and a concurrent trend back towards locally produced goods and government (a trend beginning now) there will come a kind of revolution where people simply begin to cut the gov/ corp out of their lives.

Authority will have to evolve out of these monolithic, top-down structures or find itself left out in the cold. Kind of like what is happening to the music industry right now with mp3s etc.

You could be right about colonisation, for a while at least. Eventually though it will become either so cheap that it would be silly not to, or utterly vital to our continued way of life.

[ March 26, 2003, 15:00: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

-Will we colonise the solar system? When?
o Yes. We will. There are lots of reasons why. Computer controlled mining stations and factories producing materials . Ships will be cheaper to build and run. New opportunities for commerce, military, research. The people will realise that we can live much more comfortably. Why should we want to colonize the system? Because our curiosity, greed and will to own are endless. I believe this is near future(20-100 years from now).

-Will we ever travel beyond this solar system? When? How? How far?
o Yes we will. Nowadays theories propose many ways how to accomplish it. The most important thing is how long is the voyage going to take. Research done in space will stimulate new theories. People born in a world where you can travel in space will have different views of world. New theories. New dangers.

-How long will humanity survive? Will we evolve into something else, be wiped out by war/ catastrophe or have we reached the point where we can overcome or avoid anything nature can throw at us?
o Here we come very close to the question of existence(or non-existence) of other life in the universe. For now I will omit it. We will master biology and nanotechnology. The difference between humans and machines will become more and more insignificant. Yesterday's curiosity becomes today's common thing. There is always a danger that we have to overcome and this will never change. So yes we will evolve into something diametrally different from the humans as we us. Given time, nothing can endanger us except ourselves.

-Will civilisation continue on its path or are we headed for a catastrophe and a new dark age?
o This is a race between curiosity and greed. We can only hope. My personal oppinion is that the curiosity will tightly win and the humankind will survive.

-Will we meet intelligent ETs? Will they come here or will we have to go to them? How will we get on with them?
o I believe they had come, seen and left. :-) Someone will surely open dicussion on this topic but I don't want to be that person. :-)

-Will we achieve AI? When? What will be the ramifications for humanity? Will we all become cyborgs?
o In a way we will become cyborgs. But we will not be the clumsy machines. Opposite is true. Does transplantation of a grown heart make you a cyborg? Does a transplantation of artificially created(disease reasistant, more endurance...) heart make you one? Where is the difference? You can easily call someone a cyborg when half of his body is metal, wires and batteries. But can you call someone a cyborg when you just encourage his natural regenerative ability or when you give him other organic replacement/enhancement. I believe the only way out of here will be a definition that cyborg is everyone who has an altered body (the result is different from natural dispozitions).

-What about genetics? Will future generations of humans be improved (or maybe "improved") by gene-tweaking? Will people accept this?
o See above. People will have to accept it.

-What about neural technology? Will our great-grandchildren have computers embedded in their brains and direct mental access to everyone else?
o In a way yes. I am not sure about the computer connection, but their brains will definitely work more efficiently.

-Will communications technology fundamentally change society? Will government become obselete when we're all jacked into some gigantic global network? Will we become the Borg?
o Yes the communication will change every society. No. Government is always needed. You can't make right decisions if you don't know all facts. If we ever evolove into a one-big-brain then there will probably be no need for specialized government.

-Will the usa conquer the entire world? How long before the new empire crumbles?
o No it will not. Now it is the only super-power but times change (and they often do as is their habit). New empire will be a mix of all countries(or nation). It can collapse but it will forever rise. The name and people can change but the purpose stays the same.

-What art/ literature/ individuals from today will be remembered for centuries to come?
o Hard to say. In 100 years Asimov can be admired, 50 years later resented and then again admired. It depends on attitude of people. And the attitude changes with almost every generation. The only one who I think will be remembered is Elvis(no, I am not a fanatic fan of him :-) ).

-Will humanity ever be united and war made a thing of the past, or is our tribalistic instinct too strong?
o For a time there can be peace. But there are always boundaries that make us fight. This can change with genetic manipulation but our current genetic equipment is built to fight and survive.

-Is national identity something that will come to an end or will expansion to other planets create more nations and more conflicts?
o There will always be a reason why the other are worse. How goes that saying? Curiosity becomes suspitions, suspitions become difference, difference becomes hatred. I believe this is true.

-What is the future of religion? Can it stand up to the advance of science? Will it evolve, die out or will it stay as it is?
o The religion will evolve and it will be here forever.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think my problem at the moment is that I'm in the process of sobering up, and the fact is 2:45am here and I'm expected at work before 9 tomorrow means I'll have to post more of my delightful tidbits on the future tomorrow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Askan

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

-Will we colonise the solar system? When?
Eventually but we're still centuries away.

-Will we ever travel beyond this solar system? When? How? How far?
Once we colonize the solar system and space travel becomes an everyday business, it's only a matter of time until we venture farther.

-How long will humanity survive? Will we evolve into something else, be wiped out by war/ catastrophe or have we reached the point where we can overcome or avoid anything nature can throw at us?

Humans are very resourceful and can manage to survive under extreme conditions.
I bet that we would survive a disaster such as the one that killed the dinosaurs.

Humans do no longer follow the laws of natural selection, so we cannot evolve in a Darwinian sense. But in a broader sense of evolution, humanity as a whole will keep evolving, in a social and other ways.

-Will civilisation continue on its path or are we headed for a catastrophe and a new dark age?

Not a dark age as in the middle ages but there will all ups and downs in civilization.

-Will we meet intelligent ETs? Will they come here or will we have to go to them? How will we get on with them?

If we'll eventually travel beyond our solar system, and if there are aliens out there that may do the same (some of them could have started millons of years ago). So I believe it's a matter of time until we eventually meet each other.

-Will we achieve AI? When? What will be the ramifications for humanity? Will we all become cyborgs?

I don't know if computers will ever be a completely sentient, but soon they'll be able to mimic humans better and interact with us in a more natural way.
There will be a time when a computer will be able to answer questions like these ones without the need copying the answers from a database but elaborating by itself an answer based in its stored knowledge. Will that be AI?

First cybernetics will be more advanced Versions of current prosthetics.
Progress will be very slow. Do the gasses I'm wearing to improve my poor eyesight make me a cyborg?
It will be a very long time until technology can effectively replace most body parts with something that is as good. And even longer until someone decides to chop off his arm to replace it with a cybernetic one.

-What about genetics? Will future generations of humans be improved (or maybe "improved") by gene-tweaking? Will people accept this?

It will happen. Though current knowledge of genetics is not as good as some believe, someday it will be possible. Once something is possible and proven reliable it will have to be accepted.

-What about neural technology? Will our great-grandchildren have computers embedded in their brains and direct mental access to everyone else?

We will eventually blend our brains with computers. We may be able to send a mental email to someone else, but that will not eliminate our individuality.

-Will communications technology fundamentally change society? Will government become obselete when we're all jacked into some gigantic global network? Will we become the Borg?

Communications are already changing the world.
There will always be the need of a set of rules and somekind of government to encourage them.
Individual minds will never blend into a borg-like collective consciousness.

-Will the usa conquer the entire world? How long before the new empire crumbles?

No. Every empire that has risen in the past has fallen, the USA will be no different.
If they don't revise their policies right now, we're not that far from a WW3 with the USA against the rest of the world.

-What art/ literature/ individuals from today will be remembered for centuries to come?

Some art and literature of centuries ago is remembered and preserved now.
History will filter what becomes a classic and what will be forgotten.

-Will humanity ever be united and war made a thing of the past, or is our tribalistic instinct too strong?

It may never happen, but we must keep trying.

-Is national identity something that will come to an end or will expansion to other planets create more nations and more conflicts?

We have people from all over the world posting in these forums.
Communications will be better and soon many of our work mates and even close friends may be people living in other countries. Frontiers are already blending.
Interstellar communication may be an obstacle, but it will be eventually overcome.

-What is the future of religion? Can it stand up to the advance of science? Will it evolve, die out or will it stay as it is?

Religion has been constantly evolving to coexist with evolving societies and modern science.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

I wish the future was Star Wars, but I see 2 different futures:

Future 1:

We'll die, killed by ourselves, our hate, the desire of power, experiments and wars.
May be we'll travel and colonize the Solar System, mine asteroids for minerals http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif , but not for a long time.
The Earth will be reduced to dust.
If ET intelligent life will come to see us, they'll run away from such a terrible, lammer, violent, murder... life form, the humans.
Genetic modifications will be made to create... I don't want to think about it.

Future 2:
Genetic manipulations will make us more intelligent, so the majority of us will forget the wars, the differences between us, and (in my opinion) the religions.
We'll travel through the Solar System, colonize some planets and terraform them like Mars, for explore, mineral, organic and radioactives mining, house more population, and just for pleasure.
I don't know if green men will visit us, but I think they already do it (I mean watching us), and we don´t notice it.
All the nations will become a big and strong one.
About the cyborgs, may be, but like they are now. For a high performanced workers and/or guards, we'll use robots, or even Jedi http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif .

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

In the future I will be getting off work for the evening. Assuming I am fortunate and pay attention to my driving I will get home shortly thereafter. Indications are I will have dinner at some point after that. Later in the eveneing sometime I expect I will be going to bed. Beyond that things get a little cloudy and I will have to play it by ear.

-Will the usa conquer the entire world? I certainly hope not. Neither I or the vast majority of my countrymen have any desire to conquer the world. I seriously doubt we could pull it off if we wanted to, and wouldn't know what to do with it afterwards if we could.

[OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Inspired by some of the other off topic threads here (namely Plato's pub and the war ones) I'm interested to know where you all think the world is going, so I'm asking for predictions about the future of humankind.

Don't limit yourself to just these questions or feel you have to answer them all, but this is the kind of thing I'd like you to consider:

-Will we colonise the solar system? When?
-Will we ever travel beyond this solar system? When? How? How far?
-How long will humanity survive? Will we evolve into something else, be wiped out by war/ catastrophe or have we reached the point where we can overcome or avoid anything nature can throw at us?
-Will civilisation continue on its path or are we headed for a catastrophe and a new dark age?
-Will we meet intelligent ETs? Will they come here or will we have to go to them? How will we get on with them?
-Will we achieve AI? When? What will be the ramifications for humanity? Will we all become cyborgs?
-What about genetics? Will future generations of humans be improved (or maybe "improved") by gene-tweaking? Will people accept this?
-What about neural technology? Will our great-grandchildren have computers embedded in their brains and direct mental access to everyone else?
-Will communications technology fundamentally change society? Will government become obselete when we're all jacked into some gigantic global network? Will we become the Borg?
-Will the usa conquer the entire world? How long before the new empire crumbles?
-What art/ literature/ individuals from today will be remembered for centuries to come?
-Will humanity ever be united and war made a thing of the past, or is our tribalistic instinct too strong?
-Is national identity something that will come to an end or will expansion to other planets create more nations and more conflicts?
-What is the future of religion? Can it stand up to the advance of science? Will it evolve, die out or will it stay as it is?

I'm not going to post my own predictions just now, but I will do later. I tell you what though, I'd give my right eye for just a day spent browsing history books from 500 years in the future...

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

-Will we colonise the solar system? When?

We'll colonize the solar system soon enough; although I doubt most of them will fit the expectation of a colony. They'll be more like the Antartic research stations, with the exception of the Moon, which would be a big research station http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

-Will we ever travel beyond this solar system? When? How? How far?

Anytime soon? Doubt it, very much. Maybe in the next millenium. How? Maybe our grandsons and granddaughters will hear about it when they turn 75. How far? If we find a viable way, as far as we can.

-How long will humanity survive? Will we evolve into something else, be wiped out by war/ catastrophe or have we reached the point where we can overcome or avoid anything nature can throw at us?

Despite the news we hear, I think a good portion of the world is level-minded for us to be wiped out by war. If we do get wiped out, it will be because of disparities in living standards. As for that second part, I think nature will find new ways to challenge humanity; if not on earth, in space.

-Will civilisation continue on its path or are we headed for a catastrophe and a new dark age?

Civilisation will continue on, as it had for many years before.

-Will we meet intelligent ETs? Will they come here or will we have to go to them? How will we get on with them?

Only a matter of time. How will we get along with them? That won't be up to us.

-Will we achieve AI? When? What will be the ramifications for humanity? Will we all become cyborgs?

We'll achieve AI a lot sooner than we can achieve FTL engines, that's for sure. I don't know about the details, but if we do create AI, We'll have new truckloads of social problems that will have to be solved over time. Now, about being cyborgs, that's really up to a person's choice. People who are blind, deaf, mute, crippled, or mentally disabled won't mind cybernetic implants and parts which will make them normal or 90% normal again, but normal people will abhor the idea of having a limb cut off and having it replaced with a machine.

-What about genetics? Will future generations of humans be improved (or maybe "improved") by gene-tweaking? Will people accept this?

Gene therapy could go two ways IMHO - On one side, it could become like abortions, and on the other, it could become like pLastic surgery. It really depends on the cases in the near future.

-What about neural technology? Will our great-grandchildren have computers embedded in their brains and direct mental access to everyone else?

I don't see any conventional pros in neural technology. I'm against it, except for medical purposes. The potential for damage is to big IMHO; a neural virus could put people into comas, seizures, and even brain death, in a matter of seconds, and it could spread faster than the internet, since you'd only need to think in order to transmit.

-Will communications technology fundamentally change society? Will government become obselete when we're all jacked into some gigantic global network? Will we become the Borg?

The internet has already changed the world in ways unforeseen, and it keeps changing how the world thinks. What makes you think it will stop changing? Although Governments will exists as long as civilization exists, even if total democracy is achieved. Why? 2 reasons: People will be too busy to vote on every resolutions and bills, or people just won't care.

-Will the usa conquer the entire world? How long before the new empire crumbles?

The USA will never conquer the entire world: it doesn't want to, and if it does, the rest of the world won't want to speak "American".

-What art/ literature/ individuals from today will be remembered for centuries to come?

Important media icons, such as Lord of the Rings, Titanic, Pokemon, and Harry Potter.

-Will humanity ever be united and war made a thing of the past, or is our tribalistic instinct too strong?

Wars between countries, where it kills millions and millions of people in matters of minutes? Yes, I think that we will be eventually be horrified by the idea that we will all be killed by a button, and work together to build peace. But wars as in domestic issues? No. There will never be a state where everything is solved and everything is known and everything is perfect.

-Is national identity something that will come to an end or will expansion to other planets create more nations and more conflicts?

No. Never. As long as history exists, National Identity will never go away. But the ugly parts of national identities will fade away, as long as people respect each other. And of course more national identities will spring up soon enough. To say that it won't and we will all see ourselves only human is ridiculous, IMHO, and unrealistic. I will most certainly see myself as something else after I grow up under a green sun, see Carbon Dioxide Ice caps, and breath that thick oxygen/nitrogen/argon atmosphere.

-What is the future of religion? Can it stand up to the advance of science? Will it evolve, die out or will it stay as it is?

It'll most certainly evolve; maybe perhaps we'll worship unified field theories as god itself, just as the greeks did once, with their pythagorean theorems.

There goes my two cents...

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

-Will we colonise the solar system? When?
-Will we ever travel beyond this solar system? When? How? How far?

Eventually for both. As to when. The technology to do it exists even now, but at great expense. I don't see people going out there for awhile as it would be too expensive. How long exactly? I don't know. Sometime between now and later.

-How long will humanity survive? Will we evolve into something else, be wiped out by war/ catastrophe or have we reached the point where we can overcome or avoid anything nature can throw at us?

Three main options here.
First we kill ourselves off in the immediate future. If this does happen it will most likely be the result of some unforseen accident or a super madman/terrorist getting their hands on something really nasty and killing us all either by design(I'll take all those bastards with me!) or accident (this super disease will wipe out all the Americans!! And then the rest of the world... oopsie.) I doubt it would be something like nuclear war as we can all see it coming and take action to prevent it. It is generally that which you don't see coming that gets you. I don't favor this option. It would have to kill us all very fast without any room for even trying to think of escape. Technology has reached a point where if species survival depended on it we could most likely come up with something. Barring the Xi'Chung or Borg or some other massive super advanced alien force. This isn't the movies folks. Kiss your heinies good bye.

Next we colonize this system or at least parts of it but develop still stronger stuff to kill each other and once again wipe ourselves out in some unexpected way. Still don't favor this one, as would have to be power mad crazy people or someone with more power than brains (wait... *looks at current world leaders* maybe this just raised in potential possibility.)

Last we colonize the system do expand to other systems, and failing some massive galaxy or universe shattering event or super massive super more advanced than us genocidal species coming along, we survive potentially forever spreading throughout the universe like some super infestation of organic life.

-Will civilisation continue on its path or are we headed for a catastrophe and a new dark age?

Dark age? That is possible. But that would still only delay progress. In the past the societies were so seperated that dark ages only affected one part but not all and so some of what one had learned could be preserved by those that didn't fall (see Europe and Arabia, similiar interactions can be seen in most of the world.) Today it would be worse a Dark age would entail the complete collapse of most if not all of global civilization and would most likely require nuclear warfare or massive biological outbreaks, perhaps some earthshattering natural calamity.

A dark age though would really only be a delay in progress not a stopage.

-Will we meet intelligent ETs? Will they come here or will we have to go to them? How will we get on with them?

Assuming our survival and either A> an infinite or close enough to not matter universe B> the existence of ETs
then yes, eventually.
Maybe they are already here, maybe not. I am as of yet undecided. But if not already here they had better hurry up or we will wind up going to them.

-Will we achieve AI? When? What will be the ramifications for humanity? Will we all become cyborgs?

Don't know for AI. Probably eventually. Ramifications? Who could say in the 1700's what the ramifications of the internet and a network of instant communication across the world would be? Do we as of yet understand them?

Cyborgs for me follow the path of we are not united so some will say yes and accept and others will scream no and run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

One of them will be right and go on and the other wrong. I tend to think the cyborgs will win out in the end. Having a synthetic heart doesn't make you any less human. So why should having a calculator in your brain that helps you do math faster? Possibly some consequences that can't be forseen. Maybe it messes with the brain? We can't say. We don't know enough about electronics let alone the human brain to be guessing on mind machine interface. As to arms and the like. We already have stuff like that. Will be people with tons of it be looked at differently. Probably, I mean some of us look at each other differently because of skin/eye/hair color. Will life go on for those with it? Yes. How about people who cut off the nature arm for the artificial? How about people who have ugly teeth removed to get better looking false teeth or eye color changing contacts? I think that eventually based on human aesthetics you won't even be able to tell a person has a cybernetic enhancement. Early on, maybe.

If we expand into space there will be plenty of room for both points of view and most likely both will go on seperate and not equal but present if maybe distant.

-What about genetics? Will future generations of humans be improved (or maybe "improved") by gene-tweaking? Will people accept this?

See cybernetics above.

-What about neural technology? Will our great-grandchildren have computers embedded in their brains and direct mental access to everyone else?

See cybernetics above.
As for

-Will communications technology fundamentally change society? Will government become obselete when we're all jacked into some gigantic global network? Will we become the Borg?

No. It hasn't changed our society yet so it won't ever! Err wait... it already has massively changed society! AHHHH!!! Changes in the way we communicate and the speed and distances at which we can communicate ALWAYS necessitate changes in society. The future will be no different.

The need for people to organzie themselves so that they can point at others and say "It is your fault you are in charge" and others to take power just to have it will probably always be around. Communications technology won't change the people just how fast they communicate and interact. People are still people.

The whole borg brain hive mind thing is overdone. A single entity thinking brain. I think we as people are fascinated with this because we always want to know what others are thinking and a hive mind always does ANMD gets along! HAH! How well does your single mind get along with itself? If we all hooked up wouldn't like thinking minds hook themselves up and then not want to mix their great big brain with that nasty ugly big brain over there? Or maybe one mind dominates the others and takes control... wouldn't all the others fight back? And if the universe is so big couldn't that be possible? If the one person has access to all the knowledge and memories of the others wouldn't that change them into a conglomeration of all thus all cease and only one exists!

Who can say? It has not happened as of yet. Based on human individuality I doubt it will. People may like to group and follow the crowd but that doesn't mean they want to BE the crowd.

-Will the usa conquer the entire world? How long before the new empire crumbles?

No. The USA has neither the desire nor the resources or manpower ot conquer the world. That being the case question two has no relevance.

-What art/ literature/ individuals from today will be remembered for centuries to come?

I won't even pretend to guess. I study history. It is amazing some of the things that were ridiculed in their own time that became great classics later and what everyone knew would be a great classic back then but now no one even knows the name of.

-Will humanity ever be united and war made a thing of the past, or is our tribalistic instinct too strong?

No. Disparate and seperate beings that CAN'T feel what others feel and understand and know each others deepest thoughts and are limited to verbal, written, and expressive (facial, etc) forms of communications can never truly understand each other. Even if we did understand each other could we agree on everything to such an extent that we can compromise on everything? How do black people compromise with Neo-Nazis? Kill themselves?
Conflict is fundamental to advancement. There is no single life form that doesn't conflict. Yes even ants and bees. Just think about it. When was the Last time two bee or ant hives fought? One thought one way and the other another. We form our own "hives" of similiar thought. I don't think that will change. Different experiences and genetics make different people.

Maybe if the borg thing comes around. But I don't put much faith in the borg thing either sooo...

-Is national identity something that will come to an end or will expansion to other planets create more nations and more conflicts?

See Above. National identity remains but as we expand and grow so does it. Look at North America. Slowl moving from US, Canada, and Mexico to closer Groups. Look at Europe with the EU. Other organizations that slowly bind themselves together abound. Eventually the nations we have today will probably only be parts of greater nations of the future, but that won't stop people from identifing with who they are based on where they are from. Sol, Earth, North America, USA, State of Texas, El Paso - Antares, New Earth, Suthron, Alpso Province, Divine... you group the importance as people always do... some with greater layers of religions, ethnicity, poitical beliefs, etc... it gets really complicated. But national divisions will remain as well as all the other divisions we have, though with constant changes.

See previous for conflict.

-What is the future of religion? Can it stand up to the advance of science? Will it evolve, die out or will it stay as it is?

Religion isn't based on fact or anything like that. It is based on pure unreasoning faith and the NEED to believe in something more. It has survived since probably the beginning of sentient thought and maybe earlier. Is evolutionary theory any less of a religion than creationism? It is a theory and thus not a given. Doesn't that take some faith? Doesn't everything take a little?

Religion hasn't kept itself alive despite the odds and the evidence. The people have kept religion alive despite all odds and evidence.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I hope not. When most tasks can be carried out by machines what becomes the point of man?
Would we then get to live in some Utopian paradise while our worker robots do all the stuff and grow all the food? If there is no need for man to think will our brains shrivel up and our heads get smaller?

Askan

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Only a few Greeks did that. The vast majority of them stuck with the traditional gods.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I foresee:

-Cricket and rugby, two games the majority of Americans neither understand nor care to, will be abolished within minutes of the end of world conquest;

-The Yankees will continue their trend of winning the World Series 85% of the time, and their payroll will hit twelve times the size of the next highest team;

-The NFL will continue to expand the playoffs to the top 131 teams out of 132, resulting in games being played round the clock all weekend long until the quarterfinals.

-Fidel Castro will still be "alive," a spring chicken of 183 years old, although he will have changed height and weight seven times, and will have been a platinum blonde with a strong resemblance to Britney Spears at least twice. He will still be wearing the same military uniform. In other news, it will be noticed that Britney Spears resembles a short Hispanic man shortly before she records two top-10 Latin albums.

-SECCLXV will be released. Malfador Machinations will receive complaints from the AI that the players aren't moddable enough.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I couldn't help but laugh when I thought about this... As we have 2 hemispheres in our brain, there would be 2 hemispheres in the Hive mind, Male and Female, so I see the following happening.

The Male side thinks, "Hey, I wanna have sex!!!" and the Female side thinks "GOD, is that ALL you think about?"..."Yes" the Male side says sheepishly... and the Hive Mind dies because the Female side gets too frustrated with the Male side *chuckle* (like a brain cramp).

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The hemispheres of the human mind have nothing to do with gender.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

[quote]Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

Quote:

The hemispheres of the human mind have nothing to do with gender.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Was just my vision of the hive mind, an analogy if you will, not based on fact, hence why I was laughing when I thought about it.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Oh, ok.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

What do I see in the future? Sphagetti...

*Waits about ten minutes*

Mmmmmm..... Sphagetti.... The future is good.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

interesting topic, i'll give it a read tomorrow (its a damn 2am!)

For my (short) view of future, i agree with the first post by Askan - apathy and distortion would grow. Also i would like to agree with game developers - sooner or later, more likely sooner, somewhere somehow would start a big war where missiles would fly and BOOM. At least something will go BOOM. I think that eventually (read - accurate to the next millenium) people would realize the uselesness of their existance and try to do something about it. Personally i expect at least partial unification in the next 100 years. Not that i'll live that long http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif .

As for space travel, i think that attemtps to colonize this and that will continue untill at least two countries wouldnt concentrate their combined efforts on. Flights outside solar system, if any at all and if possible, would have to wait a long time unless breaktrough comes (you never know...).
Overall its a bad time to livee in because everything is in the future http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

And to think i said short... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ March 27, 2003, 09:13: Message edited by: Taera ]

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

oh, another possibility - viral infections are getting out of control, things might go real bad very soon (read - accurate to the next millenium)

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Dogscoff: You did some nice work here. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I generally agree with you.

One more thought I didn't include in my post(Third reply on this topic - I donn't know how to make a direct connection to that post and it is too large to quote): Universal theory is very imortant. It doesn't include only physical laws like electomagnetism or gravitation. If we ever achieve something that we can call universal theory then it would change all aspects of life. Difference between organic and mechanic will become meaningless(human body IS a sophisticated machine). This will bring new views of the world. With them come changes in society.
I wanted to give this some "Time stamp". Then I thought about our world. Maybe we are slowly entering the era of Universalism.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Behold!
I've been shown the future, but I'm not gonna tell you......Muahahahaha.

I'm just gonna tell that WW3 started a year and a half ago. People just don't know it, yet.

[ March 27, 2003, 20:31: Message edited by: Aloofi ]

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

It was looking bad there for a while, when the Berlin Wall came down. the Soviet Union fell appart, and the Iron Curtain came down. It was looking like the end of the world I grew up in.

The "Green" party was gaining popularity, vegitarians were everywhere, pacifism was spreading. Old, petty, squabling, outdated, outmoded, backwards Europe consolidated into a single economic / political entity -- or at least was well on its way. Globalism, though it brought about evils of its own, was destroying borders.

But the old world wasnt gone, people had just stopped seeing it. My world was still there, you just had to look a bit below the surface. Multinational corporations still controlled the economies of smaller countries, and still ruled over them with an iron fist. Imperial France still lorded over Africa, and the United States continued to operate clandestinly around the globe to secure its economic interests. Free-industry zones in China brought about the kind of Cowboy Capitalism invisioned in the elegantly distopian views of Gibson and Stearling.

A dramatic change of tense drives my vision home. The streets of the collapsed Soviet Union are as close to a manifestation of the Cyberpunk genre as anything is likely to be. War is waged for oil, geopolitical influence, reconstruction dollars, and personal profit. International communities are robbed of any consequential significance on a whim, and decades of peace efforts in Asia are thrown out in sheer acts of arrogance. All the old demons are still dancing about the world, and the nature of mankind remains unchanged since the first bipedlas murdered each other with their bare hands.

Though the important figures will change, borders will shift, and empires will fall, the world will remain unchanged. Technology will advance, and possibly collapse, only to advance again. If exploitable resources are found in space, they will be exploited. If they are not fought over with weapons, they will be fought over with money and politics. There are only two possiblilites. Perhaps we are at the pinacle of history, looking down a dangerous precipice -- or perhaps we are poised to vault into a new era. There is one certainty, however: Though the scenery will change, the nature of man will not.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

ok, here's mine.

2003-2030:
-Manned mission to Mars planned and funded.
-Today's military neural tech (ie wearing a band around your head that reads brain waves trough your skull and controls a computer) makes its way into the commercial market. Particularly popular in mobile comms and gaming.
-People are wearing mobile computers/ comms devices in their clothes. Computers are now controlled extremely naturally with a mixture of voice, neural, motion and other input.
-Alzheimers, diabetes, strokes are all either curable or preventable.
-People are starting to talk pretentiously about "the end of geography", since with cheap, mobile teleconferencing abilities it barely matters if someone is in the same room as you or not. People are not only telecommuting in their work lives, but in their private lives as well. The hype says that people are now choosing their friends and contacts from everyone around the world based on interest and compatibility rather than the people you happen to live near, but in reality everyone is still hanging around with their families, colleagues and people they went to school with.
-Virtual Reality (ie 3D with direction-sensitive headsets) makes a comeback, especially in gaming and simulations.
-Hydrogen cars introduced, aren't particularly successful. People are bored with ecology and oil stays.
-The EU expands, suffering all kinds of problems as it absorbs new countries.
-First designer babies are born with certain "beauty" genes tweaked. Public outraged, practise is Banned almost everywhere.
-Several developping countries make sudden rushes to industrialisation, coming from out of nowhere right up to the top 10 or 20 richest countries in the world.
-In order to combat the age divide (ie too many pensioners, not enough workers) retirement age is pushed up in most industrialised countries, and they are all encouraging younger immigrants from the developping world to balance things out.
-Anti-immigration sentiment across the developped world triggers a new wave of nazism. The public is shocked into action and feelings swing back the other way.
-At least one disastrous accident involving a nuclear power station in a semi-industrialised nation.
-autopilots for cars are introduced and reduce accidents slightly.
-The EU legalises cannabis.

2030-2080
-First human-level AI created in some lab somewhere. It is extremely hard to communicate with, and doesn't seem particularly clever or useful.
-Plans drawn up for a permanently-manned base on the moon, just because we can. Mars mission finds extinct microscopic life, which drums up support and funding for surther space exploration, including detailed surveys of the more interesting jovian moons and asteroids.
-By putting chips inside the skull and body, blind people can be given sight, breaks in the spinal cord can be bridged and various other medical miracles are possible.
-AIDS, cancer and heart disease are now far better understood and far less deadly. New illnesses emerge to replace them.
-People are walking around with heads-up-display sunglasses or retinal projectors, so they are effectively permanently plugged into the comms network. You can have a conversation with a distant person's avatar which appears to be standing in front of you, apparently interacting with your environment.
-People are experimenting with new, more expressive forms of human language made possible by the new comms technology: spontaneously inserting visuals and sounds into conversation enhances the words. It's all considered a bit wanky by most people.
-Eventually there is a backlash against impersonal mobile comms technology. People start visiting one another in person again.
-Now that the EU is stabilising a little, other Groups of countries are clustering together under similar schemes.
-With more countries joining the list of industrialised nations and global energy requirements ramping up, there is a new energy crisis. After numerous accidents, nuclear power is unpopular and a new drive toward renewable energy is begun.
-Flying cars are introduced, and quickly outlawed when people decide they are a menace.
-Ground car autopilots are advanced further. Cars now communicate with the cars around them, relaying route and congestion information then collectively deciding how best to distribute traffic across the available routes. Fuel efficiency is increased, journey times halved and accidents almost completely eliminated. Some people still insist on driving manually, and have to lobby hard for their right to do so.
-As the technology becomes easier to replicate, a popular but illegal designer baby industry springs up.

2080-2150
-Moonbase successfully established at great expense. No-one quite knows what it is for, and it is declared a waste of money. There are a few more missions to Mars before the public decides it doesn't want to spend money on space for a while.
-AIs are becoming more advanced. They are replacing "dumb" computer systems in large corporate and governmental systems, conditioned to enjoy their jobs. Early mobile AIs are released as housekeepers, waiters etc. The public hates and fears them, and many are worried about losing their jobs to machines.
-The trens swings back toward mobile comms again, and medical brain implants are now being adapted to commercial purposes. Subdermal and subcranial implants are now all the rage, and the real world gradually becomes intertwined with a shared, superimposed, virtual world. By using interpretive avatars and new forms of language, a person can effectively be in several places at once, carrying out more than one conversation simultaneously.
-Gene-tweaked babies are still illegal but fashionable. The tweaks are now more than cosmetic, they are enhancing intelligence and physical prowess. People begin to panic that "normal" children will grow up into an underclass beneath the tweaked ones, and as a result gene-tweaking snowballs.
-The world is now politically divided into a dozen or so "clusters" of countries like the EU. The US and China are able to compete on that scale without forming alliances.
-People now consider themselves true "global villagers". When someone successfully applies for citizenship of a country they've never visited, the whole concept of national identity comes under threat.

2150+
-After a few conflicts, extensive arguments and lots of interbreeding, genetically-enhanced humans become more or less the norm.
-People of "pure" race are now in the global minority compared to people of mixed race.
-AIs are now very human like in appearance and capabilities. People begin to complain that AIs wholud have rights.
-The moonbase is abandoned and then renovated as a tourist resort. After a few hundred years it becomes a viable colony in its own right. Genetics are used to create a new breed of human more suited to the lunar environment.
-A permanent community is set up on Mars, with plans to terraform it over a period of several thousand years. Needless to say it doesn't go according to plan.
-The political maps change significantly numerous times as people try to draw boundaries around global communities rather than arbitrary geographical areas. People eventually just give up, deciding that it isn't really important anyway.
-The asteroids are eventually mined and settled, perhaps 200-300 years from now. The Jovian satellites are thoroughly explored, and plans drawn up for colonisation/ terraforming.
-Manned interstellar flight is achieved 400-500 years from now. It is at least another 500 years before anyone manages a return journey.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Let's hope it doesn't turn out that way...

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Wow!
Puke, that was an inspired post.

.
.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">On the contrary, let's hope it is that way.
Maybe we could have at Last a chance to create a society of free men where corporations and govertments no longer have our destinies in their hands, a free society that is not stolen from us by evil dictators or greedy businessmen.
Let's hope in war, because we have no hope in peace.
The corporations have created the current world order, and they will never let us create a society where the acumulation of wealth is not longer its engine.
Corporations and goverments will never allow themselves to become obsolete, we have to make them be!!!

.
.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Information transmission will only increase with increasing computer speed, which is pretty easy prediction to make. The big issue is whether or not computer sentience will happen. I think that it can happen, it is just that people may decide against it. It also depends on how you define sentience.
Also, we humans must clean up our act environmentally. Colonizing other planets seems like a feasible way to relieve pressures here at home. (it beats the alternatives)
I really hope that the Internet matures... wait I mean the Users of the Internet... heh, we have too many CS playing "l337 h4x0rz"....
I hate to push any one product, but if the digital world of machines can consolidate with iniatives like .NET, the results should be short of astounding. For instance, you no longer have to agonize over differing data formats, or incompatible devices. It all works together. Data and meta-data flow like rivers..... ooooooooooooooooooh

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The accumulation of wealth and or power has always been the engine of society. This will not change.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Dog, you're the host of one of those interview shows in real life, aren't you? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Damn fine questions if you can draw out even me!

-Will we colonise the solar system? When?

Yup, but not before 2100. Not enough money for our lousy space technology. When we improve the tech (economically speaking) we will do it!

-Will we ever travel beyond this solar system? When? How? How far?

You bet. If you are a religious man, you just can't believe we were not intended to use all that space; if areligious, you know we simply will not give up and will somehow find a way. It will take a theoretical breakthrough to do it and there is no predicting genius, so no date from me. How far? How high is up?

-How long will humanity survive? Will we evolve into something else, be wiped out by war/catastrophe or have we reached the point where we can overcome or avoid anything nature can throw at us?

All depends on whether the ultimate war occurs before or after we get enough people off this planet to make a difference. Spread us far enough and we will Last indefinitely and evolve very slowly. We will never reach the point where nature can't surprise us... and most natural surprises are unpleasant.


-Will civilisation continue on its path or are we headed for a catastrophe and a new dark age?

Most certainly we will have another dark age. No, make that many dark ages. The race will survive them all and be stronger for it... but I don't want to live in one!


-Will we meet intelligent ETs? Will they come here or will we have to go to them? How will we get on with them?

Yes, we will meet intelligent ETs. We will probably meet on neutral ground, but that's just statistics speaking. We will get on with them about the same as we get on with anyone who is different. Poorly.

-Will we achieve AI? When? What will be the ramifications for humanity? Will we all become cyborgs?

We will achieve AI and a lot sooner than you think. Certainly before the middle of the century. The main ramification will be the end to all computer programming bugs! Somehow I will find a way to live with this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . We are already becoming cyborgs.

-What about genetics? Will future generations of humans be improved (or maybe
"improved") by gene-tweaking? Will people accept this?

Pandora's box. Yes we will try everything imaginable when it comes to gene tinkering. It will take a dark age to stuff this djinni back in the bottle. (Pun totally accidental or my subconcious...). And why should this be any harder to accept then any other outrageous thing from the past.

-What about neural technology? Will our great-grandchildren have computers embedded in their brains and direct mental access to everyone else?

Again, this is already happening.

-Will communications technology fundamentally change society? Will government become obselete when we're all jacked into some gigantic global network? Will we become the
Borg?

You think those gummint yahoo's will ever give up their power and privelege? If so, I have this bridge....
No, I don't think we will ever be universally jacked in, but, like anything else, some will love it, some hate it.

-Will the usa conquer the entire world? How long before the new empire crumbles?

No. Already is crumbling.

-What art/ literature/ individuals from today will be remembered for centuries to come?

I'm stumped here.

-Will humanity ever be united and war made a thing of the past, or is our tribalistic instinct too strong?

We will always have war. I won't say more because it would be book length.


-Is national identity something that will come to an end or will expansion to other planets create more nations and more conflicts?

I used to believe that this planet could be under one government, but I see there are more nations today than there were 50 years ago. I'm afraid we may never grow up, but one can hope.

-What is the future of religion? Can it stand up to the advance of science? Will it evolve, die out or will it stay as it is?

'Fraid were stuck with it and it's form will change little. *Sigh* Science may disappear in those dark ages, but religion will barely notice the difference.

Hey, that was fun, Dog. Do another! Do another!

Kim

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Well, I see some people here support the idea of a global goverment. I think that will be a greater evil than the bunch of greedy goverments we have today. We will not even be able to change countries if we oppouse a given govt.
Besides, a Global Govt will be nothing more than the hammer of the Corps on our backs, or worst.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not really. I think all governments are as bad as one another. I think technology will eventually allow us to unite without any form of government that we could easily recognise today.

Vote for anarchy.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

order and anarchy. not as impossible as it seems, you just need good people.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

good people... Is that an oxymoron? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Anarchy would be bad. Order is needed for some sort of civilization and society, if you ask me.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

My vision of the future is very fuzzy. Maybe my glasses are smudged.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'd rather have government than anarchy; since with anarchy, if somebody likes the shirt I bought, they can might as well kill me and take it, and there would be no justice.

Re: [OT] Your visions of the future.
 

Maybe in the future, humans will evolve to have larger and larger brains, and weaker bodies. We'll have huge heads and be incredibly smart, but have really flimsy arms and legs. We'll spend all our time hooked up to computers and machines and not have to exercise. Then we'll develop psychic powers to allow us to levitate and telekinetically move objects with our thoughts. We'll never have to walk or use any muscles, even to push buttons. Then, we will evolve into beings of pure energy. ...well, maybe not. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif