Imagine the future.

Tefal said:
If you've beaten FTl/interstellar travel you'll have good Hazmat style suits at the very least :p
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But then again it could bring up the possibility of a space dwelling creature, who exists in space and not on a distant planet, travels through space on it's own momentum or whatever. I would love to see the future just to see if we do make contact with another civilization and what the consequences of it would be.
 
Tefal said:
More blade runner than star trek for me.

Fabulous luxury for some and even more squalid and polluted space for others.
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That about sums it up for me really, it would be nice to discover the existence of extraterrestrials and hopefully form an alliance of some kind and trade technology, as apposed to having a war.
 
I would like my own personalized battle ship comprising of two death stars and a millennium falcon in the centre.












Yes a battle ship to look like two big balls and a penis to show my masculinity.
 
eggyoke said:
If we go 500 years without having a huge nuclear war then I'd be very surprised. But anyway, I reckon most of our technological progression in that space of time will be earth bound. In terms of environment, bio-engineering, genetics, health care and that sort of stuff.

I think space travel to the point of traveling to other star systems and being able to sustain colonies their will take at least 7-800 years IMO. In 500 years we will very probably colonize Mars and a few moons, and possibly have orbiting population stations and things like that. However I just think humanity has too many other big problems to deal with over the coming centuries than traveling super long distances.

That is unless we discover a Mass Effect conduit by Pluto or something ...and personally I wouldn't touch it if we did :D
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While I agree that we are not going to be travelling all over the Galaxy (unless we stumble across a massive hole in out understanding of physics, such as working out we can bend space) but you seem to be missing the fact that technology is an incremental process with multiple random discoveries along the way. Just like now space travel is trickling down new materials and ways of doing things (microchips, velcro, teflon) in the future things like this will be occuring. For example to travel any distance you would need a very good set of filters for the air, water and ways of storing food/growing it in confined spaces. Do those feats sound like they may be useful on a future earth?
 
Nix said:
Okay, very simple idea this. I'd like you to imagine the future, say 3-500 years in the future. Humanity is space-faring, we're looking to colonise other planets. Technology has advanced, cultural movements have happened.

How do you envision this future? What technology do you think would exist? How far out in space do you think we'll be? How do you think the space industry would operate? Do you think we'll have a united planet politically and economically? Would be have an overarching space-fleet like that in common sci-fi, or do you think we'd have something less romantic and grittier?

Culturally, what movements do you think are likely to happen? Would languages have merged, or become defunct? Will there have been any major conflict?

So in short, how do you imagine humanity - warts and all - in 3-500 years time?

Please share your thoughts. :)
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We will still be sending the odd ship into space but man will probably not have gone as far as Mars.
It all comes down to money and the technology to get out of our atmosphere which makes the Star trek utopia ridiculous.
We still wouldn't know if clever Aliens exist because they're too far away.
By that time we will be driving around with a different fuel source (obviously).
With the population rising I think by that time the world will have broken down that nobody will care about space travel anyway.
I reckon everybody will be talking English but culturally we will still be separate like now.
There will have been a WWIII and perhaps a WWIV, WWV and WWVI.
I don't think the future looks good.
 
I reckon everybody will be talking English but culturally we will still be separate like now.
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on the language front I reckon we'll end up like firefly, a combination of English and Chinese, like parts of Wales are with welsh and English, where people slip in and out of each where there is no translation/based on their ethnicity (ie people from mainland china would speak more Chinese than English and vis versa).
 
Like Star Trek, except hopefully it will be possible to beam people like Neelix and Harry Kim into space without any legal repercussions.
 
http://www.futuretimeline.net/

This is an intriguing site and well worth a visit. It is very difficult to make even semi-accurate predictions about where we'll be in 300-500 years owing to the exponential increase in technological advancement. Our existence at that time will probably hardly be recognisable to people of today.

Anti-matter powerplants and propulsion will provide us with energy and transportation, terraforming of other planets will have already taken place, strong AI will be utterly pervasive and control much of our affairs and most of our lifes will be spent in virtual reality able to do what we wish at any time. Hard to digest? You're suffering from future shock! Could Tudor people have predicted the Playstation 3 and supersonic, trans-Atlantic air travel? Sending probes billions of miles into space and landing them on the surface of other planets?

I'll post more detail and read the thread fully later.
 
Fusion said:
It is very difficult to make even semi-accurate predictions about where we'll be in 300-500 years owing to the exponential increase in technological advancement.
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One can start by questioning "owing to the exponential increase in technological advancement." It's not a fundamental law!

There have been many occasions when trajectories have stopped and reversed. The Neanderthals (stronger and with larger brains than us) died out. The incredible technological advancements for the Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires faltered and for almost a millennium we lost the technological ability to carve marble like the Greeks could, build large structures like the Egyptians could and proved sanitation/plumbing to a city like the Romans could.

A degree of collapse, a reboot with considerable intellectual loss has characterised human civilisation over and over again. To suggest that no longer happens, that it's different this time is just daft.
 
2010 - 2510...

Ok, between 2010 and 2510? I'm bored, so let's make a timeline


2010 - Conservatives take power in UK Government, France bans Veils. England doesn't win the world cup. Again.

2011 - US imposes further sanctions against Iran's attempts at obtaining nuclear power/weapons. Primark has a half price sale, 846 women are killed in the ensuing crush, thousands injured.

2012 - London hosts the Olympic games, however the UK takes no gold medals and the city is left in a state of ruin following riots by drunken 'sports fans.' The world braces itself for the end of the Mayan calender event, which some believe will be the end of the world. Come December, it is reported across the world that the Mayan civilization is still thriving in secrecy and they produce a new calender, featuring 'babes of Hollyoaks.' The world stops clenching it's buttocks in relief.

2013 - Simon Cowell, music industry mogul, takes his own life during the live final of ‘Britain’s got talent’ by shooting himself in the head. He leaves a suicide note apologising for raping and pillaging the music and television industry and sapping the nation of intelligence. Scientists believe Simon Cowell was responsible for an average drop of 20 IQ points from each UK citizen as a result of his programming. A breeding programme of the most intelligent minds in the country is secretly put into place by the UK government.

2014 – The US announces it’s first commercially available robot, the Apple iBob. The iBob is initially available in black only, but shortly after launch a white model is released. The Christmas season sees Apple also announce a Hispanic model alongside the black and white. This is nicknamed the ‘iJuan.’ There are widely reported issues where if you hold the remote controller in the wrong way, the iBob freaks out and kills it’s owner. Apple suggests owners purchase a $500 wooly ‘iHat’ to keep iBob from destroying them.

2015 – Iran attempts to launch a Nuclear attack against Isreal but is thwarted by US Special Forces. Barack Obama orders the execution of Ahmadinejad and the occupation of Iran by US Military. Ahmadinejad is executed by stoning and is broadcast around the world on Youtube’s first live transmission. It is viewed in 2160p HD and in 3D, millions around the world dodge the flying stones from their living rooms.

2016 – Huge oil supply discovered under the Isle of Wight by locals. They don’t tell anyone.

2017 – The first infants from the UK’s controversial secret intelligence breeding programme start to talk, and solve mathematical equations in the same year. One young boy is seen developing traps and tricks for the other infants. The government advisers single out the young Stewart Griffin as a potential ‘super genius’ to those overseeing the secretive project. Apple release the iBob 2 and iBob nano which is a the first commercially available handbag size robot, available in Pink.

2018 – With the successful occupation of Iran, the US claims the land for themselves, naming it ‘Middle America’. Middle America quickly becomes the largest penitentiary in the world where the US extradites convicted Paedophiles, Murderers and Black people. The former Iranians are supplied with Stetsons and chaps and hurd the inmates as if on a Ranch. They are now known as Mid-Americans and are sponsored by Pepsi.

2019 - The iBob 3 prototype rips off the head of Steve Jobs and goes on a murderous rampage in Cuerpertino. The National Guard are called in and deploy tactical nuclear weapons to destroy the rogue android. Russia, hearing of nuclear activity in the US, ready their aging nuclear arsenal in the event of an attack, whilst China, misunderstanding the situation due to poor translation, launch ICBMs towards Middle America in a panic. The launch is detected by the US who counter-launch their salvos towards Russia and China. China's poor build quality sees their weapons air burst over the oceans whilst Russia counter attacks the US.

Full scale Nuclear War quickly develops across the globe, the UK Prime Minister, the 5 year old Stewart Griffin, orders deployment of the trident nuclear system and the UK population takes what shelter it can in Underground stations, bunkers, and the massive, county-sized carpark under the former city of Birmingham, which was recently coverted into a flagship Tesco superstore.

2020 - 2250 - The outside world lies in ruins, many of the world's population have been destroyed and whole generations and bloodlines eradicated from existence. The UK has the biggest surviving population at 4.9 million, 98% of which are based at Tesco city and are employed by the chain. Many in their 90s and younger, have never known life outside of a Tesco.

(To be continued, if I can be bothered to cover another 260 years...)
 
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Tefal said:
on the language front I reckon we'll end up like firefly, a combination of English and Chinese, like parts of Wales are with welsh and English, where people slip in and out of each where there is no translation/based on their ethnicity (ie people from mainland china would speak more Chinese than English and vis versa).
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sweet at last we will be able to communicate with the waiter in the local chineese in something other than menu numbers!
 
With the development of nano tech, at some point someone will 'Loose' a self replicating nano-bot and we will fight and loose a war against the bots, the planet will become a massive nanobot colony everything will die including the nanobots when they have used all the resources available.

there will be no malace from the bots, jsut the simple programming to multiply.

most likley the planet will be the same as any other lifless lump of rock before 500 years had passed.

maybe life will start again a few million years later
 
Grey slime requires the bot to be able to transform anything intoit;self.

which is unlikely.


The bots would be more like enzymes, doing on specific task, designing a nano bot that simply makes more of it's self and servers no function would be rather pointless. (and making it able to do that from any/a majority of materials would make it incredably complex.)
 
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