Pitch me your vision of the future

This applies principally to the developed world. Those 'third world' countries will find themselves globally better equipped for survival in the hopeless modern dystopia that is our future.

Kitties!!

Technology will be mind bogglingly different than how it is today. New strides in nanotechnology and new discoveries in the world of physics will render most of what we consider today to be "cutting edge" passe and practically ancient. Computers will still be important, but what "computers" are in the future will change. The Internet will still be around, but perhaps as a different name, and possibly delivered differently. It will also be much more of an inclusive thing than it is even today, as most of the world's populace will be able to access the Internet.

Fashions will change but remain the same as well. The same classic styles that have remained since the 1950s will continue to be fashionable, but completely new fashions that most of us will struggle to fathom will also be considered "cool". Current fashions cannot possibly get more revealing, so the trend for increasingly tinier articles of clothing will probably stall for quite a long while and then possibly reverse, though these fashions will still be revealing. The goal of dressing up to look sexually appealing could possibly be replaced by the goal to multitask with one's fashions (possibly incorporating medical technology into the clothing so that one's clothing might also serve to monitor and benefit one's health).

Wars will still be fought, but the weaponry used to fight these wars will probably be more precise and deadlier. It probably will come to a point where a fighter will be able to successfully take out a lone individual. The notion of thousands of troops fighting in battle will pass -- future wars will be fought by maybe a couple hundred people per side. Many attempts at achieving "world peace" will be made and many antagonistic relationships will be patched up, but there will never actually BE "world peace". Even at the world's most peaceful, there will always be conflict, and human nature will always get in the way of the "peaceful" resolution of such conflicts.

The U.S. will take a long time to witness a minority or female president, seeing as though there's only been a CATHOLIC (never mind a minority or female) president for three out of the nation's 200-plus years of existence. However, once that stride has been made, it will indicate a sea change of massive proportion in the Oval Office and this struggle will never again take place, not even slightly.

Aside from that... hm. Don't know. The medical world might prove to be the biggest surpriser, and maybe as we develop more of an understanding of the human body and how ailments affect it, we might actually see something akin to a "cure" for cancer and AIDS. Music is the most unpredictable. To think of what might be considered "the hottest music of the moment" would only be asking for incorrect answers. I think film would be the most predictable. We as individual humans still be wanting love, happiness, and acceptance, so our stories will still be about the journeys toward achieving those, though maybe the settings and some of the details might be different than what they are at the present moment. (Oh yes, and popcorn movies will probably never change.) And even though we might not recognize on the surface the lives our great-grandchildren will lead, we will still be able to understand them, because they will still have the same fears, wants, hurts, and needs that we also have, on a core level.

There. How does that sit with you?

The future will be a very tense place.

Nu uh.

People will have approaching zero personal time.

Free time will continue to increase in the future due to continued increases in productivity and more importanly an unlikely social revolution in which people find themselves less and less interested in material things and more ready to work for themselves or in small communities (sometimes connected only via the internet or whatever it becomes), away from the auspices of corporations and eventually the state.

Global economies will be fucked by the impending oil crisis, and those that do not starve to death under failing infrastructure will be toiling frantically to keep themselves and their families alive.

People will realize any 'economies' we had were false ones and begin to create their own economies instead, recent technologies will allow people to be remarkably resilient in this regard.

human nature will always get in the way of the "peaceful" resolution of such conflicts.

The one thing I actually believe and hope will happen: People will finally realise there IS NO HUMAN NATURE FOR FUCKS SAKE (sorry, I really feel strongly about that bit)

Dude, that's complete horseshit.

Your logic is impeccable.

I am probably much too inarticulate/stupid to explain myself. I will just say why I don't like it.

The idea that what we do is predictive and such is limiting the tremendous amount of creativity, potential and such that we humans have. Human nature is always bad and then thats used as proof that we need people to lord over us. People are depraved and violent so we need a police state. Everyone is a greedy thief so we need to give some people a bunch of power in order for them to protect us from the people who steal our shit. I read this over and over in political science classes and it sickens me. it always used as an argument for why it is OK for someone to have coercive power over me. But I didn't do nothin'!

Even if there is such a thing as human nature I'd like to think we can transcend it. IN THE FUTURE!

I am not saying human nature is bad, just that it almost always ends up being described that way by all the 'great thinkers' which I read for school. Compare philisophical/political writings where people are estranged and where they aren't. Very few thinkers have described humans as good, not extranged from essensce etc. Its pretty much just some anarchists and a few stray Greek dudes as far as I know.

If there was no such thing as a sex drive, for example, humanity would die out; is that a good thing?

We would? Damn, we are fucking stupid.

As as for the looking for ways to make life easier example I don't think there needs to be anything within human nature to drive this - who wouldn't want things to be easier?

But, shit, what do I know, I am just some kid on academic probation at some shitty liberal arts school, I am sure you can out argue me.

One thing that can unquestionably be said to be "progressing" is our scientific understanding of the phenomenal world, and the more it progresses, the more able we are to shape the world to our ideals. If you can't imagine things getting better, it only indicates a poverty of imagination.

As for me, I reckon we'll all be dead tomorrow. I may be wrong, but each passing day makes this a safer bet; each new technology gives us a new opportunity to exterminate ourselves. But every day it doesn't happen, I expect things to be better than before.

"As for me, I reckon we'll all be dead tomorrow"

I'd be going back to the books if I were you.

You are uneducated. There, we're even, that was excellent.

-George Orwell

(so far he's been OTM)

Since we are at or slightly past peak oil production, the next 20 years will be a stressful squeeze-play on the USA and the western-style economies. Since the USA's overall consumption has been the big engine for the world economy for decades and indebtedness has almost fully saturated our middle class, our inevitable economic stresses will be shared widely. I don't expect any big dramatic breakout wars or Depression-style crashes - just a lot more bancruptcy and middle class impoverishment - like now, only more so.

America's pretty well fucked until Middle America snaps out of its current delusionary dreams of American exceptionalism and starts getting hard-nosed and practical about thrift in US military budgets and reducing our oil dependence. We are digging a pretty deep hole already under the influence of Republican opium.

But, on the bright side, if a healthier social consensus can be forged, the USA can still accomplish quite a lot of good, right the ship, and sail on.

This was a project some friends of mine undertook. My favorite entry is the one by writer Gavin McNett (scroll down pretty far to see it.) Mine is under the name "Josh Saltzman" (an obvious pseudonym.)

-George Orwell

(so far he's been OTM)

-- Bobby Peru (per...), April 3rd, 2005.

except the boot has a swoosh on it!