# Science Fiction. Predicting the future



## bazz cargo (Oct 17, 2014)

Mobile phones and integrated communities, Star Trek.

What next? 
Self driving cars.
Wearable computers.
Three hour working week.
Talking dogs.


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## ppsage (Oct 17, 2014)

Ebola. Aids. Soylent green.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Oct 17, 2014)

Robots
Solar powered cars
The doomsday bomb


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## Schrody (Oct 17, 2014)

Well, depends if you want to write a Hard Sci Fi, or Soft. I recommend "Physics of the Impossible" and "Physics of the Future" for more plausible predictions 

The way I see it - fossil fuels will be history, and renewable energy everyday technology. As we progress technologically, we'll reach Type I Civilization - using all available resources impinging on its home planet. Silicon era will end soon, and we'll have to find an alternative - that means computers (or part of it) and other stuff will be built from new materials. Most homes will have some kind of a Holographic entertainment.

Progresses on the filed of medicine: parents could choose the sex and physical characteristic of their unborn child, also remove bad genes which would case malformations and diseases. We'll find (or be closer to finding) cures for AIDS and cancers, while new diseases will occur. 

We'll build stronger telescopes which will give us insight beyond observable universe - new galaxies will be discovered, black holes will be easier to detect. Scientist will succeed to make a mini black hole in the laboratory. 

I expect all this to happen until the end of the 22nd century.


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## dale (Oct 17, 2014)

"1984" is definitely alive and well.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Oct 17, 2014)

I always tell everyone that 1984 is here and Big Brother is "us"


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## MzSnowleopard (Oct 17, 2014)

sadly Big Brother has proven untrustworthy


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## Bishop (Oct 17, 2014)

I'm still waiting for my damn holodeck.


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## tabasco5 (Oct 17, 2014)

More government.


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## Mr. Blue (Oct 17, 2014)

I just figure we'll have cooler toys, and more dissonance as technology continues to pervade every aspect of our lives. For details on how we'll react, well, I just look at the way we've changed our learning patterns even in just the time the internet dawned.


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## NerdyMJ (Oct 17, 2014)

I'm just disappointed I never got a hoverboard or developed mutant superpowers at puberty. Seriously, all the hell I went through as a teenager would have almost been worth it if I just learned to breathe fire or something. Oh, well, maybe future generations will be luckier.


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## Bishop (Oct 17, 2014)

Also, I was told that the year 2000, or even the year 2010 would have flying cars. 

Liars.

Also, since 2015 is next year, don't forget:


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## bazz cargo (Oct 17, 2014)

It is good to know I'm not the only future speculator. It is also interesting that a lot of posters have included social as well as techno stuff. 

I do read a lot of sci fi posted on WF and I got to thinking how Hollywood dominates the way sci fi is written. Take every space ship, they all have a bridge with someone at whatever passes for a steering wheel.  Even now with wi fi and blue-tooth a person could be anywhere on a ship and still communicate with the computer that does all the driving. Most of what I read I classify as retro sci fi, it comes across as  an homage to Star Trek or Aliens, there seems to be very little truly  speculative stuff.

In the UK people are becoming more isolated, high fences and solitary living, yet know vastly more people via social media. The internet is changing the world at an unbelievable speed, what took centuries is now taking decades.

I have made quite a few notes on what could turn out to be the second novel to my current WIP, it is a cross between a soap and The Fugitive set on the moon , there is still not enough to spark my creative juices so I thought a discussion over what is happening now and how it would influence the future would be helpful, not just to me but also other Sci fi writers.

So, will big business buy governments?


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## Morkonan (Oct 17, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> ...So, will big business buy governments?



Big business_ will be_ governments.

At least, while we take our first steps. He who makes the air, makes the rules...

In my opinion, a great deal of recent science-fiction, even that written by well-known "hard" science-fiction writers, fails at futurism and prediction. Utterly.

I don't say this blithely, I've been examining this issue a great deal. (Been planning on writing an article on it...) Technological progress is driven by "tools" and new knowledge gained by using them. Today, predicting the evolution of technology is a crap-shoot - It's progressing too fast to be able to predict the next building-block of technology which will determine the near or far future.

What do I think? Glad you asked! 

I favor a few recent hard science-fiction writers, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Stephenson (deals more in contemporary hard science-fiction, for the most part), the late Iain Banks and, surprisingly, some of the "fantastic" science-fiction of Peter F. Hamilton when it comes down to giving us some possibly valid future speculation. But, even then, they'll probably be off the mark.

What's in store for our future?

Death by Planetary Mismanagement (our own)
Immortality
Consciousness transferal in some form
The confrontation between our Universe View and our place within it and a glimpse of the Universe's true nature
The existential risk of unbound Artificial Intelligence
The existential risk posed by alien intelligences
Faster than light travel and the savior or bane of future generations, because of it

What will happen tomorrow?

Apple will continue to release new "i products."
Microsoft will continue its winning streak of bad marketing decisions
Google will be able to know what you had for dinner last night, even though you never left the house and never told anyone
Surveillance will become so ubiquitous and fear so ever-present that being found guilty of "future-crime" will become a _reality_
"Cold" fusion will become somewhat of a reality, but energy companies who depend on non-renewable fossil fuels will lobby strongly against it, successfully, for a time (Until New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and Florida are under water.. By then, it's too late.)
IF the population of Earth reaches 10 billion people, human society will begin to destabilize unless concerted efforts are made by powerful nations to apply technological and agricultural knowledge and capability for first-glance altruistic endeavors. If they do not act to help others and to stabilize the population, we will be hoisted by our own petards.

The worst "prediction" I have is this - We will be faced with an_ existential event_. It is arguable that we haven't confronted one of those in 70,000 years. Due to a number of factors, I believe that this risk is ahead of us and in the near future. What form it will take is not something I can predict. But, I'm sure its there... I have a lot of faith in the will and abilities of individuals and small groups, but little or none where it comes down to collective action - We simply have not demonstrated a strong capacity for that. Collective action will be needed in order to overcome this threat, no matter what form it takes. We'll see what happens.


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## Schrody (Oct 17, 2014)

Bishop said:


> Also, I was told that the year 2000, or even the year 2010 would have flying cars.
> 
> Liars.
> 
> Also, since 2015 is next year, don't forget:



False. Kids are already dressing like idiots 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




- - - Updated - - -

If anyone's interested: Timeline of the far future


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## bazz cargo (Oct 17, 2014)

Morky Babe,
you have thought this through more than Me. There are times when I think Mad Max could become a reality. 

The connectivity and control that is offered by the internet is going to give an unbelievable level of information to whoever is interested, that and an ever increasing trend towards Darwinism will  make societies riven by money and the lack there of.


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## Morkonan (Oct 17, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> Morky Babe,
> you have thought this through more than Me. There are times when I think Mad Max could become a reality.



I think it already is a reality. We're just experiencing it a bit differently than in the movies. 

Personally, in regards to that idea, Mad Max wouldn't become "reality" for very long. Without modern technology and conveniences, most Industrialized societies could not survive. It simply isn't possible. Wholesale collapse of infrastructure would lead to a lot of unpleasantness. As large segments of population strove to survive, I do not believe that "independent" enclaves would exist for very long. In time, there would be one or several "victors" who could not afford to compromise. There would be no "Bartertown", no safe refuge from the influence of these highly aggressive entities... They couldn't let that happen








("The Postman" is, in my opinion, one of Brin's finest works.)



> The connectivity and control that is offered by the internet is going to give an unbelievable level of information to whoever is interested, that and an ever increasing trend towards Darwinism will  make societies riven by money and the lack there of.



The internet is broken... 

Nobody even knows how Windows works. Most of the programs on a Windows machine, or any machine, have existing exploits. The only reason that you haven't been bugged, hacked or trolled is 'cause nobody cares about you...  The only reason companies haven't lost everything is because nobody cares that much and they'd rather steal what they have rather than destroy it. 

The fact is that the Internet is operating by the skin of its teeth, right now. It was never designed to do what its doing, yet there are so many people making billions off of what it is doing, right now, that nobody can act to make it "better." Think of what would happen to our economy if someone decided that they could change the Internet and make it more secure, safe and productive for everyone... and then they actually* did that*! Overnight, Google would collapse, Yahoo would implode, Twitter's twits would explode, Facebook's farmers would start taking crack... It would be chaos. Hell, it's worth a science-fiction story, isn't it? 

The Internet is broken and it will stay that way until it is replaced by something that is_ intended _to serve the accidental purpose the Internet was co-opted for. Until that time, we may as all just go ahead and email naked pictures of ourselves to "everyone" and be done with it. May as well just start donating to criminal "protection gangs" so we can use our credit-cards to buy food so that some market-analysis agency can find out we like "Wheat Thins", as if there was a damn reason they needed to know that.... :/ 





Schrody said:


> ...If anyone's interested: Timeline of the far future



Oooooh... nice! Lots of juicy disasters there to write about!


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## InstituteMan (Oct 17, 2014)

Argh! Crashes keep destroying what I type. I'll be briefer than is natural for me.

Favorite author predicting the future: William Gibson. The whole vision of a cyberpunk Internet future in the 80's is clutch.

I am optimistic about the future, despite loving dystopian fiction. Technology is, on average, making life better for all of us. I'm kind of on the Star Trek side of the future, I would say.


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## spartan928 (Oct 17, 2014)

GPS tracking; you and everything else.
Genome analysis and manipulation; designing a better human in the 21st century.


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## Seedy M. (Oct 17, 2014)

The major changes will be psychological points. What most people in the so-called "most civilized" parts of the world haven't the least concept of is how and why they are controlled so totally. They aren't aware they _are_ controlled. You can't see the real world from inside a sealed box.
Why are all the popular shows, particularly the children's shows on TV, violent? Back a few years the violence and "special effects" shows where some slavering reptilian monster piloting a spaceship comes to Earth for the purpose of taking us over and using us for food animals or worse has ceased. Why? Why all the zombies and vampires? Why all the druggie shows where some over-muscled freak runs amok with an AK47 - and ends up the good guy? Why is there no longer an identification of who is supposed to be the "good guy?" Why are the small children's shows about karate and monsters and mayhem? What happened to Bugs Bunny and Pluto?
Are people really that blind?
We are all being used and manipulated by the absolute worst segments of _Homo sapiens_ daily. Almost no one sees it.
There is an inevitable end to this scenario. It isn't the glorious triumph of a bunch of throw-back genetic freaks. It will go out, as was said by a far more apt writer than I, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Or the race can evolve. You have to ponder whether it will be evolution and success for the race, or devolution and failure. There is nor can be a happy medium.
We can posit what will happen. As in "psychic prediction," a small percent will be correct. They will be remembered while the vast majority will be forgotten.
Contemplate on such a scenario and write from that position, but understand the ultimate result will be predicated upon who wins the psychological war, not the militaristic idiotic insanity that holds sway today.
This is the basis of the entire _Flight of the Maita_ series.
Ask yourself if there is even a small chance a person or group of people could control a truly differentiated large society. The answer is an obvious "no!"
If there is ever a workable method of control of a society even as small as the Earth, there must be a machine control.
That places it in the control of the programmers. We have a truly insurmountable problem with what we have today.
In other words, let your imagination run wild. That's what SF is about. Of course it predicts the future. It is a matter of selecting which ones predicted after the fact. You still have to ignore the vast majority of things that did not eventuate.
Contemplate what roads are being followed and where they may lead, but don't take any of it seriously. It doesn't matter, which is the rather sad reality of the universe.


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## Schrody (Oct 18, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> ("The Postman" is, in my opinion, one of Brin's finest works.)



Oh God, I love The Postman. Although I only watched the film 



Morkonan said:


> Oooooh... nice! Lots of juicy disasters there to write about!



Oh yeah, it can be pretty inspirational


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## No Cat No Cradle (Oct 18, 2014)

Robots will take over our exploration of life as soon as we disappear. With no limitations of life and death, they will be able to travel farther and longer into the endless binds of space, probably creating colonies and setting up a vast space community which would observe developing life forms millions upon millions of light years away. Creating an almost unlimited data base on life, possibly meeting up with other highly-intelligent life forms maybe beginning/entering a space society. Prejudice to robots? Space War? eternal peace? Who knows! It would be interesting.


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## movieman (Oct 18, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> Big business_ will be_ governments.



Only in the same sense that your local Hilton management is a government.

Yes, business will build habitats on other planets and out in space, and run them as proprietary communities. But big business and big government are products of the industrial era who live symbiotically; neither can exist long in their current form without the other. Big business collects taxes from its employees and gives them to big government, who gives them back in government contracts, while the business offloads many of its costs onto big government; no business can afford a trillion dollar a year defence budget fighting wars all over the planet. A community run by a business would not waste money on many of the things governments currently do; laws, beyond the most basic level, are a cost, war is a huge cost, welfare is a cost... and business wants profits, not costs.

Oh, but they'll enslave us by threatening to cut off the air? Slight problem. Most people have little to no value as slaves any more. Heck, even the Commies couldn't make the Gulags profitable, and they were an industrial-era government. Slave labour has even less value in a post-industrial world of digital goods and 3D printers (and the nano-assemblers that will follow them). Obviously there are other uses for slaves, but most people won't qualify.


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## Morkonan (Oct 18, 2014)

movieman said:


> Only in the same sense that your local Hilton management is a government.
> 
> Yes, business will build habitats on other planets and out in space, and run them as proprietary communities. ....Obviously there are other uses for slaves, but most people won't qualify.



It was a euphemism. It draws quite a bit from the current interests in "privatizing" space exploration and development. I did not imply that humans would be enslaved by corporations, I implied that the corporations would effectively be the "government."

Imagine that you are a citizen of Earth. You are bound for Mars, which has habits run by three major corporations, all who have paid not only for the rights, but have funded current operations on the planet. Those "domes" and underground shelters are not "government installations." They are licensed by the government, must support the government's "laws", with exceptions I'll note in a moment, and must also allow immigration by those seeking work and a new life. Let's just assume that this is reasonable.

First, while they must support Earth's laws, there are some that they must restrict. For instance, your "freedom" is restricted - You can't open a door just because you want to. That makes sense, since you can't just open the floodgates on a damn on Earth if you want to. But, considering the environment and possible conditions, maybe such "protections" would go further, placing virtually every "citizen" under an umbrella of forbidden things, supposedly for the safety of the operation? Maybe electronic communication would be scrutinized, since trade-secrets could be involved and the citizen would effectively be living "inside" a corporate environment? Maybe gatherings would be suppressed, so as not to overburden the air-scrubbers? Maybe accessing the network would be heavily monitored, to prevent unauthorized access or tampering? Maybe there would be a lot of things that would be done, all perfectly plausible, to safe-guard operations and to protect the interests of a private entity, which corporations are. (ie: Corporations are people too) After you go down a long litany of restrictions even with the so-called "guarantee" of Earth law being enforced, you get to a place where Earth law may actually require that individual freedoms be squelched, due to the interests of the corporation and the dangers of operating a habitat in a deadly environment.

Then, look at it from the perspective of a citizen living in such an environment. The Corporation makes the rules, obviously. The Corporation feeds you. The Corporation provides shelter for you. The Corporation teaches your children. The Corporation employs you. The Corporation provides for all your needs, manages all the utilities, provides healthcare and even recreation. And, when your days have passed and you have left your mortal coil, the Corporation buries you.

So, tell me, how is this Corporation so unlike a "government" again?


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## movieman (Oct 18, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> It was a euphemism. It draws quite a bit from the current interests in "privatizing" space exploration and development. I did not imply that humans would be enslaved by corporations, I implied that the corporations would effectively be the "government."



And I agreed, in the same way the Hilton management is a government, not in the same way the US government is a government.

But your description of how your supposed corporation is going to operate sounds a heck of a lot like slavery to me. You live where they tell you to live, you do what they tell you to do, you eat what they give you, and they cut off the air if you disagree.

It's not gonna happen, because human labour has so little value. Once away from Earth, humans are incredibly expensive to have around, and no-one is going to use them for something a machine can do better. One of the most difficult problems I have with writing SF these days is coming up with anything useful for humans to do.



> They are licensed by the government, must support the government's "laws", with exceptions I'll note in a moment, and must also allow immigration by those seeking work and a new life. Let's just assume that this is reasonable.



Why would they be licensed by a government which has so little power over them? How is that government going to force them to do things when the cops take a year to arrive? And, if they actually do enforce that government's laws, they're not 'the government', the government is.



> First, while they must support Earth's laws, there are some that they must restrict. For instance, your "freedom" is restricted - You can't open a door just because you want to.



You can't do that in a Hilton, either.



> But, considering the environment and possible conditions, maybe such "protections" would go further, placing virtually every "citizen" under an umbrella of forbidden things, supposedly for the safety of the operation?



Why would a corporation want to spend all that money 'supposedly' for safety? Pointless surveillance that isn't really required for safety is a cost. Companies don't like pointless costs, because they exist to make a profit.



> Then, look at it from the perspective of a citizen living in such an environment. The Corporation makes the rules, obviously.



Yes. Like the Hilton management. You'll note they don't spy on all their customers all the time, or prevent them from doing things that don't directly affect the business. Because that would cost money and lose business. They may, say, call the government cops if someone sees drugs in a room, but they won't strip-search patrons when they check in to check them for drugs.



> So, tell me, how is this Corporation so unlike a "government" again?



Why would a corporation do all those things? What do you think it's doing on Mars in the first place? 

No-one's going to be sending humans to Mars to work in mines like 'Total Recall' so they can ship stuff back to Earth; it makes no financial sense, the shipping cost would be vastly higher than the value of the materials. If we're building colonies there, it will be because people want to live there, because there's nothing on Mars that has any value off of Mars.


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## Pidgeon84 (Oct 19, 2014)

I don't think science fiction predicts the future, I think science takes a lot of influence from SF. I think it stimulates the creativity in science.


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## Morkonan (Oct 19, 2014)

movieman said:


> And I agreed, in the same way the Hilton management is a government, not in the same way the US government is a government.
> 
> But your description of how your supposed corporation is going to operate sounds a heck of a lot like slavery to me. You live where they tell you to live, you do what they tell you to do, you eat what they give you, and they cut off the air if you disagree.
> 
> It's not gonna happen, because human labour has so little value. Once away from Earth, humans are incredibly expensive to have around, and no-one is going to use them for something a machine can do better. One of the most difficult problems I have with writing SF these days is coming up with anything useful for humans to do.



Sounds like slavery? Do you live in an anarchist state?  We live fully within the laws in a society that treasures individual freedom, yet those same laws that protect that freedom have restrictions on that freedom.

It is very true that it is difficult to reconcile the realities of spaceflight with the needs of Science-Fiction. I agree with you on that. So, as humans expected to write a story for other humans that involves science interacting with society, what are we expected to do? Write Science-Fiction and throw the rest out of the window. We don't write fiction for machines.

I know where you're coming from, but think of _why_ you're writing science-fiction - People want to _experience_ it. Give them an experience and darn the real-life consequences and problems that must be overcome. Invent a science-fiction reason for why humans have to be wherever you're going to put them and give them science-fiction tools to enable them to get there. 



> Why would they be licensed by a government which has so little power over them? How is that government going to force them to do things when the cops take a year to arrive? And, if they actually do enforce that government's laws, they're not 'the government', the government is.



You're over-thinking this. Someone can operate wholly within the existing law and still have whatever power they wish, as long as it is justified by the very same law that entity has been empowered to enforce.



> You can't do that in a Hilton, either.



Which is why I offered it as an example. 



> ...because there's nothing on Mars that has any value off of Mars.



Of course there is something of value on Mars! It's Unobtainium! The place is rich with it! Unobtainium is the most concentrated fuel available for anti-matter-powered dark-fusion warp-engines! (MK-III Hyphen, even...) With those engines, we can journey to the center of the galaxy and into its supermassive black-hole! That allows us to communicate with the Beezles, a cute and cuddly race that is entirely peaceful and sings the most beautiful music! Unfortunately for them, their fur is highly sought after for fashionable coats. Poor little Beezles...

Science-Fiction has "fiction" in it.


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## escorial (Oct 19, 2014)

i predict a future were humanity lives in harmony with nature


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## Morkonan (Oct 19, 2014)

Note: Movieman (Crafting a new post because I don't want to edit the above one, since it should stand as it was written in order for this to be comprehended.)

I sort of wandered a bit in my reply, coming full circle back to "Science Fiction" instead of explaining myself more fully. 

Many "corporations" have assumed "government" functions or have been empowered by the same governments they operate under to assume those duties. In fact, one of the reasons that Unions in the United States were formed had to do with this problem. 

The US Coal Industry, and to a a certain extent, the Logging Industry, did this at one point in history. (Big Steel, to a lesser extent.) The epicenters of these industries were often far removed from cities and towns and there was a great deal of danger to workers who worked in those industries. Those workers were also specially trained and extremely valuable to their respective industries, even though many lives were spent providing those materials.

Before petroleum was in widespread use, coal was the lifeblood of civilization. Lumber was also of similar importance, just as it is today, for expanding regions. And the US was booming in the early 1900s, with a ravenous demand for both. As a result, what the companies who supplied those materials wanted of the government, they usually got.

They had their own "police" forces. They had their own markets and their own currency. They had a virtual "slave" population because they controlled every aspect of the worker's lives. They financed the churches, the schools, the places where people ate and where they bought their clothes. In essence, the system became so overwhelmingly owned by the companies that employed these people that they not only controlled how much they paid, but the very currency they paid it in, which could only be spent in their own marketplaces and could only buy their own goods and services. (I have some of those sorts of coins.)

It can happen. It has happened. That we know it has happened reduces its chance for happening in the future. But, it doesn't negate the possibility.

As far as the value of humans as _workers_ - That's not what is being served by humanity when people immigrate. We must also not forget that saying "robots can do it" is a very simple thing. Making that happen is extremely complex. The only reason we have rovers on Mars, right now, is due entirely to human intervention in their operations. It's rare that you have a completely autonomous "robot" of any sophistication. Even assembly-line bots require skilled human intervention. After all, they don't even know where they are... (Conscious and Independent AI is another danger humans may wish to avoid.)

But, what is being served by mankind venturing to other planets and stars is not "exploration" or only to manage semi-autonomous machinery. For the most part, we do not have to leave the surface of Earth in order to "explore" the Universe. We just need some good instruments and we'll be able to do that, just fine, without leaving our desks. But, what we can not do with robots or instruments is to guarantee the survival of the species by seeding it amongst the stars. That is the true purpose behind any human exploration beyond the bounds of our planet and that is why human beings will go wherever we can send them, eventually.

Anyway, sorry I sort of rambled in the post above and got sidetracked on "Science Fiction" instead of speaking more directly to the point.


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## Kyle R (Oct 19, 2014)

No Cat No Cradle said:


> Robots will take over our exploration of life as soon as we disappear. With no limitations of life and death, they will be able to travel farther and longer into the endless binds of space, probably creating colonies and setting up a vast space community which would observe developing life forms millions upon millions of light years away. Creating an almost unlimited data base on life, possibly meeting up with other highly-intelligent life forms maybe beginning/entering a space society. Prejudice to robots? Space War? eternal peace? Who knows! It would be interesting.



I agree, though with one minor difference: robots won't replace us—we will _become_ them, infusing nano-robotic technology into the very strands of our DNA.

The future of humanity will be one where humans can regenerate, can manipulate time and space, can live endlessly, transferring our consciousnesses into new bodies when the molecular structure of our old ones get damaged or malfunction.

The few "biologically pure" humans that remain will die off, or be exterminated in the lust and pillaging for resources, while the "trans-humans" will continue on to other planets and solar systems, enhancing and improving until the universe ends—or until a new universe is found.

We'll mine suns and turn whole galaxies into giant computer networks, in which we can all upload our consciousnesses to form a cosmic "collective."

Essentially, humanity will become a God-Entity, and this future God-Entity will look back on Its homo-sapien past and wonder how It could have ever evolved from such primitive lifeforms as us.


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## Morkonan (Oct 20, 2014)

Kyle R said:


> ...Essentially, humanity will become a God-Entity, and this future God-Entity will look back on Its homo-sapien past and wonder how It could have ever evolved from such primitive lifeforms as us.



Or, we'll end up shouting too loudly in the dark jungle and something will come and eat us...


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## bazz cargo (Oct 20, 2014)

> *OP escorial  *i predict a future were humanity lives in harmony with nature


There is  as strong a possibility of this happening as all the other ideas, only it would be less full of dramatic conflict.


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## Morkonan (Oct 20, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> There is  as strong a possibility of this happening as all the other ideas, only it would be less full of dramatic conflict.



I think it is very possible. After all, "fertilizer" acts in harmony with nature and that's likely where we'll end up...

(In my opinion, it's not possible to not live in "harmony" with nature, since it's not possible to remove oneself from "nature" - We're part of it. But, we could certainly be better stewards and do a bit better job of conservation.)


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## InstituteMan (Oct 21, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> There is  as strong a possibility of this happening as all the other ideas, only it would be less full of dramatic conflict.



Ain't like an errant LOL when you thumb hits the iPad screen during a bout of insomnia. I promise I'm not laughing at you, bazz!


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## bazz cargo (Oct 21, 2014)

> *OP Instituteman* Ain't like an errant LOL when you thumb hits the iPad screen during a bout of insomnia. I promise I'm not laughing at you, bazz!


We are in harmony then?


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## InstituteMan (Oct 21, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> We are in harmony then?



Perfect harmony. I see now that I also can't type on my iPad late at night either. Oh well, the future of science fiction is sleep deprivation, I guess.


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## bazz cargo (Nov 3, 2014)

> *OP Pidgeon84* I don't think science fiction predicts the future, I think science takes  a lot of influence from SF. I think it stimulates the creativity in  science.


I can see where you are coming from. I heard on the radio today that the USA military have employed the Call Of Duty game maker to help predict the future of warfare. 

*Thinks* What about shopping robots? They follow the  shopper around carrying and protecting purchases.


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## Morkonan (Nov 4, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> ...*Thinks* What about shopping robots? They follow the  shopper around carrying and protecting purchases.



Robot! Protect the Cheetos!


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## bazz cargo (Nov 5, 2014)

Morky Babe,
remind me never to let you into R&D.


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## Morkonan (Nov 6, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> Morky Babe,
> remind me never to let you into R&D.



You have something against Cheetos?

Or... Wait a second! You want _my_ Cheetos?

ROBOT!


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## Terry D (Nov 6, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> *Thinks* What about shopping robots? They follow the  shopper around carrying and protecting purchases.



Already there, we're called husbands.


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## bazz cargo (Nov 6, 2014)

As my wife has often said, if vibrators could mow lawns men would be redundant.


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## Bishop (Nov 6, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> As my wife has often said, if vibrators could mow lawns men would be redundant.



Not entirely true.

They can't kill spiders.


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## hvysmker (Nov 6, 2014)

I could postulate that in the future state governments as we know them will not exist.  As communications and transportation, not to mention computerization advance, borders will become obsolete.  Meanwhile, corporations will become ever larger, forming their own governments to control their own workers and processes.

In that case, the Earth may be split into new sections ruled by those massive corporations, rivalling each other for the sake of consumerism.

If that happens, corporate holdings on other planets would make sense and they'd have their own rules, laws, enforcement, and edicts with profit as the motive.

Charlie


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## bazz cargo (Nov 6, 2014)

Planet Disney, planet Coke, that is an interesting place to start a story.


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## hvysmker (Nov 6, 2014)

That's the idea behind "Fantasy" and "Science Fiction."  That current rules  need not apply.  How do we know what laws will be in another thousand years, or what maps will look like.  Imagine some simple Sci Fi concept like teleportation. How would that change the earth?

A spaceship might need only a small living space including a teleportation machine. The  rest of it could  be all engine and fuel.  Maybe only one or two, or no, humans need be aboard.  When it reaches its destination, they can flood in using the teleporter.

I see no reason at all for a writer to worry about governments at this time.  They'll probably have all changed by the era of the story.

I shake my head when I read about Muslim Sharia law, and how restrictive it is.  Do any of you remember how restrictive  various Christian and Jewish laws were at one time?  Such things are constantly changing, some faster than others.  In the US, our founding fathers would  be livid if they found the US had evolved into a strong central government ordering the different states around.  They all hated the idea of a strong central government. Those original signers were jealous of their own authority.

Charlie


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## MzSnowleopard (Nov 6, 2014)

Up until last month or so Netflix had this nice documentary series- The Prophets of Science-Fiction. They no longer have it, however, I recently learned that it's available on you tube. 

It's a good show, about 8 episodes. Each one focuses on one of the great writers of the genre. It's supposed to be available on Region 2 DVDs but for definite on you tube.


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## Morkonan (Nov 7, 2014)

I think that "technologically", a science-fiction writer can only go briefly into the future with any sort of accuracy. Futurists get it wrong and the good ones get paid waaay more than an average sci-fi writer. 

But, in assessing the "human condition" and changes in the face of certain genres of technological advancement, I think science-fiction writers can "get it right" much deeper into the future. At least as long as we remain human, that is. If the Singularity is truly near, we may start seeing the decline of the prominence of "Classics" in human literature in favor of "New Classics" that aren't based on wholly human societies. Humans may not exist as we know them, today. Shakespeare may become quaint and irrelevant, akin to cave paintings on a wall nobody goes to see anymore. All of our Poetry could even become irrelevant - What's the relevance of something limited to only a few senses and such a narrow range of possible experiences? Music that we rejoice in, today, might become noisome and discordant blatherings of poorly orchestrated mathematics, unsuited to the tastes of Homo Sapiens ^2.

Interesting stuff. Somebody should write about it.


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## Bishop (Nov 7, 2014)

hvysmker said:


> I see no reason at all for a writer to worry about governments at this time.  They'll probably have all changed by the era of the story.



I would urge you to read Robert A Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_, if that's the case. The book (which bears NO resemblance to the film) is basically a novel explaining the place of government and civic duty in the future, all seen through the eyes of an enlisted soldier who joins up on a whim. It examines future government and uses that to point out flaws in our current government. Speculation like that shows futures that can be incredibly bleak, or incredibly hopeful (Star Trek comes to mind), and these false futures, while probably not the literal future, provide a necessary look into speculative human experience. Star Trek gives hope for a future where poverty and hunger are eliminated. _The Road_ warns us of anarchy, a government-free world.

It's absolutely necessary to speculate about government in those times because the infrastructure of a future world requires some form of organization. Even in the sin-city-style planets and black zones in my books, the criminals run things based on their own twisted form of government. To not include it would eliminate one of humanity's greatest qualities: cooperation. You can't create a believable future without all the realistic elements.

Yes, laws and governments change. But that doesn't mean science fiction writers will just throw their hands up and say, "Well, I can't predict what it will ACTUALLY be, so I'm just not going to try."


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## Schrody (Nov 7, 2014)

Anyone who's really interested in the future predictions should read "Physics of the Future" - a very well read with plausible predictions.


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## hvysmker (Nov 7, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> Music that we rejoice in, today, might become noisome and discordant blatherings of poorly orchestrated mathematics, unsuited to the tastes of Homo Sapiens ^2.



Writing as Homo Sapiens ^-1 and having given up on good music somewhere in mid-1955 when, thankfully, the Rolling Stones crushed the Beetles and Elvis's toes, society's musical senses may go  back to the era of big bands and classical music. No more Rock and Noise.  Yay! *Sigh!*

Charlie


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 7, 2014)

hvysmker said:


> Writing as Homo Sapiens ^-1 and having given up on good music somewhere in mid-1955 when, thankfully, the Rolling Stones crushed the Beetles and Elvis's toes, society's musical senses may go  back to the era of big bands and classical music. No more Rock and Noise.  Yay! *Sigh!*
> 
> Charlie



Don't get your hopes up, Charlie. I think they'll be listening to the Beatles and Stones for thousands of years to come. :cheers:


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## bazz cargo (Nov 10, 2014)

I was wondering if Gene-geneering or Mathmagics could be the next big thing, then I remembered a film called Idiocracy, could the future be owned by the stupid people?


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 10, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> I was wondering if Gene-geneering or Mathmagics could be the next big thing, then I remembered a film called Idiocracy, could the future be owned by the stupid people?




I've seen Idiocracy. It seems like we are headed that way. At least in the states anyway :uncomfortableness:


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## Morkonan (Nov 10, 2014)

mrmustard615 said:


> I've seen Idiocracy. It seems like we are headed that way. At least in the states anyway :uncomfortableness:



The future will be owned by the Morlocks. This is fact. I read it in a book...

Wells was a genius. The Morlocks, the STEM graduates and intelligentsia, will control everything. But, the Eloi, who are dumb, happy, reality-television sycophants, will refuse to believe that their idyllic existence is not only owned and sculpted for them by the Morlocks, but that the Morlocks grow rich in feeding off of them and profit greatly from their willful and self-indulgent ignorance.


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## bazz cargo (Nov 11, 2014)

Um... why does the Morlock thingy seem like it is already happening?


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 11, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> The future will be owned by the Morlocks. This is fact. I read it in a book...
> 
> Wells was a genius. The Morlocks, the STEM graduates and intelligentsia, will control everything. But, the Eloi, who are dumb, happy, reality-television sycophants, will refuse to believe that their idyllic existence is not only owned and sculpted for them by the Morlocks, but that the Morlocks grow rich in feeding off of them and profit greatly from their willful and self-indulgent ignorance.





Scary thought. It seems like the ones in charge want to really dumb down the populace. Does anyone in the US notice how the schools have declined over the last thirty years or so?


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## bazz cargo (Nov 11, 2014)

I had a reply but I posted it in a joke thread.

There has been some stories where populations  are drugged into submission, considering what goes into our food now-a-days it seems quite a reasonable scenario.


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## LeeC (Nov 11, 2014)

mrmustard615 said:


> Morkonan said:
> 
> 
> > The future will be owned by the Morlocks. This is fact. I read it in a book...
> ...




These last three replies are off topic  The subject is fiction predicting the future, not reality predicting the future. Find a more appropriate thread for your intelligent observations. :alien:


Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200 [-X

[Official dictate from the Morlock council.]


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## ppsage (Nov 11, 2014)

My SF predicts that the Morlocks will end up fighting among themselves. Then there will be competition for Eloi services. This will eventually break the velvet glove and the sheeple will follow Morpheus to freedom-land. Where they invent the iron fist which smashes the Matrix but they're not fast enough to elude its grasp until...


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## InstituteMan (Nov 11, 2014)

Idiots we shall have always, but in the future idiots will be even more fully entertained than they are now. 

Speaking of which, I want my holodeck.


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## Morkonan (Nov 12, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> Um... why does the Morlock thingy seem like it is already happening?



Because it is. The gulf between "those who can create" and "those who can only consume" is widening every day.



mrmustard615 said:


> Scary thought. It seems like the ones in charge want to really dumb down the populace. Does anyone in the US notice how the schools have declined over the last thirty years or so?



Schools haven't declined too much over the past decades. They're very much as they were meant to be. Their purpose, for the majority of the public school system, is to produce workers who can watch dials and pull levers and who possess a minimum set of skills that allow them to be retrained a bit better than a wrench-turning monkey.

What has changed is the workplace. Assembly lines and what was once regarded as "skilled labor" jobs have changed radically. In particular, our economy is no longer built upon factory jobs and skilled assembly. It has moved on to favoring jobs that require more education and technical skills that far surpass the abilities that the public school system was designed to promote. 

I do agree, though, that the public school system has deteriorated somewhat. Part of this has to do with people attempting to make changes in an institutional system that was never designed to easily accept change. Another reason for its deterioration is that demands are being placed upon the system that it was never designed to serve. The public school system is deigned to produce factory workers, not rocket scientists. It's designed to produce human capital, not social change.


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## bazz cargo (Nov 13, 2014)

I always thought schools were there to keep kids off the streets while their parents were out working. 

How about a mind/memory chip inplant? No school just leave em plugged into a edutainment matrix.


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## Morkonan (Nov 13, 2014)

bazz cargo said:


> I always though schools were there to keep kids off the streets while their parents were out working.



No wonder we continue to fund public education... 



> How about a mind/memory chip inplant? No school just leave em plugged into a edutainment matrix.



Youtube?

Braintube?

We've already got that in a surrogate form. But, it's coming. We're on the cusps of being able to actually manipulate memories. "Total Recall" could become a reality in the not-too-distant future.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141009163803.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130910142334.htm

Scary stuff.

There are a few things I'd like to forget, though. And, there's a few things that never happened to me that I would LOVE to "remember."


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## bazz cargo (Nov 14, 2014)

BrainTube, I like that. I read somewhere about a HUD built into contact lenses. The potential for programming people is pretty scary.


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