"In the future, computers may weigh no more than 1.5 tonnes" - Popular Mechanics,1940

Flay

The future is a thing that I think about a lot. Like what cool science will happen, and sorts of new problems we might find.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuWXfjyGhk0

But predicting the future is a dubious practice at best, especially when you're dealing with massive time scales: http://www.futuretimeline.net/


What do you think the future will be like? Will we have a utopia, or maybe a dystopia? Artificial intelligence and fusion power? Or will we simply wipe ourselves off the face of the planet? Maybe there are cool future things happening right now.

Antimatter

it still seems kinda silly to try to predict future technology and how we'll live

all i know is this: the way that we weren't is what we'll become.

JoeUser

edit: This is a pretty good prediction from 1967

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpq5ZmANp0k

Kuribo's Shoe

we'll all be dead. no robots, no flying cars, no techno-immortality

smoldering crater, baby

Lars

"I see the evil of the times to come. No flying cars - ever! HAHAhahahaha!"


/Smug Vigo

Flay

Kuribo's Shoe wrote:

we'll all be dead. no robots, no flying cars, no techno-immortality

smoldering crater, baby

I'm basically an optimist when it comes to the future. Things like the fact that we're beginning to make artificial organs now have some pretty exciting prospects for what might be to come. This artificial trachea, for example:

True, it's not exactly a complex organ, but it's a start!

Source: http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/08/cancer-patient-gets-worlds-first-artificial-trachea/

Dichotomy

I predict that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them

#pipe

If you appreciate quotes like the thread title, you'll probably appreciate http://www.paleofuture.com/

Flay

JoeUser wrote:

edit: This is a pretty good prediction from 1967

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpq5ZmANp0k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8

Duke 2.0

In the future social networking will be five times larger and ten times as intrusive in our lives.

#pipe

Duke 2.0 wrote:

In the future social networking will be five times larger and ten times as intrusive in our lives.

you know you can just cancel your account right

bsjezz

social networking is the most important technology in communication since the telephone

Scolbert

In the future bit coins will still be a good idea to someone

Houk

#pipe wrote:

Duke 2.0 wrote:

In the future social networking will be five times larger and ten times as intrusive in our lives.

you know you can just cancel your account right

not in the future you can't

mandatory facebook accounts from birth

GeoMitch

everything will be chrome in the future

Flay

#pipe wrote:

Duke 2.0 wrote:

In the future social networking will be five times larger and ten times as intrusive in our lives.

you know you can just cancel your account right

Doesn't facebook keep your data indefinitely, even if you delete your account?

Rankenphile

bsjezz wrote:

social networking is the most important technology in marketing since the telephone

GeoMitch

what data? what's on your facebook that you don't want other people to know?

Flay

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/02/20/6345783-didnt-you-know-facebook-is-forever

Aaanyway it seems like the facebook staying around forever I was referring to is mostly a row over wording in the terms of service. I generally don't post things on the internet I really don't want people to know about.

bsjezz

Flay wrote:

Will we have a utopia, or maybe a dystopia?

honestly i think the western world is currently as close to a utopia as it's going to be for a long time. we're not going to fall into global chaos or anything, but revolutions in education and technology (like the internet!) is going to 'flatten' the economic landscape. not really drastically, i suppose, there will still be poor nations, but when you think of the ratio of humans less well off to those who can have more or less what they want and need (me and you), the poor only need to grow marginally less poor for us to have to sacrifice a hell of a lot. this is a world of finite resources, after all - particularly when it comes to food.

either that or it'll turn out that exploitation is a necessary constant and we'll sigh and be grateful we came out on the right side of it

#pipe

Also you can just set everything in your profile to private so nobody can see it but people you've personally approved

Flay

Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure the only thing you can see if you're not a friend of mine is my sex and my profile picture. Heck, I don't think you can even find me on facebook unless you're a friend of a friend.

bsjezz

there are seven hundred and fifty million facebook accounts. the idea that your inane wall posts and 'liked' humour pages are going to be malevolently scoured over is baffling

undeinPirat

Flay wrote:

Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure the only thing you can see if you're not a friend of mine is my sex and my profile picture. Heck, I don't think you can even find me on facebook unless you're a friend of a friend.

baby that's all i need

SilverEternity

JoeUser wrote:

edit: This is a pretty good prediction from 1967

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpq5ZmANp0k

I like that the husband is responsible for paying for the selections the wife makes. Really imaginative future uses of technology, but can't get past the gender-roles.

chiasaur11

Never really bought utopias.

Not dystopias either.

Both sets are too flat. Don't fit with how people work.

Really, I like the Chesterton quote on the topic.

"The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called "Keep to-morrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.

For human beings, being children, have the childish wilfulness and the childish secrecy. And they never have from the beginning of the world done what the wise men have seen to be inevitable. They stoned the false prophets, it is said; but they could have stoned true prophets with a greater and juster enjoyment. Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping, and scheming. But humanity as a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle, delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman."

Duke 2.0

In the future women will be ten times as subjugated and men will be forty times as frustrated with their shenanigans.

ASimPerson

Man, I want space tourism trips to the Moon to be commonplace so badly

JoeUser

Duke 2.0 wrote:

In the future women will be ten times as subjugated and men will be forty times as frustrated with their shenanigans.

The result: the best sitcoms in history!

#pipe

Blake T

I don't think we will see flying cars for a while.

Not until they can create a safety system that can catch them if they break down or fall out of the sky.

Might see tunnels kinda like you saw in the will smith documentary, I robot.

unintentional

will we have cars that drive themselves

chiasaur11

unintentional wrote:

will we have cars that drive themselves

Yes.

Eventually, they will try to murder us. It is nature's way.

But it'll be a pretty sweet ride until then.

Uriel

unintentional wrote:

will we have cars that drive themselves

I figure this is something that should have happened by now if it was going to.

By that I mean too many people want to be in control of their cars, it just wouldn't sell.

Therefor no self driving cars.

#pipe

Uriel wrote:

unintentional wrote:

will we have cars that drive themselves

I figure this is something that should have happened by now if it was going to.

By that I mean too many people want to be in control of their cars, it just wouldn't sell.

Therefor no self driving cars.

nah. It's on its way. There are already cars on the market that parallel park themselves with the push of a button, and combining features like lane assist and cruise control into basically autonomous driving on freeways is very close to being released on the market.

"too many people wanting to be in control" is not a good enough excuse to stop technology that could save literally millions of lives

Blake T

I know both google and Mercedes have their own patent for this.

Though it was pointed out on tv that it would be an interesting legal battle if two cars hit each other.

Blake T

The big problem I could see is what happens if the thing broke down and people had to drive themselves. If they no longer practice a few times a week they will lose that skill.

Flay

I think I heard something about a few laws being changed somewhere in America to allow self-driving cars on the road.

EDIT: Nevada is the first place to legalise self-driving cars, apparently.

#pipe

I think it should be gradually introduced into freeway situations only and expand use as the technology improves. Would be pretty easy to integrate it into onboard GPS systems and only activate when a route is input and only on freeway sections

it's like cruise control should only really be used on a freeway

Muse Among Men

undeinPirat wrote:

Flay wrote:

Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure the only thing you can see if you're not a friend of mine is my sex and my profile picture. Heck, I don't think you can even find me on facebook unless you're a friend of a friend.

baby that's all i need

Man, I never remember to check my Facebook. I really might as well delete it because I never use it.

HeadCreeps

We were suppose to have flying cars by now

Just another goddamn broken promise