Attention Futurists... Are we heading into a "Brave New World", or a fearful one?
My 17 year old son does not want to drive. He doesn’t want a license nor even to get his permit. That used to bother me. I remember stealing mothers car at 14 years old. But my son wants no part of it. He is convinced of, and I now concede to, Google cars providing for anything he would ever need by the time he reaches the corporate world in ten years… or so. We don’t even have Google cars in our city. But he’s convinced they are coming to his life soon. Is he an idealist, or a realist?
The NSA is spying on us. But will Google glasses and GoPro Quad Copters even the playing field? Will the internet ever provide for democratic voting without political adhoc?
A friend told me he thinks that within fifty years, that the only time people will actually work, will be in virtual environments, while being transported to reality destination vacations. Climbing the mountain will become vacation. But work will be accomplished while the Google (style) transportation gets you there. Really?
How fast is the world changing? Is it for the good, or to the detriment of humanity? Is the new world ahead to be approached bravely, or fearfully?
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“You seem so glum. What you need is a gramme of soma.”
Definitely a Brave New World.
I think I am 35 years old. Could be 36. I have never had a license. My permit expired a decade ago.
And really, my Big Brother fear is the XBox One,
Not a fucking chance in hell that will be in my living room.
And Microsoft was the first to sign on to the NSA shit..
You might consider living today and stop worrying about tomorrow, which is always different from what it predicted.
Wiser men than me put it more eloquently :
Mahatma Gandhi – “I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”
_—
Marcus Aurelius- “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
The public transport system in Germany (the best country in the omniverse) is advanced enough so that you do not need a car to get anywhere.
Driving used to be the one thing that defined freedom from your youth. With a car you could escape the shakles of your parents and thier house. Somehow the internet has replaced that. Everyone is living in a virtual reality where physical movement is not required. We’re moving into a ‘Matrix’ of our own making. I think that’s sad.
Warn him that this old man, now pushing 70, is STILL WAITING for the flying cars. But my reading of Brave New World cast it as a pretty fearful one, and one that many forces in society appear to be pushing toward. I sincerely hope they fail.
The Google car is expensive and quirky enough that driving skills will still be required for the foreseeable future. Even if the systems were competent at emergency maneuvering (which I doubt they are despite their ability to handle normal driving well), the equipment alone costs $150,000 on top of what the car costs, making it cheaper to hire a chauffeur. By the time driverless cars are out, he’ll be at least 37, and by the time they are commercially viable and the laws change to allow their use, he’ll be too old to know where he is anyways.
Certain jobs are either impossible or unfeasible to do remotely. If you have a job that doesn’t allow for telecommuting now, your job will still require your physical presence in the future.
For the last 25 years, I’ve seen the Cyberpunk dystopia as the most likely future. Corporations were already powerful then and how gotten more powerful since. The gap between the Haves and Have-nots is rapidly growing; any non-elite that isn’t lucky enough to be taken in as a corporate wage-slave will live in the slums and sewers and have to resort to a life of crime in order to even eat. Virtual reality will advance to the point where VR addiction is commonplace as Actual Reality will become to painful for many to bear.
I’ve seen all of the signs pointing in that direction. It’s not dreaming; I base my opinion not on what they latest experiments from Popular Mechanics, but on trend analysis based on what is actually happening in the really real world. And it’s also why @Jaxk and I have so many disagreements on politics; I don’t want that sort of world, and I definitely don’t want it next month.
@ETpro Where the fuck is my flying car? Weren’t we supposed to have those back in the early-80s?
@ragingloli But the OP isn’t in Germany. Here in the US, Seattle has one of the better mass transit systems, yet it’s undergoing massive cutbacks, and it’s rather difficult to have a job without a car as there are many, many places where buses don’t go, and where they do go, they don’t go at all hours.
@ETpro and @jerv I am with you. I saw the jetsons as a child All I remember is the flying car and me thinking over and over one day that will be me…
As to the other. Fear is a great motivator. So what does your fear of such a future prompt you to do?
@jerv Maybe the lesser of the two evils, for the moment. Though I will not sanction it by supporting it.
I wish I had enough influence to convince people that despite all with scientific and logic based arguements as to why we are a two party system is mainly because we believe it. Humans are capable of overcoming such minor limitations. We just have to believe and want it.
Actually this country was designed not to have parties. That time may be long past but we don’t have to conform to the two parties rhetoric.
I am ready to cleanse and tear down the rotten and decaying bull elephants and asses and rebuild, as we did the federalists, anti federalists and whigs.
If that history is too far gone maybe our third party leader teddy will make the possibility seem more viable.
stepping off my idealistic soap box now
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