What do you think the future holds, for the people of 2108?
Asked by
JackAdams (
6574
)
September 30th, 2008
Here are my prognostications for 2108:
Computers no longer need keyboards. You talk to it; it talks to you.
Your big screen HDTV can double as your computer monitor screen, and is used during 2-way video phone conversations.
Hands-free driving is now possible (and preferable) on the American Interstate highway system.
Many Americans have “cars” like The Jetsons have. And all of them have something equivalent to today’s OnStar. Also, if your car “senses” that you are too drunk to drive, it automatically shuts down and NOBODY can restart it, for 12 hours.
The landline phone no longer exists. People now have cellular phones that work in every country on Earth, and every one of them has a GPS locator.
All current AM & FM radio stations are no more. You get static-free reception of any station you wish to hear, from satellites.
You can learn anything you wish, while sound asleep; knowledge can be transmitted via a computer, directly into the learning centers of your brain. You can go to sleep (in special Sleep-Learning Centers) not knowing Spanish, and when you wake up, you are fluent in it. Those same centers can also give you a Total Recall vacation, if you don’t have time to actually visit a particular place.
There is now a fully self-containted Biosphere colony (operated by the UN) on the surface of the Moon, with a population of 10,000.
OK, your turn!
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29 Answers
I actually think Futurama is pretty exact in some ways, not considering the aliens. But were all dying in 2012…
shooooot, I wish all that would happen,
Prolly will too
But I think that the next generation will be dummer
If the next generation is prolly dummer, we are doomed.
Sorry, Jack. At this rate, I don’t think we’re going to make it to 2108.
Yeah, I forgot the world will end, in 2012, on December 21st.
Someone once said that one of the headlines in the news for 2108 will be, “Congress still struggling with national healthcare proposals.”
@glitterrrrfish and Nimis:
I agree with you, if Americans haven’t learned how to spell dumber and probably.
Also a dire prognosis for the future if appreciation for sarcasm is lost.
They should just be coming out of the recession/depression brought about by the sub-prime fiasco a century earlier.
@jack & Magnus, explain the world ending in 2012? I must live in a hole and have never heard that. Or should that be another thread?
I will PM you with the grisly details.
It won’t be pretty…
I don’t think we’re going to make it that long, either.
I look around today and have decided that nothing has fundamentally changed since the days of the Roman Empire; now, we just do things faster, and we have different activities that keep us distracted from the fact that we are not free, and there is really not much we can do to change the ways of the world.
@ Jack. It’s December 23rd!! lol My birthday. :(
Actually, the predicted end is supposed to occur two days prior to your birthday, on December 21, 2012.
This means that you will be celebrating your final birthday on December 23, 2011.
Assuming that everyone is interpreting everything correctly…
I stand corrected. So sad :(
Maybe it won’t happen.
Of course, we’d have to keep the GOP out of The White House…
Yeah I don’t think I really believe it. I think the world will eventually come to an end, but not for religious reasons… just because I think the sun will eventually burn out.
I just want to correct two of your predictions jack. Firstly text to speech is already a widely used technology. Sure you can’t say ‘open safari’ (well not to my knowlege anyway) but it’s a step. And I often use my iMac through our HDTV. Works a treat especially on full 1080p
I know what you are saying, but I am referring to such things being commonplace in the future.
Once engineers have perfected speech recognition software programs to distinguish and accommodate various dialects, accents and other speech pattern anomalies, the folks of the future (assuming there is one, beyond 12–21-2012) should be able to talk to/with their computers, as easily as they would converse with a relative.
I believe many of us will be living on the moon, or in temporary housing orbiting the earth. Space travel will be as common as horseback riding was in the 1800’s. I’ve been there. That’s how I know.
Always happy to hear from someone who lived during the 1800s and knows about horseback riding.
Not too many of you folks still around.
I remember my grandfather well. He was born in 1870 in Lithuania and kept horses on the property in his big house in the Bronx during the late 1930s and thru the 40s. He and his sons rode for recreation all the time. But both he and my other grandfather (Ukranian) wrote autobiographies, which included stories about travelling on horseback or in horse-drawn carts when they needed supplies in the nearest city (Kiev and Lubny).
I would love to read some of them, sometime.
Could you PM them to me, or perhaps a link?
Jack: the autobiographies are book-sized and really only interesting to the family, but thanks for asking. Here’s a tidbit.
Thanks for sharing!
Now, if someone could just perfect an umbrella that would NOT INVERT in a strong breeze.
There is nothing more embarrassing…
Jack, I have to dispute one of your predictions. I don’t think learning while asleep is possible. If the brain is learning something, then the brain cells must be very active ans so will be other supporting systems, then you will not be “asleep”.
If you’re right, then it is impossible to recall any of your dreams.
of course, but dreaming is nothing but some minor activity and most are so vague…however, debatable…
Also have you ever heard the gust-buster?
I had never heard of that umbrella before now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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