Futurism

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Carlos
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PostFuturism
by Carlos » Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:00 pm

I'm sure there are others around these parts but I wanted to start a discussion about Futurism and where we might find ourselves in 50-100 years time.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of near-future scenarios ever since I read all the fake news articles and quotes that littered the manuals to WipEout.

For example I've been reading Connectography by Parag Kharna which discusses how past mindsets and connections cannot be used in the 21st Century as our loyalties can lie with things like brands and technology more than our communities and countries. ("If Paraguay fell into the sea you might not notice. If Coca-Cola disappeared from shelves you'd be asking questions.") How many of us come here rather than to social media for example?

I've also been reading some articles and blog posts about Genomic Prediction which could potentially revolutionise healthcare for the living by giving them advance knowledge of illnesses like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's but also lead to the rich being able to select the best embryos for IVF leaving children born naturally as a genetic disadvantage. If you had the choice of eliminating potential genetic illnesses from your children would you?

I'm sure others may chime in with other topics like politics, robotics, technology and socio-scientific areas.

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Moggy
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PostRe: Futurism
by Moggy » Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:07 pm

Genomic Prediction? Sounds like something Dominic Cummings would come up with.

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Futurism
by OrangeRKN » Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:22 pm

50 years time looks well set for us to be struggling through some major impacts of climate change, so while I doubt landlocked Paraguay will fall into the sea quite a few nations will have done.

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Futurism
by Alvin Flummux » Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:27 pm

Have you read George Friedman's book(s?) on the next century? I found at least one and loved it - he goes into detail on demographic changes, technological leaps, a possible new world war, etc.

All that said, of what I read, he didn't factor in Trumpism or the UK's rejection of the EU, so I think maybe if he hasn't done a reassessment of his predictions, he should.

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Vermilion
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PostRe: Futurism
by Vermilion » Thu Jun 25, 2020 7:09 pm

Judging by how things are currently going, i suspect this may be a likely outcome...


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Meep
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PostRe: Futurism
by Meep » Thu Jun 25, 2020 8:11 pm

In the short term I think civilisation is strawberry floated as we cannot maintain the kind of expansionist economics we have now without increasingly encountering resistance from the limits of the planet. That may take many forms, such as global warming, environmental degradation or disease but in the end it all amounts to the same thing. Being that's easier to envision the end of the world than the end of capitalism, it seems likely that the former will come first and the latter will come second. Well not literally the "end of the world" , but rather in how we understand the world. We will survive the end of the current epoch and hopefully start again with the benefit of prior knowledge and hindsight. I'm overall optimistic about the future of the species but it's going to really suck for the next few generations.

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That
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PostRe: Futurism
by That » Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:20 pm

The '30s and '40s are going to be absolutely horrific. We have almost certainly now missed our window to do anything about that.

I won't even be able to enjoy saying "I told you so" because I am planning on killing myself when the famines hit.

Cheery vision of the future for you all, there.

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: Futurism
by Peter Crisp » Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:33 pm

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g
The guy has a whole channel about futurism.

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Curls
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PostRe: Futurism
by Curls » Sat Jun 27, 2020 5:41 pm

Computers my friends. That's the futures. The computers will become smarter than us and hopefully save the planet in the process, whether they decide to kill us to save the planet is another matter.

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LewisD
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PostRe: Futurism
by LewisD » Sat Jun 27, 2020 7:34 pm

So, we're saying it's not going to be like Cyberpunk 2077?

Booo-urns.

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VlaSoul
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PostRe: Futurism
by VlaSoul » Sun Jun 28, 2020 12:37 am

It'll be pretty good for like, the rich. The middle class will do ok but will have some struggles, the poor will suffer comparatively if we continue our current sort of policies. People generally in the rich and rapidly developing countries will have better lives than the parts of the world that are being left behind and exploited for resources. Technological advancements in medicine and communications will initially make life for those who can afford it better, but if assume the same rate of advancement these things will become cheap and mundane, so yeah we'll probably see genetic screening used a lot more and I'm sure it'll be standard procedure for potential children in a few decades.

Global warming (climate change is a bullshit term) and resource scarcity, both products of overconsumption and a growing population, will be the major problems. Much of Africa rn is strawberry floated and has actually gotten worse in recent decades and it remains to be seen how far the current efforts of the richer countries (chinese infrastructure, western gm crop programs) will go towards fixing that. Regulations concerning global warming and pollution will continue to be made but probably not at a satisfactory rate. The European countries will probably make a total switch over to renewable energy+nuclear solutions, and hopefully Africa can establish energy infrastructure based on this with whatever cheaper and more efficient tech is developed down the pipeline.

The need for rare metals and a general interest by industrialists will probably open up development in space over the next century, so like mining on nearby celestial bodies will probably be a thing once the transport logistics are sorted. Advances in computing will also make life easier for the inhabitants of the rich countries.

Overall, I'd say it's looking pretty ok for most of the cohort that use this forum and the children of that cohort, but it's probably going to get worse for much of the southern hemisphere and equatorial population.

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Preezy
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PostRe: Futurism
by Preezy » Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:10 am

Thought this would be a thread about the art and vision of people like Syd Mead. Colour me disappointed.

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Meep
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PostRe: Futurism
by Meep » Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:11 pm

I really hope we do not see any ndustrial development off-world. The emissions caused by rocket launchers are kind of negligible now as there are not many but if these kinds of launches were routine the impact would be marked. There's also the fact that importing materials from beyond Earth facilitates further economic expansionism and therefore potentially drives the destruction of the ecosystem. The economy needs to reach a point of net zero growth in order to be sustainable. Expanding the material economy is putting your foot down on the accelerator to doomsday.

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Futurism
by OrangeRKN » Sun Jun 28, 2020 3:06 pm

VlaSoul wrote:Global warming (climate change is a bullshit term)


Why? Climate change better encompasses all adverse changes, not just the global temperature rise. Sea level rise, changes in rainfall, more severe storms and more frequent flooding, and ocean acidification are all captured better by the more general phrase.

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