Which future do YOU subscribe to?

c0y0te

So there I was wondering about the possibility of another 4 years of that lunatic Bush, and how much damage he could do (unfortunatly he won and we now face into that nightmare), when it got me thinking about further out. Specifcally 200 to 300 years out, and how as a race (the human one that is) we would fare, rather than as nations or religions individually.

Now - given that we all here like sci-fi (read, watch and probably write it), and that there is likely to be a decent cross section of forum members (young, old, experienced, innocent etc.) I thought it might be a good idea to try to get an interesting debate underway via a poll. I would like to do this properly if at all possible - and see what views people hold.

When responding to this poll, please do not just vote. Please consider your answer, think about it for a while, then vote and justify your position. Above all don't treat the voting options as literal examples, but rather think of the metaphors they represent:-

Pessamistic/Dystopian - Bleak, Impersonal, Depressive, Tough Society etc.

Optimistic/Utopian - Co-operative, disease cured, no need for money, supportive society

Militaristic / Mutually Assured Destruction - Your basic armageddon apocalypse.

Mundane - Little or no change from today.

Let the debate begin.. and let's see where this takes us. I have my opinion, but I don't want to post just yet as I'm forming my arguments, however I wanted to get the poll up and running to see if there is much interest in analysing where (and why) we believe this planet of ours is going.

c0y0te

Manach

Mundane (e.g nothing special, more of the same)

I would go the Militaristic / Spilt options, and I would model my prediction on the Universe of Gorden Dickson's Dorsai.
Mankind breaking into enclaves in space where there is one dominent cultural theme, Military, Theology, Science, etc which cannot, will not respect the views each other.

c0y0te

Optimistic/Utopian (e.g. Star Trek)

As horrible as it sounds, I think I'm mostly leaning to the dystopian view at this point in my life.

I've seen a few decades, lived a bit and learned a lot.. enough to know that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

There are some [seemingly] universal constants... war has always been one of them. Man's inhumanity to his fellow man another. When I think about how we have behaved to date as a race, I cannot hold out a hell of a lot of hope for how we will behave in the future, with bigger/better weapons or faster ways to screw things up.

I think its entirely possible that humanity will reach some sort of pinacle in their evolution, but it will pass and the slide will begin downwards as it usually does, with the main exception being that when it happens, it will happen faster and nastier than ever before due to advances in technology.

All the advances in the world do not seem to change the basic nature of mankind, which at its heart is selfish. I hope I'm wrong, and certainly by the time it happens (if ever) I won't be around to see it, but the more I think about it, the more I see how the technological advances of the last century have only speeded up the process.

Granted there are lots of good advances out there as well, and lots of good and altruistic people trying to make a difference, but ultimately they are the minority, and are usually overrulled by the power factions and those that hold the 'trigger'.

Still - I'm up to be debated out of my views, so bring it on. Let's see where this takes us. It will give us something to talk about between BSG episodes:)

c0y0te

ixoy

Barring any unpredictable events, I'm going with the mundane angle. History is full of lax periods where innovation wasn't there - the Dark Ages - and advances were impercetible. Now we may be currently in a stage of advancement but, on many levels, we're still fundamentally the same people. Most of the world still lives in poverty and, from an economic point of view, it's hard to see how the Third World can get out from under the yoke and head for a Utopia. I foresee the same sort of pettiness we're reknowned for but, coupled with our desire for self preservation, I don't see it extending to us wiping ourselves out.

What could happen is a shift in power. Many sci-fi books propose a shift in power basis, generally to the East with the west in decline. Given China's rise, India's sheer size, and America's over-burdened finances, this is certainly plausible. This could have a cultural shift as Occidental blends with Oriental - we saw this in Joss Whedon's "Firefly". But it will be gradual rather any sort of cyclical decline and people will go on being people. It's not exciting but it's what I think will happen.

Of course, this is all not prediciting big events, the largest one which may be encountering aliens. I'm a bit of a believer in the Fermi paradox on this one - if they exist, they'd be here, we'd see them. This is dealt with very well in Stephen Baxter's "Space" which basically takes the mundane approach by way of showing human's being ultimately apathetic to the visitors when they show nothing of interest. It was best stated that our short lifespans don't give us the required vision necessary to achieve great change, ruling out a utopia and making us locked to our natures which are, ultimately, about self. This will continue and we'll continue to amble about, with minor blips here and there and no real goal to be achieved. Or so I think...

User45701

Militaristic/Mutually Assured Destruction (e.g. WW3)

i said star trek but thats not what i want

i want a wourld ruled by a powerfull military body where there is 0 crime and everone just all works together and everyone has almost everything they want

Sarky

Optimistic/Utopian (e.g. Star Trek)

I voted Dystopian, but the future will probably hold all of the options.

In some countries like America, things just have to keep going the way they've been going for the last fifty odd years to turn the place into a Cyberpunk-style hellhole, with big divisions between rich and poor, justice for those able to pay, and little or no respect for life or others. Ireland could end up like that too, assuming it doesn't go broke and revert to a 3rd world country.

There are a couple of places that might turn out alright. A couple of Scandanavian countries seem to have their affairs in good order, and I see little reason why they would change. They generally keep themselves to themselves, too, and nobody seems to have a grudge against them. A sort of Star Trek future, but reclusive, is what I'd imagine for places like this.

I don't see things getting better in poorer nations. There'll be plenty of wars there, and life in, say, current African warzones, will probably just get worse and worse. The middle east is in for a fun time of it, too. When the oil runs out, I can easily see some countries collapsing completely into fighting for what little resources they can find. Of course, it will hit most of the west at least as hard, and yes, it's entirely possible that there'll be a big shift in power. God only knows who it'll be though.

All in all, I think we'll burn our current ways of life out, and there'll be some sort of new dark age crossed with Mad Max before humanity gets back on track.

azezil

Militaristic/Mutually Assured Destruction (e.g. WW3)

I’ve always been optimistic about humanities future, thus subscribed to the notion of a utopian future. A few years ago I felt that belief was reinforced by the signing of the Kyoto protocol, however the last four years under that tyrannical moron Bush has shown that there are still a lot of self serving greedy narrow minded twats out there that will hold humanity back and inevitably bring our planet to the brink of destruction if they’re allowed to continue.

My ‘adjusted’ view is now it’ll get bad for a time but hopefully in time humanity will come to its sense and wipe out 51% of the American population for the good of us all, and the rest of us can live in 'the garden of eden' type surroundings.

bizmark

If anyone played starlancer for pc id be force to go for that vision of the future one big war to once and for all decided who and what will be the dominant influence on earth/sol system

Course i'm hoping for star trek future /me crosses fingers

User45701

Militaristic/Mutually Assured Destruction (e.g. WW3)

how about mirror univerce future where the terran empuire dosent fall