What would the 21st century bring?

[batman_pwns]

More like within 10-20 years - which is why I think it's next to impossible to predict where we'll be by 2100.

I mean think about the world in 1900: no planes, no radio, no TVm half the world was European colonies; women couldn't vote even in most so-called civilized countries (and neither could a lot of men.) no antibiotics.

There was a Japanese politician - Prince .... Saionji? - who was born in the 1840's. He started out as a general in the war to overthrow the Shogun and restore the Emperor. He led an army that used horse archers - honest to God bow-and-arrow horse archers. After a long military and political career his last official post (at the age of 90-something) was as part of the Imperial Surrender Commission trying to cope with the aftermath of World War II.

We're ALL probably going to see more change in our lifetimes than he did.

And Henry Ford created the Ford Model T in 1908. So the modern automobile is barely 100 years old, and look how far it has come since then...

It really is impossible to predict just how much things will change in another 100 years.

[Paradox]

The way things progress exponentially, I wouldn't want to try and predict 20 years in the future.

[the4thpip]

At some point, Pogs will make a comeback.

[mikekerrIII]

Its completely implausible to really think about this. Its like people in 1912 wondering what life would be like in 1999.

People did think abut that and even wrote books about it.

[Shawn Hopkins]

All I'm sayin' is, better learn to breathe ammonia.

[Paradox]

mikekerrIII notes the classics:

People did think abut that and even wrote books about it.

They did. And for the most part, they were on point a small smattering of the time. Wells probably got it closest to right, but was still off. Verne predicted a lot of scientific breakthroughs, but really didn't hit any "quality of life" bits, and even his science was off quite a bit (although inspiring to others to make corrections...real life ones, not fictional).

[Paradox]

Shawn Hopkins smells it:

All I'm sayin' is, better learn to breathe ammonia.

My father's "eggs with every meal" habit gave me a small tolerance to methane, does that help?

[mikekerrIII]

I think we will see some handicaps dramatically eased by technology. Maybe in 50 years, external devices wired into the brains of blind and deaf people will be as common as pace makers or insulin pumps today.

I would put that at twenty years or less. BUt I also think that most of the folk who are reading this will live long enough to find out what the 22nd Century looks like firsthand

[Lord Bravery]

I'm trying to figure out whether it'd be good or bad to have bionic modifications to ourselves. Like a cyber brain from Ghost in the Shell or something. Or like in Transmet where you can have a phone inside your head and other wacky technological stuff.

The benefits could be great, but then the downsides could be too.

[frankiedetroit]

I would put that at twenty years or less. BUt I also think that most of the folk who are reading this will live long enough to find out what the 22nd Century looks like firsthand

If that is true, that most of the people reading this will live another 88 years, I cannot imagine how crowded the Earth will be, and how ancient the United States will be. Social Security kicks in at 95.

[Captain Clarkie]

Before there was Sliced Bread, I wonder what "The best thing since -------" was?

[Civ001]

I am being serious.

- The only thing stopping us from genetically engineering apes today with the human versions of the FoxP2 and SRGAP2C genes is ethical rules. (FoxP2 i critical to the development of speech abilities. SRGAP2C is responsible for the greater complexity of human brains.)

- The most advanced humanoid robot in the world is the Geminoid. According to its creator the No. 1 most asked question about it by a huge margin is "can you have sex wih it?"

I don't want any ASB stuff like: We will all be timetravelers or some sort, or we will all see mutant football. I don't want any trolling.

Its completely implausible to really think about this. Its like people in 1912 wondering what life would be like in 1999.

There was a book in the 19th century called Paris in the 20th century that acurately predicted what life would be like in the 20th century. It was writen in 1863 (IIRC) and it told what technology and science might be like in 1963. The author thought it was to implausible and he hid it away only to be discovered in the 1990s and it became a best seller for how acurrate it predicted the future.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Before there was Sliced Bread, I wonder what "The best thing since -------" was?

Unsliced bread.

[batman_pwns]

People did think abut that and even wrote books about it.

That wasn't my point. My point was that people in 1912 might think of some ideas for 1999, but really they would be way off base. Sure just playing the odds a bare handful of their ideas did actually come true, but 99% of it was way off.

Its like Back to the Future II. It was written in 1985 and tried to predict some ideas of life in 2015. Well its almost 2015 now, and a few of the things in Back to the Future II actually did come true, but the vast majority of it was way off.

[Captain Clarkie]

Unsliced bread.

That can't have been around for long - "This is the best thing since unsliced bread! Wait a minute, if unsliced bread is good, what if we...Eureka!"