Tech | January 01, 2009 | 36 comments

Welcome to the future

source: http://www.takefreetime.com/2008/11/welcome-to-future.html

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sergio80
What would the science fiction writers of the 50s make of today? The world of today is full of marvels and surprises, but some of the things they imagined have yet to be fulfilled.

Hong Kong now looks like something out of blade runner or Neuromancer, a vast sprawl of high tech buildings, and lights that bounce off the clouds giving the whole scene an apocalyptic glow. It almost appears unreal, like the still frame from a science fiction movie, one feels the need to take a closer look to see if the brush marks are visible....
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36 comments // Welcome to the future

  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • Just think what kind of decisions the nano-bot monster has to make - are these life-forms really worth keeping around? Which ones should go and for what reasoning?
      Maybe they'd need algae for energy but have to keep all the rest around to maintain an organic balance.

      But hey, maybe not.

    • 3 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  

    • In some first world countries like Japan and countries in Europe, population decline will set in. Eventually this decline in population will be felt everywhere in society.

      I wonder if people would actually begin to replace themselves with robots, that serve families for many years, although I doubt it.

      Deforestation will continue, sea levels will rise, coastal cities will need defenses against the sea, biodiversity will continue to decline. Many animals that we know today will no longer exist in 20 years.

      I doubt space travel will take any magnificent strides forward in any way (although I would like to see it). Authors in the 1950s were overconfident on where space travel would be by now, and I expect no significant changes. I don't see Moon bases or Mars landings by men any time in the next 40 years.

    • 3 years ago
  • Eis4Epic
  • dissimulator
  • PROYECTOarismuca
  • jubal
  • ninthstate
    • 0
      ninthstate  
    • Image

    • This reminded me of

      "In the pilot episode of this short-lived X-Files spin-off, broadcast on March 4, 2001, the heroes uncovered a U.S. Government plot to fly a passenger jet into the World Trade Center (by remote-control) and blame terrorists, thereby justifying an increase in the military budget."

      5 TV Shows that Predicted the Future
      http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20041

    • 3 years ago
  • Ricky84
    • 0
      Ricky84  

    • Its amazing how an area with no natural resources can become such a bastion of prosperity and sophistication. Looks to me like economic freedom coupled with a limited government is not such a bad thing after all.

    • 3 years ago
  • cybexg
    • 0
      cybexg  

    • They would be shocked and dismayed at the frequency at which the population reacts in instinct and emotion rather than reason. They (sci fi writers of the 50’s) would frighten at the increasing trend of technology enabling ignorance.

    • 3 years ago
  • Dmitri_Molotov
  • 2muchinfo
    • 0
      2muchinfo  

    • Movies and Tech. go hand to hand. I believe that are future inventors get ideas from movies to help build tomorrow. I can see it now we will be able to go in space and use our hyper drive.

    • 3 years ago
  • maisry
    • 0
      maisry  

    • What a fantastic photo of Hong Kong. I had no idea...and I can't imagine what it's like when all the people come out of their highrises. Yikes!

    • 3 years ago
  • EddieStarr
    • 0
      EddieStarr  

    • The Future? Processors with a thousand cores, self assembling nano particles, and a replicator. Which will be a special device that uses a goo like substance to alter particles (atoms) on the molecular scale causing it to transform the goo into whatever the device is programmed to create.

    • 3 years ago
  • Scarabus
    • 0
      Scarabus  

    • Relative to Jammer's observation, I couldn't help thinking of Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron." Given the anti-intellectualism of our nation, that story is well worth contemplating. Here's one source for the text:

      http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

      BTW, Buckminster Fuller was pretty good at both foreseeing and shaping the future.

    • 3 years ago
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  
    • Scarabus:

      thanks for the link - I enjoyed the story.

      I hope that the disastrous national experience with W coupled with the election of Obama signals a break in the anti-intellectualism that has plagued the states since Reagan.

    • 3 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Scarabus:

      Someone should write a novel with the premise of what humanity would look like if we had listen & applied what Tesla & Buckminster Fuller discovered...

      http://www.tesla.org/
      http://www.bfi.org/

      What a tragic waste...

      "Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it. It may help us to escape all criticism, we may even be able to deceive ourselves in the belief of our obvious righteousness. But deep down, below the surface of the average man's conscience, he hears a voice whispering, "There is something not right," no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or by the moral code." - Carl Gustav Jung

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • UrbanGypsy
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  

    • If people know their technology they can predict what can come next and it might be fascinating but it's also because they have that ability...they are that smart.

      I think that we would be further along if there were not governments holding smart people back...stealing work...making things far more difficult to accomplish than necessary. People have impeded progress than really allowed it. Too much pride in getting it FIRST than just getting it at all.

    • 3 years ago
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  

    • Arthur C Clarke would not be terribly surprised.

      he predicted the invention of the internet, flash drives, external hard drives with capacity measured in Terabytes, virtual reality, solid state electronics, the moon landing, instant messaging, news media overload, and email

      all in the 1950s.

    • 3 years ago
  • remanns
  • unimatrix0
  • J_Jammer
  • wiseguy84
  • remanns
  • Scarabus
    • 0
      Scarabus  

    • First, I think H.G. Wells got a lot of stuff right as well. Figuratively, and more and more literally, we already live in the dystopia his time traveler found in the future.

      Second, let's recycle stuff rather than allowing it to rot. Provided we haven't yet destroyed our own species, that is.

    • 3 years ago
  • lizheir
  • 1percent
    • 0
      1percent  

    • I think the only person who had it right when it came to the future was Orwell.

      Saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit.

      Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.

      Pareo Nullus

    • 3 years ago
  • unimatrix0
  • UrbanGypsy
  • Nozlo
    • 0
      Nozlo  
    • 1percent:

      That's what the first line means. The other two mean

      "Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim" is Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you. And "Pareo Nullus" means Obey none.

      But I had to look them up too!!

    • 3 years ago
  • Jeffnfun631
  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • There are better ways to design buildings. Therefore, buildings in the future will have different inner structures. Many things should therefore resolve into Old things left to rot.
      The new sci-fi pictured above, should be one huge, sprawling seedy mass in the not too distant future.
      When do you think they'll mow down the coming HongKong Ghetto? 75 years?

    • 3 years ago
  • naty_forty
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