Slashdot Mirror
Christmas in 2050
Makarand writes "A robotic kitchen assistant will help you with the Christmas
meal preparations while you recieve instructions and monitoring assistance in real time from information systems for the cooking.
Thanks to progress in biology and nanotechnology, the molecular processes
needed to convert raw materials into turkey will be understood sufficiently
well to make a good artificial turkey for the vegetarians.
This is what we
can expect this time in 2050 says Ian Pearson, BT's futurologist who is paid to dream,
in this BBC News article.
Absent family will join the celebrations
virtually. There might be technology allowing us to read each
others minds and being able to know what others are thinking may
not always add peace and harmony to the celebrations.
However on the upside, it will make charades a whole lot easier you will never get unwanted Christmas presents.
Lastly, just as this Christmas was hijacked by a consumption fever,
so too in 2050, Christmas will be all about presents."
coming from the company that believes it invented the hyperlink!
how sweet it is
yeah, and by 2050 ill get laid... hahaha :(
We were hearing about this in the 1940's. Sooo where's our jet packs, personal helicopters, and automated kitchens?
Seriously, I think the people that dream up this stuff reduce the time to market by a factor of at least three. The dreams are great and all, but obviously not realistic.
funny munging
"thanks to progress in biology and nanotechnology, the molecular processes needed to convert raw materials into turkey will be understood sufficiently well to make a good artificial turkey for the vegetarians."
:) Then i can finally cook real meals for myself!
thats great, a few of my friends are vegan and I always which they could have a little more then tofurkey!!!
i wonder when we will have replicators
...and just how are we going to have Christmas in another 48 years if Bush, Saddam, North Korea, et al. are just itching for a nuclear holocaust...?
Yah...it'll be a white christmas....but I don't think the fourteen living bacteria will really give a damn... =P
Will we even remember what half this crap is in 2050?
christmas is 2002 is natalie portman with hot grits down my pants in sw-ep3
So what does all these Popular Science-like predictions have to do with AMD?
MAKE YOUR TIME
When I was a kid in the '50s, the futurists predicted routine space travel by now, commuting by flying automobiles, the hyrdrogen economy, copious nuclear power production, intelligent robots, oh - and the end of the world by nuclear war.
Hmmm...
And they missed the information age, microchips, the sexual revolution, the civil rights movement, the air bag in cars, AIDS, velcro and genetic engineering.
So much for futurists.
The only good weather is bad weather.
Why is the article icon AMD's? I don't see any relation to the scrappy little semiconductor company in any of this. If anything, I would expect that we'd have the Christmas Tree icon here, or the Technology icon.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
Imagine the family feuds that would result from being "switched off".
.SIG: Doggone it... what was that username again...
"Honest Aunt Louise! Our personal cold fusion power generation unit failed. We didn't mean to disappear you!"
just as this Christmas was hijacked by a consumption fever,
Makes it sound like they're comparing Christmas to tuberculosis or something.
When the process is discovered for creating artificial foods is invented, the discovering coproration (it'll have to be a corporation) will patent all known foods and we'll have to eat generic, tastless goop like the astronauts in the 2001 movie or pay license fees for every meal.
Thanks to progress in biology and nanotechnology, the molecular processes needed to convert raw materials into turkey will be understood sufficiently well to make a good artificial turkey for the vegetarians.
In reference to the "trianglature formula," it states simply: "sqrt (pi) times diameter of circle gives a triangle with precisely the same area as that of the given circle, where triangle base is circle diameter."
The formula by itself merely confirms the centuries old quadrature formula which "squares" the circle. Heat of the controversy is over the accompanying statement that either formula (squaring or triangulating) shows the ratio of pi to be arbitrary, which smacks in the face of the longheld academic assertion that the traditional pi is sacrosanct.
This causes huge problems with technology when it comes to developing AI (eg, robots) or even a synthetic turkey, what people arent aware of is that sythetic turkeye could not be exactly replicated the same time, leaving certain mutations.
Oviously, the harmless ones could be a pigment splotch or a cosmetic defect, but imagine a more serious one of note such as something similiar to anthrax, bubonic plague, or something WORSE.
I remember when I was in second grade. They told us we were going to be the class of 2000. They made us do a little project on what we thought the world would be like in 2000. I did my project on flying cars. I made a car that transformed from wheels to wings with construx. And the class was pretty unanimous on moving sidewalks. Guess what, it's not the jetsons, but it is the internet.
Predicting the future is fun, but I'd put more stake in science fiction becoming true than what any official predictor says.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Personally, I don't think vegetarians would eat synthetic turkey for the same reason they don't eat real turkey. "Real turkey" is not consumed by vegetarians because the molecules in it were once part of lovong turkeys. Raw materials (dirt? grass? water?) no doubt took on many forms in the past. Many of the molecules comprising those raw materials could easily have once been part of turkeys (and thinking back to high school chemistry and avogadro's number which wa something like 10 to the 23th power it's pretty much a certainty) so vegetarians shun synthetic turkey just as much as the real thing. Also, how do you think they make sure it tastes like real turkey? Why, they compare it, which means that lots of real turkeys died so that the synthetic kind could taste more like them. QED
Why not be nice and give gifts to people who need/deserve them throughout the year?
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
New technology is far more likely to be very sensible, merely adding more "grunt" to what we have already, with a few sub-innovations here and ithere. As a people we are already discovering what we want; Fast data communications, medcine, digitalization, AI (a huge umbrella), time savers, entertainment etc.
Let's start being more specific, choose certain already established technology and predict where it will go. All tyhe best technology evolves from working with what we have. We should try and built the bridges before we try to cross them.
*sigh* I've began to sound like a whining, ranting Slashdotter more every day.
What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
In-laws that aren't quite clued in will still give out
smelly, rash-on-contact soaps as table gifts, and
chortle at their own inability to set the time on their
home replicator to anything other than a
flashing 12:00.. and will still try to call you
into the study to "have a look at my Windows '49er..
it keeps crashing...."
There might be technology allowing us to read each others minds...
Great... I can envision myself being bankrupted the first time I get a song stuck in my head for an entire day-- because I'm sure the RIAA will buy the laws to make them privy to my thoughts, and will demand a licensing fee for each separate instance that I thought about the song.
~Philly
Zager Evans
....(fading...)
In The Year 2525
In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, and say
Is in the pill you took today
In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing chew
Nobody's gonna look at you
In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got not nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you
In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube
In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
Guess it's time for the Judgement day
In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again
In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing
Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday
In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that AMD-powered 1-terahertz PCs might soon be there.
It's all about the (theoretical) presents, indeed. :)
Doesn't it seem like Ian Pearson gets to take the piss at BT (and our) expense?
-psy
"Absent family will join the celebrations virtually."
......right? :( I want flying cars that everyone will be able to afford already! , No, I don't care about traffic or people not being able to fly them properly, I want the flying cars I was promised!
Why join us virtually? They should be able to join us virtually becuase they'll "fly" here with their flying cars right?
psst.. wake up, wake up!
[alk]
Don't forget the flying cars! What good is one of these "predict the future" pieces of crap without some of those?!?!
CmdrTaco, Jr., is now 40 years old and running Slashdot. He posts repeat stories using his Linux Tablet PC, which is of course illegal since Linux's source code compromises Intellectual Property. All of the major companies have merged into a single company which most people believe runs the country. George Bush, IV, along with "Lil" Fritz Hollings pass a law mandating quotas of consumer involvement. The war on terror has not ended but that's ok since the country has rallied behind mini-Bush.
Ahh, what days lie ahead. I can't wait!
Christmas will be replaced by a generic winter holiday after lawsuits charge it with Eurocentricism and racist undertones (why isn't Santa black?). "Christian" preachers will tell their congregations to embrace the new holiday, as to not offend their atheist, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan, Hindu, and Buddhist brethe--- er, fellow human beings.
Underground real Christians will continue to celebrate, while having what nativity scenes they dare display be subjected to fines and arson.
"O! Beautiful for spacious skies..."
Don't see this as offtopic. Sadly, I'm partly serious about this. I'm willing to wager that Christmas WILL be less evident in 40 years if things keep up this way.
... but when i saw it, it was on a "Popular Science" short from 1960 about how we'd be living in 1990. :P
A robotic kitchen assistant will help you with the Christmas meal preparations while you recieve instructions and monitoring assistance in real time from information systems for the cooking.
But will he look like Robin Williams?
To make a pun demonstrates the highest understanding of a language
It's 2050, and was promised flying turkeys. Where are my flying turkeys?
you god damned tree hugging dirty ape!
By evaluating and studying the past you can deduce alot of information about where we are headed, there are guys that are paid to do this.
After reading the article I whipped up a quick little formula that would say, help studying the past and future of our current economic system.
You could use this to find several useful things and reverse the formula to see what may be projected, (barring a future disaster that would take the stock market into a depression or something) economists do this all the time.
The exact formula is
DT = log(2)/log(1+p/100)
where p is the percentage increase per unit time. Thus, in your
example, p=7, so 1+p/100 = 1.07 and
DT = log(2)/log(1.07) = 10.245 years
However, this doesn't directly solve your problem, which says nothing
about doubling time. Instead we can write this equation:
C = 5(1.07)^t
where C is the cost of a lift ticket and t is the number of years
since 1963. Do you understand this equation? At t= 0 (the year 1963)
the cost is $5:
C = 5(1.07)^0
= 5(1)
At t = 1 (the year 1964) the cost is 1.07 times $5; that's an increase
of 7%. Each year following, you multiply by another factor of 1.07.
You can find the cost of a lift ticket in 1993 by deciding what the
value of t is in that year, then plugging this value into the equation
in place of t, and evaluating it to find C.
Now, with this raw example you coud make what futurists call "forseeable return index" or commonly reffered as FRI.
You can deduce apply to this the sales of the cable industry, airline industry, any industry.
Apply your newly generated FRI and cross reference it with the stock market PAST performance, and, removing the wierd bizarre random happenings that made stock to plummet (enron, say a CEO was caught freebasing, etc), and then reversing it, you will have a ghastly close representation of how to play the market.
Economists have been refining this for years. Their formulas are different then mine of course (and probably more complex!), but it doesn't have to apply to this one example, others could be things such as generating a loose time line of every automobile upgrade (introduction of anti-lock brakes, airbags, then say get a loose idea when something like a wheel turns into jet burner, etc). Moores law is a good example here.
Just my thoughts.
I was promised a flying car 50 years ago...Where is my flying car? I want my flying car!!!
-----
One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
It's amusing to see this sort of thing. Implicit are assumptions made about how current behavior will not change, but will itself be applied, or adopted wholesale, to new technology.
m l getting ready to give a hearty "heave-ho,ho'ho" to most of the predictions in the reported article.
This is, in fact, the reverse of what happens.
We saw this sort of thing in the 50's with predictions about vacuum cleaner robots, almost always accompanied by an image of a very happy woman (assumed to be a housewife). No one could imagine the Women's Movement just one decade hence.
We will (see Kurzweil) experience ever increasing rates of change in technology over the next 50 years; along with that will be slower (but faster than linear) changes in human behavior. The latter are the *really* hard predictions.
One nice change might be to find a way to do away with the compulsive consumption (the latter word used to mean both "using things up" and "deadly disease") that defines our most popular holiday (in the West), and turn it into something more functional, useful, and fulfilling. (btw, all the latter adjectives imply massive behavior change as well, which might happen as the developed world begins to learn the lesson about what 'enough' is).
In keeping with the season, here's 'Santabot' http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ctrevas/santabot.ht
Virtual Hot Grits will be the to-get gift of the season.
Linux will be ready for the desktop, but all the desktops will have shrunk to fit in a pill that you swallow.
The entire B*ush family will have died from a drug overdose.
Cheney's heart will continue beating in a small bell jar at the McDonalds Intel Smithsonian.
Michael Jackson will have transparent skin, and have Liz Taylors uterus 'installed' to give birth to an endless stream of monkeys.
Music will be beamed directly into your head, and tinfoil hats make a fashion comeback.
Steven Speilbergs 'Taken' will be on its final installment.
The music industry finally disposes with allusion and inference, and two new acts hit the stage: Britney Bigtits and the boy band "Humpin' Yer Daughters"
Slashdot's Karma will actually apply to real life, and trolls are forced to live underground, cracking human bones for the tasty marrow inside.
Reality shows will move into your own home, with prizes for the 'best'(dysfuntional) family.
The first frozen dead guy is revived, and by an incredible twist of fate, is named 'Fry'.
Dick Clark will be suspended in ammniotic fluid. Just for the hell of it.
The U.S., long since disbanded for mismanagement, will relocate to Kamchaka, and attempt to defend all those borders.
Steven King will be found dead in his home. Even if you didn't like his books, you have to admit the affect he had on late 20th century literature.
Cmdr Taco's daughter will run Slashdot, and in hopes of giving her a better life than he had, he will buy her a dictionary chip.
Go Carts will still be fun, but pale in comparison to GyroCarts which will be super strong, cool and powerful.
Soviet Russia will be a new Disney/AOL/TimeWarner/Microsoft/RedHat theme park, where the attractions ride YOU. Ok. It's a whorehouse.
Steve Balmer will live his dream, starring in "Gorillas in the Mist: Lard of the Jungle"
Grand Theft Auto 2050 is released. It's not a game anymore.
Duke Nukem (We Told Ya!) is finally released, and it like totally blows.
Does anyone remember back in the 40s-60s when people were promissing moon colonies by the year 2000? Perfect AI? All these promisses of self-aware kitchens, nanotechnology, and... ::chuckles:: mind reading with our family, and the greedy little grandsons i'm gonna have... they mean nothing to me. Just because some guy with money and a publisher came up with some ideas about the "future" from fitting a best-fit line on some innacurate graph... we should listen?
...and no one listens to "future" predictions anymore.
...in 50 years, people will read our predictions of the future again and laugh...
Well here's my prediction.
Christmas 2050:
During the decades after the fallout of nuclear war from WWIII (thank's to our good ol' prez G.W. Bush), the remaining 20% of humanity will have finally learned from our mistakes in the past, and a mental enlightenment will take place. No more war, poverty, or even money to spoil our greedy hands at christmas. There will be no economy anymore... just a civilization where people do their job because it betters the world.
Because of the lack of greed, the greatest minds no longer compete against eachother for grants, steal eachothers patents, or publish rediculous findings/theories just to make money... but instead will work together and finally discover a method of energy creation that is 100% efficient and very very powerful, allowing us to finally leave this polluted earth with no ozone and start again on a new planet under a distant sun after we have finally learned our lesson...
In all seriousness, the roots of any technical breakthrough or future event is far... far to complex to be predicted with any accuracy. In 50 years, we might not even be here to enjoy the greedy children who rape their parents for gifts and money. In 50 years, we may have made contact with an intelligent, peaceful alien race... or perhaps they are war-like and the entire earth is struggling to survive... and christmas is only a luxury once remembered.
What did you feed him?
Hot Dogs.
What an old idea.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
...which are the Christian ideals on which this Country was founded. Mind reading? You had better check the holy scriptures ... reading minds, just like using stem cells to cure disease, is explicitly against the word of God. It says so, plain as day ...
EZEKIEL 13:18
I swear Repentance is the message to God's people.
The people have idols in their hearts.
God says both the false prophets and their followers will be destroyed.
God will make the land barren.
See, plain as day; "do not use stem cells, do not read minds." I don't see why people can't understand that. Sadly, so many people have been tainted by independent, logical thought. Hopefully Bush can put an end these destructive habits.
And there is good new for vegetarians, with turkey dinner being artificial, thanks to progress in biology and nanotechnology.
Apparently scientists will by then have understood the molecular processes needed to convert raw materials into turkey sufficiently well to make a good replica.
...does anybody care about vegetarians that much??
genetically-engineered Furbies
I didn't know plastic had genes to engineer in the first place...
Slashdot will have programming installed to filter out dupes.
Slashdot will have...
-T
He so totally forgot to mention shamanic magic, orks, and the Matrix.
At least there will still be trolls, regardless of what happens.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I honestly think that the difference between 2050 and 2002 will not be as drastic as 1950 and now.
IMHO...robots will be available (well they technically are in the capacity of that 'Cye' thingy), but in the capacity of tablet pcs or segways are now (Neat, useful, but expensive and somewhat impractical).
Things will have improved, sure, but I wont be expecting a Christmas list include a G10 Titanium Laptop with a Terabyte of RAM and 100 Ghz Proc. Or to be able to browse pr0n in with my implant. Or even to have the US as a totalarian state.
Things with slow down, they already are. Even most tech. companies admit so.
This guys been reading to much lit. from the 50s
forget it.
I just want humanity to discover a souce of unlimited, clean and free energy instead of relying too much on oil. everything else should follow.
In every example you gave, they all had a quantity that you are measuring, such as price or megahertz. It should be abundantly clear that innovation of new products doesn't fit this model, since there is no way to score it. Also you are only able to measure stable activities and innovation isn't stable, but veyr chaotic.
This is there year 2002, where are my flying cars. WHERE ARE MY FLYING CARS? change this story to humour, please.
Sorry, I don't believe the future is going to be bright and rosy, and that all positive indicators will get better.
Realistic predictions...
The ozone hole gets significantly worse causing massive ecological changes. This causes social unrest in some countries and cities sparking several desperately fought wars.
Critical resources diminish. Technology has been developed to squeeze the dregs from old wells, but there are severe shortfalls. Nuclear energy is predominant energy source.
US continues to lose technological capability to east-asia.
Collapse of US educational establishment.
Violence in US streets becomes much worse. Police forces nationalized.
Thanks to progress in biology and nanotechnology, the molecular processes needed to convert raw materials into turkey will be understood sufficiently well to make a good artificial turkey for the vegetarians.
I thought a good chunk of vegetarians were that way more because of the health benefits of not eating meat. Creating a perfect artificial turkey would still come with all the side effects of eating real ones.
Guess this could possibly help out the extreme vegans though, who don't want anything that came from processed animal products at all - assuming these 'molecular processes' work on 100% non-animal products.
Oh well, futurists are always amusing.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
the nuclear-powered flying cars we'd all have by 2000. Or the nuclear-powered 1000-passenger airplanes by 1975. Tech forecasts are rarely right more than a few months into the future.
My forecasts for 2050 - violence in the middle east, guerilla wars and revolutions in 3rd world countries, the UN will be an ineffective joke, space aliens won't make contact, the economy will be in a state of flux, and the world won't end.
in 2050, the vegatarian turkeys sythesize the nanobots.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
Great Technological advancements in the next 50 years will be absolutly nothing like any article has to say. Some may remember things like "By the year 2000, we'll have flying cars and never need to do anything."
I believe we were promised robot helpers as well. The entire article seems exactly like articles from Post WW2 america, when the promise of scientific advancements like nuclear power and two city-block computer technology.
Anytime someone has ever put a year to a selected achievement, like flying cars and artificial intellegence, those things have never really come. Why? Because those promises are built on technology that hasn't been invented yet.
But I guess it may happen...
What happened to that business?
...assuming technological progress had all the funding it desired. With the exception of intelligent robots (and nuclear war, i'd hope) all the items you listed would have been possible (although flying autos might have been a _dumb_ idea) had they gotten as much funding as some people wanted.
Your list: "When I was a kid in the '50s, the futurists predicted routine space travel by now, commuting by flying automobiles, the hyrdrogen economy, copious nuclear power production, intelligent robots, oh - and the end of the world by nuclear war."
*Space travel could have been rutine (or at least pretty commonplace) had we not 'given up' after reaching the moon. Establishing a lunar colony and going to Mars were all possible, but went unfunded.
*Flying autos aren't technologicaly impossible, they're just not too smart of an idea. I'd hate to see the type of accidents people could accomplish given all three dimensions to move through...
*The hydrogen economy, again, was (and still is) in technological reach. Economic reach? Maybe next Christmas...
*Nuclear power, along with the hydrogen economy, are possible but not as imediatly profitable as some would like...
*Intelligent robots may be the only idea that is truly the stuff of sci-fi for the forseable future.
*And nuclear war? One item from your list I'm rather glad _didn't_ happen.
I'm not saying the article's predictions will come true, but that if (when?) they don't it won't be because the technology _COULDN'T_ have been developed, but because someone didn't get the money to do it. I think most technological delays aren't from lack of knowhow or scientific ability, but from lack of grant money....
Robotic cooking helpers, barbie dolls that walk and talk, nanotechnology assisting in cooking and making make-up better... Most of the examples from the article are not amazingly far off. The robotics to make a 'cooking companion' exist today and it's not far-fetched to have an 'intelligent' kitchen, with moniters and sensors in the oven and such, hooked up to the Internet to have it search for recipie ideas and help check to see how your food is doing.
The only thing I'd say is totaly out of reach, even with infinite research money, is 'mind reading' technology, especialy cheap enough to be had around the dinner table. Other than that, the article only sounds far fetched because people don't like putting money into ideas that may not be profitable.
(Were I to bet on it, I'd say the walking/talking Barbie WILL exist by 2050, and one that can do an okay job of interacting with the kid. I'll bet you anything. Toys make money, probably faster easier than an intelligent kitchen or mind-reading makeup. What these toys will do to the imagination, when it goes un-needed and unused, is a whole other issue....)
Just my $.02
-Trillian
some sort of Ramadan may be
Future predicts YOU
Like what I said? You might like my music
Honestly, what is the point of even mentioning a time so far ahead of us... obviously it has been proven that we aren't exactly realistic when describing the future... not to mention the only things that ever seem to get mentioned are the economic/technological aspects of the future... what about the arts, what about peoples' attitudes.. these things all change drastically in such a great amount of time.. which makes it nearly impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy what the future will be like.. so why not live for the moment instead?
You're nothing; like me.
Christmas 2050, the human race will be sifting through radioactive ashes for rats to eat.
-Bomb
...by feeding it to a small turkey, until said turkey is big enough to eat.
A real "advance" would be the growth of free range and organic farming -- doing away with industrial farming techniques that involve shutting animals into crates, cramming them with chemical- and antibiotic-laden feed, and generally turning them into objects instead of living beings.
Many people who now object to eating meat might change their minds, if they felt that the animals they consumed were raised in a healthy manner and treated humanely.
I eat some meat, but try to steer clear of the more factory-farmed stuff in favor of organic/free-range products. It's preferable in so many ways: hygeinically, nutritionally, ethically, etc.
As the world population starts to demand the western lifestyle due to movies, books, and the Internet showing the western life to all, every Chinese and Indian will want to have a Western-style house with refrigerators, heating and air-conditioning, several computers and a car for each family member.
As each new generation embraces the western life and rejects their parents' values, there will be no more third world to exploit to get all these appliances built for cheap, everything will be expensive.
Universities have now pervaded the planet, with the cult members everywhere demanding Master's degrees for entry level jobs, since machines do all the labor, there has to be an artificial barrier to generate the class differences that fuel the capitalist system.
'Education' now takes the first 45 years, on average, of a person's life, while they still live with their famillies. To get that entry level job, they need post-grad work.
To start your life at 45 with a million dollars of debt, you need to work 80 hours a week at some salary that seemed good on paper 20 years ago. Your debt eats away a good chunk of your paycheck, but since you spend 80 hours a week at work, you have little time to notice.
You start to want to live a little at 45, but the banks won't let you get a mortgage until you can save some money and have some stability. Meanwhile, they gladly let you have credit cards with 20% interest, and will lend you money to buy a car that will depreciate the second it rolls off the car lot.
Due to medical advances, you can expect to live to 120-130 looking the same as a 20th century 60 year old. You can also expect to work till a hundred to pay off the cult, and your boss lets you know in no uncertain terms that there are many many 45 year olds with post-grad work in mopping the floor. Better plan to come in to work for the next few weekends.
Naturally.... 1950 to now was 52 years... now to 2050 is only 48.
Let's get on with life.
See, plain as day; "do not use stem cells, do not read minds."
hehehe that was funny as shit.
thanks
The picture that came to mind was that ride from Walt Disney World...Carousel of Progress I think?
I mean damn it. How much Christmas 2050 does anyone need? Let's go you sons of bitches, christ.
Its funny about this prediction. This lady with 3 nipples told me the same thing!
It's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day! It's a great big beautiful tomorrow, and tomorrow is just a dream away! Man has a dream, and that's a start! He follows his dream from mind to heart, and when it becomes a reality, it makes a better world for you and me! Oh it's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day! It's a great big beautiful tomorrow, and tomorrow is just a day away!! Is it just me, or does this story sound like the last stage of the "Carousel of Progress" in Disney World? Hehe, that's gotta be one of my favorite "rides". :)
The first step is Mad Max-like, then comes Skynet, then The Matrix. Or have I been lied to again by Hollywood?
Christmas was hijacked by a consumption fever, so too in 2050, Christmas will be all about presents.
it won't be the first time, it was hijacked from other winter celebrations of the time to be a holiday for the Christians it is fitting that it is now a holiday of the corporations interests.
The difference between 2002 and 2050 will be much more drastic than 1950 and now. Despite the fact that 2002-2050 is only 48 years, and 1950-2002 is 52. MUCH MORE DRASTIC.
That's what they were saying 50 years ago too. About the only sci-fi thing that's actually come to fruition is 1984 ("Patriot" Act, TIAA, etc.). Merry Christmas!! (or Allahmas, or whatever).
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
Its only a flight of fancy that lets you believe that the plebs of society will nicely eradicate themselves whilst the dreamers take over. Have no fear though, because in 2050 we won't need to live in big cities anymore, and the people who we would wish to disappear will congregate in vast numbers living off of each parasitically. No worries though, if you give them what they want then they'll be happy enough to breed themselves into oblivion.
Polluting the Internet since 2003...
http://percep
Now think about the point at which computing will be a mature technology.
I'm a little worried the great great grandchildren of this project will fly into my car to blare commercials at me. It'd give a new meaning to popup ads!
Everything will be taken away from you.
I too would bet on anything a science fiction writer predicted over anything similar to what this person is spewing out. My belief is that much of the inovation we see in the world today is based on a glimmer of a brighter future which may have included technology X, found only in a good science fiction novel. Some lone person reads the book, makes the connection and proceeds to subtley change the world with their new contribution. The original inspiration, however, resides in the authors mind.
Polluting the Internet since 2003...
http://percep
I am a vegetarian strictly for the health benefits. Actually I am not trying to 'fix' anything by doing it, I just hope to live whatever life I have left in a more healthy fassion. Never cared much for the animals or humans for that matter, go ahead kill all the cows by scaring the shit out of them, see if I care. I wear leather and fur when I want and don't give a damn about any religion, since I am an atheist. So there. And yes, I've been doing it for the past 7 or 8 years now and I LOVE my fucking food (only raw fruits and vegetables, honey,nuts and an occasional coffee with a cheese cake).
You can't handle the truth.
... at least that's what i read on first try.
I need sleep.
Give me a break. This guy is presenting visions of 2000 as seen from 1920, fer gawd sakes, with a few nearly ancient buzzwords thrown in to spice it up. Any "futurologist" that conceives of nanotechnology maturing to the point where turkeys can be made from dirt but thinks people will still be cooking in kitchens (uh, with friendly robot assistants) and that gift exchange will be paramount at Christmas (in spite of the fact that anyone will be able to make anything with dirt and software), is a short-sighted moron at best, a ridiculous fraud at worst.
/. over the past week. What gives? Is someone trolling the smart people, or has /.'s quality really gotten to the point where there's nothing more interesting to discuss than futurologists less forward-thinking than half-century dead sci-fi writers and which town in which 3rd world country has decided to use Linux for bookkeeping? Back to kuro5hin...
There have been at least a dozen articles of similar low quality posted on
o please, spare me the futuristic jetsons babble. for years has the human race spoke of having robots as assistants in the 21st century...it's the 21st century people and how far have we come? i have one word for you - aibo.
it certaintly would be scary if one could read another's mind. i'm sure freudians especially would be pissed.
merry christmas all!
It is so sweet, but never come ture in time. ;P
I found most of the projections timid.
The "kitchen assistant" stuff is largely available in component form (mixers, ovens, etc. that can sync to a recipe and will tell the chef what to put in when, monitor quantities of ingredients, turn the oven on to a defined time/temperature, etc.) NOW. Ambitious would be to project that we'll have fully automated kitchens. That can be done in today's technology, though not in a form that'll fit a household kitchen. In the 2050 fast food restaurant, you'll be able to get things ranging from the current menu to anything available at the 5 star restaurants of today, but fast food restaurants will have disappeared as a separate category whose memory will linger only in brand names. Restaurants with human cooks and service will be considered superpremium places and will have prices to match.
"there will be screens lining the wall."
The price of flat-panel display technology is dropping and the availability is increasing. OLED is screen-printed, not vacuum deposited.
Do you really think that videophones that can be attached to the network aren't going to be available for the price of a cheap one-piece deskphone now, and that the problems building a Net appliance that'll be secure and "Just Works" and of universal broadband availability won't be solved in 48 years?
With the exception of thought recording and transference hardware, everything discussed is in either research or early pre-alpha. It is hardly the author's fault you haven't been paying attention, most of what's in the article has been bloglinked from here.
The problem with this kind of futurism is that the futurist considers the future to be a linear extension of the present... while his predictions might be accurate, they look more like 2012 than 2050 to me.
The problems with a robotic household all-purpose servant that can use human tools will be solved by then, but people may be so used to intelligent point-solution household appliances (automated vacuum cleaners, etc.) that nobody will care.
The writer doesn't deal with space at all. One prediction I'm certain of. Either the human race will be exploiting the Solar System as a whole by then or nobody will have pleasant Xmases by then, people will be too busy suffering the kind of deprivations that go with cultures in a state of permanent war, in this case, over who gets enough of the Earth's dwindling resources of materials required to sustain technological society in order to keep one. I'm not talking about oil here, by then, we won't have a technological culture burning oil for fuel. That's why auto manufacturers are converting their assembly lines over to high-efficiency or fuel-cell vehicles. Even Toyota, who's going over to superefficient hybrid engines says that the vehicles are intended for easy conversion to fuel cells.
However, some dreams are less likely than others. The problem with a personal jet pack is sort of obvious, a device that has to provide all its lift as well as forward motion via reaction sucks up a hell of a lot of fuel.
Will we ever find the exceptions or reinterpetation of physical law that'll make a starship possible? I certainly don't know. Check the NASA "Warp Drive When" site for their Advanced Propulsion project for the latest.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Even Mr Clarke didnt preview rightly what would it be in 2001 ... lets see if by 2010 we have two suns :D
------- The last Sig. got fired.
it certaintly would be scary if one could read another's mind
Would it really be scary if we could read each otehrs minds? Sure it would take alot of getting used to, but the generation that grows up like that would thinbk it is natural.
Now think about how much trouble ignorance and mis-communication cause. Would rascism and discrimination be so prevailant if we could walk in the shoes of the oppressed?
Think about life in the city. Where I live people basically ignore each other, not helping even when they want to because for somereason we think the recipient doesn't want help. Even if I see someone and want to help, I am often afraid to help because I don't want to scare them (a large foreigner tends to scare old Japanese women easily).
I for one could feel a lot more secure every day knowing that other people are just as insecure in certain situations.
can't help butt FEEl the 'joy' as i insert my jingle.NET massturd card into the tree.NET, watching IT "come to LIEf", for a mere 2 billybuks, for the whole day. am i euphoric now, or what?
that'll be all the FUNd any of US can bear up to at once there, so we'll move along to ?choosing? the daze VDOs. maybe we'll watch the Upgrade Day(tm) (used to be called christmas) edition of "the kode ahead", the kingdumb's latest re-lease. euphoria again.
well, that's it for US, got to get some rest, as the stock markups are open again tomorrow, & we doN'T waNT to have a "tired" clicking finger, as we may get the fud souled out from under US again. gawd bless US, every won.
Let's all hope Pearson's predictions are more or less accurate, because if you're pessimistic, and today there is a good reason to be, then the future looks quite grim.
One can imagine the world falling in war, with most civilisation wiped out by biological/chemical/nuclear weapons.
Most of modern's technology will be no good without electricity, so any survivors will be going back to basics. Back to stone age?
With all respect to Mr. Pearson, such a grim prediction is just as likely to happen (or more likely even) than his own.
Personally (trying to stay positve) I think we'll have... just a bit more pollution, a bit more technology (no way robotic kitchen helpers!), less educated masses, and an ever increasing gap between the few rich and the many poor... not much change then.
In 2050, you have aged considerably from your younger slashdot days.
You have finally gotten laid, infact you are now married and have several kids.
Things have slowed down between you and your wife and you haven't gotten any in several months. So what's the geek to do.
You browse to Slashdot the antique and see it's very last article published was the first conscious real doll, well not conscious in the way of people, but in the way a dog is.
You spend an amount of money equal to you car and it arrives in a large wooden crate. As you open it up you realize it looks just like you wife did 50 years ago, and it has your hands!
BULLSHIT! I was suppose to have a flying car back in the 80's according to "experts" in the '50s.
here's my prediction -- everything past the first sentence is bollocks.
The world as it is today will still be the same shitty cloud of collective crap in 50 years time.
"good artificial turkey for the vegetarians"
Good heavens, do you really think most vegetarians WANT artificial turkey? Maybe those who changed during their life "miss" meat, but those of us who have NEVER eaten it (not for the past 150 years in my case as a 4th generation vegetarian) it's not something we would ever contemplate.
The WORST sort of vegetarian food is that which is made to look, feel and taste like meat. Unfortunately, that seems to be what most people think of when they try to prepare vegetarian fare.
Lastly, just as this Christmas was hijacked by a consumption fever, so too in 2050, Christmas will be all about presents.
Whatever. This christmas eve was like many a christmas eve before it at my home: lots of people (14) - some I see only on christmas eve, others I see every day, others I hadn't met before; lots of different food (candided beets, herring salad, baked fish, poppyseed cake, etc); a christmas tree; christmas carols.
It lasted about seven hours, from 6pm to 1am, like it usually does. Sure, we had presents, but they sure as hell weren't the centerpiece. Sure, when I was a kid it was mostly about the loot, now it's totally about the love. It's about having a couple of days when nobody needs to make an excuse to get away from everyday chores, and spend time with they people who they want to.
So lay off the bullshit, for a lot of us christmas is much more than presents.
This futuroligist is nothing but yet another paid professional bullshitter. Given the way Xmas has evolved throughout christianities history and the way it's changing just now, Xmas most certainly won't be celebrated the way we do it today.
It could also very well be that the larger part of animals with a spinal column have died out due to strange diseases and/or enviromental causes and that most people won't even consider eating meat anymore. Adding stuff about mindreaders and other crap doesn't make this statement any more interessting. How do these people make a living, I wonder?
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
"Madonna ma non vi stancate mai di leggere sempre le stesse cazzate? Alla faccia del geek..."
If we've got robotic kitches assistants and the ability to grow synthetic turkey meat, then the average salshdot geek will be screwing his kitchen assistant's succulent artifical vagina in 2050.
Predictions ignore the fact that the world is vastly over-populated, even with all the wars, disease, etc. I suppose Christmas 2050 will look like something out of a "Mad Max" movie.
1. Pay some arguably mediocre to dream up some shit.
2. Troll slashdot with it
3. Post banners
4. ???
5. Profit!
Like what I said? You might like my music
the flying cars we won't have -- Again.
They've 'predicted' that one so many times that they've finally figured out that we're "lost pidgeons" on that topic.
They're still predicting that machines will read our minds and do everything we want for us before we even know we want it though. Kinda makes me wonder just what it is *we* are expected to be doing.
I guess the future is scarier than we thought. A life of maintaining the machines that maintain us, until the machines take that function over too.
Good thing I'll believe this is even possible when the the machines give me monkeys flying out of my butt for Christmas.
Or a flying Alfa Romeo.
KFG
That there's very little that's been new in almost 100 years? The only *new* things my Grandpa's ever seen in most of his life is television and a computer-- and he doesn't really use it. He had an iron when he was little-- and it was made of iron. He put it on the stove to heat it up and iron the clothes. In fact, as far as my grandfather's concerned, outside of biological innovations (which certainly effect our lives quite a bit), his life isn't much different than it was when he was growing up. He wakes up, eats food (that he cooked on a stove and took out of a refrigerator), gets dressed (now with clothes mad ewith slave labor), goes and waters his yard (now using a mass produced plastic watering can instead of a metal one), drives to work (in a car-- much different than the cars of the 1920s and '30s, but still just a car), comes home and does everything else he would have done before. As much as technology is affecting my life and how I interact with family, and how I keep in touch, it's not affecting the whole world, or even many Americans.
JC "What"
BT's futurologist?? Now I know why BT are loosing so much money each year. They should stop worrying about the future, and start rolling out more ADSL... or they might not BE around in 50 years time...
The EU will become the main superpower, followed by China, US, Russia.
Why does this read like the stuff they said we would have now in 1955?
Wouldn't a vegan have forecast that by 2050, nanotechnology will be able to produce a nutritious tofu turkey with a flavor which is acceptable to carnivores?
The Soviet Union predicts YOU!
Erm, okay I'll go away now...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
All men won't have beards and all women won't be wearing burkas.
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
"A robotic kitchen assistant could help take the stress out of the preparations."
Hmm...
"(Roboto-chan! Make the turkey for me, I'll be back in a few hours!)"
(Comes back to find the robot in bed with his microwave)
He who drinks Australian thinks Australian!
[i]so too in 2050, Christmas will be all about presents[/i] Is that any different from now? I seem to recall predictions made by the president of RCA back in the 20's stating we would all have nuclear reactors in our houses by the 90's, to feed us power.
Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
In 2050 companies who have succeeded will have largley done so through the aid of futurologists like me. Any company that in 2002 gave a payrise to these futurologists received huge increases in profits, as they knew excatltly what to plan for... ...dream on...
In 2050 the world will be 80% Muslim with all of the major developed countries being Islamic republics. Islam recognizes the contributions of the prophet Jesus, but does not celebrate his birthday. Islam also permits all monotheistic faiths to worship- even Iraq is 10% Christian. But the go-getters will follow the majority faith.
I always thought that by now we'd have Rocket Packs for flying around by this point (oh yeah, and robot servants too). If we don't have personal Rocket Packs by 2050, I'm going to be mega pissed.
When trying to predict the future, one must always look at the past. What have we seen in the past? Well, usually what happens is something so groundbreaking, so radical is invinted that it changes and shapes the whole course of civilziation in ways no one could have expected, making the current way of life and even forms of government inadequet. Cannons/Gunpowder in the feudal age was such an invention, basically defeating the enitre purpose of castles. The automobile was another... what part of your daily life is NOT touched in some way by the invention of the automobile? In the future, instantaneous matter transportation (beam me up, Scotty!) could be such an invention. Think of how quickly the world would have to change if anyone could travel anywhere instantly. Think of the implications it would have for crime if there was no way to prevent people from "beaming" into certain locations. Also, this is something that we a currently able to imagine. The really future-changing inventions will be extensions of future inventions, thusly being almost impossible for us to concieve right now.
I have a lot of hope for humanity. I think that in a few million years we could have a maverlous, galactic civilazation, numbering in the trillions. The quality of life would be so vastly improved by the technolgy and the abudant resouces available in the galaxy in the form of solar power and raw elements, especially compared to what we have here on this little blue dot called home. Sometimes, I think I was accidentally born a few hundered thousand years too soon. ;)
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
It'll be the 13th century anyway.
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
Religious tolerance means tolerating other people's religions and not just forcing greater acceptance of your own. What you are suggesting sounds a lot like the destruction of one religion at the sake of another, which is exactly what you say the problem is in the first place.
Welcome to the Thunderdome. Two men enter, one man leaves.
Read the book "Alas, Babylon"
Must be nice to have the time and money to worry about how your meat is raised. I'm just happy to be able to afford to buy meat. I have a lot of customers who are vegan or vegetarian, or who want to meet the meat before they eat it (what's his name? how big was his pen? what did he eat? Did he heat only organcally grown corn? Can I see where the corn was grown?). Without fail, those people are wealthy, in that they have plenty of money and time to waste worrying about shit like this. While I envy their resources, I can definitely say that if I had time and money enough like they do, I wouldn't waste it worrying about every little fucking molecule that enters my body. They're all fucking neurotic. If you ask me, life is too short to be neurotic. Eat & be happy.
I'm not an expert on Moore's law, or anything, but I'd suspect in 2050 Multiple Terabytes of RAM and THz Processors won't be outrageous.
My Ass hurts.
Oh bullshit. Did you notice sales numbers were down this year? Point to the economy as an excuse or whatever, but the bottom line is that Christmas for most people is about spending time with loved ones. Presents are just the icing on the cake.
Did it ever occur to the author of this story that, quite possibly, vegetarians would not want to eat an artificial turkey?
Most vegetarians, in my experience, have more than one reason for making their choice. Sure, there's the obvious, that "animal life is sacred" and that animals should not be killed under any condition. But what about health? Obviously, synthetic turkey would be just as unhealthy and cholesterol-packed as real turkey. (You could bioengineer a cholesterol-free turkey, but I'm not sure if it could still be properly called turkey.)
What about the organic principle? You often find many 'vegetarians' who stay away from red meat for health reasons, but would sooner eat hunted poultry or fished salmon than bioengineered tomatoes; they realize that for humans to live, we must by necessity kill other lifeforms (whether animal or plant), but that we should not interfere with nature until the end.
What about taste? Some vegetarians, believe it or not, just don't like the taste of red meat, poultry, or even fish, because they were brought up not to eat those products and never developed the taste.
There are a certain number of people who would be overjoyed by the development of a bioengineered turkey. However, I believe that those people would mostly be lifelong omnivores living in the suburbs, who have pangs of conscience every time they take their children to tour the local farms. This turkey would make it possible for them to pretend they were actually making a moral judgment. Vegeterians, meanwhile, won't care.
An android Jenna Jameson wet nurse will tickle your senile old chin and giggle suggestively as it changes your diapers and wipes the drool from your face, and you'll feel oh-so-ripped off that you aren't young enough to enjoy the advantages of the future.
There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie -Noel Godin
The most significant part of a turkey's existence is when a human being consumes it.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
2006, the Internet collapses 'cause of the spam. Internet2 is irrelevant. MSNet ressurrects and is adopted by every enterprise "by law force".
2010, Venezuela will be anexed as a new USA State. None speak spanish are found at Venezuela by that year. USA will use the oil from Venezuela to fuel his war against Oil-producer countries form east (Iraq, Kuwait, et caterva), "The Evil East Oil Cartel". "The Cartel" born, mainly an alliance between some key big industries. Two years later, they has one key representant in all relevant areas of economy.
By 2015, 1/3 of the worl population will die from an accident with some kind of bio-weapon being carried by an USA Navy operation. All people dead will be from Latin America and Africa. Larges amounts of no-men country will be claimed by de USA as "their heritage". Some will be claimed because of stategics (food, mainly). The rest will be claimed because "we say so". "The Cartel" has monopoly in 70% of economy. They dictates laws in all countries hat still has money. Muslims are rare. But not terrorrist attacks (suicidal bombing of ex-USNavy operatives). The MSNet is used as a "The Cartel" marketing tool, fulled with subliminal messages, and government propaganda. They dictates what you will do(buy), how, and when.
At 2024 (good looking number, don't know why) all "non-american" USA residents are restrited "for safety reasons" to some areas. Press will get all "news" from government agencies and from "The Cartel" representants. No muslims alive. Buddists became "next threat". They respond with mass suicide, after drinking coke. "The Cartel" is the economy, and the market. They provide almost everything to almost everyone. Every time someone shouts "Jump!" everyone answers "How High?" -- no one knows why.
UNO will be declared dead at 2035. A bomb will kill all the representants till 3rd level of hierarchy. USA will declare UNO irrelevant, and will opose with deadly force to the creation of a new UNO (of course, no war -- noone has money and resources to that). By 2036, saying it's for the good of all, USA will announce that they allways was, are, and will be the sheriff of the world. Resistence is futile. If you do not agree, you are "The Enemy". "The Cartel" assumes the government (not exactly a surprise). Every time someone shouts "Jump!", everybody jumps as high as they can.
2045, slavery will be declared legal at the free world (USA and some countries not famine at Europe and Asia). Everyone whit blue eyes will have the right to have two brown-eyed slaves. More slaves will be a threat to "natural" resources. No one shouts "Jump!" anymore. Nobody has names too. Even numbers. They respond to a "hey, you!", most of the times.
2050, "The News" broadcasts an enterview with Osama Bin Laden, retired from working for the USA Government last years of the war against "Evil East Oil Cartel", showing what kind of heroe he was (he blinks and his head shakes terribly, drolls most of the time, and the responses are read by a machine, that "talks" with a texan accent, but he's still alive), and how the world has been wrong about him at 2002, as he never was a muslim, or terrorrist, or both, or anything relevant -- "Evil East Oil Cartel" deceptions. None with two brown-eyes-slaves knows the address of the kitchen. None that has brown-eyes has kitchen. Automation is irrelevant, because the slaves need something to justify their poor lives. Killing a slave for food is illegal only in some parts of the world (not USA). All you can see at TV are the extra-liberal pr0n (with slaves playing active roles), official news, and brazilian soup from the laters 1970's and 1980's. Everything with "The Cartel" subliminal propaganda. Some people stops from jumping convulsively (they where jumping the last 15 years) by the end of the year. There will be no christmas in 2050, 'cause christmas are irrelevant since 2015, subliminal marketing forces everyone to buy all the time, spending all the money with shopping, and there are no christians in the world since the death of the last buddists. Everybody knows that there's no heaven or hell, and no sins, and no hope, and nothing outside of "The Cartel". The cynics agnostics won. There's no humanity too. Freedom is only a word. Lie is another. Ditto for Truth, Honor, Faith, Law and Crime.
At 2058, with the age of 91, I will die. Natural causes, of course (bullet shot from an blue-eyes, 'cause I'm a very old brown-eyes one, and no one can explain how I can reach that age, even me). The world ends that year. No one feels sorry about anything. No one feels anything.
not because people wanted peace on earth or goodwill toward men, but because they don't have freakin' jobs! All major (minor too i suppose) retailers are reporting poor earnings for the holiday season. This was the worst retail event in a long long time.. in short, this christmas was *not* about consumption.
No todo lo que es oro brilla
...I'll probably be dead in 2050 you insensitive clod(s)
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
The only differences between now and 2050 will be the new computer will have an LCD an even more bloated OS, the car in the driveway will be even bigger, and the kid's toys will be louder, move more and need bigger batteries.
Basically, if it requires miniaturization (like 300M transistors on a chip, before the 60s, transistors were made one at a time), low weight and high strength, you can trace the origins of whatever the product is to the space program.
Find a copy of Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe, there's a short article that'll give you the highlights. Advanced Technology Paths to Global Climate Stability is a reprint of that Science article discussing the future alternative energy sources civilization will need when the oil runs out.
Powersats are on the list. As I see it, we are basically a few years of R&D away from being able to build the kind of space infrastructure that will be required to make building them relatively easy. It's basically a matter of government and major corporations being willing to put major money for a project with 10-15 years before a major return on investment. It's not a matter of discovering new laws of nature, it's a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it.
Remember that sooner or later, the Third World is going to become industrialized and will have per capita resource requirements comparable to the US and EU. What's left of the world's oil just won't do it.
With respect to all of us (Americans, I guess) having maids again, either the resource problems of this planet will be solved in such a way that you won't be able to get cheap domestic help from south of the border, or you won't be able to afford it anyway because your tax money at tax rates you don't want to imagine will be going into military expenditures designed to make sure that the US and allied countries have control over what's left of the world's resources.
Tech Public Policy stuff
We already have visitors from Christmas of the future here to taunt us with gifts from the future.
Ian
I'm a vegetarian and I don't give a *$#@ about "meat substitutes". If I want meat I'll eat meat. If I don't want meat I won't eat meat. Why do marketing droids always think "fake meat" is a great advertising line. It's exactly the opposite, especially if it tastes anything like meat !!!
However, with AMD's announcement that they arent going to try to compete with Intel as much as before and Intel's admission that in 10 years, Moore's Law will be dead, I kinda doubt it...
but who knows?
forget it.
As you and your family come forth from your cave into the radiation-scarred wilderness, the sun shines weakly through the black dust clouds. Snow falls down from the sky, but that's nothing special: when doesn't it fall? Gathering wood has become harder in the last few months, as this area has been hit especially hard by the raids of the mutants, so lately you've taken to burning dried dung for your heat.
You gather your spear, your wife gathers the bucket, one of your few possessions from the Utopia that existed only ... was it 25, or 40 years ago? you ask yourself, but the number escapes you. Father was always a rambler anyway. You will hunt, she will gather food and fuel, in a ritual reminiscent of man's earliest days. Your children, still too young to do either, huddle on the entrance of the cave. You feel a tinge of shame as you notice their ribcages.. there just hasn't been enough food for their growing bodies these days. Too many animals have moved on.
Clearing your mind, you begin your long hunt. Today you will find meat, because today is Christmas. Whatever that means.
The truth about Michael
In the future we will be able to eat all the Soylent green we want, on tuesdays.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
the US population is not on the rise.
Matter of fact, most 'first world' countries have a population that is stable(as far as numbers) , or is diminishing.
You do have a point thought, what happens when a fast food resturant can replace the cooking staff with a 500,000 dollar auromation unit? Every cook in the fast food industry will not have work with 5 years.
Si the company that makes them may need to hir 2000 people, but there are a hell of a lot more fastfood prepareers then that.
Society needs to start thinking about a way to support itself in an enviroment where fewer and fewer people actually need to be working in order to keep things running. If you don't give the people ane avenue to take so they can support themselves, or you do not take care of your people, they will rebel.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
we could have hillary clinton 4!
Now then we would need a WAR on terror!... AHHhhh!
"
During the decades after the fallout of nuclear war from WWIII (thank's to our good ol' prez G.W. Bush"
I bet you said this quote 15 years ago , but with reagon inserted instead of bush.
youre right , we will read these predictions in the future and luagh...
shiznit
Alvin's predictions have always been either uninteresting or ludicrous, imho. However, this point is *so* fantastic.
Sure, in 47 years we might have nanotech that can create turkeys. But we might also have nanotech that has turned every human into a turkey. Christmas day will be the least interesting distinction between now and 2050. Ok, now I'll go read the article.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
When I was a kid growing up in the late 70's/Early 80's we were always looking forward to the year 2000, so we could enjoy all of the stuff that people in the 1950 said we would have, like robots and video phones, now in the early part of 2000, we're waiting for the 50's to herald in a new era of technology...Its all backward and scientific...and a bit unsetteling
Unfortunately your bot hits the website for the Anarchist's Cookbook and kills all the guests that eat the C4 mousse.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Has anyone played deus ex? I think that game has a pretty good view of what's going to happen. Some of the technology won't be there yet and the US probably won't still exist in 50 years (yes I truly believe the "election" of gwb marked the beginning of the downfall of this country and most of civilization). Famine will be rampant. Economies will all be in tatters. Religious and pollitical factions will rule over small parts of the world. Deadly diseases will become commonplace EVERYWHERE and medical technology will have been mostly destroyed by war. Hardly anyone will live to be 30. If we're lucky some big rock will hit the earth and kill us all. Yeah I know I'm a total pessimist, but face it....the world is going to hell and there's nothing anyone can ever do to stop it.
Acme Foil Hat, LLC
Does not matter what it looks like because it won't be called Christmas - this (as it seems even now) would be viewed as demeaning to those who do not observe the religious aspects of the Holiday and would be offended. It may even become illegal to actually wish someone a Merry Christmas earning the well-wisher a permanent place in some far-away hidden dungeon or perhaps a remote "re-education center"...
Christmas is an insult to Jesus Christ. Imagine: A bunch of people celebrate your birthday a day that is not at all your birthday, but the birthday of your enemy. They exchange gifts w/o giving anything to you. They picture you as a harmless child, while you're a powerful king.
Think about it.
With all the retro movement going on in the car business i wouldn't bet that the cars won't look a bit as in 5th element. Have a look at these:e wbeetle/= images p?bhfv= 6&bhqs=1
http://www.mini.com/
http://www.vw.com/n
http://www.chrysler.com/pt_cruiser/?nav
http://www.fordvehicles.com/fordgt/index.a
cu,
Lispy
Christmas wasn't hijacked by consumption fever.
Consumption fever was hijacked by christmas.
Jesus, if he existed, wasn't born in the winter. Christmas was scheduled in December to steal the thunder of "pagan" winter celebrations like Saturnalia, which was about giving presents to children.
The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a
digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top
of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean
the Buddha -- which is to demean oneself.
-- Robert Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
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