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The World in 2076

newscientist.com

21–30 of 69 posts

Re: The World in 2076

#21
post #7

It's curious how these predictions always turn out to be based on the current technology, pushed to its limits. Kinda like sci-fi from the 1950s predicts advanced space travel but barely any computers in the early 21st century.

I'm reading 'The Stainless Steel Rat' to my daughters as bedtime reading right now. They're loving it, but I can't help noticing how dated much of the technology is. I remember even reading it back in the late 80s it was beginning to show it's age a bit, but then it's 5 years older than I am. Truly great story though, lots of fun.

Re: The World in 2076

#22
post #7

It's curious how these predictions always turn out to be based on the current technology, pushed to its limits. Kinda like sci-fi from the 1950s predicts advanced space travel but barely any computers in the early 21st century.

I could have sworn that Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov both had computers in their sci-fi universes, but now that I try to think about it, you're probably right. The closest thing I can think of to a computer is HAL from 2001.

Re: The World in 2076

#23

This one is funny: > The world in 2076: The anti-science backlash has begun Science is like fashion. We (as a society) might be pro-science in 2025, anti-science in 2040, pro-science again in 2055 and finally begin to recover from anti-science in 2076. In other words, this one might change very very fast. There might be much more options, like "everybody likes science but it grinds to halt" and "science is loudly dis…

Countries that turn their back on science will fall behind.

Re: The World in 2076

#24

This one is funny: > The world in 2076: The anti-science backlash has begun Science is like fashion. We (as a society) might be pro-science in 2025, anti-science in 2040, pro-science again in 2055 and finally begin to recover from anti-science in 2076. In other words, this one might change very very fast. There might be much more options, like "everybody likes science but it grinds to halt" and "science is loudly dis…

> Science is like fashion

And the claim is based on... which proofs or sources? Or is it "just a fashion" that some people actually want proofs or sources for some claims?

My claim is that, at least in Europe, what we today call "science" was something that wasn't unfashionable at least the last 350 years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science

Re: The World in 2076

#25
One of the best ways to get me to sign up for a magazine I've ever seen! Great tantalizing content list all in one place followed by an article with a paywall a bit beyond the fold.

Re: The World in 2076

#26
post #19

The anti-innovation backlash is the most likely thing to happen. Today, politicians are winning the populace by lamenting on unfair trade deals, globalism and foreigners taking jobs. Those jobs are not coming back, if they are, certainly not to humans. We will see a growing class of people who are economically useless. (read Professor Yuval Noah Harari new book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Deus:_A_Brief_History…

The anti-innovation backlash is here.

Shiv Sena, the racist party of Maharashtra, has also been pushing luddism mixed with racism. No Biharis should get an auto driver license, and they want to stop technology (Uber, Ola) from allowing Biharis/etc to compete via other means.

http://www.afternoondc.in/city-news/shiv-sena-mns-raise-red-... http://www.newsgram.com/maharashtra-only-marathi-auto-driver...

There were even riots in my town. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/news/auto-strike-...

Terrorists (or "illegal armed groups" to use TechCrunch's euphamism) in Columbia and France have engaged in political violence to stop technology, and the government has sided with them.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/24/ubers-colombian-speed-bump... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3417215/Riot-police-...

See also SF/NY attacking AirBnB.

The anti-innovation backlash is a 2016 issue which we will hopefully resolve before 2076.

Re: The World in 2076

#27
post #19

The anti-innovation backlash is the most likely thing to happen. Today, politicians are winning the populace by lamenting on unfair trade deals, globalism and foreigners taking jobs. Those jobs are not coming back, if they are, certainly not to humans. We will see a growing class of people who are economically useless. (read Professor Yuval Noah Harari new book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Deus:_A_Brief_History…

Why does everyone need to work and contribute to society intellectually? Throughout history it has not been the case.

People will have to cooe with being consumers ALWAYS and producers MAYBE, sometimes.

Re: The World in 2076

#28
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren't. Look at predictions about the future from 1916. They're the definition of quaint.

I've gotten the opposite impression. There was a set of drawings from 1910 predicting Paris in 2010. There were some obvious whiffs, but it broadly predicted automation, remote audio/video communications, and other things.

> it broadly predicted automation, remote audio/video communications, and other things

It trivially extrapolated technologies it already had: macro-automation and long-range communication (extrapolated from the early telephones to video). Did it predict laptops or smartphones though?

Re: The World in 2076

#29
I feel it's unfortunate articles like these don't put more emphasis on climate change, and instead still keep up the narrative that we will innovate ourselves out of the problem. There is not reason to believe we will, and I expect society as a whole to already be heavily impacted by climate change by 2076.

The more people are talking about the fact that human civilization won't survive 4 degrees of warming in a 100 year time span (current projection by 2100), maybe the more society will see that although innovation is important, it's even more important is that we all accept to give up things deemed indispensable today.

Since that might not happen, 60 years time from now the future might look a lot more dystopian than this article would suggest.

Re: The World in 2076

#30

This one is funny: > The world in 2076: The anti-science backlash has begun Science is like fashion. We (as a society) might be pro-science in 2025, anti-science in 2040, pro-science again in 2055 and finally begin to recover from anti-science in 2076. In other words, this one might change very very fast. There might be much more options, like "everybody likes science but it grinds to halt" and "science is loudly dis…

Countries that turn their back on science will fall behind.

Exactly. "What has happened in these nations to support these discoveries and what has happened when they ended?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3mtDC2fQo&t=22m47s

Around 10 minutes on that subject, that part of the presentation is called the "Naming Rights."

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