In your opinion, what sci-fi story do you think will be the most accurate for our future?

[Jacco]

In your opinion, what sci-fi story, movie, game, etc that you have seen do you think paints the most accurate picture of our future? Not necessarily in terms of plot events, just in the world.

For instance, I could easily see Halo's UNSC and its technology, politics, ship design, etc as our future 500 years from now.

What about you? And why?

 

[mattttherman3]

I would sincerely hope, Star Trek. Warp Drive aside, what humanity does is great, replicators, no money(yes, there is Latinum, but Earth has no actual currency), people strive to better themselves instead of being selfish and all about money(looking at you oil companies and banks!!!!). Humanity has stopped fighting itself(in general). Also, it seems that God is RARELY mentioned outside of DS9, and that is quite an encouraging thought.

 

[Jamieson 90]

The world depicted in the film Looper, time travel aside seems pretty accurate of how things could go with dwindling resources and the widening gap between the rich and poor, but well I'm a cynic.

 

[Rylot]

I'd say a lot of Asimov's stuff feels like it could come true. From robotics and the Foundation series to the short story about the AI system and humanity's collective consciousness at the final moment of the Universe going cold (The Last Question) his ideas seem pretty plausible for the most part.

 

[shrekfan246]

Ideally, Star Trek.

It's nice to think of a future where our race doesn't hold material possessions and greed in our effervescent grip.

Failing that, I think it depends on how far ahead you want to look. I can't necessarily see it happening in the next twenty years myself, for instance, but I imagine something like Deus Ex could very well happen in our future. At the same time, who's to say that anything outside of sanctioned government areas will be so sparkly-clean? Maybe something like Firefly or Cowboy Bebop is in store for our future.

 

[Vivi22]

I would sincerely hope, Star Trek. Warp Drive aside, what humanity does is great, replicators, no money(yes, there is Latinum, but Earth has no actual currency), people strive to better themselves instead of being selfish and all about money(looking at you oil companies and banks!!!!). Humanity has stopped fighting itself(in general). Also, it seems that God is RARELY mentioned outside of DS9, and that is quite an encouraging thought.

I agree with you. Though one thing that never bothered me as a child but has come to interest me now is the concept of there being no money in the Federation. It makes sense with respect to replicators to some degree since material goods lose a great deal of value when they can simply be replicated in seconds with no real labour or materials cost. But there are two questions which arise relating to it.

1) You can't replicate planets so how is land and living space allocated?
2) Replicators still require energy which is still a finite resource, though clearly much more plentiful, but should really have some method of rationing it.

Now I get it's a sci-fi TV show and they probably didn't have actual answers for sustainable systems which are fair that can accomplish this efficiently. It just boggles my mind lately since money is, despite its inherent problems, a pretty efficient and impartial way to allocate resources.

As for what future is actually most likely, probably something involving a massive ecological disaster. Looking at agriculture alone we're already well on our way, to say nothing of our growing use of oil (BP oil spill anyone). Frankly, I'll be surprised if we don't destroy our present civilization within 200-300 years. Accidentally or otherwise.

 

[J Tyran]

Blade Runner, the cycle of expansion + development and industry that then turns into neglect as they move on to the next great expansion.

Look at how many nations in the world have huge swaths of post industrial wasteland, if we ever get off our planet even if its just creeping around and developing our solar system if we cannot create FTL propulsion we will have the same habits we do now.

Open rubbish dumps the size of a city, decaying factories and residential areas depopulating because there was no work. All of this will follow us, unless we can somehow become a post need species we will act the same way we do now. We will never be a post need society anyway, why would the business men and politicians want to give up their best tool of control?

 

[Abomination]

For space travel I'm looking at Dead Space without the necromorphs or markers.

I hope Star Trek. I fear Fallout. Deus Ex would be an acceptable middle ground.

 

[HoneyVision]

It's really hard to tell because events can take such random turns. But anything cyberpunk often strikes me as quite accurate. Jeff Noon's books strike me as a possibility.

 

[Voulan]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes the cake for me. It seems like such a natural progression for us to begin incorporating technology into our bodies, especially since even today that technology is already available. Then a separation between augmented and non-augmented people is highly likely - especially the chances of becoming employed being based on what enhancements you have, like the people of Lower Hengsha in the game (and people with a degree and work experience in today's society). It's such a marketable product that there's no doubt corporations would take advantage of it when we've developed it better.

Based on actual circumstances, anyway, we're more likely to perfect human augmentation before creating A.I. And that's seriously going to disrupt the social values that are already rapidly changing today.

I'm guessing most of the posts in this thread will depict a dystopian future. We seem to be in that kind of phase when thinking about the future.

 

[Eddie the head]

Ideally Star Trek, that would just be awesome. A little more realistically I could see Firefly. I would call Star Trek optimistic, I would call Warhammer and it's ilk pessimistic. I would call FireFly a little more real.

 

[Corven]

I'd say Idiocracy looks to be where we're headed if we look at things realistically.

 

[Comrade Richard]

I'd say Idiocracy looks to be where we're headed if we look at things realistically.

Not this again. Look, I know Idiocracy is touted by pseudo-intellectuals as some great prophetic film but really it?s just a comedy movie. It?s a good comedy movie but it?s just a comedy movie, and frankly the only way humanity would collectively be brought down to that level of stupidity is if some force caused civilization to reset from square one. So short of someone proving the impending collapse of all of human civilization I would appreciate it if people would stop saying ?Idiocracy? or at least, you know, explain how it gets to that point.

I?m sorry but this just really bugs me.

Anyways, onto the question. On the grand scale of things humans never greatly change in terms of behavior; we get a little more socially and technologically advanced every generation but there aren?t any great overall variations. There will always be a force that divides up, I believe these to be the twin demons of nationalism and politics, personally. We will continue to advance but it will not be crystal towers and cornucopia machines, I predict that our future will be something more along the lines of cyberpunk.

Our technology will advance but our resources will not replenish, the future will look to be very used, and always have this depressing air about it. It will not be any more or less hopeful than it is today but I predict that future generations will become increasingly deadpan due to the feeling of this ?recycled future?.

 

[Thanatos5150]

Has nobody said Neruomancer and/or Snow Crash, yet?
Because Neruomancer and/or Snow Crash, depending on what direction the future's Badass Quotient decides to trend.

 

[rofltehcat]

It'll either be Bladerunne/Shadowrun/Neuromancer (most cyberpunk will do) or Idiocracy.
With some "luck" it'll be Fallout/The Fall/other nuclear wasteland...

 

[Ryotknife]

I would guess something like the Battletech/mechwarrior universe. People/countries/politics are more or less than same as present day humanity, just with bigger guns and more technology (although wars are less bloody due to humanity being spread out and fights taking place mostly via armored vehicles and mechs with infantry pretty much phased out entirely)

Im not sure if I would want humanity to be like Star Trek. It just seems....stagnant and sterile.

 

[Aramis Night]

Sadly im unaware of any movies based on a Malthusian catastrophe dark enough to realistically show our future. They always make the mistake of keeping up the pretense of "survivors" either managing to eek out a living or escaping from the planet before it happens. We would need to drop alot of our irrational optimism if we ever hope to aim for a realistic future or even a accurate portrayal of one. Beyond that probable near future, They will never make a movie about the far future as movies about dead planets with just irradiated rocks and nothing going on arent likely to sell big at the box office.

 

[Cooperblack]

Gattica i think - though i haven't really seen anything that made me go "yeah thats how i think it will be".

 

[Gennadios]

Gattica i think - though i haven't really seen anything that made me go "yeah thats how i think it will be".

That or Deus Ex.

The human population will start fracturing eventually. Whether through genetic engineering or technological augmentation.

Personally I think it'll be tech, as replacing our soft bits with metal will be alot more viable for space travel than genetics will. I just hope my genes can stay above the poverty line in future generations to see the benefit and not fall to the wayside.

 

[Kael Arawn]

Sadly im unaware of any movies based on a Malthusian catastrophe dark enough to realistically show our future. They always make the mistake of keeping up the pretense of "survivors" either managing to eek out a living or escaping from the planet before it happens. We would need to drop alot of our irrational optimism if we ever hope to aim for a realistic future or even a accurate portrayal of one. Beyond that probable near future, They will never make a movie about the far future as movies about dead planets with just irradiated rocks and nothing going on arent likely to sell big at the box office.

Spot on, I think the phrase dystopian wasteland sums it up for me. I think we are way more likely to run out of resources or wipe ourselves out through nuclear war then before we ever get off planet and start raping the universe of its infinite resources which is the ONLY way we wont end up wiping ourselves out if you look at current statistics and the trends associated with them.

EDIT

Which is quite sad because the only thing stopping us from being a space faring nation is the fact that we cant function as one cohesive world level/united social structure and this type of endeavor takes UBER co-operation and shared resources and thought/man power and we just aren't ever going to be that nice to each other.

In the short term future we are already seeing cyberization and eugenics offering multiple paths for man to manipulate there own evolution but I couldn't make a guess how that will tun out because wide band social morals dictate greater change and I don't know if we will ever find a comfortable moral ground for there deployment within our social paradigms.

Also even if we covered the planet in a nuclear winter we would only be killing of life as we know it, eventually the planet would start to generate life again. Its incredably hard to kill a planet it takes other solar entity's (comets, suns going super nova ect) and we are no where near that powerful.