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

[Coppernerves]

I reckon we're headed for either ecological or nuclear disaster.

But I reckon that, eventually, we'll recover, and build a society with similar technology, but with a vastly different culture.

I expect that instead of large nations, in large conglomerates such as the UN and the EU, we'll be in more insular tribes.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Near future: William Gibson's cyberpunk books. Gritty, soulless dystopian oligarchy sprinkled with high technology. Corporations own everything. Tech includes robot limbs, VR computers, automatic taxis, etc. Some of the stuff he wrote about has already happened.

Far future: Barring the discovery of a viable stardrive, no series is accurate. With stardrive, something like the Vorkosigan series. Planets become as nations: each unique, with its own cultural identity, nationalism (planetism?) etc. Human nature still very much intact: plenty of politics, bickering, warfare, imperialism, and shady deals to go around, with most people just trying to get by. Technology includes hovercars, stun rays, gengineering, gravity control, and habitation domes.

 

[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.

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.

Currents data indicates a systemic exponential decline in violence that started about 10 thousand years ago (coinciding with the rise of agriculture). We now live in the most peaceful time known to man and its only getting more peaceful.

And yet the amount of damage a single person can do to this planet has seen an exponential increase over just the last few hundred years. How many men does it take to push the button now?

Besides i did mention a malthusian catastrophe which doesnt even require violence. All it takes is continued unchecked breading without the resources to suport the surplus population. Once we reach the tipping point, its a safe bet that those trends in violence will start reversing themselves pretty quick. Keep in mind that the current rate of exponential population growth can see this happening within our lifetimes. There are people still alive today from back when the world population was at half of what it is today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-Population-1800-2100.svg

 

[Jacco]

Compare this flamethrower to the one used in Halo.

To be fair, you can't really compare the gameplay weapons to real world ones because they are made to keep the game balanced and playable. If you read the books etc, the weapons are described acting exactly like more advanced versions of what we have.

Edit: ninja'd three times. Lol.

 

[Username Redacted]

Near future: William Gibson's cyberpunk books. Gritty, soulless dystopian oligarchy sprinkled with high technology. Corporations own everything. Tech includes robot limbs, VR computers, automatic taxis, etc. Some of the stuff he wrote about has already happened.

Far future: Barring the discovery of a viable stardrive, no series is accurate. With stardrive, something like the Vorkosigan series. Planets become as nations: each unique, with its own cultural identity, nationalism (planetism?) etc. Human nature still very much intact: plenty of politics, bickering, warfare, imperialism, and shady deals to go around, with most people just trying to get by. Technology includes hovercars, stun rays, gengineering, gravity control, and habitation domes.

I was thinking that the Sprawl Trilogy was pretty close to accurate except for the fact that barring major political and/or environmental changes I can't really imagine this planet being exactly habitable ~100 years from now. My optimistic outcome for the future is 'Wall-E' and my, let's call it, slightly less than optimistic outcome would be somewhere between 'Fallout', 'Mad Max' and 'Tank Girl'.

 

[themyrmidon]

iRobot. I'm all in on the end of the world being a robot apocalypse. If not that then Battlestar or (best case) Mass Effect. Except in all those humanity survives.

 

[vid87]

Frankly, Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" is summing up the present pretty well: black jets starting foreign wars, Microsoft is working on the holodeck wall tvs, mp3 players, the drug culture, reality television (it basically thought up the show "Cops"), and, the doozy - vapid lifestyles that avoid complex, uncomfortable emotions through censorship, political correctness, and content that focuses almost exclusively on producing "happy thoughts." You tell me the reason for switching the ending for "I Am Legend" doesn't make you cringe; hell, I worked at movie theater when Avatar came out and a woman who had to step out to the lobby asked the security guard if anything bad happens in the end...because she didn't want to be sad. And it all produces a detached mentality that makes violence, neglect, and cruelty more prevalent. The future is NOW people!

 

[Heronblade]

In the relatively short term future, Deus Ex mixed with just a hint of Firefly (in the sense of there being an extreme gap tech wise between certain groups more so than the FTL travel). I can certainly see technology levels for the relatively rich outpacing both the cultural wisdom to use it properly and the means for the industry to support itself. Somewhere down the line, this inevitably will reach a critical point, and sweeping cultural change must occur. Whether this happens in a largely positive manner (IE the renaissance), or we find ourselves clawing our way from the ashes (perhaps literally) is a bit more difficult to predict.

Longer term predictions largely depend on the paths our technological and social advances take us (especially if our excesses mash the reset button as mentioned before). As nice as it could be, I don't see a Star Trek scenario ever occurring without outside intervention of some kind, human nature is just too volatile for us to both collectively and willingly make that kind of change. (Note: I don't by intervention necessarily mean alien influence, such as the Vulcans, a benevolent but ruthless hegemonic leader could do the trick given time and resources.)

Star Wars (sans the force, force users, and a few bits of implausible tech), is somewhat more likely. Human civilization, with the same old trials and tribulations, writ large.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Anyone ever watched Charlie Brooker?s brilliant Black Mirror? If you live in the UK, you damn well should?ve! Anyway, that?s what I think the future might turn out like if we?re not careful. Which we won?t.

Then global warming, energy crisis, population crisis, world ends. That?s if we don?t slam some reset button so another species has a try at not fucking Earth up again, or we relocate to Mars or some ridiculous shit like that.

To be honest, I?m pretty annoyed. Where are the fucking hoverboards that Back to the Future II promised me?

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I dunno if Deus Ex counts as Sci fi (It's more cyberpunk)...

But I think Deus Ex is most indicative of our future. Take out the cyberlimbs and voila, that's our future.

It's not a happy thought. >_>

 

[templar1138a]

Idiocracy. The only difference will be that at that point in the future, humanity will be extinct.

 

[generals3]

I'd go with MGS:
Nanomachines which enhance soldiers? Seem totally plausible. And to top it off, an AI doing its own things and running the show? With the progress we're making on the AI front, again very plausible. Heck for all we know that AI already exists *puts tinfoil hat on*

 

[hiei82]

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

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.

I don't know, It has always seemed unlikely to me that people would be willing to saw off their arms/legs or other parts of their body when you could have the same tech in some kind of armor/exoskeleton.

I disagree. I would totally saw my arms and legs off for robot arms and legs. More reasonably, I'd expect that some level of implantation will happen (if only to provide brain-computer interfaces)

 

[Fluffythepoo]

And yet the amount of damage a single person can do to this planet has seen an exponential increase over just the last few hundred years. How many men does it take to push the button now?

Besides i did mention a malthusian catastrophe which doesnt even require violence. All it takes is continued unchecked breading without the resources to suport the surplus population. Once we reach the tipping point, its a safe bet that those trends in violence will start reversing themselves pretty quick. Keep in mind that the current rate of exponential population growth can see this happening within our lifetimes. There are people still alive today from back when the world population was at half of what it is today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-Population-1800-2100.svg

Data indicates resource deprivation is not a predominant casual factor in violence. IE population increase straining resources does not increase violence. Though this thread is about opinions, just rest assured that data indicates anything short of total nuclear war between nuclear nations (1 person setting off 1 bomb isnt enough) will result in the world being a much better place

 

[Scarim Coral]

I would like to think it's the Minority Report but sadly their vision of the future is mostly fault on many level and I ain't talking about predicting crime 100% accurately. For one thing, they banned the way they advertise cereals to kids (they canny entice them) and eye recognition is nowhere near mainstream. The only thingthey got right is the touch screen being used as keyboard.

 

[Echopunk]

Altered Carbon, but maybe just because I like the idea of downloading myself into a cortical stack and waking up in a new body. Also, the conflict between technology and religion seems like something we're not going to escape anytime soon.

 

[rodneyy]

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.

*snip*

1)they go out and teraform new planets, it might not be replicating them but its close. i always thought the houses were just allocated as you need them. if you want something bigger you ask for it and someone sees if your reason is good enough for a bigger living space.
2) they do have rationing of a sort it is just never showed how much each person gets. in an episode of ds9 sisko is back in his dads resteraunt and reminising about the old days and there is a line something like "in my first month at the academy i used up 6 months transporter rations coming back here every night" i think the numbers might be a little wrong but thats the gist of it. there was also talk of some form of mass transit when picard went home to visit his brother something about taking a shuttle form the village or something similar.

as too the land issues that crystalshadow brought up yes there are places that are not so nice deserts etc but as you see in the episodes set on risa there exsist very advanced weather controle systems. also when picard went home there was talk of raising the sea bed and using some fancy tech to reinforce the underside of the mantle i think giving it enough strenth to support new land mass.

as to the car arguments you made yes you could have cars that last a long time but wile some reselling of things is purley from a money pov there are others that are from a safetly pov. there was a bit on top gear a wile ago about how older cars, even only 5-6 years old, did compared to new cars in crash tests. so wile car companys do go out of their way to sell you the newset modle its not always out of avarice sometimes it comes coupled with things that help the driver and other road users stay safer.
i know its not exactly the point you were trying to make but just because you can make something to last a long time does not always mean that it will still be functional and safe by future standards.

sorry i didnt comment on all your points but as you said you did ramble a little in your post and i dont really have time to reply to everyhing. it was a good read though

 

[LordLundar]

I would say Babylon 5. History teaches us that the same issues are constantly recurring and that the only thing that changes is the setting. Babylon 5 reflects this quite well. There's the advancing technology, interaction with alien races, etc. Politically, socioeconomically and culturally however is largely similar to what's happening now and has been happening for decades if not centuries.

 

[Zipa]

Star Trek. We are already going that way, a lot of the things that were originally considered far fetched at the time of TOS have now come to pass.

To name a example or two

Transparent Aluminium - It was a future better version of glass. Now its actually a thing.
Communicators - Cellphones, not even smart phones. Most people have one now.