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The Future
February 14, 2016 at 10:36 pm
What will the future be like, do you think? What would you like it to be?
Just go crazy with it. This is supposed to be fun as well as serious.
I'll start.
Imagine people will live extremely long lives, centuries at least. Do you think this would change the way humans behave? Do you think it'll make us become more rational and less violent, on average(if it ever happens)?
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 10:39 pm
Boy! I'd hate to live to where I was a great-great-great grandfather! Imagine the culture shock of that generation gap! I wonder what popular music will be in that amount of time. I wonder what form social media will take, or whether it will be replaced by something.
For a while, I engaged in a hobby called conlanging, or building languages. I find language immensely interesting. I wonder what American English will be like in several hundred years.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 10:45 pm
(February 14, 2016 at 10:39 pm)c172 Wrote: Boy! I'd hate to live to where I was a great-great-great grandfather! Imagine the culture shock of that generation gap! I wonder what popular music will be in that amount of time. I wonder what form social media will take, or whether it will be replaced by something.
For a while, I engaged in a hobby called conlanging, or building languages. I find language immensely interesting. I wonder what American English will be like in several hundred years.
I suppose it would depend upon how fast things continue to change, and if the the number of years we continue to have the flexibility of mind to adapt would also continue to expand. I wouldn't mind living for a few centuries if my ability to learn new things remained at my current level, but I do notice the difficulty for those how no longer can. I'd have to stay actively in touch with the great-great-great-great grandkids though. It's my kids who bring home new artists, writers, language, and so on. The tech is actually easier to keep up with.
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 10:46 pm
Donald Trump is elected president and the country vanishes under a gigantic turd.
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 10:48 pm
(February 14, 2016 at 10:46 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Donald Trump is elected president and the country vanishes under a gigantic turd.
But I'd have centuries to adapt to living in Portugal, or Germany, or Canada.
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 11:31 pm
(This post was last modified: February 14, 2016 at 11:41 pm by God of Mr. Hanky.)
(February 14, 2016 at 10:36 pm)Excited Penguin Wrote: What will the future be like, do you think? What would you like it to be?
Just go crazy with it. This is supposed to be fun as well as serious.
I'll start.
Imagine people will live extremely long lives, centuries at least. Do you think this would change the way humans behave? Do you think it'll make us become more rational and less violent, on average(if it ever happens)?
Oh no, we'd be committing infanticide at record rates, or there would not be sufficient resources to sustain those who just stubbornly refuse to die and make way for new generations. This in turn would cause stagnation of our culture with stalled intellectual progress, art would become lifeless and boring, and then why would anyone want to go on living anyway?
The only way of avoiding the above scenario, short of sending billions of people to colonize the planet, or board a generation ship to the stars (a one-way journey in any case since there's no safe return to Earth gravity after a few years, so who wants to volunteer?) is to impose an arbitrary and mandatory cap on the human life-span. Ever see this movie?
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 11:40 pm
(February 14, 2016 at 10:48 pm)Jenny A Wrote: (February 14, 2016 at 10:46 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Donald Trump is elected president and the country vanishes under a gigantic turd.
But I'd have centuries to adapt to living in Portugal, or Germany, or Canada. 
Australia's far better...
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RE: The Future
February 14, 2016 at 11:50 pm
(This post was last modified: February 14, 2016 at 11:51 pm by dyresand.)
The future in a nutshell
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RE: The Future
February 15, 2016 at 12:37 am
(This post was last modified: February 15, 2016 at 12:37 am by Excited Penguin.)
(February 14, 2016 at 11:31 pm)God of Mr. Hanky Wrote: (February 14, 2016 at 10:36 pm)Excited Penguin Wrote: What will the future be like, do you think? What would you like it to be?
Just go crazy with it. This is supposed to be fun as well as serious.
I'll start.
Imagine people will live extremely long lives, centuries at least. Do you think this would change the way humans behave? Do you think it'll make us become more rational and less violent, on average(if it ever happens)?
Oh no, we'd be committing infanticide at record rates, or there would not be sufficient resources to sustain those who just stubbornly refuse to die and make way for new generations. This in turn would cause stagnation of our culture with stalled intellectual progress, art would become lifeless and boring, and then why would anyone want to go on living anyway?
The only way of avoiding the above scenario, short of sending billions of people to colonize the planet, or board a generation ship to the stars (a one-way journey in any case since there's no safe return to Earth gravity after a few years, so who wants to volunteer?) is to impose an arbitrary and mandatory cap on the human life-span. Ever see this movie?
Your argument is irrational. The whole point of reproduction is so that a species can survive. Ensuring indefinite lifespans would be the best way to do that.
As for your stagnation scenario, I find it ridiculous and baseless.
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RE: The Future
February 15, 2016 at 12:39 am
I think the further in the future we are talking about, the harder it is to predict exactly what it will be like.
So I'm going to predict the future in a few minutes time:
In a few minutes time stuff will basically be the same.
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