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The Future: Past

Started by Malthus, August 26, 2011, 12:48:58 PM

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Malthus

August 26, 2011, 12:48:58 PM
1898: Martians launch massive invasion of Earth, starting with England; nearly take over but are decimated by exposure to terrestrial infections. H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds
1963: Last survivors of a nuclear war die out in Australia. On the Beach (1957) Nevil Shute
1970: Robots and suspended animation coming into common use. The Door into Summer (1956) Robert Heinlein
1982: Sale of robots to the public is just beginning. Robbie (1939) Isaac Asimov
1984: World in constant war, Big Brother is Watching You (1948) 1984, Orwell.
1991: Uprising of the sentient ape underclass. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
1996: Eugenics War ends with 37,000,000 dead. Star Trek (1967)
1997: The President's plane crashes in the New York prison colony. Escape From New York (1981)
1997: Jupiter 2 interstellar spaceship is launched. Lost in Space (1965)
1999: Attempted coup by the nuclear weapons base on the moon. The Long Watch (1949) Robert Heinlein
1999: Big explosion at the lunar nuclear waste site sends the moon out of Earth orbit. Space: 1999 (1975)
2000: Competitive cross-country racing allows pedestrian killing. Death Race 2000 (1975)
2000:  The US is turned into a socialist utopia (Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, 1888).
2001: Mission to Jupiter encounters alien life-form. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2007: Earth launches its first interstellar attack against the Taurans. The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman
...

Add your own!
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Syt

#1
August 26, 2011, 12:52:30 PM
I leave it to Alan Moore to weave all of that together. ;)
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

MadImmortalMan

#2
August 26, 2011, 12:57:28 PM
2013: Entire northern polar cap gone. (2008) Al Gore

Get ready bitches!
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

DGuller

#3
August 26, 2011, 12:59:12 PM
Wow, people used to be really bad at predicting the future.  :lol:

Malthus

#4
August 26, 2011, 01:00:54 PM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on August 26, 2011, 12:57:28 PM
2013: Entire northern polar cap gone. (2008) Al Gore

Get ready bitches!

It isn't 2013 yet.  ;)
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Syt

#5
August 26, 2011, 01:04:53 PM
1990: Most of the world's population is wiped out by super virus Captain Trips. The Stand by Stephen King (1990 re-release).
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Barrister

#6
August 26, 2011, 01:22:14 PM
1995 - Soviet-Chinese border war slowly turns into WWIII

(Twilight 2000 RPG)
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

grumbler

#7
August 26, 2011, 01:25:04 PM
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Eddie Teach

#8
August 26, 2011, 01:26:10 PM
Quote from: DGuller on August 26, 2011, 12:59:12 PM
Wow, people used to be really bad at predicting the future.  :lol:

One day we'll find a way to predict it correctly. ;)
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

grumbler

#9
August 26, 2011, 01:27:29 PM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on August 26, 2011, 01:26:10 PM
Quote from: DGuller on August 26, 2011, 12:59:12 PM
Wow, people used to be really bad at predicting the future.  :lol:

One day we'll find a way to predict it correctly. ;)
You have to name a year for the prediction to count.  :)
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

derspiess

#10
August 26, 2011, 03:21:42 PM
I love me some retro-futurism, though contemporary futurism annoys me for some reason.

We read that Bellamy book in my Comparative Economic Systems class in college.  Pretty fascinating book, even though it sounded much more like a dystopia than utopia.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Ed Anger

#11
August 26, 2011, 05:27:24 PM
I liked Pournelle's Codominium. The US and USSR form an alliance in '90 and suppress everybody else. Sounds dreamy. :wub:

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Josephus

#12
August 26, 2011, 05:32:25 PM
2010....Mission to Jupiter, as the Soviets and USA on verge of war, leads to discovery of more monoliths on Io, and, the creation of a new sun. (Arthur c. Clarke, 2010)
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

FunkMonk

#13
August 26, 2011, 11:08:37 PM
August 29, 1997: Skynet becomes self-aware and initiates nuclear war  :hug:
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

LaCroix

#14
August 27, 2011, 02:44:15 AM
new year's eve, 1999

QuoteHOST: So Dan, are you looking forward to the New Year?
DAN: Not really. I mean what's the point? Nothing changes New Years day. The economy sucks, gas is over three bucks a gallon, fifth grade kids are shooting each other at recess... the whole thing sucks, right? So what the hell are we celebrating?

strange days (1995)

one of the only good parts in the film, and only because of its comedic value :P
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