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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: Malthus on August 26, 2011, 12:48:58 PM

Title: The Future: Past
Post by: Malthus on 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!
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Syt on August 26, 2011, 12:52:30 PM
I leave it to Alan Moore to weave all of that together. ;)
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: MadImmortalMan on August 26, 2011, 12:57:28 PM
2013: Entire northern polar cap gone. (2008) Al Gore

Get ready bitches!
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: DGuller on August 26, 2011, 12:59:12 PM
Wow, people used to be really bad at predicting the future.  :lol:
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Malthus on 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.  ;)
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Syt on 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).
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Barrister on August 26, 2011, 01:22:14 PM
1995 - Soviet-Chinese border war slowly turns into WWIII

(Twilight 2000 RPG)
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: grumbler on August 26, 2011, 01:25:04 PM
Here's abunch of them:
http://www.manolith.com/2009/07/30/pending-future-technologies/
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Eddie Teach 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. ;)
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: grumbler on 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.  :)
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: derspiess on 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.
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Ed Anger on 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:

Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Josephus on 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)
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: FunkMonk on August 26, 2011, 11:08:37 PM
August 29, 1997: Skynet becomes self-aware and initiates nuclear war  :hug:
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: LaCroix on 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
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: The Brain on August 27, 2011, 04:33:51 AM
Quote from: LaCroix on 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

Bondage fake-rape scene is better.
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: jimmy olsen on August 30, 2011, 04:25:30 AM
 :homestar:
Title: Re: The Future: Past
Post by: Martinus on August 30, 2011, 04:54:27 AM
Quote from: grumbler on August 26, 2011, 01:25:04 PM
Here's abunch of them:
http://www.manolith.com/2009/07/30/pending-future-technologies/

We got the Answer Machine. It's called Google or Wikipedia. :P