[HJCotW Spacemonkey]

I was telling Kieran about this thing a couple of weeks back, and found it again, so thought I'd share.

A prediction of how the future will go.

Some of it is really interesting, although I imagine a lot of it will be bollocks. A good read though, if you can be bothered to invest the time. The 23rd century sounds great.

MoT
HJCotW

[Gaz]

That's some really fascinating stuff. I always get a little bit depressed when I read theories about the universe's ultimate heat death though - I appreciate I won't be around to see anything regardless, but the fact no one will be around to see anything ever again, and everything we do, have ever done and ever will do will have gone is quite sad. Which is why I hope one of the alternate theories will turn out to be true, or that some race will create some way to kick off another big bang and/or escape to another dimension/universe or something.

Then again, even ultimate heat death is more fun than the future portrayed in The Jetsons, so it's not all bad.

[HJCotW Spacemonkey]

That's how I felt too. It's ridiculous, because it's so far in the future as to be an infinite amount of time away, but the ide of nothing ness, forever, is just so... disheartening. Everything really is for nothing.

I'm very nihillistic today.

MoT
HJCotW

[Joinee Rufous]

As a philosophical reduction of existence, 'Look out! It's the future!' should, by rights, have the rest of mankind agreeing with me that Descartes' best efforts should long since have been recycled as fire-lighters.

Mind you, I'm not so convinced about 'Everything's For nothing'. An analogy:

Steve Redgrave's 5 Olympic gold medals gained him three extra free letters in his name, permission to swear live on TV with impunity (even from the Daily Mail. And that was only after 4!) and unlimited opportunities to appear in adverts for laser eye surgery.

Everything about that sentence is pretty astounding in cosmological terms, while stunningly mundane from our perspective.

It's an oddly self-important cosmological wonder that's depressed about the lack of opportunity for a legacy, (or anyone to admire it,) billions of years hence, rather than simply getting a kick out of trying to the best mankind it can be right now.

[Joinee Varwell]

It predicts turmoil in the Middle East 50 years hence...

[SJ cDave]

Joinee Rufous, on 31 August 2010 - 11:24 PM, said:

Mind you, I'm not so convinced about 'Everything's For nothing'.

Game theory baby. Or I believe in evolutionary psychology.

If a species (such as Homo Sapians) does not plan for tomorrow, then the population size is limited by scarce resources. Additionally it cannot rapidly adapt to new climates, so is limited to the region it evolved in.

To counter that point, here's the <a href="http://abstrusegoose.com/231">obligatory webcomic link</a> about the dangers of not living in the moment.

With these two evolutionary pressures, it makes sense that we're most at comfort living in the now, planning for a few years ahead, maybe even thinking about the next generation, but timescales beyond that we are just not wired for.

[Gaz]

Joinee Rufous, on 31 August 2010 - 11:24 PM, said:

It's an oddly self-important cosmological wonder that's depressed about the lack of opportunity for a legacy, (or anyone to admire it,) billions of years hence, rather than simply getting a kick out of trying to the best mankind it can be right now.

Oh it's not so much about a legacy. I just like to know how things turn out and it's annoying to think *no one* will be around to know how things turned out because if there is someone around then by the very definition of what the end of the universe entails, it still won't have ended

What would be excellent is another big bang, then the universe repeats absolutely identically from the start only 3 feet lower down (© Futurama 2010).

[Hernaic Tom]

Man, that is a dangerously time-consuming website!! Jonathan Margolis: A brief history of tomorrow is a good book for budding futurologists!! Hmmmm...I seem to have become a museum brochure....

[Silver Joinee Johnd]

Gaz, on 30 August 2010 - 10:47 PM, said:

I always get a little bit depressed when I read theories about the universe's ultimate heat death though - I appreciate I won't be around to see anything regardless, but the fact no one will be around to see anything ever again, and everything we do, have ever done and ever will do will have gone is quite sad.

That's exactly what I feel too. But I also figured that, if by some incredible chance people (and I use that term very loosely) are around that far in the future, I imagine that the ability to artificially create and maintain a means of survival (somewhat regardless of the general state of the universe at that point) will be simple in comparison to the feats they would have had to go through to still be in existence by then anyway.

This post has been edited by YMAJ Mr Armitage: 02 September 2010 - 03:55 PM

[Joinee Varwell]

Where's John Titor when you need him, eh?

[HJCotW Spacemonkey]

I've been doing a lot of reading on conspiracy theories and the like of late, meaning I actually get that reference Si!

He's a strange cat, eh?

MoT
HJCotW

[Joinee Varwell]

Strange indeed, but fascinating. Not because there is any creedence to it of course, but because of the thoughts it raises and the reaction to it.

[Gaz]

That John Titor stuff is ridiculous - everyone knows the basis for any sort of time travel device is some form of public communications booth*.

Spoiler

*I bet you were thinking that I was referring to just the TARDIS here, but no! That's far too easy. There's also the phone box from Bill and Ted (which is in no way based on the TARDIS, obviously), and also when Superman flies backwards and reverses time by flyiing in rings round the earth really really fast, he probably got changed in a phone box first. Pretty conclusive I think!

[Joinee Varwell]

Gaz, on 03 September 2010 - 09:42 AM, said:

That John Titor stuff is ridiculous - everyone knows the basis for any sort of time travel device is some form of public communications booth*.

I found the Titor stuff interesting not because of the content, but because of the ideas it threw up and the reactions people had to it - it remains a topic of interest all these years later which is really rather odd and intriguing.