2046

[Milo]

Nueral cloning - being able to make a copy of your mind to paste into a fresh body, a physical clone of yourself in your prime.

I've always had a bit of a problem with this sort of thing, never been able to get my head around it. It's like the Star Trek teleporting thing - is the copy really you? Or have you been destroyed in the process but something that appears identical to you and believes its you been created in your place?

[Dark Sky]

Doctor Who will still be on telly.

And people will still be saying, "gah it's so childish and dumbed down and not as intelligent and thought out as the golden years of Russell Davies back when I was in the correct demographic for it..."

I've always had a bit of a problem with this sort of thing, never been able to get my head around it. It's like the Star Trek teleporting thing - is the copy really you? Or have you been destroyed in the process but something that appears identical to you and believes its you been created in your place?

Well it's a copy, so it won't be "you", will it.  But it would be an accurate representation of your consciousness.  So you could talk to yourself and discover how annoying you really are.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Either technology will have saved capitalism or we'll be very poor and hungry due to the state needing to reclaim resources to manage the little we have left and living under a generally leftist society out of need rather than want and being thoroughly miserable.

[Uncle TechTip]

Although it was a new one of the inventor that I was actually looking for. I did just find a video of that woman one moving though.

A life-like robot? Ha! It looks like a reject from a Herbie Hancock video.

[Waking Life]

I always enjoyed the "Hydrate Level 4" thing from Back To The Future 2 where they stick a tiny pizza into the microwave thing for it be magically ready in 5 seconds in full size.  But then Back To The Future 2 promised too much for my liking, without mentioning an item that has been brought up a few times in this thread already.

I think the world will become far more media-orientated with video being EVERYWHERE.  To the point that there will be very garish video images in city centres with annoying adverts speaking out at you.  Again, I think this is probably Back To The Future, but it seems a very likely possibility.

[Some Herbert]

Not much in the way of dystopian visions of the future in this thread, so here goes. After a bumpy start, the coming oil crisis precipitates a collapse of the global economy. In an attempt to quell mounting unrest and civil strife, the UK (along with many other Western countries) has imposed martial law. There is mounting chaos around the world as a panicking population indulges in an orgy of violence and rioting. People are randomly murdered in the streets and looting is widespread. Hyperinflation peaks at 4000%, and the entire banking system is destroyed by the weight of defaulted loans.

By 2046 the worst violence is over, but chaos, natural disasters and widespread disease - including a global pandemic of bird flu - has taken a heavy toll. Worldwide, the population has crashed to just 2 billion and is still falling. Living standards are greatly reduced for those that survived the Long Emergency, and global warming is now out of control and wreaking havoc in almost every part of the planet. Despite the horror of the preceding 30 years, worse is yet to come. The planet's ecosystems undergo cascading failures, causing repeated severe famines across the globe. Rising oceans and ferocious temperatures mean that few species are able to survive. By 2100 the last humans die out in Siberia. It has taken just 200 years since oil was first pumped out of the ground for it to destroy most of life on Earth.

Jet-packs? Don't make me laugh. You'll be lucky to own a bicycle, and if you do, you'd better be prepared to kill for it.

[slim]

Still, musn't grumble.

[Emma Raducanu]

At least the rioting will be fun while it lasts. After that it all sounds a bit grim doesn't it.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Living standards are greatly reduced for those that survived the Long Emergency

DAMN YOU JOSIEEEE!!!!!

[Benevolent Despot]

Not much in the way of dystopian visions of the future in this thread, so here goes. After a bumpy start, the coming oil crisis precipitates a collapse of the global economy.

Yeah, I think oil's going to be the big problem facing society in the next 40 years, I mean climate change will be low to moderate by then (I sound like a bit of a weatherman there), and will only really be an issue for dry countries - who's inhabitants will no doubt migrate north. The IPCC's predicted that globally, a temperature rise of 2 degrees C will benefit mankind as a whole (but leave a lot a pissed off and even more destitute Africans than there already are), but anything beyond that has a negative effect for everyone.

As for oil - well there just aren't any viable alternatives, biofuels can do a bit, but not much. You literally would have to cut down the rest of the world's rainforests to get enough land to grow them all on. Therefore defeating the purpose of using them. That or we allocate land that's already used for food - pushing up food prices and sending more people hungry. This coupled with a massive growth in demand for fuel and food from China, India etc. means we're all buggered basically.

Then there's hydrogen - for which you'd need the equivalent of 63 new nuclear power plants to provide the energy to extract pure hydrogen from seawater - just for the UK's fuel needs.

There are a couple of other options, but they're shit too.

My predictions for fuel are that only the rich will be able to actually drive anywhere, at least until they crack fusion power - giving us untold clean electricity to power up our rechargeable cars (I'm also predicting they'll be able to make better batteries by then - that don't run out of charge after 20 miles).


And that's all the weather.

[Huzzie]

Has anyone discussed this yet?

Wonderful piece of techonology in developement. It is a screen as thin as a piece of paper that gives a wonderful picture. The possibilities for this are as large as your imagination allows. The worry though is advertisements, I can see insanity taking a sharp upward turn on the graphs at some point in the future.

I love technology!
[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rn10mRyBqAE[/youtube]

I'd LOVE to be able to afford technology!

[Huzzie]

Well it's a copy, so it won't be "you", will it.  But it would be an accurate representation of your consciousness.  So you could talk to yourself and discover how annoying you really are.

Surely that would depend on what makes you "you". If you feel that you are "you" and think that you are "You", then what is it that is stopping you being you? different skin? Surely the skin you have now is not the skin you had 5 years ago any way. The same memories, brain patterns, personality etc etc. I could go on but, you know what I mean, don't you?

What is it that is you? The thought processes or the beating heart? Maybe just the shell. YOU DECIDE!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

You would be dead as a result of having been taken apart atom by atom. The you that comes out the other end of the teleporter would be a clone who thinks it's you, so no one would be any the wiser. Unless this happens

[Huzzie]

You would be dead as a result of having been taken apart atom by atom. The you that comes out the other end of the teleporter would be a clone who thinks it's you, so no one would be any the wiser. Unless this happens

Exactly! So, is that you or isn't it? You look like you, you think like you, you feel like you to all intense and purposes, you are you! So, what is to say that you are not you just because you went through some kind of ressurection?

The only way we can possibly say that you have died and the new atoms are not you is if we are saying that there is such a thing as a soul.

I have no problem believing in a soul (I am agnostic but I don't see why that should be a problem). So, as far as I am concerned, those who say you are not "you" when you get "beamed down" are admitting to belief in the existence of a soul.

Or are they? I dunno, I forget now.

So. Back on topic.
I personally prefer Jean Luc. I just find Bill a bit smarmy,

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's got nowt to do with the soul (science proved there was no such thing in 2026) but would you really want to get into a transporter, not knowing if you were going to wake up at the other end?

[Huzzie]

It's got nowt to do with the soul (science proved there was no such thing in 2026) but would you really want to get into a transporter, not knowing if you were going to wake up at the other end?

Yes, cause I rock!

[Huzzie]

I hope people haven't ignored the video I posted above.

It's fascinating and will have all you techo kids and techno goats drooling into your belly buttons, causing a leisure center style wave effect.

Look it!

[Dark Sky]

Surely that would depend on what makes you "you". If you feel that you are "you" and think that you are "You", then what is it that is stopping you being you? different skin? Surely the skin you have now is not the skin you had 5 years ago any way. The same memories, brain patterns, personality etc etc. I could go on but, you know what I mean, don't you?

What is it that is you? The thought processes or the beating heart? Maybe just the shell. YOU DECIDE!

Well, there's various things which make up the idea of "me", but MY idea of ME is my own brain with its own particular brand of sparkly electronic pulses going through it.

You may be able to recreate my brain, but that will still be a different consciousness created there, even if it is undetectably the same brain as my own.

And your video was alright I suppose.  Wake me up when I can buy one for a fiver.

[Huzzie]

And your video was alright I suppose.  Wake me up when I can buy one for a fiver.

Well now you have broken my heart and I desperately need a teleporter for a new one.

Does anyone else have any vids or information of up and coming tech? I wish Tomoz's World was still running.

In fact, I really wish I could re-watch all the old Tomoz's Worlds from the 80's on YT. They aren't there though, the Tomoz's Worlds.

[Analrapist]

Maybe none are appearing because you're typing in Tomoz's World.

I think that by 2046 the top poster on here will have at least a million posts.

[Huzzie]

Maybe none are appearing because you're typing in Tomoz's World.

Whadder mean?

[Benevolent Despot]

Does anyone else have any vids or information of up and coming tech? I wish Tomoz's World was still running.

I tend to just check the technology and science/nature sections of the BBC news website for potentially masturbatory new technology and the like, I'm sure there might be better outlets for that kind of info, but I'm too lazy to look.

Yeah I do miss Tomorrow's World, I used to like that as a kid, and I think Philippa Forrester might have given me my first erections as a boy at some point in the 90s, that was until she got fat and unattractive, and I discovered the joys of pornography.

Does anyone (who watched CBBC in the 90s) remember 'It'll Never Work'? - that's another hazy science programming memory, although one that didn't arouse me at all.

[NoSleep]

My predictions for fuel are that only the rich will be able to actually drive anywhere, at least until they crack fusion power - giving us untold clean electricity to power up our rechargeable cars (I'm also predicting they'll be able to make better batteries by then - that don't run out of charge after 20 miles).

The big issue about oil is not who can afford to fill their car's tank, but our dependency on oil in the process of delivering food to our tables, for preparation, transportation and fertilizers etc. There will be a need to grow things locally, although global warming will hopefully permit us to have things like oranges & grapevines in the UK.

[Murdo]

Does anyone else have any vids or information of up and coming tech? I wish Tomoz's World was still running.

Well we have this now 'Microsoft Surface' so fuck knows what it'll be like in a few years never mind in 2046. I think a major difference will be in the way we work with far more people working from their home and conducting all meetings over the internet.

[mr. nice guy]

I reckon science will be making inroads into seriosuly disproving or proving the bible

[Fielding]

I like the idea that we'll live in big towers that stretch dozens of miles high into the air. If you want to travel somewhere you just climb to the top of the tower and leap off, then the special extendible aerofoils in your clothes allow you to glide down to wherever you want to go - the next town or whatever. But I think maybe that's a bit far-fetched.

The internet and hysteria of dangers of going out will lead to a generation of people who have been raised by Microsoft Baby Raiser 2030. They are unable to speak, but can type at 354 words a minute using combination clicks on a wireless optical mice. They will get everything they need through the internet and someone will invent a gamete to digital converter (GADC) that allows them to reproduce without having to reboot linux or leave the house.

So to make the uploading of the GADC fun it'll be integrated into a special kind of sexual wii game - with really good graphics (63x better than the PS3) where you strap the controller to your genitals and control the action by wiggling it about and making thrusting motions.

Energy needs won't really be a problem because nobody will know how to build power stations or stuff; once the last generation of people who studied sciency and engineering type subjects die out. We'll have sixteen billion people who are experts in cultural sociology, but not one who knows what the thumb represents in Fleming's right hand rule.

Instead there will be tramps paid to get drunk on special iron bru and piss all over wires to create electricity. An average of 150000 cases of iron bru will be required to create the piss needed to power the cameras filming Big Brother 47. Some of the tramps will die from alchol poisoning but the public won't really mind because a few of the contestants are really fit.

Melanie Chisholm will be 72.

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Fielding, that sounds like a Russell T. Davies vision of the future. Whatever you do, please don't start writing for Doctor Who!

[Small Man Big Horse]

I loved both of those videos, the products featured in them are quite frankly amazing pieces of technology. I was about 7 when the first home computers came along and remember being amazed at actually being able to control a small block on a tv screen, whilst chasing around other small blocks, so seeing something like this is astonishing really.

The only problem I have with such new technology is the horrible feeling that it's all pointless as I go along with the dystopian visions suggested above, and I do wonder if the creators of them could somehow be doing more worthy work trying to find solutions for many of the problems we face right now.

I know you could say that about most people, that they could somehow be contributing to the future, but surely technological breakthroughs like this could be put off for a while whilst more important issues are dealt with?

[Benevolent Despot]

The only problem I have with such new technology is the horrible feeling that it's all pointless as I go along with the dystopian visions suggested above, and I do wonder if the creators of them could somehow be doing more worthy work trying to find solutions for many of the problems we face right now.

I know you could say that about most people, that they could somehow be contributing to the future, but surely technological breakthroughs like this could be put off for a while whilst more important issues are dealt with?

I just don't think people are that far-sighted really, most people don't care about next year let alone a decade (or four) down the line. Even with environmental issues (which of course ultimately become human issues - given time) being thrust upon us all the time by the media, a lot of people still can't see that they'll probably face a future which is vastly different to what they expected.

I stress probably, because it's notoriously hard to predict the future, we might all be wrong and find ourselves with fancy new inventions that can enable us to live in harmony with the earth in some kind of big homosexual utopia.

I really doubt technology can keep up with man's insatiable appetite for the new and improved though, it has to slow down sometime - purely for environmental reasons and global constraints on growth. I think 3 Earth's worth of resources would be required to allow everyone on Earth to live as the average UK citizen does. Can anybody here envisage that technology will be able to meet this demand, while managing not to further damage the environment, and coping with population growth of 75 million people per year for the next few decades - up to ~9 billion by 2050?

I know people have been predicting disaster for mankind for centuries - Malthus anyone? But I do think this century will see the limits of how much man can exploit the planet.

And I do hate being overly pessimistic about the whole situation - I mean we do have plenty of decades to sort something out. My course at uni (Natural Resources Management - yes that's right I do have an agenda!) has been interesting, and I've had a few 'apocalypse classes' where its either death through water shortage, death through soil depletion, death through energy shortage and so on - but most of it is forward thinking stuff.

But guess what - the course is being cancelled due to lack of interest! Maybe it'll start up again when fuel prices go through the roof and everybody's grandparents start dying in heatwaves every summer.

Bah, bloody people and their self-serving ways. I think my course is turning me into a bit of a misanthrope really.

Oh, and my best environmental advice for verbwhores - don't have kids, just DON'T HAVE KIDS, EVER. And tell all your friends NOT TO HAVE KIDS. Spread the word - DON'T HAVE KIDS!

The only ethical consumer is no consumer at all. Simple.

[Lookalike Mark Chapman]

In 2046, comedy as we know it will be obsolete, and will only be conducted on internet forums via tags.