Life in 2098

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Dustin Fireblade
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Life in 2098

Unread post by Dustin Fireblade »

Jason may provide some information on this with his books, but I'm tired of waiting on him. ( :P I kid, I kid)


So what is life like in the year 2098?

1. How is the education different, if it is? Do kids go to school earlier, longer? Do they just "download" it now?

2. How do people get around in the city? I'm thinking all autonomous electric powered vehicles move people around. Driving a car is a lost skill with the exception of people working in law enforcement, emergency services, public works, professional race car driver, etc.

3. How much of a impact does technology have in 2098? Medical advances have tripled lifespans, and the use of genetic tweaking and cybernetic bio-systems would be common.

4. What kinds of jobs do people have? Do they have time for hobbies or special interests?

5. What about crime?

6. With the 2nd Cold War and coming turn of the century, might a "survivalist mentality" be growing in popularity?


Thoughts?
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Noon »

Well, you have to wonder how much the 'went green' and effectively went survivalist as a side effect - ie, solar panels on the roof, a rain collecting water tank - perhaps in the future automated mini hydroponic gardens (powered partly/fully by the solar panels), even, to lessen the strain on food supply infrastructure.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by keir451 »

Thats a toughie, I'd like to think that education has improved, maybe every school is connected to central datanet and kids have laptop style desks, kinda like River did in the Firefly movie.
remote controlled cars, HEH!, removes "human error" from driving, mmmm could be.

Truly the digital age, work in your holographic office at home!!
(kinda like in Total Recall)

A new retro age? 50's redux?

Maybe even GATTACA as far as genetic engineering, "Get yer designer babies here!!" :D

A new space race (Rifts space), maybe even long range colony vessels headed to new planets.
Overall, take the best of scifi movies add a dash of the cold war era aand a spoonful of "your" reality and let it simmer for a while then serve piping hot :lol:
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

one of the best bits of advice i've found online regarding futurism is "the future is just like today." people are still going to get up and drive to work, even though the car they drive might be electric and the work is web design. the other is "fads are not progress" and "the real changes are starting today"

and frankly, when i write my futurism material for rifts, i try to keep that in mind.

so he're my impression of pre-rifts:
manufacturing has become ubiquitious. molecular nano-tech based fabrication is a technology able to build from base materials up anything you can provide a plan for.[1] this bottom up manufacturing proces is slower and less efficent than the normal top-down factory approach, and thus is typically used mainly used to mass produce specific parts on location, which are then assembled into the final product via more conventional means.

as a result of this technology, most gemstones like diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, ect are worthless. cheaper than glass. this is because anyone can manufacture them in any purity and size needed. this development is actually the key to MDC materials technology, since this makes things like carbon nanotubes and large slabs of diamond possible, which make great armor against by kinetic and thermal weaponry. it also allows the manufacture of near room-temp superconductors and zero-resistance conductors, which made electronics ultra-efficent and allow really thin radiation shielding (which makes those compact fission reactors viable)

the ability to fabricate any compounds required also allows the mass production of stuff like bismith-telluride, which revolutionized computing with Spintronics, which use the spin of electrons to caluclate and not variations in voltage. this shrunk the chip sizes down and made them effectively zero-heat.[2]

the resulting ultra-efficent, ultra-compact, and ultra-cheap computers allowed artificial intellegence technologies to take off. AI programs run buildings, vehicles, communications systems, and the average person doesn't even think about them. when most think about "robot", they think the lawnmower and the postoffice delivery truck, not "toasters" or "shopping mall", but all those have smart systems to make them more efficent and user friendly.

the powergrid has gone completely non-petrolium based. solar, geothermal, wind, and tdal power are present where it works well, but most places have switched to clean fission power. lubricants and plastics largely require no petrolium either. they're synthetics made from biological and agricultural waste products.

aircars haven't really become popular, though they do exist. mainly this is because they're expensive, are harder to pilot, and the FAA considers them helicopters for liscensing purposes. most ground vehicles are electric, using the same ultra-dense capacitor technology seen in e-clips to give them performance exceeding that of the old gas vehicles.[3] only a few gas-burners still exist in the hands of collectors, and those have been overhuakled to use ceramic engines and other technologies to get 5-8 times the mileage. which is good, because the tax for owning such a vehicle is expensive. the main users of gas power are the military, which due to the reletive peace, hadn't replaced their hardware since the 2030's, just upgraded and overhualed what they had.

new aircraft tend to be low speed electric drive, or a fission powered nuclear thermal jet. some earlier models used quantum nucleonic engines[4], but those were not as efficent.

food has largely gone unchanged, save for the source of it. the vegetables and fruit are genetically modified, hydroponically grown, chemical free, and fulfill the recommended daily vitamum suppliment. the eggs have no colesterol, no fat, and no chickens. the meat isn't mean. they're protien patties, cultured in a lab. "the ice cream has a half-life of 40,000 years...." real "natural" produce and meat are expensive luxury items.

most farmland in civilized countries has been swollowed up by urban sprawl, and food tends to be produced in vertical farms using hydropnics and "lab grown" cultures [4] this allows them to feed their massive population. the main exception to this is seafood, which is very common. undersea communities farm fish, kelp, plankton, and yeast, which are sold as is or are supplied for conversion into other foodstuffs.

cybernetics are the new big fad. while most people get prosthetics for medical reasons, there is a growing sub-culture of transhumanists who readily incorporate prosthetics in an attempt to advance humanity. even i nthe mainstream, cyberjacks and other data-interface tools are common. for those unwilling ot use a jack, virtual and augmented reality headsets are available, with indirect brain interfaces that provide similar control and feedback [5]. while no one has quite figured out how to copy and record a persons memory, those with artificially enhanced senses can have them rigged with a record mode, allowing them to playback what they see, hear, smell, and touch. these recordings can be transferred around.

the internet is a big deal, having replaced conventional television, newspapers, and books. digital paper allows you to download E-publications and read them physically[6], while movies and TV-shows are available through the network's websites. libraries and other such institutions mainly exist to preserve and archive information, both on physical medium and electronic.

Militarily things don't look much different from today. with the advent of cheap food, medicine, and manufacturing, alot of conflicts simmered down to barely there struggles. the inter-nation connections via the internet saw a reduction in blind hatred as a political tool, since people couyld now learn about other people. this resulted in a semi-peaceful world, where the worst conflicts were fiound in the modernizing third world. as a result, there was little drive for new advanced weapons and vehicles. most items in service in the 2030's wound up being in service until the 2070's, with some things, like the F-22 Raptor of the United States, reaching century long lifespans (or the case of the B-52's, century and a half+) when things wore out, slightly newer models of the same were purchased to replace it. manufacturers snuck in updates, but no major overhauls. this changed in the 2070's, when the second cold war began in earnest. every nation began taking ant advanced technology they had and weaponizing it. powered armor, nuclear jets, robotics, cybernetics, laser and particle beam tech...not just for new planes and tanks and guns, but entirely new concepts like submarine fighters, powered combat armor, giant piloted robots. anything that might give them an edge was pursued, including fringe sciences like teleportation, psionics, and so on.

[1] molecular scale micro-fabrication is a technology we're beginning ot show real success in, and once the topdown (assembling parts) and bottom up (making parts) processes meet, we'll have factories that can make finished goods out of raw materials.
[2] spintronics is a real world technology which has been looked into for computing. the recent development of an efficent way to massproduce bismuth telluride crystals makes it the most likely route for future high-performance computing.
[3] a long e-clip (AKA a standard eclip) is the size of a paperback book and holds 100 megajoules of energy. thats enough electrical power to run the average modern home for the better part of a year. now imagine cars using this tech, which currently draw less than the average home...
[4] quantum nucleonics use nuclear isomers, which generate large amounts of radiation when bombarded with particles. they could be used ot make nuclear jet engines. real world, if a bit fringe science, technology.
[5] vertical farms and synthetic food is something we're actually looking into in real life. using hydroponics and tissue cultures, we could feed many times more people than conventional farming, which in important because cities keep expanding into farmlands, and the population keeps growing. ocean farming is another focus of research, though the use of undersea communities is my own preferance
[5] the japanese have been making some major advances in this area recently
[6] E-paper was recently made a fairly common thing with kindles, and while still just black and white, that looks to change soon. the ability to plug a blank book into a computer and get any newspaper, magazine, or book you want is the most obvious application of this tech.

the military bit is the least beleivable to me, though the bit about food and communication causing wars to be less common is a possible outcome. i just added the stagnant military's to explain why 20th century gear was still considered "golden age"...though the F-14 is still going ot be an anachronism...
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

duck-foot wrote:
Dustin Fireblade wrote:So what is life like in the year 2098?

fun for all. aleisure society

impossible. people would still have to work, even if a communistic economy came into dominance. not ot mention the 2nd and third world which wouldn't get the advantages of widespread advanced technologies.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:1. How is the education different, if it is? Do kids go to school earlier, longer? Do they just "download" it now?

i think kids will go too school by putting on some sort of vr head-set. like in johhny quest. it will also serve as "americas favorite past time"

will never happen. one of the most vital parts of a kids time growing up is socialization in a controlled and structured setting, allowing them to learn the discipline and people skills they'll need later in life. you can't get this from an impersonal VR setup.
if the educational system changes, it will be in focus. instead of making kids memorize acts to pass tests, the focus will be on teaching the kids how to learn, which will allow them to teach themselves using the resources presented by the educators.
vocational training will be a bigger goal than classical education once the person gets to highschool and college levels of education.
(sorry, but i'm only a semester away from becoming a teacher, and the idea that a computer can teach kids is laughable)

Dustin Fireblade wrote:2. How do people get around in the city? I'm thinking all autonomous electric powered vehicles move people around. Driving a car is a lost skill with the exception of people working in law enforcement, emergency services, public works, professional race car driver, etc.

miles and miles of moving sidewalks, bicycles, subway systems, aircars and hover taxi. personally owned vehicles will be rare because of population pressures.

actually, autonomous vehicles would be absurdly expensive, and its unlikely that anyone but the wealthy could afford them. most people would still drive their own vehicles, though public transit would be more available going by current trends.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:3. How much of a impact does technology have in 2098? Medical advances have tripled lifespans, and the use of genetic tweaking and cybernetic bio-systems would be common.

last week my dad got caught with your nanny bot again. mom kicked him out. my favorite pet is a hologram, we have a garden on our roof. my brother's body is fully prosthetic because he has an uncurable dieses. my grandad is 130, my best friend is an android. my uncle lost his job because he failed a urine test when he went to the bathroom. my aunt got her chest augmented with cybernetics. my brother served a tour on the space colony stations destined for mars, he went up the space elevator it was cool. my brother bought a 69 mustang for 1.2 million credits (i think it came from Russia). my sister almost died she was walking by her self, luckily her cloths bio-reading fibers warned us of her impending heat stroke. my teacher got arrested for protesting against the creation of mutant animal soldiers. my grandfather is a pastor at a multi-religious church of the divine one. and I now have a book report due on the recreation of the second soviet union....god that sucks.

A+ for roleplay, C- for beleivability. a "nanny-bot" would likely be non-humanoid in form and certainly not something that could double as a sexaroid even if it was, hologram pets would be something no kid would accept (cloned and gene-engineered pets maybe..), creating mutant animal soldiers would be a top-secret program, not public knowledge, androids with human level intelligence were top secret as per the canon, and it's unlikely too many religions would be willing ot co-exist in the same facility under the same minister.

prosthetic bodies would be the purview of the rich or those with really good healthplans. not sure about a space elevator, no mention in canon but with MDC tech it's certainly possible..

Dustin Fireblade wrote:4. What kinds of jobs do people have? Do they have time for hobbies or special interests?

Only those jobs that require more intelligence than a 10 year old will not be done by robots. Fast food and grocery stores are fully automated and your car drives itself, even prostitutes no longer have a job because a sex-bot which looks, acts and moves just like a human exist (plus no std’s). only soldiers (because of a terminator fear mostly), doctors, psychiatrist, engineers, senators and the like teachers and astronauts have a job. And scientist.

fast food and grocery stores are unlikely to ever be automated because people are cheaper than automation. i pointed out the fact that automated cars would be be something fairly exensive, not to mention against most peoples preferances. prostitutes will never be replaced by robots, see the explanation for fast-food...
jobs can be found for just about anyone, but unless you have some sort of vocational training, it's likely as a construction worker or farmhand, where humans are cheaper than automation.


Dustin Fireblade wrote:5. What about crime?

Crime no longer exists like today especially petty crime (cameras are everywhere). As far as cerial killers are considered there is a test once you are born that checks fro abnormal brain activity this combined with genetic engineering would limit such people to 1/100,000,000. of course there are still crimes of passion.
[/quote]
crime will always exist. a big brother system just means that the police have more evidence to use in court. genetic manipulation to eliminate "unwanted elements" would be unethical, nor would it work particulalry well. criminal behavior is not the result of physical or chemical abnormailities, but rather psychological ones, the result of upbringing and life experiance. to reduce crime one must address the cuase, not the symptoms. quality psychological treatments, viable welfare programs, and available jobs wil ldo more to reduce crime than any genetic tampering.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:6. With the 2nd Cold War and coming turn of the century, might a "survivalist mentality" be growing in popularity?

The same has the first only with more tech and its now Europe, America, Australia, Brazil and India against China, Russia, Argentina, Japan. All are fighting fro the worlds resources. Antarctica is trying to stay neutral, however they continue to add to there defensive capabilities. Hey if we can colonize mars then Antarctica is fair game. Once a multi-national country it is now a sovereign nation.

antartica is prohibited by international treaties from being claimed by any one nation, this would include any atempt to make a soverign nation there. not to mention the fact that antartica has no easily accessable natural resources worrth colonizing for. undersea nad ocean surface colonization is far more likely. (the moon has helium 3 and loads of metals that are hard to get on earth, while the mars base was a research base, not a true colony..)
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by runebeo »

I think the future will be somewhat similar to the films I Robot, Minority Report, Blade Runner, the Time Machine, Starship Troopers & Jason X without the starships, thats still a few millennium away I think.
I will be 125 living in Rio de Janeiro when the Great Cataclysm comes, I will not survive long but I will be cloned threw the Achilles project and my clones will be Achilles Neo-Humans that will start a new Jedi order in Psyscape. So You May Strike Me Down & I Will Become More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine. Let the Clone Wars begin!
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Re: Life in 2098

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Dustin Fireblade wrote:1. How is the education different, if it is? Do kids go to school earlier, longer? Do they just "download" it now?


That would depend on where you are. Third world countries will have better education(Compared to today) But I don't think they will have laptops or learning desks. First world countries may have integrated computers into all facets of schooling. Maybe even VR to a certain level. But VR can't replace real experiences. Physical education will still be practiced, perhaps even more so due to the many desk jobs and idle time that technology provides.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:2. How do people get around in the city? I'm thinking all autonomous electric powered vehicles move people around. Driving a car is a lost skill with the exception of people working in law enforcement, emergency services, public works, professional race car driver, etc.


Let's face it, people will not give up their freedom to drive so easy. I imagine that there would be a network to control most vehicles inside city cores with fully automated units being used for disabled and/or elderly citizens. Onboard collision aviodance, parking assist, and braking systems woud be standard, if not mandatory for all civilian vehicles. Flying cars would not be popular(There are to many of them to control). But outside of cities they could be used for long commutes. Hover cars, yes. Certainly most, if not all civillian vehicles(Not including work vehicles and military) will be electric/fuel cell powered.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:3. How much of a impact does technology have in 2098? Medical advances have tripled lifespans, and the use of genetic tweaking and cybernetic bio-systems would be common.


This again depends on where you are and what infrastrucure is available.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:4. What kinds of jobs do people have? Do they have time for hobbies or special interests?


There will always be Mcjobs, cashier, paper boy, labourer..etc. Robots will do more than they do now but I don't see them replacing these sorts of jobs. There are likely to be some new jobs though. Like cyberneticist, space pilot..etc

Dustin Fireblade wrote:5. What about crime?


Humans don't change. Only the technology, faces and names. There will always be prostitution, burglary/robbery..etc. All forms of crime we have now will still be present, with some new ones added in.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Rahmota »

So what is life like in the year 2098?

1. How is the education different, if it is? Do kids go to school earlier, longer? Do they just "download" it now?
Education is a much more holistic approach with children learnign at the rate most appropriate for their capabilities and mental and emotional needs. Socialization and counseling would also be very common in all school levels in tier 1 nations. Tier 2 nations would probably be somewhat closer only not as many holographic or high tech teaching tools. Tier 3 nations would probably have the same kinds of schools we have now in the real world. Homeschooling would be an effective and viable option up to and including some socialization due to the advanced communications.

2. How do people get around in the city? I'm thinking all autonomous electric powered vehicles move people around. Driving a car is a lost skill with the exception of people working in law enforcement, emergency services, public works, professional race car driver, etc.
I have to disagree with the statement that self-drive cars would not be plausible given the amount of real world auto-pilot technology and self-drive automated vehicle research going on right now in the real world. Inside city limits all cars must be robot driven with full safety controls implemented going rogue and self-driving would be a punishable offense as a threat and danger to society. Somewhat like in Minority Report, I Robot and Demolition Man. Vehicles on the road would be one of electric, fuel cell or biofuel powered systems depending on the make model region and other market factors. I have a an entire line of Retro cars where classic antique cars are being made but using modern fuel cell and other technologies. Hovervehicles are uncommon and generally special purpose or considered the ultimate offroad vehicle considering how much of the Tier1 nations have been converted to national parks. Such as the Idaho Montana National park. Or the Dakota plains wilderness Area.

Here is a link to what I'm talking about:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_car
As well as some info about the Robot Mercedes.
S-Class robots: in the 1980s, Mercedes-Benz built the world's first driverless cars, together with the team of Professor Ernst Dickmanns at Bundeswehr Universität München.[28] The culmination of this effort was achieved in 1995, when Dickmanns' re-engineered autonomous S-Class robot completed a trip from Munich, Bavaria to Copenhagen, Denmark and back. On the autobahn, the robot S-Class achieved speeds exceeding 175 km/h. It suggested and executed overtaking maneuvers. The car's abilities left a big impression on many observers, and is said to have heavily influenced robot car research and funding decisions worldwide.


3. How much of a impact does technology have in 2098? Medical advances have tripled lifespans, and the use of genetic tweaking and cybernetic bio-systems would be common.
It depends on which social class or nation the person is living in. A Tier 1 nations such as Noram would have ubiquitous technology affecting their everyday lives. From rfid chipped fridges and groceries (and kids and dogs etc...) to ident scanners. Flat panel wall viewer plates as well as smart paper. Color changing clothing. I definately have the whole piercing and body mod culture getting a major freakyness factor increase with the genmod, biosystems and cybernetics available. Some of which cannot be described in a less than adult game. Medtech is so advanced that people in their 50s are now being considered middle aged. The longer lifespans though are also driving the colonization programs for both outerspace and undersea colonies. Think most of your major cyberpunk games/movies/books.
Tier 2 nations would be playing catch up as catch can with the Tier 1 big brothers while Tier 3 nations would maybe get to snif the table scraps from a tier 1 nations. All part of the anger and resentment that builds up into the armageddon war.

4. What kinds of jobs do people have? Do they have time for hobbies or special interests?Jobs depend on the person's interests, nation and tech level. With robotic labor being cheap and ubiquitous its somewhat like Picard said in Next Gen there is no need for money so people work in what they enjoy and want to do. At least for the most part as there are always goign to be advanced or specialized fields where robotics and AIs cannot compete with the human brain. (Like in I Robot when they go to tfactory and its all robotic making robots. There might only be one or two humans to oversee the entire factory in case of a glitch. The human work week might vary from as little as a couple hours a day to the usual 40 but it would be under the control of the person doing so at least in a Tier 1 nation since they have evolved beyond the need for capitalism into a more enlightened state. Tier 2 nations would still use a lot of human workers and probably be closer to the modern real world. Tier 3 nations would be somewhat less developed and still use almost entirely human labors and be mired in a capitalist society using wageslavery and other dirty methods of controlling and dominating their populations.

5. What about crime?
Crime would still exist. Probably still be a lot of stuff however with education and social conditioning a lot of the more stupid crimes would be reduced or eliminated as a sense of personal responsibility and reduction in intolerant or overzealous moral based laws occurs. However in Tier 1 advanced nations there would be less of a consideration of vengence or punishment and more on rehabiliation and helping the offender understand what they did was wrong and to help them make it right. There would still be those who where too far gone for any help and they would be treated like objects of pity instead of hatred. Those who are even beyond that into the dangerously mad or unstable such as mass murderes and terrorists and such would be given death of personality by brainwiping and reproggramming (ala Babylon 5) and returned to society as a productive citizen.
Tier 2 nations would be close to that but would probably still have life imprisonment for many of the most heinous and serious crimes. Tier 3 nations would probably be about like the modern penal system is with giant warehouses for their prisoners to languish away in due to the penal system beign about punishment and vengence against the criminals.

6. With the 2nd Cold War and coming turn of the century, might a "survivalist mentality" be growing in popularity?
Probably not overly among the Tier 1 nations as they are so self assured and confident that their world could never come crashing down and trust their technology and their systems to protect them that a lot of the more survivalist based skills and mindsets would be pushed more towarsd the fringes and specialists whose job it may be to know these things. ie the military and other special organizations. It is of course those sorts of people who are left to rebuild society.
Tier 2 nations being trapped between the Tier 3 nations who are and have always been used as proxy battlegrounds for the Tier 1 nations would probably definately be taking more precautions as tensions increase. Might even get as bad as it was in the US during the 1950s when the red scare was at its height.
Tier 3 nations having been used and shafted forever by the Tier 1 nations would see survivalism as a daily activity and consideration so they would probably not even notice a difference at the common citizen level.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by keir451 »

duck-foot wrote:allright i like how you did that. see i was going with the whole no more 2nd or 3rd world countries. but, even in a 100 years i guess they will still be around.


There would probably be "2nd" or "3rd" world countries but tech wise they might be closer to 20th century first world countries especially if there is an actual time of prosperity and increase in technology as is described.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

actually, most would probably be not much changed from today. most third world nations are in the situation due to being failed economies. they don't have much to base an economy on, so they fall to poverty and infighting as a result.

the difference is that with the food surplus and fabricators, the international relief programs can be effective in combating starvation and sickness, and improve the quality of life for many of these nations. which tends to result in reduced conflict, because people are less likely to go out and fight if they're got food on the table and aren't dying of curable sicknesses. and with so few major wars going on, peacekeeping forces are free to conduct hearts and minds campaigns to cut down on the rest of the unrest.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

duck-foot wrote:in all of this speculation about a robotic automated society with laser weapons, sex bots and smart cannons we never considered a few things.

1) pollution. how do we combat the growing amount of co2 cummulating in our atmosphere. we need to find a way to do this. i for one dont want to have to deal with 100 degree heat on average. nor do i want to deal with melting polar ice caps.

first, much of the alarmist predictions are turning out to be just that, alarmist. the reality is not as bad as they were predicting.
that said, switching to non-petrolium/coal based power sources (Nuclear, mainly) puts a huge dent into pollution output, and improved production methods and materials use cuts into most of the rest.

2) overpopulation. this is one of mankinds worst enemies. with the changing weather food shortages are likely to increase making a feed the world goal harder to do. along with this comes shortened resources. a fight over a hamburger in turkmenistan (hey it could happen) right now man is on the brink of a war over resources, in less than 20 years we could be looking at a 3rd world war. all of this is do to overpopulation (well, largely). and soilent green is not an option.

sustainability depends on the methods used to feed the population. most alarmist predictions assume no change is methodology. improved agriculture, including new techniques, genetically enhanced crops, aquaculture, verticla farming, hydroponics, and other techniques currently being developed and implimented will address the problem for the forsseable future. combine this with the fact that technological nations tend to have low birth rates if not negative population growth, and the problem is a surmountable one.


3) nuclear prolifferation. with the fall of the soviet union the chances of a rogue terrorist cell getting ahold of a nuke are not infathomable; just unlikely. and although russia is resurging again as a super power and china already is a superpower and they can help police that part of the world that isnt a 100% garuntee against osama binladen the 14th of getting a nuke and aiming at france or the us. or some how bypassing customes and building it right here in our back yard (impossible, no it isnt).
this is basically an issue of security and politics. the only way to deal with it is to improve relations with other nations. which surpluses of food and goods can do, as can increased interconnectedness via information and people transfer. terrorism is largely the result of social pressures from poverty and starvation giving fanaticvs hooks by which to manipulate people into following a cause. reeuce or eliminate the problems of poverty and starvation, while helping ot get those people on the way to self-sufficency, and the fanatics have no support base.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Rahmota »

first, much of the alarmist predictions are turning out to be just that, alarmist. the reality is not as bad as they were predicting.
Well I rather disagree with that and am very convinced that climate change is a real and dangerous thing as is the coming collapse from peak oil but that is neither here nor there in this thread as we are talking about the fictional rifts world.
In that world the movement over to green and less polluting energy sources coupled with an increase in social responsibility and the three Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle all led to a reduction of pollution output. People actually began to care about the world's environment and not just how big a car they could drive or other selfish considerations. The world's companie swhere either reigned in or reigned themselves in and began to operate in a more communal, sustainable ecologically sound business practice instead of being all about how much of a profit share they could rape from the world before they died from the pollution. Much of the major manufacturing was relocated off world to the orbital and lunar factories using resources trucked in from the asteroid belt. Only essential manufacturing was left on earth and they had to operate in an ecologically sound manner by law. The pollution that was already there on earth coupled with the damage to the earth's vital eco-system that made it hard for the earth to bounce back on her own after hundreds of years of human consumption had wrought where repaired or assisted by advanced atmo scrubbers and replanting and protecting vast swathes of wilderness to absorb the CO2. So all that when coupled with the mass migration of people offworld or to the undersea colonies this managed to bring the climate back into a more banaced and sustainable system. Most of the american northwest, brazillian rainforest etc.. where set aside as nature preserves by the various governments in their wisdom and protected from further harm.

2) overpopulation. this is one of mankinds worst enemies. with the changing weather food shortages are likely to increase making a feed the world goal harder to do. along with this comes shortened resources. a fight over a hamburger in turkmenistan (hey it could happen) right now man is on the brink of a war over resources, in less than 20 years we could be looking at a 3rd world war. all of this is do to overpopulation (well, largely). and soilent green is not an option.

This is true we stand on the brink of a dangerous situation with 50% of the world's oil fields at or past peak production, agricultural land being destroyed by weather or swallowed up by urban development, water being polluted or drying up, resource wars are already starting to occur. How it was solved in the Rifts world was advanced hydroponics, genetically modified food sources, soy and algae protein blocks that with the right flavoring and food coloring can simulate most other foods. Reduction in birth rate by making safe and effective birth control freely available and illegal to protest against or not provide on demand. With the improvement of the ecosystem and the climate much of the world's weather patterns returned to a more stable sustainable balance. Also in my world there is the undersea colonies, artifical islands, and the space colonies people can emmigrate to. So it was a multipronged effort. Water purification systems and reclamation systems are a requirement for any urban development. Arcologies are built to take advantage of the closed process eco-systems developed for long duration space missions and colonies. Deep earth arcologies are also developed under many of the major cities.

3) nuclear prolifferation. with the fall of the soviet union the chances of a rogue terrorist cell getting ahold of a nuke are not infathomable; just unlikely. and although russia is resurging again as a super power and china already is a superpower and they can help police that part of the world that isnt a 100% garuntee against osama binladen the 14th of getting a nuke and aiming at france or the us. or some how bypassing customes and building it right here in our back yard (impossible, no it isnt).

Due to the global peaceful times of the golden age many of the nuclear devices where taken off planet and placed in secured storage for defense against rogue asteroids or comets. Up to the golden ages it was a United Nations effort to help inspect, control and disarm most of the nations. Especially after energy weapons, power armor and robotic vehicles came about that could enable a small team of soldiers to do almost as much devastation in a few minutes without as many nasty side effects (ie radiation and all that entails) of a nuke. One of NEMA's prime goals was the stopping of illegal WMDs of all kinds.

So all in all not an impossible effort just one that would take a good deal of cooperation between the nations, a reduction in capitalism and all the selfish consumption that entails, some major technological breakthroughs that we have yet developed in the real world and some population relocation.
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Re: Life in 2098

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Rahmota wrote:
first, much of the alarmist predictions are turning out to be just that, alarmist. the reality is not as bad as they were predicting.
Well I rather disagree with that and am very convinced that climate change is a real and dangerous thing as is the coming collapse from peak oil but that is neither here nor there in this thread as we are talking about the fictional rifts world.

and yet, if you read what the scientists say, we're looking at a whopping 1 degree increase in overall global temps by 2098. "horror of horrors, we're all going to die!" and these are the same people who are saying that currently we should be sweltering in near 100 degree heat and who made their predictions based on models which understated the cooling functions of the ocean. science marches on, but the alarmists haven't.
2) overpopulation. this is one of mankinds worst enemies. with the changing weather food shortages are likely to increase making a feed the world goal harder to do. along with this comes shortened resources. a fight over a hamburger in turkmenistan (hey it could happen) right now man is on the brink of a war over resources, in less than 20 years we could be looking at a 3rd world war. all of this is do to overpopulation (well, largely). and soilent green is not an option.

This is true we stand on the brink of a dangerous situation with 50% of the world's oil fields at or past peak production,

actually, the estimates of the worlds oil reserved just doubled recently, due ot new finds, and some progress in developing oil shale deposits. not to mention we're moving away from oil for alot of stuff.
agricultural land being destroyed by weather or swallowed up by urban development,
most of which was not being used anyway duue to subsisdy, and the remaining land is actually more productive now than it was due ot new techniques. not does this include new techniques which could be used anywhere..
water being polluted or drying up,
pollu8tion is on the decline, and desalination will never run out., and rainfall patterns have been returning to normal.

resource wars are already starting to occur.
actually, resources have been the #1 reason to fight wars throughout history, and whats amazing today is that most wars are not being fought for them.

How it was solved in the Rifts world was advanced hydroponics, genetically modified food sources, soy and algae protein blocks that with the right flavoring and food coloring can simulate most other foods. Reduction in birth rate by making safe and effective birth control freely available and illegal to protest against or not provide on demand. With the improvement of the ecosystem and the climate much of the world's weather patterns returned to a more stable sustainable balance. Also in my world there is the undersea colonies, artifical islands, and the space colonies people can emmigrate to. So it was a multipronged effort. Water purification systems and reclamation systems are a requirement for any urban development. Arcologies are built to take advantage of the closed process eco-systems developed for long duration space missions and colonies. Deep earth arcologies are also developed under many of the major cities.
didn't i say this already? though space colonies are a drop in the bucket even in rifts, and at the cost of travel and shipping, aren't a population or resource solution.

3) nuclear prolifferation. with the fall of the soviet union the chances of a rogue terrorist cell getting ahold of a nuke are not infathomable; just unlikely. and although russia is resurging again as a super power and china already is a superpower and they can help police that part of the world that isnt a 100% garuntee against osama binladen the 14th of getting a nuke and aiming at france or the us. or some how bypassing customes and building it right here in our back yard (impossible, no it isnt).

Due to the global peaceful times of the golden age many of the nuclear devices where taken off planet and placed in secured storage for defense against rogue asteroids or comets. Up to the golden ages it was a United Nations effort to help inspect, control and disarm most of the nations. Especially after energy weapons, power armor and robotic vehicles came about that could enable a small team of soldiers to do almost as much devastation in a few minutes without as many nasty side effects (ie radiation and all that entails) of a nuke. One of NEMA's prime goals was the stopping of illegal WMDs of all kinds.

So all in all not an impossible effort just one that would take a good deal of cooperation between the nations, a reduction in capitalism and all the selfish consumption that entails, some major technological breakthroughs that we have yet developed in the real world and some population relocation.

unfortunately this wouldn't work.
first, this wouldn't get rid of nation's abilities to produce the weapons.
second, most nations develop nuclear weapons to prevent outsiders from coming in and telling them what do do. so no one is going to willingingly let other nations waltz in and "store them away for safekeeping"
and three, the coss of sending something into space, even in RIFTS with the heavy lift boosters, is going to be high enough that sending them all to the moon or asteroids is not feasible. your talking about hundreds of thousands of warheads, at close to a million tons if not more. sending those all into space, even if you could do it, would cut into your space exploration programs so badly you'd basicalyl be unable to do anything else.
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Re: Life in 2098

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first, we're assuming a conversion to non-fossil fuel based systems for most of society. so even the tractors and threshers and such would be electric. when you consider the increadible energy density of E-clip technology, and the high outputs of the compact nuclear powerplants, this is actually a viable option. currently gas and oil companies are the biggest investors in clean energy sources like nuclear, wind, solar, and geothermal. once these sources become economically efficent, they'll be investing even more heavily, since that will make them more money. it's the same for automobiles and such. once electric cars gain performmance similar or superior to gasoline powered ones, at comaprable prices, you'll see a big switch to electric vehicles. in the real world, this has not happened yet. clean energy is either still too expensive for most areas, like with solar, wind, and geothermal, or wrongly mistrusted (like nuclear). likewise electric cars can't boast the same range and costs as normal cars, largely due to the limited battery tech we currently have.
we're also assuming that agricultural improvement programs for third world nations would include genetically engineered grains and training in less polluting techniques. in cities, you also have concepts like vertical farming, where using techniques like hydroponics and aquaponics you can raise fish, grow plants, and so on in a skyscraper type building. this method would allow you to grow far more food on a given plot, since your not limited to just using the ground, but can extend your growing area via multiple levels up into the sky.

in regards to overpopulation, you have the fact that most technological nations are showing minimal to negative population growth. when you consider that the kinds of ubiguitious production i outline makes it easy and cheap to produce goods, you can alleviate poverty issues in third world countries, since the goods are cheap. cheap food. cheap medicine. cheap housing. it also makes it cheap to build up a technological society. a handful of fabricators can build factories cheaply, build mines cheaply, and so on. heck, you could task a few to making more fabricators, resulting in exponetal industrial growth. and with a technological foundation, you'll have companies beating down your door to set up shop in your nation, since your large population will mean cheap labor. once companies come to the place, the economy will improve...
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Re: Life in 2098

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Okay Glitterboy first off let me preface everythign by saying that (1) this is not a political board so any discussion on these topics will be either based on the fictional rifts politics or if the real world does intrude it will do so to the very minimum possible at least on my part. (2) I am a political activist though, member of the biofuels commitee of my local agri co-operative, a bio fuels producer and have most likely studied the same scientific reports that you probably have. So while I agree there are some people who are goign a bit overboard on the chicken little routine there are still quite solid evidences that man made global climate change is real, is dangerous, and is going to affect the lives of everyone on this planet in the long term if we do not start makign serious efforts to control the problem. So i will have to respectfully disagree with you on some of your conclusions and most likely POV. Nothign personal about that as that is one of the joys of living in America we have the right to disagree peacefully. (3) There are two thigns we have to look at the various modifications from canon POV in the game as people like myself do tend to change or interpret thigns and personalize the game world and the as written canon game world. When I talk I generally talk about my world and how I did it/see it/interpret it Your milage may vary. Your milage may vary when it comes to the really real world too. So nothign personal at all okay?

As for the oil shale and other new deposits. First off the production capacity estimates I've seen are not exactly promising as to how much oil there really is. Not to mention that many of these new deposits are prohibitive in their location, cost to ROI as well as other environmental impact such as at ANWR. In my gameverse space travel got a major boost and the orbital communities where a lot more advanced as well as stretchign out inot the outer solar system through NERVA systems, hydrogen scramjets etc... So a heavy lift capacity exists beyond anythign we have now or in the upcoming future.

As for land use as a farmer all I'll say is that to pave over land is a sin regardless of if it was being worked or not. As to food sources in general yes the arcologies use hydroponics, there is vertical farming, soy and algae banks in oceanic conditions and various gen mod foods to let them be productive in less that ideal soils and climates.

And I will totally agree with you that resources ahve been the number 1 cause of all conflicts in the history of humanity and will probably remain so throughout the rest of human history. Ideaoloies beign the very close number two and right now the current cause dujour of the various conflicts in the really real world. In my game orld at least the social changes that occurred duing th golden year of humanity lead to a reduction in resource and ideaology wars as humanity basically grew up and matured. Gained a sense of wisdom. I mena space travel had become as commonplace as going from new york to LA. People could se for themselves the pale blue dot all alone in the night and understand how fragile a soap bubble we really live on. With the increase in communism and sharing of resources brought about by cheap mechanical labor, cheap energy through microfusion reactors and energy cells as well as solar power from microwave transmission the earth caem as close to beign a united planet as it ever could. Unfortunately here are always a few rotten apples in a bushel who spoiled it all for everyone.

Anyhow you pretty much covered the move to non-hydrocarbon based vehicles for agriuse and such. Especially given the amount of electric propulsion vehcles and nuclear fuel (probably eclip or microfusion) vehicles in the books. In the RW electric cars are a viable alternative for probaby 80% or so of the dirving that most urban citizens do. I mean a 300 to 400 mile radius of operation is qite a lot of driving. Hell thats more than what I do in a single day. I only drive maybe 200 or so o an average day and I live out in the country where its 15 miles to the nearest walmart/mcdonalds to give you an idea. 6 miles to the nearest gas station quickie mart.

As for overpopulation like I've said in my game the Orbitals where a much more advanced society of their own. The moon, mars, mercury, the moons of saturn and jupiter where all colonized and that required people. The population of the homeworld duing the golden age actually managed to drop below like 4 billion i think in my notes for the various reasons. Very much within the carrying capacity of the advanced earth.

Also as to the removal of and protection from terrorist nukes That was one of the reasons NEMA and other similar agencies was formed. Also society had turned against the political possession of nucear weapons judging them too powerful for any one nation or political structure to control and rendering them property of all humanity. So they where removd from the planet and placed in an arsenal station with a minimum of 7 people chosen at random from all of humanity to be the keykeepers and only they knew who they where. In a time of global emergency those 7 where to come forward vote and determine if it was required to release the nukes. Of course other nations did keep a few illegal and secret poprocks just for insurance and durin the second cold war illegal and immoral nuclear and other weapons programs where developed. But then again if you have a guy in power armor able to run around with a KEW or Eweapon that can take out a main line tank without a scratch as well as effective antiICBM killsats and ground based interceptors the terror weapons such as nukes are not as required so tactical and strategic doctrines moved away from nuclear weapons as well for the main militaries so they moved to remove nuclear weapons from the terrorist availability as well. As for how they got to arsenal station a lot of the warheads are already on their own launch systems. You just set them to keep climbing into LEO instead of arcing back to earth andthe other warheads are either repurposed into reactor fuel or sent up in a normal (heavily guarded by NEMA etc...) heavy lift shuttle system.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Chad »

POV has little to do with it.
the facts speak for themselves-

http://nov55.com/gbwm.html
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

Chad wrote:POV has little to do with it.
the facts speak for themselves-

http://nov55.com/gbwm.html


i hadn't known about that site, but i had seen alot of those science articles.


i'm trying to show the kinds of advances society has to make for the fluff to work. while we know that during the golden age space travel got a boost, it is a side effect of larger changes, not the source of change. space travel will never be a means to end hunger, war, or overpopulation, because it's too darn expensive, even with things like heavy lift boosters and single stage to orbit spacecraft. the only way you'll get a mostly peaceful world is when energy, food, manufacturing, and medicine is commonly and cheaply available. which is why i talked about improvements in agriculture, manufacturing, nuclear power, and how they all play off each other to change society. population growth is partly governened by conditions (social influences for one, like how people in civilized communities tend to have few kids later in life), and government policy. (much of our 'overpopulation' problem would not be a problem if the third would had access to food, medicine, energy, and production. we have more than enough space on this planet for billions of people, the problem is poor urban planning leading to ever expanding urban sprawls and farming that can't take advantage of it's full output.) both conditions and policy are the result of the technological capabilities of society, so by improving what the society can do, you improve their ability to manage other problems.

i focus on these elements because ultimately thats what makes the fluff work. identifying the main areas of change is easy. finding real world (and thus possible) solutions to them is a bit harder, but we're already making good progress in those areas in real life, so projecting them into the future isn't hard.

i choose not to comment on things like flying cars, robots, and so on mainly because we already know they exist in the fluff, and partly because what most of the comments so far have been are fads. robot servants are cool, but only a small portion of a population could afford them. flying cars are cool, but not everyone could fly one, much less buy one. Fads are not futurism. look at the fads of the past. in the 70's the piopular futurist view was of TV videophones, microwave ovens instead of normal ones, boxy flying cars, plastic furniture, and so on. basically 70's society with more fiddlybits tacked on. but do we have that today? no. we have cars that drive on the ground and are aerodynamic, we still use normal ovens, video phones don't exist but we have cellphones...and no one expected the computer to be so popular and common, or ever thought the internet would become a world spanning thing where normal people go to talk, learn, and entertain themselves. but if you go back to the less popular futurists of the 70's, you'd find stuff like that. but it wasn't pandering ot the latest fads, and focused on the realities of life and how the technology in development at the time could address those realities..so it was unpopular.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

in regards to education, if we want to assume it's improved by 2098 (why not, this is fiction after all, and anything is possible.. :roll: ), we should assume that schools have learned to teach how to think and how to learn as the core curriculum, unlike today which emphasises memorization, but not really assimilation of information. teach a kid early on how to think and learn, and they'll assimilate the information on their own. but you can't force kids to learn, which is our current problem with education. (speaking as an educator here)


in regards to futurism, i suggest that everyone read these 12 things. while aimed at journalists, they work well for RPG writers and GM's as well, since we are basically reporters on the world of the game. you'll notice some of the things i've said above in here. when i started thinking about the future as portrayed in rifts, i tried to keep these things in mind.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Rahmota »

humanity is cheap my friends, very cheap. so that is what will lag our futures. our cheapness. im freaking depressed now.

Yes sad to say the greed and evil that is inherent in any capitalist based system is going to destroy the world and keep us from achieving thewonderful thigns that we are truely capable of. When humanity outgrows the need for profit and oneupsmanship and my *ism is better than you *ism BS we will finally achieve true paradise on Earth. Which will last all of 2 days before the final heat death of the universe more than likely at the rate we are going.......

in regards to futurism, i suggest that everyone read these 12 things. while aimed at journalists, they work well for RPG writers and GM's as well, since we are basically reporters on the world of the game. you'll notice some of the things i've said above in here. when i started thinking about the future as portrayed in rifts, i tried to keep these things in mind.
Well I dont. I dont care what the realism level of the game is as long as it has an internal consistentcy and the characters within the verse can look at thigns and understand that it works or makes sense to them. It doesnt have to make sense to the players or from a documentary POV it just has to be fun. It doesnt have to stand up in court it just has to be an enjoyable way to pass a few hours with friends.
When I design a game world I look at what idea is the most fun. What idea can either cause as much chaos havoc and laughter mirth mayhem etc... Not which world idea would I want to live in (though that does have a slight impact) but which one would I want to play a character living within. Thats why in the future tech games robotic servants ala asimov is in there, robotic self-drive cars is in there, super duper high tech clothes that not only changes color and style but wipe your butt is in there. None of it may make sense or be really practical or goign to happen but I'm not tryign to predict the future I do that I get the Tarot out, I'm designing a game universe.

Sorry if it sounds liek I'm going off on you I'm not really its just one of the problems going on in the real world is that we have had a bit of a problem with someone who was griping and ***** about how frivolous our games where and how they where a professional player and some other interpersonal BS in the now dissolved second game group (which just gives more time for the core group) about not taking the art of gaming seriously enough. To paraphrase shatner from the SNL skit ITS JUST A GAME GET OVER IT PEOPLE! If I want self driving hover cars that talk to me then they belong there. (Not to mention I have finally gotten the truck engine back together after having 90% of it scattered across my garage after rebuilding it.)
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

wow, i may have to reread those points. since nowhere in them is anything saying we can't have self-driving cars, robot butlers, and so on. what those twelve things do is emphasise that when writing about futurism (or in RPG's, writing about the future), that while the toys are interesting, whats key is how society changes, or doesn't change.

how about i take each one individually?

1. Nobody can predict the future. This should go without saying, but too often, reports about trends or emerging science and technology tell us what will happen instead of what could happen. In fact, most futurists and foresight consultants will avoid making any predictive claims, and you should take them at their word; any futurist who tells you that something is inevitable probably has something to sell.

in terms of RPG's, it's important ot remember that your not predicting the future, but writing about a partiular possible vision of the future. one that may or may not hold up to real events to come.

2. Not everyone is surprised by surprises. The corollary to #1, be on the lookout for people who saw early indicators of surprises before they happened. Just like an "overnight success" worked for years to get there, the vast majority of wildcards and "bolt from the blue" changes have been on someone's foresight radar for quite awhile. When something happens that "nobody expected," look for the people who actually did expect it -- chances are, they'll be able to tell you quite a bit about why and how it took place.

in an RPG context, this means it's a good idea to look to real world research and concepts for ideas. not only may you find your ideas are not as original as you thought, but sometimes you may find that something you thought would be rare but spectacular may actually be common and everyday. which will help you phrse your fluff better.

3. Even when it's fast, change feels slow. It's tempting to assume that, because a possible change would make the world a decade from now very different from the world today, that the people ten years hence will feel "shocked" or "overwhelmed." In reality, the people living in our future are living in their own present. That is, they weren't thrust from today to the future in one leap, they lived through the increments and dead-ends and passing surprises. Their present will feel normal to them, just as our present feels normal to us. Be skeptical of claims of imminent future shock.

for RPG's this is more to do with players. throwing too much stuff at players without proper contexts can lead to 'future shock', but by providing context, and by presenting the material as an everyday thing, you can reduce this.

4. Most trends die out. Just because something is popular or ubiquitous today doesn't mean it will be so in a few years. Be cautious about pronouncements that a given fashion or gadget is here to stay. There's every chance that it will be overtaken by something new all too soon -- and this includes trends and technologies that have had some staying power.

be careful in what you decide to do with the future. if you rely too much on current popular trends, you run the risk of dating yourself quickly.

5. The future is usually the present, only moreso. Conversely, don't expect changes to happen quickly and universally. The details will vary, but most of the time, the underlying behaviors and practices will remain consistent. Most people (in the US, at least) watch TV, drive a car, and go to work -- even if the TV is high definition satellite, the car is a hybrid, and work is web programming.

what this means is that unless some really miraculous technology gomes around, like say star trek's replicators, you can expect people to still need jobs, still use money, still spend around the same amount of time working, still enjoy popular entertainent, still have huan flaws and foilbles. the details may change, but the picture stays the same.

6. There are always options. We may not like the choices we have, but the future is not written in stone. Don't let a futurist get away with solemn pronouncements of doom without pressing for ways to avoid disaster, or get away with enthusiastic claims of nirvana without asking about what might prevent it from happening.

be wary of throwing whatever the latest hyped up disaster or trend is into your work. you'll be stuck with it, even if it turns out to be something totally different or never existed at all.

7. Dinosaurs lived for over 200 million years. A favorite pundit cliche is the "dinosaurs vs. mammals" comparison, where dinosaurs are big, lumbering and doomed, while mammals are small, clever and poised for success. In reality, dinosaurs ruled the world for much, much longer than have mammals, and even managed to survive a planetary disaster by evolving into birds. When a futurist uses the dinosaurs/mammals cliche, that's your sign to investigate why the "dinosaur" company/ organization/ institution may have far greater resources and flexibility than you're being led to believe.

some technologies aren't likely to be replaced anytime soon. telephones have been aound for a century, and they aren't likely to be replaced anytime soon, because they work so well, for example. while laser weapons and 'deathrays' may dominate scifi, good old kinetic weapons will never be entrely replaced because of their low costs and high effectiveness. and so on.

8. Gadgets are not futurism.Don't get too enamored of "technology" as the sole driver of change. What's important is how we use technology to engage in other (social, political, cultural, economic) activities. Don't be hypnotized by blinking lights and shiny displays -- ask why people would want it and what they'd do with it.

pretty much what it says. don't let the technology define your future setting. make sure you at least touch on societal changes as a result of that technology.

9. "Sports scores and stock quotes" was 1990s futurist-ese for "I have no idea;" "social networking and tagging" looks to be the 2000s version. Technology developers, industry analysts and foresight consultants rarely want to tell you that they don't know how or why a new invention will be used. As a result, they'll often fall back on claims about utility that are easily understood, familiar to the journalist, and almost certainly wrong.

don't be afraid to be innovative in your use of the future technologies you choose. a robot butler may be cool, but the same computer technology that allows it could be used without the robot body to do many other things. technologies that allow energy guns, like say energy storage, can greatly impact other aspects of life. it's worth considering these 'ripple effects' when writing. this helps avoid the cliche future society of "period X, but with laser rifles"

10. "Technology" is anything invented since you turned 13. What seems weird and confusing will become familiar and obvious, especially to people who grow up with it. This means that, very often, the real utility of a new technology won't emerge for a few years after it's introduced, once people get used to its existence, and it stops being thought of as a "new technology." Those real uses will often surprise -- and sometimes upset -- the creators of the technology.

try to think about how people will use and abuse the technologies you've picked for your setting, and how those uses and abuses will change things for society.

11. The future belongs to the curious. If you want to find out why a new development is important, don't just ask the people who brought it about; their agenda is to emphasize the benefits and ignore the drawbacks. Don't just ask their competitors; their agenda is the opposite. Always ask the hackers, the people who love to take things apart and figure out how they work, love to figure out better ways of using a system, love to look for how to make new things fit together in unexpected ways.

try to keep up with the latest research and developments. we're finding new things all the time, and adding some of these advancements to your fictional technologies helps give them that futuristic feel.

12. "The future is process, not a destination." -- Bruce Sterling The future is not the end of the story -- people won't reach the "future" and declare victory. Ten years from now has its own ten years out, and so on; people of tomorrow will be looking at their own tomorrows. The picture of the future offered by foresight consultants, scenario planners, and futurists of all stripes should never be a snapshot, but a frame from a movie, with connections to the present and pathways to the days and years to come.

When talking with a futurist, then, don't just ask what could happen. The right question is always "...and what happens then?"

what are the trends of your future setting? like reality, settings aren't static. by adding a few bits about how certain technologies are waxing and waning, you can give the impression of where the society might be going, making it more real seeming.



as you can see, these things don't prevent technologies like robot cars or butlers...but are actually guidelines for ensuring your future setting has the traits of: "Internally consistant, and the characters within the verse can look at thigns and understand that it works or makes sense to them"
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Rahmota
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Rahmota »

Okay well I've only been gamign for over 15 years and am considered quite the good world designer and all so As to those articles *shrug* I ignore them and do what I want and what looks and feels like its going to be fun. This is not always a successful thing but I think I do better than network tv at least. I mean having peopel offer you money to come over and gamemaster for them is a pretty good sign they like your style/design.

Now as to the way I design a game I look at the real world, I do keep up on most of the highlights of the tech and other news. I also look to the past and what the future was thought it was going to be. You know like in the 1950s books where you have high tech ultra fast hyperlight ships that are navigated by a slide rule? I still enjoy those books and find them preferable to much of the crap and drivel that is out now adays. One other reason most of the modern scifi movies are worthless mindnumbing toilet paper contents and the 1950s movies outshine them by light years. One of my most popular game worlds was one based off those very same books where Venus was a cloud covered swamp world, people could walk the red sands of mars in a brass loincloth and deep space hyperjump ships where navigated by a supercomputer the size of room that used tape and type to communicate with the crew and was backed up by a slide rule.

The point is that by using a formula of stuff like in those kind of articles you are starting to concentrate too much on the paint scheme of the story and not so much as to the story itself. The details kinda sort themselves out in the end of things.

I dunno its a game not reality. I dont let the game interfere with my reality and I dont let reality interfere with my game. The game world is the reality for the characters if the game world says that the US government is communist capitalism is outlawed (somethign we can only pray for) and that people have developed the attitude of pay it forward as a national religion then thats the way it is in the game world. Deal with it. Whine about it and say well real world psychological studies or this futurist says that people will do this will only get you a blank stare, told thats nice but it has no effect on the game world and to get over it. You want to constrain yourself by being concerned what some futurist says or does not say then fine develop your own world.

Each of us have our own real world experiences, lifestyles, gaming styles, preferences, hang ups, attitudes, and toilerance for reality vs fiction in our games. I prefer to go with whats fun over whats realistic or may be realistic or may be the way some futurist thinks the future might be. Like I said its a game. If I want the mega supercomputer to be a TRS-80 and runnign the entire space station of doom then hey thats the way it is and deal with it. It does not have to make sense to anyone outside of the characters.

Anyhow this is goign way off topic. I did want to annoucne that as a companion to the timeline I am workign up from my notes I am developing a cultural studies sheet on the Noram Confederation as of 2098 which I will be posting here. The only problem is that I start a 2 week rehab of a house (at least thats what the project manager says the job will take) that is goign to be sunup to sundwon so I am not going to be in any gamign or internet mood for at least that long and wanted to let everyone know.

So anyhow glitterboy nothing bad or whatever but you do your games yourway and I'll do mine my way and thats how we'll roll k?
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Rahmota »

Very interest ideas there duck. COuld make for an interesting world. And as for the future one thign is very clear no one can accurately predict it until it has become the past.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by keir451 »

duck-foot wrote:i saw a tweel today i guess you can buy them now. anyways look at alot of the future shows for what is possible and what might be. in my little story about the kid i had them colonize antarctica. and why not? by 2098 we will have the tech to do so. and yes right now we have international treaties against it, but what is a treaty. idk ask stalin in 1940 what a treaty means. colonizing the antarctic will be a multinational effort involving many countries. the same with colonizing mars. now there is a question how will we do that. i honestly think that terrafroming a planet is useless and stupid (it also takes hundreds of thousands of years) why not just genetically engineer ourselves to live on mars. we cant now, but by the way we are going in that field within 100 years we could. and hopefully this crap that oh we arnt god will leave our society (because that will or could keep us from doing that). i can see it now. he would thick rhino-like hide to withstand the sand storms, layers of thick blubber to withstand the cold. his lungs would breath carbon dioxide instead of oxygen, his body would store water and he would hibernate. we could do that at a genetic level thus his kids would look like him too. the moon well imho the moon is only good for material not colonizing. but, who can say on that one. now lets go with countires here. the obvious super power in 2098 isnt america, russia or china. although, those previous countries will be powerful the #1 super power will be a united aribic front or something similiar because of oil. russia controls 25% of the worlds total resources making it a great power. china will be a great power due to production capibilities and america will be grandfathered into that postion (sorry we are falling and i dont think we will get back up) due to our international influence. cybernetics will be common place for 1st world nations (as will gentics in a medical sense) i can see space stations, but it will be an international effort, not an individual nation effort, especially with the world becoming multi-polar. robots will be common place, however unless they can grow human brain cells to augment a robotic processor i dont see true human-like AI. the best we can hope for is chimp level intelligence. with all this multi-polar the world will still be in a psuedo cold war. only not as much on the surface as the last one. with all the diffirent great powers in a rivalry over each other to get the first slot with the united arabic nations. now on to alternate fuel. oil will eventually leave us and ethanol is not cost effective. this leaves hydrogen and nuclear fussion as our best go. with solar being a back up energy source. now cars that drive themselves. could be possible, but that would be highly expensive. more expensive than building a ship to take people to mars. because you would have to either a) build a highly advanced car ai or put tiny recieve chips on the road that will help steer the car. even the second option is expensive. we will eventual create the ubuermensch by getting rid of genetic and birth defects. look ma tommy is no longer stricken with down syndrome!!! the doctors made sure at birth... no at conception. this will undoubtfully lead to a relegious outcry (again they will hold us down). now on to relegion. if we are smart we will either a) do away with it or b) make it to were it can no longer be orginized. thus, keeping its influence out of the general populace. world population. i would hope that we can soon come up with a solution on this. 3rd world countries are so poor that sex is there past time. this increases the need for food, but also increases the need for land. in an ironic twist most of the food made for the world is made in third world countries. hopefully we can somehow curb breeding or else there will be many "minor" wars over living space and resources. i will ponder more on this later.

Interesting ideas, though it wouldn't take hundreds of thousands of years to terraform mars it could be done in thirty, all you need to do is hit the planet with heavy metallic asteroids at preplanned locations and times to increase it's density enough to hold a viable atmosphere (around .95 G's), followed up by ice rocks for water and oxygen and then you've got a viable atmoshere to transplant plants to.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Bood Samel »

I would mix the culture of the movie Brazil (except that almost everyone is of a polyglot racial make up) with a general late cyber-punk/pre-space opera level of technology. The entire east coast urban sprawl would be a literal megalopolis, effectively a solid city from Boston to Richmond. Huge swaths of the country would be like Detroit is today. Spanish would be spoken more then English. X-tians would only exist as Mormons and Voodoo tinged Hispanic style Catholics. Purely white people would be rare. Androgyny and bisexuality would be the norm. America would not be the main super power.
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Re: Life in 2098

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sounds like a screwed up, scary place to live.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Bood Samel »

Visit Manhattan and LA. I've spent a lot of time in NYC this past year. Even the white people don't speak English. Then think about how through the media the norms of LA and NYC dominate cultural standards, or at least put forth the pretense that they do. Then apply that to 2098.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Dustin Fireblade »

Based on a few comments in this thread, I'm bumping this one back up.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=115505

Here's the comments. These came about as topic wondered what martial arts would be available to North America in 2098. Does anyone have any additional thoughts?

Jason Richards wrote:In my opinion, martial arts should be virtually non-existent in Golden Age North America. Remember, the Golden Age of Humanity wasn't Star Trek-like, where technology made everyone equals and gave people time to pursue physical and mental disciplines for the sake of their own improvement.

Chaos Earth Golden Age North Americans (and in most other high-tech countries) were, basically, lazy. Technology made their lives easier so people never did things for themselves unless it was their job to do so. People generally didn't know how to cook food, use a gun, much less fight with any real competence. Medical technology made diet and exercise more or less unnecessary.

People that needed to know how to fight, like the vast armies of military and private special forces/espionage agents would be quite good at it, however, trained in combat with Mega-Damage weaponry that lessened the need for subtlety and pinpoint accuracy in favor of vaporizing targets with focused energy weapons or slicing people in half with a vibro-blade like a hot knife through butter.

In my games, and really in the world as I write it, your average police officer patrolman or hovercycle gang member probably has HtH: Basic. As a further example, my EMT and Firefighter don't have any HtH skill at all in the basic package, while the Reservist has Basic. SWAT members have HtH: Expert. I'd wager that Assassin would probably be far more common even than Martial Arts, which has little place in the Golden Age.


keir451 wrote:I'm not sure I agree with you on this one Jason. I can see that the advances in tech could make people lazy (heck look at us today) but I would say that might actually give people MORE free time to pursue things like martial arts (at least here in the US) and I don't see the Shaolin monastaries dying off any time in the next 80+ years. Even if they suffered furhter persecution by the Chinese gov't, they could always pack up and move to countries like the US and Canada where they would be welcomed.
Admittedly Chaos Earth is your territory nowadays, but I can't really see the "die off" of martial arts.


Dustin Fireblade wrote:I agree to a point with what you are saying. It certainly wasn't a utopia. What we need is something that really describes the 'Golden Age' to provide a better sense of loss. I mean one day you have everything and the next its Armageddon.

Personally I think with the advanced medical technology and longer life spans people will be more apt to try new and different things. The question is what exactly will people be doing with their free time?

I've also included a growing survivalist movement to play up the 2nd Cold War and the end of the century doomsday scenario's that are bound to crop up. Then there are also a "retro" group/movement that believes technology is making things too easy for people.


Gamer wrote:If thats is how your going to write it, then thats another set of books I'll be leaving on the shelves and will be rewriting it myself.
I prefer the golden age to be a little more representative of what the Rifts books written earlier hint at instead of it getting the George Lucas prequel treatment.

I'd like to know why NEMA needs some if not the most advanced power armor on the planet to quell riots composed of basically lazy people.
show me were in north america people where riots are quelled with M1 tanks armed with water hoses and machineguns with rubber bullets and I'll agree there is a need for basically lazy people to be dealt with by the Chromium guardsman.
I'd like to know where the popularity of those MMA fights that where even cities that I live by have their own weekly bouts with trained people and not just local drunks dissapeared to.
If the early juicers and the Death Dance saga was so immensely popular that it spawned such things as world wide interactive parks I don't see how martial arts schools become vitually nonexistant.
If everyone is basically lazy then the golden age was most certainly a utopia.
Everyone being basically lazy contradicts the need for NEMA to use the chromium guardsman in quelling riots because simple light MDC body armor and shields are more than enough to deal with basically lazy people.
There will be alot of lazy people, but not to the point martial arts becomes virtually nonexistant.
If it becomes virtually nonexistant by the golden age then they become completely extinct in the dark ages with all the other supposed lost knowledge and all anyone knows is basic and advanced at best in the rifts PA timeline.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Cybermancer »

You don't need advanced energy weapons to see martial arts die off, just firearms.

Is martial arts dead today?

You don't need a Utopian society for martial arts to die off, just a peaceful nation with a low violent crime rate.

Is martial arts dead today in Japan?

Martial Arts is not going to die now or in the future because it practiced as a sport, learned for fitness, learned for interest and learned as a 'just in case' skill. It hasn't been 'needed' for something like a century or better already. If it was going to die, it would have by now.
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Re: Life in 2098

Unread post by Bood Samel »

The space colonies are a neglected aspect of rifts/chaos earth. A lot more could be done with it.
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