Post: #26

(04-16-2015 07:25 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  That's why the one thing I don't understand is all the talk about "stratification". There may be growth in headline inequality in terms of incomes -- mostly because some of the rich are getting very rich -- but it seems blindingly obvious that the effect of new technologies is an ever greater leveling of the playing field, both in the US and worldwide. There has never been a time in human history where an African shopkeeper could get on an iPhone and have instantly about the same level of access to information, entertainment, knowledge, and variety -- not to mention porn, LOL -- as Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.

The very richest may be richer by as many orders of magnitude as you like in terms of their headline income or net worth, but in terms of what that money can actually buy, the gap has never been narrower. Today's peasants inhabit a vastly richer and more interesting world than yesterday's emperors. That's one trend I don't see changing -- though even that prediction is as worthless as any of them, LOL.

That is not true. Especially this:

(04-16-2015 07:25 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  but in terms of what that money can actually buy, the gap has never been narrower

Sure, you can get all the information you want online, but if you don't have the $$ you can't do shit. Yeah, you can have a similar level of access to information, entertainment, and knowledge as Bill Gates - but you're still living in the physical world and are trapped in your village if you don't have the means to get out. You can look at all the stuff on Amazon, but you can't buy anything if you earn $1 per day.

Post: #27

Ice, but think for a moment of all you can do with the information.

Think just about Youtube for a moment -- just that. Did you know that the most explosively growing type of video on the Internet is not actually porn -- it's instructional videos of every variety?

You can go on Youtube and figure out: how to structure your small business if you have one... how to fix an appliance... how to get a microfinance loan for your shop... how to protect your dwelling against malaria... how to build a gym in your village on a shoestring... and when you're done with all of that, you can just listen to the Kiss song Love Gun for the first time and be stunned and have your entire life harmonized.

We cannot even understand what this means for human lives -- it's simply too profound, and too much staring us in the face. But the obvious must be acknowledged sometimes.

And of course, in terms of actual $$ numbers -- if you want to look at that -- while the inequality gap within some developed societies like the US has been growing, the gap between developed and developing ones has been shrinking, massively... think about the difference in so many Asian countries between now and even 20 years ago, they are virtually unrecognizable. Fewer and fewer people are actually living on $1 a day. And this story about Africa makes one realize that maybe things are starting to move there as well.

The massive penetration of these new technologies lifts everyone's standard of living -- it could hardly be otherwise, that's just how these things go.

Post: #28

(04-16-2015 08:06 PM)Ice Wrote:  Sure, you can get all the information you want online, but if you don't have the $$ you can't do shit. Yeah, you can have a similar level of access to information, entertainment, and knowledge as Bill Gates - but you're still living in the physical world and are trapped in your village if you don't have the means to get out. You can look at all the stuff on Amazon, but you can't buy anything if you earn $1 per day.

Gotta disagree with you here and give kudos to Lizard. The knowledge in how stuff works (youtube/internet) is by far the most advanced thing to come along in centuries. I think it's a statement that's actually impossible to disagree with. Every fact you have ever wanted to know is accessible to almost anyone now -- in the PALM OF YOUR HAND. In 100 years, school be either A) Obsolete. B) Incredibly different from it's current incarnation.

School looked like this 100 years ago:
http://allday.com/post/537-school-has-ch...the-1900s/
http://d2xkgi1p28g9gr.cloudfront.net/W8v...000000.jpg

Not drastically different from what it looks like today.

The fact is - those 3rd World Countries are finally getting access to 'knowledge'. A benefit of globalization.

Post: #29

I hope with many black and white mixed girls because they love me and I love them.

Post: #30

(04-16-2015 09:45 PM)CH-Toronto Wrote:  

(04-16-2015 08:06 PM)Ice Wrote:  Sure, you can get all the information you want online, but if you don't have the $$ you can't do shit. Yeah, you can have a similar level of access to information, entertainment, and knowledge as Bill Gates - but you're still living in the physical world and are trapped in your village if you don't have the means to get out. You can look at all the stuff on Amazon, but you can't buy anything if you earn $1 per day.

Gotta disagree with you here and give kudos to Lizard. The knowledge in how stuff works (youtube/internet) is by far the most advanced thing to come along in centuries. I think it's a statement that's actually impossible to disagree with. Every fact you have ever wanted to know is accessible to almost anyone now -- in the PALM OF YOUR HAND. In 100 years, school be either A) Obsolete. B) Incredibly different from it's current incarnation.

School looked like this 100 years ago:
http://allday.com/post/537-school-has-ch...the-1900s/
http://d2xkgi1p28g9gr.cloudfront.net/W8v...000000.jpg

Not drastically different from what it looks like today.

The fact is - those 3rd World Countries are finally getting access to 'knowledge'. A benefit of globalization.

You are missing something though. The stratification is already visible in the school system. A top class of smart kids and a whole bunch of dumb asses that cant find their belly button when you point it out.
We have a lower class coming up that is both incredibly stupid and lazy. They are a plague. All they can do scroll through facebook and dick around.
I think we will get a reset moment with an event like ebola or some such contagious disease.

Post: #31

I remember 20 years ago, 40 years ago and even 55 years ago (1960).

Barring global thermonuclear war (still a possibility, shows my 1962 imprinting), things won't seem much different to those of us living now. It depends on policy decisions. In the economy, some solution will have to be found to the income distribution issue in a world with less and less low-skill jobs. The question of limits to genetic engineering and autonomous artificial intelligence are other big ones.

Mostly, things will be better or the same, but some things will be worse.

Better:
- Lots of cool voice-activated things. Keys will be fading away.
- Personal devices will be better, many options in size and power
- Good chance of cheap fusion power
- Air travel will still be cheap
- Medical advances will prolong healthy life
- version of home television will be more like internet, with hundreds of thousands of options

Same
- there will still be McD's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks along with your local diner, coffee shop and bars.
- broadcast radio will still be around
- men will still wear suits and ties. Maybe double-breasted will be in that year, or three-buttons again, or bow-ties. What you have in your closet now will still be wearable.

Worse:
- things will be more crowded, USA will be 375 million people. More European and Asian-style condo living.
- scary drones everywhere
- No privacy from government and private sector marketers unless you go off-grid and abstain from social media and e-mails
- Cops will be more brutal to cope with larger population
- Political systems worldwide will converge on an authoritarian "managed democracy" model like Singapore.
- more food will suck in a bland but basically nutritious affordable GMO way unless you have money
- more bullshit flash outrages propagated through social media

Possible but unlikely outliers within 20 years
- genetically optimized humans a la Khan Noonien Singh or human-animal hybrid freaks
- autonomous robots
- full-on 1984 fascism rather than "manufactured consent," "inverted totalitarianism," or "managed democracy."

Post: #32

(04-16-2015 03:59 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  This will be the average western woman in the future.

Post: #33

With the increased global economic model and the massive federal debt, our economy/social classes will more resemble Brazil. A tiny elite class, a small upper middle class, and everyone else struggling to get by. A slow move to a lower standard of living, so it isn't as noticeable by the average citizen.

An expanded govt. will make American women even worse to deal with and more dependent on govt. Women were 54% of voters in 2012. I would not be surprised if this doesn't increase to 60% in 20 years. Men marginalized by no one representing their needs and more men with felonies preventing them from voting. So basically a rapidly expanding matriarchal society. Where women work less and less and pay less and less, and men work more and more and get less and less in return.

Marriage will nearly a thing of the past. There are already more single adults in the USA than married adults and this trend continues to increase.

All in all, an even worse place to live than it is today and hopefully I will not be here to deal with it, or if I am, I am able to be in a place where I deal with little of it.

Post: #34

(04-17-2015 03:27 AM)Sp5 Wrote:  I remember 20 years ago, 40 years ago and even 55 years ago (1960).

Barring global thermonuclear war (still a possibility, shows my 1962 imprinting), things won't seem much different to those of us living now. It depends on policy decisions. In the economy, some solution will have to be found to the income distribution issue in a world with less and less low-skill jobs. The question of limits to genetic engineering and autonomous artificial intelligence are other big ones.

Mostly, things will be better or the same, but some things will be worse.

Better:
- Lots of cool voice-activated things. Keys will be fading away.
- Personal devices will be better, many options in size and power
- Good chance of cheap fusion power
- Air travel will still be cheap
- Medical advances will prolong healthy life
- version of home television will be more like internet, with hundreds of thousands of options

Same
- there will still be McD's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks along with your local diner, coffee shop and bars.
- broadcast radio will still be around
- men will still wear suits and ties. Maybe double-breasted will be in that year, or three-buttons again, or bow-ties. What you have in your closet now will still be wearable.

Worse:
- things will be more crowded, USA will be 375 million people. More European and Asian-style condo living.
- scary drones everywhere
- No privacy from government and private sector marketers unless you go off-grid and abstain from social media and e-mails
- Cops will be more brutal to cope with larger population
- Political systems worldwide will converge on an authoritarian "managed democracy" model like Singapore.
- more food will suck in a bland but basically nutritious affordable GMO way unless you have money
- more bullshit flash outrages propagated through social media

Possible but unlikely outliers within 20 years
- genetically optimized humans a la Khan Noonien Singh or human-animal hybrid freaks
- autonomous robots
- full-on 1984 fascism rather than "manufactured consent," "inverted totalitarianism," or "managed democracy."

Yeah I kind of feel like it will be a long slow road to Gomorrah. We're well on the way already. I feel like the creeping police state will just get worse and worse and by and large it will affect the middle and lower middle classes the most as they work and pay the local and municipal taxes but generally can't fight the system with top-notch lawyers and political connections like the elite can.

I also really think that women will continue to have a protected, privileged position in society even despite the pushback. Especially as automation and technology continues to do the manufacturing, cleaning, building etc. difficult & dangerous (but unheralded) jobs that men currently do (and women have always shunned). That will affect men much more than women and we'll see the bottom third of men who do all the crappy work get bigger and/or these guys just have way less options in terms of jobs, even low-skilled service industry/cleaning type jobs I bet.

Q. In the bolded part above, by Khan do you mean Khan from Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan?

Post: #35

Amexico.

Post: #36

(04-17-2015 05:40 AM)Akula Wrote:  Q. In the bolded part above, by Khan do you mean Khan from Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan?

Yes, and the same character in Star Trek the original series, who was a genetically optimized human.

This clip from the original episode with Khan is a little primer on some game techniques and The Hamster:

Post: #37

Cats will be tax-deductible.

Post: #38

(04-16-2015 09:45 PM)CH-Toronto Wrote:  

(04-16-2015 08:06 PM)Ice Wrote:  Sure, you can get all the information you want online, but if you don't have the $$ you can't do shit. Yeah, you can have a similar level of access to information, entertainment, and knowledge as Bill Gates - but you're still living in the physical world and are trapped in your village if you don't have the means to get out. You can look at all the stuff on Amazon, but you can't buy anything if you earn $1 per day.

Gotta disagree with you here and give kudos to Lizard. The knowledge in how stuff works (youtube/internet) is by far the most advanced thing to come along in centuries. I think it's a statement that's actually impossible to disagree with. Every fact you have ever wanted to know is accessible to almost anyone now -- in the PALM OF YOUR HAND. In 100 years, school be either A) Obsolete. B) Incredibly different from it's current incarnation.

School looked like this 100 years ago:
http://allday.com/post/537-school-has-ch...the-1900s/
http://d2xkgi1p28g9gr.cloudfront.net/W8v...000000.jpg

Not drastically different from what it looks like today.

The fact is - those 3rd World Countries are finally getting access to 'knowledge'. A benefit of globalization.

Yeah sure, you do have a lot more opportunities today. For example, theoretically it would be possible for someone living in a 3rd world country making $1 per day to learn English by taking free online classes, and then start a YouTube channel and get really popular, getting millions of views, and make 10'000 USD per month. It is not impossible. But how many people can achieve that? Very few, if any. But If you come from a rich background, you will get a great education, make great contacts, and by default you will stay in your social class or even become a billionaire if you - for example - start a startup or some other company (for which you need money and/or connections).

So yeah, the knowledge is there - people who are very smart, committed, and resourceful can use that knowledge to make really great things happen. But you have to be aware that this is the exception. So the knowledge by no means levels the playing field.

Post: #39

Read "The Handmaid's Tale".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale

Quote:The Handmaid's Tale (1985) is a dystopian novel, a work of speculative fiction,[1] by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.[2][3] Set in the near future, in a totalitarian Christian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government, The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in subjugation and the various means by which they gain agency. The novel's title was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected stories ("The Merchant's Tale", "The Parson's Tale", etc.)[4]

Then remove the part about it being caused by Nuclear War, replace the cause with: "women all become sluts and society collapses, then is rebuilt by religious fantatics." Also, re-write the story so that: A) women love being subjugated, and B) the crowds hunting down and kills Abortionists/Feminists are mostly other women.

Otherwise, this book is right-on.

Post: #40

Off the top of my head:

- The environmental movement will be a major factor in creating classes within cities. Centralized services will mean those who can afford to live in the center of a city will have the best access to healthcare, food, education, arts, etc.

- For most of the working poor cars will remain a necessary part of survival. For those who can afford it they will use luxury cars and driver less cars. Most Gen Z and Millennials will use car sharing and public transport.

- GMO will feed most people.

- The ocean will go through an "aqua cultural revolution"

- We will find a better material than cement for construction

I like these threads as it gets the mind into a productive "blue sky" though process. I wish I had time to think of some more right now, this was the most fun I have had all morning.

Post: #41

MrLemon, Margaret Atwood, the author of "The Handmaid's Tale", is the hardest core Year Zero ideologue, a fanatical radfem and radical environmentalist loon. She also looks like this:



I would not take her ill-written would-be apocalyptic rantings (I find her essentially unreadable, she is that bad) as a guide to anything other than the question of what exactly happened to make intelligent men take female "novelists" with any degree of seriousness, as if they could possibly have something of real interest and pertinence to contribute.

Post: #42

(04-17-2015 02:02 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  MrLemon, Margaret Atwood, the author of "The Handmaid's Tale", is the hardest core Year Zero ideologue, a fanatical radfem and radical environmentalist loon. She also looks like this:



I would not take her ill-written would-be apocalyptic rantings (I find her essentially unreadable, she is that bad) as a guide to anything other than the question of what exactly happened to make intelligent men take female "novelists" with any degree of seriousness, as if they could possibly have something of real interest and pertinence to contribute.

Yah, I know. I guess I didn't explain my reasoning very well (mea culpa)

I was trying to say...I think we WILL end up in a religious dictatorship....but NOT for the reasons she states. The reason won't be "because of evil men" -- it will be, due to insane women causing chaos.

When women are put in charge of society, it eventually leads to chaos followed by dictatorship.