Anachronisms in the future

I'm writing a middle-grade, futuristic fantasy set on earth. Last night my critters pointed out that some terminology sticks out, because they can't imagine familiar things of our world existing in that world. In my world building, I've taken anything that exists today and combined it in ways we don't normally see. I like the effect, but some others are pulled out of the story. Perhaps because no time-travel is involved.

The tone of the book is quite light and humorous, and the following things "exist" but look different. What are your thoughts about these items still on earth, thousands of years from now?

submarine
video games
burrito
nachos
sushi

I choose words like these because my audience is 8-12 years old, but now I wonder if I'm not being thorough enough.

I can't think of any reason the food items wouldn't still exist, more or less in their current form. Ditto submarines, although they would no doubt be different; there are serious proposals for using them as passenger or more likely cargo transports. (The advantage is that storms wouldn't affect them.)

Video games are the real anachronism. 21st century-style video games would be in museums; the most likely equivalent in use would be fully immersive, all-senses VR - maybe with some temporary mental alterations and implanted skills as well. (Not much good playing a barbarian hero if you can't tell one end of a sword from the other!)

I'd agree that the food would still be there, no question. As for the tech, it's a balancing act. The form and particulars of the submarine and video games might be completely changed, the the general function or purpose likely wouldn't. There will likely still be vehicles which are specialized to go underwater for quite a long time into the future. Calling them submarines or submersibles is more than appropriate as the name is not likely to change, plus the modern reader has some clue what you're talking about. Same with video games. As said, they'll be completely different in form and particulars, but it'll still be a video game. Could call them VR games or similar but a simulated structured environment from which the player derives entertainment will still basically be a video game.

Think about it like this. If you were alive in the '80s imagine a phone. The old rotary bastards that made people hate anyone with a lot of zeros in their number. Your '80s self might describe a small pocket-sized device from the future by it's form or it's function. It's form has one reflective side and one aluminium side, not much there, admittedly. It's function, however, is astonishing. In '80s terms it might be described as an extremely powerful but miniaturized mainframe computer that can access a world-wide data network, take pictures video and voice recordings, remotely access your banking records, pay bills, find cinema times, book restaurant reservations with the press of a button... oh, and make phone calls. Your '80s self might be utterly astonished that such a device is called merely a 'phone'. And that's only 30-some years in the future.

But that's how it works. The future is crazy.

Reading old 70s SciFi can be funny as they talk about information tapes, information crystals and computers bigger than cities. These technical terms/references stand out for being so far wrong as to be laughable now, but I still read some of these books (monkeys on the moon by Arthur C Clarke). These stories are still powerful and a spaceship is still a spaceship - hell, it's where I get all my RAY GUNS from. So do your best and don't worry about getting it wrong because the simple fact is - you will get it wrong. We'll all read your book in twenty years from now and giggle, but who cares, as long as you get published today.

So Issac, tell me about these three laws again?

Good to know about the food. I thought those would be the easiest to accept, myself.

I agree they probably won't be using "video games" at that time, but no doubt some form of electronic or neurological entertainment will exist. I just hate having to re-invent the wheel and explain everything, and I think kids are more forgiving about that. I'd certainly never use specific game titles, and I'm not even using the term "phone" either. But something like "submarine" is quite more involved. I see it more like "ship" is used in everything from Medieval fantasy to space exploration.

Bowler1 said:

you will get it wrong.

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Most definitely! Of course, the point is not to predict the future, but tell a fun story with economical terms. I just don't want them to distract from the story.

Video games encompasses everything from Pong and Brickout to PS4, VR and Phone/Tablet. It might still be called "video games" when it works by a holodeck like experience just from a pad clipped to your ear lobe. HD Video games today were unimagined to 1970s gamers.

Sub is short for Submarine boat (Hence U-boot in German). In Naval usage a sub is always a boat and never a ship, been that way for over 120 years of Naval commissioned vessels mechanically propelled with torpedoes. Subs pre date the 1870 Jules Verne 20,000 leagues under the seas.

Food is too much tied with pleasure. We are not going to ditch Nachos, Burritos, Curry etc for balanced gloop.

All your terms are fine I thing, except Submarine is already replaced by Sub. The filled rolls are called subs cos they look like Subs.

The term 'video game' sounds very dated. I was under the impression it was no longer in use.

Not that I've had much of an office discussion on the topic. But I seem to recall something along the lines of 'Do you have a Console or PC? What games do you play?'. No mention of video...

As for the Submarine. In a near future WIP I have characters make use of a deep submergence vehicle which they sometimes abbreviate to submersible or DSV.

Ray McCarthy said:

All your terms are fine I thing, except Submarine is already replaced by Sub. The filled rolls are called subs cos they look like Subs.

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I thought it was because they were from the retailer Subway.

I'm past my sell by date.

I'll agree that as marine boat has been dropped from submarine boat to give Sub, that now video games are mostly just games, so much so that we used to play games like Monopoly, risk, carcasonne, Settlers of Catan etc, we now play Board games if they are not on a screen!

Subs were USA name for filled rolls before Subway. Which is SO a name that doesn't work here as a "subway" here is a pedestrian underpass on road, and you have to hold your nose and walk fast! Actually some places they bricked them up. I was never sure if that was due to hygiene, assaults or risk of someone blowing up the road. I've been on London Underground and New York Subway, so I know about those too.

There will be some language drift in the future, of that no doubt albeit I would suggest it would be a lot less between 3015 and 2015 versus 2015 and 1015 due to the simple fact we can actually have audio recordings. New words (and utilisation) can come in over very short spaces of time though (to 'Google' or 'apps').

Remember though, every book that is set in either the far future, distant past or a fantastical realm can be assumed to have a narrative interpreter for the reader. Eg. Would the hobbits in LOTR be actually speaking English? I doubt it. (Before some smart Alec comes out with the fact Tolkien originally wrote the stories as an English mythology... I know).

Likewise, in Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space universe, the human characters mention several times they speak 'Canasian' and that English is archaic.

In summary, and especially for a YA.... Don't worry about it too much. Just make sure your up to date with what the current terminology is, and feel free to make up some stuff (I have VRaddicts - people who are addicted to VR in mine)

It's hard to say what will make through to the future. Some of the weirdest things I'd think.
McDonalds Coca Cola Band-aids nail-clippers do you think one day that toilets will go the way of the dinosaurs.

ralphkern - Regarding the hobbits speaking English, it so happens that Tolkein agreed with you. In one of the appendices, he explicitly said that the entire book (with the exception of some of the Elvish) was a translation.

Which isn't unreasonable. If one goes along with the proposition that LOTR is a historical work, it's the history of at least ten thousand years ago and probably more. Considering that Chaucer, a mere 900 years or so old, is virtually unreadable by someone who hasn't specifically studied Old English...

And I entirely agree about the subject of neologisms. And also old words with new meanings. One example is the acronym RAM, now beginning not to be capitalised. As little as 50 years ago, it meant nothing other than a male sheep. (1960s computers used magnetic core memory.) Imagine trying to talk to someone of as little as 10 years ago about twerking, for another example.

This brings to mind the day long ago when I was presented with the manual for my new (imported) computer::

Mirannan said:

And I entirely agree about the subject of neologisms. And also old words with new meanings. One example is the acronym RAM, now beginning not to be capitalised. As little as 50 years ago, it meant nothing other than a male sheep. (1960s computers used magnetic core memory.) Imagine trying to talk to someone of as little as 10 years ago about twerking, for another example.

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The manual was translated to English by someone with a rudimentary knowledge and it declared on one of the first few pages that the computer contained 8 megabites of male sheep. (I kid you not.)

tinkerdan said:

The manual was translated to English by someone with a rudimentary knowledge and it declared on one of the first few pages that the computer contained 8 megabites of male sheep. (I kid you not.)

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Groan.

He's here all night, folks!

Fishbowl Helmet said:

But that's how it works. The future is crazy.

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True dat.

Reading Heinlein is always at least a little bit funny because the things he imagines are futuristic (the flying cars etc) aren't even remotely feasible (yet) whereas they're still bound by corded phones and gramophones.

I think a fairly safe bet is to think like a present-day marketer: most innovation is just tweaking what's already there. So rather than go for the all-out whizzbang flying car, think about how our current gadgets and lives could be improved through technology; usually that just means making things smaller, lighter, more autonomous or intelligent, more streamlined. Or just plain better.

People's lives will essentially be the same in the future; we'll have the same banal needs (washing clothes, making food etc) but we'll more than likely have figured out more efficient and autonomous ways of doing it.

Re: the food thing, I don't think the food itself would necessarily change unless it was a plot point (a la Interstellar), but as I said above, our way of preparing or manufacturing it will be different.

I can buy a 200Gbyte data crystal (micro SD). WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR AND ROBOT BUTLER!!!!!!

Maybe DeLorean will reopen and bring out a special flying model this year, given that it's a certain film's 30th anniversary and 2015 was the year that the aforementioned car travelled to... so you might not be totally out of luck just yet, Ray

Delorean was a con man and the sports car was under powered for its class. The stainless steel skin also would part from the fibre glass body.
I started my first company in South Belfast the same time as he set up in West Belfast. Irish Government turned him down and he told NIDA they had made an offer!

Hmm. It seems my frivolous quip has gone awry.

Still, there's always the robot butler to fall back on. http://www.therobotbutler.com

Sadly all most people know is that the DeLorean car features in the Back to the Future series.