Which future do you fear the most?

[Mighty mouse]

Does the idea of a terminator style unrelenting enemy evoke something primal in you? or perhaps a grinding gray lit distopian 1984?
How about being a puppet of mental mutants or elking out an existance in a radioactive winterland?
I think the idea of living in permanent fear, of having no basic freedoms and having the life force sucked out of me on a daily basis by a race of vampires is where it would be for me.

 

[j d worthington]

I think the idea of living in permanent fear, of having no basic freedoms and having the life force sucked out of me on a daily basis by a race of vampires is where it would be for me.

Problem is, with the exception of the stereotyped idea of fangs, etc., that last isn't the future -- it's what we've got right now.

I fear a future (like the present) of the reign of apathy and the "silent majority", of unthinking, unreasoning reactionaryism rather than the use of deliberation, discrimination (in the positive sense) and judgment; an increase in superstition, neo-mysticism taught as science, and a recrudescence of ignorance and poverty of both intellect and imagination. In other words... what we've not only sewn the seeds of, but are vigorously cultivating now....

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Bar the vampires, I think we're already there.

For me the worst future would just be an extension of the present.
Terrible wars of fanatical religion, increased ferocity and frequency of natural disasters brought on by climate change, large disparity of wealth and living standards between select few and vast dumbed down majority.
Education & Health only for those who can afford it, dissolution of moral values, large "sink" estates in the heart of every major city where fascistic police rail against anarchistic youth and aggression.
Rampant disease, corruption, self-interest and greed in 'developing' countries leading to large scale humanitarian refugees to more stable countries, continuing a domino effect until the inevitable xenophobic backlash and riots begin.

EDIT: JD, we think too much alike. Scary, isn't it?

 

[j d worthington]

Ummm, errrr.... yeah. What's really scary is that we were putting this in at the exact same moment.... That's just a little too eerie....

 

[SpaceShip]

Ummm, errrr.... yeah. What's really scary is that we were putting this in at the exact same moment.... That's just a little too eerie....

Not too eerie - it's probably what most of the rest of us are thinking. Anyone with even half a brain should be agreeing with what you say.
My mum has often said, "I'm glad I was born when I was and lived in the time I have lived - the future holds no attraction for me whatsoever. I'd hate to be young now!" She was born in 1916 and lived through two world wars, yet she prefers those times to now. Says a lot doesn't it?

 

[Thadlerian]

I don't fear religion as much as nationalism. Nationalism is so fundamental to our understanding of the world, so profoundly unassailable that any criticism or resistance is an impossibility. Nationalism, as the idea of common cultural and racial heritage as grounds for one group's "ownership" of a land area/country does not only make ordinary people kill "the others" in millions, it also prevents any international agreement on environmentalism or poverty, or anything else that might require material sacrifice.

And it's on the rise. Alas, the future is upon us. We're being slowly suffocated by the compulsion of homogenity within the group, of the romanticizing of the past and anti-intellectualism, of having of having others determine who we are and where we belong.

Give me the vampires any time. Those can be fought, at least.

 

[Spartan27]

This is Spartan27....what future I fear the worst...how does the earth's axis shifting 5-7 degrees to it's right, and then centering itself...in my opinion you can't get any worse-off then that...15,000 ft tidal waves anyone?

 

[steve12553]

I fear what I see: stagnation. Nothing wonderful will happen unless there's big money to be made. All of our best technologies are driven by the biggist profits. Thirty-five years ago we were headed to space. We had a new frontier to attack. We would grow as a race (species, in case I need to be politically correct). If I live another 50 years, I may not see humanity reach the stars.

 

[WhiteCrowUK]

I find that Gene Roddenbury's vision of the human race in Star Trek: Next Generation is quite scarey, where we all suddenly get along and always do good.

What happens in the next 300 years? Do the replicators secretly drug everyone with Valium as in THX-1138?

 

[Nesacat]

I think that like most of you I fear a future that is already here. A future where the rights of one group rules supreme trampling on all other peoples in the land. A future where the young are filled with apathy and are supremely satisfied with lives that evolve around a glitzy lifestyle. Where knowledge and reading fall by the wayside unless it's a means to achieving further material gains. A world where fanatics hold sway and reason no longer exists. Where we abuse Nature so much she lashes back in hurt and anger. A world where there is no real place for the unique or the creative or those who think and see things a little differently.

 

[The Pelagic Argosy]

I will go ahead and vote for the unrelenting enemy scenerio. I just saw War of the Worlds recently, and that was pretty scary. I wouldn't want to experience something like that. (It was the Tom Cruise version, which made it even scarier.)

I fear a future (like the present) of the reign of apathy and the "silent majority", of unthinking, unreasoning reactionaryism rather than the use of deliberation, discrimination (in the positive sense) and judgment; an increase in superstition, neo-mysticism taught as science, and a recrudescence of ignorance and poverty of both intellect and imagination. In other words... what we've not only sewn the seeds of, but are vigorously cultivating now....

This is scary too. But these kinds of things have been going on since the dawn of man. It seems to have waxed and waned throughout history, and I imagine it will continue to do so indefinitely. It only depends on what time and place you live how relatively bad it is. Perhaps I'm feeling more optimistic than usual following the midterm elections. But I only have to look at how women are treated in Afghanistan to see how well off I have it.

Here's what I think will really happen: Hard won freedom and reason will finally spread to all corners of the world, ushering in the the most peaceful period in man's history.

Then we will be destroy by a meteor.

 

[The Ace]

A Global superpower using overwhelming military force on anyone who dares to disagree, and my own government crawling up its arse . Hang on, this is actually happening. Scottish independence, get us away from Blair and Bush!

 

[Joel007]

world domination by rednecks.

 

[Sibeling]

I think the scariest thing for me is some deadly virus that cannot be cured.

I mean, we are making the future and if we all behave like intelligent people and not like a bunch of idiots the future will not look so dark and it is just possible that there will be no World War III and we all will not die because of pollution.

But a thing like a virus appears without human intervention and there is nothing we can do about it even if we all are goody-goodies, recycle and respect the rights of the individual.

 

[Milk]

Overpopulation.

As it stands, people are living longer and longer.
There is also a drastic reduction in infant mortality.

Also-- People's decisions (people as a whole, I dont mean subgroups, I mean all people everywhere) to have children isnt declining.

If anything I see people trailing anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen offspring with them everywhere they go. And rest asurred those children will make at least half a dozen more infants, this is for everyone and everybody. A couple deciding to forgoe the having chidren? One in a million.
People will just breed, producing unlimited amounts of people.
Until the landscape is seething with humanity scraping and bumping against one another in a limited amount of space.

There won't be any genocide or catastrophe to thin the population. Nature won't intervene to cull the masses. Either through plague or war, or anyother avenue. This is because there is no Nature, never has been. Simply a word used when people feel nostalgic for greener times.

Imagine a crowded street, now multiply that by a thousand. Look around you next time you are in a crowded theatre, concert, or stadium, because well, all of the outside and inside of the world will be like this, tenfold. Something to the effect of, the weight of people on the Earth competes with the weight of the entire Earth. Many miles high, and many miles below. People stacked on top of eachother, rutting, squabling, and having more babies.


This isn't the future I'm scared of, its just one thats certain.

 

[Azathoth]

The future I fear the most?

The world becomes one massive, totalitarian suburb. Every forest is cut down, built over, and the only plant life left is managed completely and totally. Regulated lawns. Community "volume levels" (no loud music, shouting, etc.) Strict, geometric zoning regulations. The only transportation is public transportation. No personal cars or bicycles. Regulated diets.

Uptight neighbors who monitor your every move. The only channels on television are soap operas and reality shows. The news only covers jokes of the day, work bloopers, and things of that nature - it never reports deaths, accidents, or real political discourse. Strict laws regarding where one may live (no leaving one's district, ever). Culture across the globe being destroyed in the name of progress - all architecture must conform to certain standards, ethnic cuisines must meet government regulations, and all languages, save Esperanto are banned.

Children must participate in an after-school group sport. No exceptions. The handicapped are aborted before birth, because they are blights on the community. Education is controlled by location and by test scores; if a child is born into an "industrial neighborhood," that child will be educated as a factory worker of some kind (be it as a manager, laborer, I/O psychologist, whatever) depending on his/her test scores. Sexuality is used as a tool of sedation - people must marry, but they are allowed to have their affairs. Couples must have two children, but they aren't allowed to spend more than twenty hours a week with them.

Religion must meet certain regulations. Nothing which makes the populace uncomfortable may be preached; universal salvation is a required teaching of all faiths. Science must meet certain regulations, as well. Nothing must contradict what the people believe. Science must act as a counterbalance to faith, so that neither faith nor science have any impact on the people.

In other words, the people must never be stirred from their hedonism; they must never suffer; they must never understand that the world extends beyond their local community; they must never feel any true passion.

...

Yeah, that's my idea of a horrid future.

 

[Azathoth]

More realistically though, I foresee a Malthusian end to our kind. But that's not as frightening as an endless suburb.

 

[steve12553]

Overpopulation.

As it stands, people are living longer and longer.
There is also a drastic reduction in infant mortality.

Also-- People's decisions (people as a whole, I dont mean subgroups, I mean all people everywhere) to have children isnt declining.

If anything I see people trailing anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen offspring with them everywhere they go. And rest asurred those children will make at least half a dozen more infants, this is for everyone and everybody. A couple deciding to forgoe the having chidren? One in a million.
People will just breed, producing unlimited amounts of people.
Until the landscape is seething with humanity scraping and bumping against one another in a limited amount of space.

There won't be any genocide or catastrophe to thin the population. Nature won't intervene to cull the masses. Either through plague or war, or anyother avenue. This is because there is no Nature, never has been. Simply a word used when people feel nostalgic for greener times.

Imagine a crowded street, now multiply that by a thousand. Look around you next time you are in a crowded theatre, concert, or stadium, because well, all of the outside and inside of the world will be like this, tenfold. Something to the effect of, the weight of people on the Earth competes with the weight of the entire Earth. Many miles high, and many miles below. People stacked on top of eachother, rutting, squabling, and having more babies.


This isn't the future I'm scared of, its just one thats certain.

This is truly scare and counter to all the optomistic futures presented in Science Fiction. Look at Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Roddenberry's Star Trek and nearly everybody future universe. They are UNIVERSES not solo planets with a population that either expands or stagnates. We are not getting into space. The history of the human race has been expansion into new territories and an every increasing population designed to populate the new conquests. It is the nature of the beast. If we stop acquiring new territory to expand into we must either be a stagnant, dying culture or a massively overpopulated culture. Both scenerios, given human nature, eliminate the concept of a utopian society and suggest a largely criminal, self-center culture. Kinda like what we have now but ramping up the bad parts by powers of ten.

 

[Harpo]

Getting into space will not help overpopulation. At the current growth rate world population is increasing by something like quarter of a million per day. Which means we'd need to send that many interplanetary colonists on their way every singel day just to maintain the current level of crowdedness. I can't see that happening somehow.

The future I fear is an attempt at that anyway. Mankind colonising other world's without first solving mankind's major faults. Taking our idiocies to other planets and carrying on the mistakes we have made befor which got us into this mess and future messes.
Trashing the entire galaxy bit by bit.

I very much look forward to the extinction of the human race, much better that than our putting a McDisneyBucks (or whatever) around every habitable star in the sky.

 

[dustinzgirl]

I fear a world like Demolition Man, perfection under the thumb of a few. Pretty much the same thing JD----acceptance and apathy.