A Speculative Timeline of Future History

[JeffFromMtl]

I just started looking through this, and thought it was pretty interesting. Like it states in the introductory blurb, it is a mix of fact and fiction, and is purely speculative, but is pretty cool nonetheless. Stuff like this always really gets my imagination going.

Future Timeline | Technology | Singularity | 2020 | 2050 | 2100 | 2150 | 2200 | 21st century | 22nd century | 23rd century | Humanity | Predictions | Events

[ArkaneDemon]

The Singularity Is Near is a great book too on the subject.

[xmetalhead69]

Reading some of this shit just reminds me too much of I Robot.

[The Somberlain]

So we're ....ed for 150 years, then we're robots...

[ArkaneDemon]

Originally Posted by The Somberlain

So we're ....ed for 150 years, then we're robots...

Pretty much

[SD83]

I only read parts of it, just read "Hi-tech, automated cities"... except for some minor parts, to me this is an extremely bleak & dystopian vision of the future, at least the parts I read until now...
EDIT: I just read "The world in 2200"... has anybody here (unlikely I guess) read some of the "Perry Rhodan" series? The way human life is described on that page is pretty much exactly the way the life on the planet "Arkon" was described in those books. In 1961.

[leandroab]

This is going to be a really nice read.. When I have the time...

Thanks for this dude!

[Scar Symmetry]

The medium which used to be known as the Internet has evolved into something quite profound: for many people it has replaced physical reality entirely. Reverse engineering of the brain, combined with advanced nanotechnology, allows human minds to be fully detached and immersed within digital environments. These virtual worlds offer a kind of immortality now.

Super sweet.

3000 AD - Purely biological humans are typically 7ft tall now, with lifespans of 120+

The universe continues to expand forever... but is essentially dead.

[silentrage]

I think that timeline might be based on the view that technology progresses linearly, which has been argued might not be the case. If it's progressing exponentially like some have suggested, then we'll get there much much faster, like by 2040 a superintelligence will have emerged and began to transformed earth in unfathomable ways. There's always chances of "hard-takeoff" scenarios where one unpredictable event such as some hitherto unforseen convergence of different disciplines of science and technology immediately brings forth the post-human age.

As regarding the expanding universe, I've read scenarios that involve trying to deal with it and ones that don't attempt at all. In the former, Freeman Dyson has proposed that post-singular civilizations may engineer galaxies into dense clusters so that it won't be so lonely once all the too distant galaxies have faded away. The latter, which is IMO much more interesting, is that post-singular technology will enable the discovery or even manufacturing of worm-holes, blackholes, or even whole new universes(time-reversal of blackholes?), so such a civilization can ditch this spacetime all together.
http://sixwoffers.blogspot.com/2011/...-year-100.html

However you should always keep in mind that predictions are often unreliable, and may not pan-out the way we want. It's good to keep up to date on the latest tech/science news though, to get a feel of whether we'll actually be able to achieve type I this century. I think there has been hints here and there and it might actually happen.

I find the news headline on this site to be very entertaining and possibly important to keep watch of: Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence

[toiletstand]

Originally Posted by silentrage

I think that timeline might be based on the view that technology progresses linearly, which has been argued might not be the case. If it's progressing exponentially like some have suggested, then we'll get there much much faster, like by 2040 a superintelligence will have emerged and began to transformed earth in unfathomable ways. There's always chances of "hard-takeoff" scenarios where one unpredictable event such as some hitherto unforseen convergence of different disciplines of science and technology immediately brings forth the post-human age.

ive always felt this way. reading about the future in that website really bummed me out i feel even smaller now than i did before.

[maliciousteve]

2016 - US Vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient. PFFFFFTTTT!

As if

[Grand Moff Tim]

Reminds of that book "Man after Man" that came out about... thirty years ago? It's about various ways man might evolve. It's pretty absurd at times, but the drawings are cool and it's an amusing read.




Also, the whole book is online for your reading/viewing pleasure.

Dougal Dixon "Man after man. An anthropology of the future" Foreword by Brian Aldiss

[CrushingAnvil]

Dougal Dixon is the man!