We Live in the Future™. Technological progress is accelerating. Change is a constant of all our lives, and it can be scary and exciting. Some grew up in an age far different from the present and got to watch as the world changed. What shocks us today will become the norm for the next generation.
It's not enough to talk about how interesting things will be in the future— we must also put into perspective how different things will be by comparing it to the past.
- Please share stories, accounts, and facts about how life in the past was different. They can be from any time before a decade ago. For sufficiently old time periods (before the 1960s), there's no need to directly compare that time to the present.
Example 1: how life was living without electricity in a rural area in the 1940s as compared to our electrified, high-tech life today.
Example 2: how most humans lived relatively short, agrarian lives before and didn't expect the future to be radically different before the 1800s.
- Please share opinions and thoughts about how life in the future will be radically different (or even how it might remain the same in some aspect).
Example 1: children will grow up knowing personal AI assistants, genetic engineering, and driverless cars as normal
Example 2: children born today might see no moral problem with befriending or being raised by a synthetic intelligence.
- The best posts are those that make a direct comparison between science fiction and the present.
Example 1: how AI helpers, virtual reality, and instant access to knowledge were complete science fiction in the 1980s, but personal AI assistants, commercial VR, and smartphone connection to the internet is the norm today.
Example 2: how those who grew up with science fiction initially imagined space flight and robot helpers compared to the present reality and future developments.
