In ye olde days it couldn’t. But, what if the current database of YouTube videos survives? You’d get every non-expert trying everything in any way possible. If books and podcasts survive, you’d have every discussion on why things are done a certain way and not another way. Assuming it all survives, there’d be so much more information to future archaeologists and anthropologists than today. Right now we just dig up a shard of pottery and try to figure things out from whatever we can glean from that pottery.
It would make for a cool movie. The only problem is trying to imagine a really distant future that makes the present look barbaric.
They had fun with that in Demolition Man with the three shells. Star Trek TNG did it in The Neutral Zone where they had a bunch of people from the 20th century including a financier who couldn’t accept the lack of money in the future. But it’s really hard to make a future that’s believable and makes the present look barbaric.
The Bell Riots weren’t what they were cracked up to be. Either that, or they got the date wrong.
But, the writers in that scene went really easy on the set dressers and costumers: “Ok, it’s a street scene in 2024, but everyone is poor, and as a result they don’t have anything built after… say… 1995.”
“Ok, it’s a street scene in 2024, but everyone is poor, and as a result they don’t have anything built after… say… 1995.”
Aa someone from a country in which homelessness really isn’t a thing, where people don’t live on street, that those districts seem awfully similar to someone of the homeless encampments. Can’t find the video now but someone compared that DS9 clip to a homeless encampment with people out of their mind on fentanyl.
It’s similar, but homeless encampments are a bit different. The main difference, IMO, is that they’re much less permanent. In the DS9 clip it looked like people were not expecting to have to move any time soon.
In a real homeless encampment, the police often come by to harass people and kick them out. People need to be able to move quickly or they’ll leave stuff behind, and it will get broken, thrown away or stolen.
The other difference is that homeless people have cell phones. They’re not the latest models, they’re not in great shape. But, it’s really hard to exist in the modern world without one. In the DS9 clip they had no tech, probably because that was easier on the props department than trying to imagine tech that would be 20-years more advanced than what people had in 1995.
You didn’t see any tech there doesn’t mean they couldn’t have had any.
Phone snatchers are so common in some cities that you’d be a fool to show you have any.
It’s a permanent shantytown yes, and the US is strongly against them, I know.
But still, it’s very spot on in the general sense. Because looking 30 years into the future in terms of all around direction and political development, it’s really not that hard.
And it’d be much harder now than it was 30 years ago.
That’s so true. I’ve thought about that quite a lot watching sci-fi. I really enjoy the idea of trying to create a completely new culture or civilization without first seeing it as an inevitable evolutionary progression. I think that’s the only way to really imagine a civilization that far into the future.
I love that you thought of the three shells. It’s absolutely one of my favorite sci-fi mechanics to leave unexplained phenomena up to the viewer or reader. Most stories end up as a bland socialist paradise or a dystopian nightmare. I like the idea of something different altogether, or a blend of present-day and something else entirely. Kind of like how Taco Bell won the fast food wars. Lol
In ye olde days it couldn’t. But, what if the current database of YouTube videos survives? You’d get every non-expert trying everything in any way possible. If books and podcasts survive, you’d have every discussion on why things are done a certain way and not another way. Assuming it all survives, there’d be so much more information to future archaeologists and anthropologists than today. Right now we just dig up a shard of pottery and try to figure things out from whatever we can glean from that pottery.
It would make for a cool movie. The only problem is trying to imagine a really distant future that makes the present look barbaric.
They had fun with that in Demolition Man with the three shells. Star Trek TNG did it in The Neutral Zone where they had a bunch of people from the 20th century including a financier who couldn’t accept the lack of money in the future. But it’s really hard to make a future that’s believable and makes the present look barbaric.
This episode of Star Trek: DS9 from 1995 depicts life in 2024
The Bell Riots weren’t what they were cracked up to be. Either that, or they got the date wrong.
But, the writers in that scene went really easy on the set dressers and costumers: “Ok, it’s a street scene in 2024, but everyone is poor, and as a result they don’t have anything built after… say… 1995.”
Aa someone from a country in which homelessness really isn’t a thing, where people don’t live on street, that those districts seem awfully similar to someone of the homeless encampments. Can’t find the video now but someone compared that DS9 clip to a homeless encampment with people out of their mind on fentanyl.
Seemed pretty spot on
It’s similar, but homeless encampments are a bit different. The main difference, IMO, is that they’re much less permanent. In the DS9 clip it looked like people were not expecting to have to move any time soon.
In a real homeless encampment, the police often come by to harass people and kick them out. People need to be able to move quickly or they’ll leave stuff behind, and it will get broken, thrown away or stolen.
The other difference is that homeless people have cell phones. They’re not the latest models, they’re not in great shape. But, it’s really hard to exist in the modern world without one. In the DS9 clip they had no tech, probably because that was easier on the props department than trying to imagine tech that would be 20-years more advanced than what people had in 1995.
You didn’t see any tech there doesn’t mean they couldn’t have had any.
Phone snatchers are so common in some cities that you’d be a fool to show you have any.
It’s a permanent shantytown yes, and the US is strongly against them, I know.
But still, it’s very spot on in the general sense. Because looking 30 years into the future in terms of all around direction and political development, it’s really not that hard.
And it’d be much harder now than it was 30 years ago.
That’s so true. I’ve thought about that quite a lot watching sci-fi. I really enjoy the idea of trying to create a completely new culture or civilization without first seeing it as an inevitable evolutionary progression. I think that’s the only way to really imagine a civilization that far into the future.
I love that you thought of the three shells. It’s absolutely one of my favorite sci-fi mechanics to leave unexplained phenomena up to the viewer or reader. Most stories end up as a bland socialist paradise or a dystopian nightmare. I like the idea of something different altogether, or a blend of present-day and something else entirely. Kind of like how Taco Bell won the fast food wars. Lol