You probably didn’t know this, but Shawn was once a reserve “mathlete” as well as a benchwarmer for his school’s classical music team. (Those nutty Germans!) Christopher was good friends with the first kid on the block with an Apple II in his house. But that’s all in the past…
This week we’re talking about…THE FUTURE!!! More specifically, we’re talking about fiction’s importance on the future. From cyberpunk to warp drives (even penises drawn on the surface of Mars), we have it covered. Along the way, we discuss stories that got the future right — and those that got it very wrong (including the movie that made Shawn almost fashion a noose from Red Vines and hang himself in the theater.)
While much of this episode is about the future as it pertains to science fiction, we also talk about predictions we got right, and what we think will happen to the world in the next 10 and 20 years. (Clearly, we are seers!) Also, our hopes for the future of fiction and for the real world of tomorrow.
We’d love to hear what you think will happen in the next 20 years; feel free to tell us in the comments. (We expect CMStewart to put us to shame!)
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Whoa. That was some time warp I just looped through. Is it June 12? Er – wow – June 23. Anyway, I just got back from the future and thought I’d reveal a few hints (don’t want to reveal too much – that whole messy paradox thing may likely pop up, as it popped up for me, and I had to do some serious time fabric cut and pasting, hence the delay in commenting).
Christopher- Virtual reality companies will specialize. I suggest you accept an invitation from any future VR retro road trip startup. Hold out for the title of “Authenticity Consultant.” I also suggest you avoid prolonged interaction with androids based on the characters in your novels. (Messy psycho-legal stuff.)
Shawn- Prepare to be inundated with “tokens of appreciation” from frenzied throngs of devotees insisting that your 47 Echo series contains hidden celestial messages. (Which it does, BTW.) I’m not disclosing the exact nature of these “tokens” in the interest of your present peace of mind, and in the interest of the spacetime continuum.
20 years into the future? How about 30 years? My “Jesus Juice with a Side of Singularity” spells out my fanciful predictions for the year 2045 (my predictions are heavily borrowed from the science-based predictions of well-known futurists). 🙂 We will experience a technological Singularity in the midst of an extreme global religious cult culture (see my advice to Shawn above).
Is this the current cult, or a new one? I wouldn’t mind a new statue or two. This cult is full of nice folks, but they can’t sculpt for crap.
The cults will be on a continuum, morphing to fit the whims of the devotees (as opposed to the whims of the gurus). In the future, statutes will be SOD (sculpt on demand).