The future is alive and well

Woebot

Well-known member
saw something recently about how the future has been cancelled. it was especially in reference to music where, yes, i reckon you could make a reasonably good case for that. IMHO in music it's all about there no longer being any money in it.

however despite the stranglehold of hipsteRetro culture the future is alive in other areas of culture/life. here's what i believe to be some good examples:

1- sunset overdrive


this self-reflexive game is great, completely original and masses of fun. there's no way something like this could have been made 10 years ago.

2. Dawn of the Planet of The Apes

woah! yes - hang on it - it might be a reboot of an old franchise - but apart from that there is precisely nothing retro about this movie. also the animation of the apes is frankly startling. again, there's no way something like this could have been made 10 years ago.

 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
i like that planet of the apes movie a lot and agree that you couldnt have done that in the 90s. but arent these two things more to do with technological progress and development rather than what i presume most people who lament the lack of 'future' are talking about, that our notion or imaginary idea of the future isnt what it was? i doubt anyone would argue that in terms of technology, we arent hurtling into the futuIre. so actually, i think there is an optimism for a/the future, its just not one anyone cares to really see in the films, or music of now (the most interesting/memorable films about the Future that have come out most recently have been not about a scary dystopia, but about very near futures, which we are almost already in, like spike jonze's her). all that drive and motivation has just gone elsewhere.
 

luka

Well-known member
I feel like I'm living in the future. Smart phones with Internet and gps drone warfare Tupac hologram rapping on Stage
 
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luka

Well-known member
they are spying on you bruv cos they have hacked your webcam to get footage of your 'wank face'
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
The future's happening and its great/terrible but nerds need to stop pretending it's going to look like some awful anime from 1987.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
i like that planet of the apes movie a lot and agree that you couldnt have done that in the 90s. but arent these two things more to do with technological progress and development rather than what i presume most people who lament the lack of 'future' are talking about

well the litmus test i've heard those lamenting the end of the future has been: "can you imagine this seeming new ten years ago?"

with music this works - anything from 2014* would seem completely familiar. but, for instance, play 1994-era jungle to someone in 1984 and they wouldn't begin to comprehend it.

however, to my mind it only applies to music. and to make an argument based on the end of the future based on that is fatuous.

with regards to technological invention - certainly there's something with this - but if you're feeling harsh some of the progress actually seems predictable (the future of WIRED magazine?) - though HMGovt gives some really good examples of things that have that disorientating quality to them.

*only a day or two in 2015 thus far - tee hee
 

droid

Well-known member
Having just bought into gaming again with a PS4 for the kids, one thing I will say is that its more reminiscent of 1985 rather than a decade ago. Whose idea was it to make online updates and connectivity a crucial part of video games? My Atari 800 was faster at loading plus it didnt get bricked for days due to server ddos attacks, and that came out in 1979.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
id say all the old mediums (film, music, etc) are generally not the places to look for the future anymore... but ive always wondered what sci fi people think of modern sci fi compared with old sci fi? sometimes i flick through wired or look at modern gadgets and think that a lot of gadgets are obv inspireed by old sci fi, so am wondering if modern sci fi's vision of the future is more rich and imaginative and improbable than it was in the past or if the real world has caught up with old sci fi.
 

bruno

est malade
i'm not sure why, but i find it hard to be enthused about the future and find solace in the past future (even ancient past future, such as the utopias) instead. why is it that the immediate future of widespread surveillance, drone war, reality manipulation via persona management software, etc. eclipses to the point where a probe landing on a moving comet near saturn, which should be thrilling and a source of wonder, instead feels oddly anachronistic, as if for a different audience? that little probe is lonelier than the voyager probes which carry discs of music and images of us and are hurtling away forever. sometimes i feel we are in a twilight future of technology beneath our potential (iphones, etc.) and things out of reach such as private space exploration and a surveillance matrix that are simply too cold and depressing to think about. we are too near the future and i'm not sure i like it.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The only thing we, as a species, should be doing is working out how to get off this planet and out of our solar system, because the sun is going to die one day. Our time is limited.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
The only thing we, as a species, should be doing is working out how to get off this planet and out of our solar system, because the sun is going to die one day. Our time is limited.

Haha, yep, that's definitely the most pressing thing to worry about right now - the sun.

I appreciate that you're probably joking, but anyway...
 

craner

Beast of Burden
We've only got about 5 billion years to sort this out. And that's if we manage to avoid being hit by a massive asteroid in the meantime.
 
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