My Prediction? In The Future, People Will Still Suck

This morning when I was out shopping there was a woman pushing around one of those SUV style shopping carts that led you haul around multiple kids.
The woman pushing the cart looked a little more ethnic than the kids in her charge, so I’m guessing she was the hired help, but in any case there were three little girls in the cart happily – and loudly – singing “The Name Game.”
I didn’t really mind all that much, because despite what people think, I am human and they were very cute, and beyond that, it was better than the Michael Bolton song playing over the PA.
Despite the cuteness of it all, though, as they were brainstorming for new names to sing about, I had a very difficult time keeping myself from suggesting that they do “Chuck.”
Fortunately the better angel of my nature won out and I kept my mouth shut.
Besides, it’s a pretty hacky old joke anyway.
The thought did make me laugh, though.
Last night The Discovery Channel did this special called 2057, which was a look at what the world might be like 50 years from now (barring the advent of The Rapture, at any rate).
I watched it even though it had some really cheesy elements such as the little future storylines that were acted out in order to demonstrate some of the speculative features of life in the world a half-century from now.
I’ve mentioned before that attempting to make predictions about the future is largely pointless, as the really significant changes tend to be the ones that come completely out of left field and therefore can’t be predicted.
Beyond that, the other problem I have is that the predictions made by most futurists have a utopian flavor and are dependent on fundamental changes to human nature that there is no basis to expect. People aren’t going to miraculously stop being greedy and self-absorbed and stupid just because there are all of these new technologies available. I think the problem is that too few futurists bother looking back before attempting to look forward.
2057 didn’t really suffer from that problem, at least, recognizing that there would still be plenty of problems, and, while not really exploring it much, did at least implicitly recognize that advances in technology will make life better only for a select few.
For the people who can afford it, life will be great. However, rather than making it smaller, the advancing state of technology will actually increase the divide between the haves and the have nots.
In a world where cybernetic implants can cure paralysis and new organs can be printed, the very poor will still be denied even the most basic level of health care, and while wealthy children will have holographic companions who can monitor them and keep them out of trouble, plenty of other children will still go to bed hungry each night.
So overall, from the perspective that it didn’t sugar coat the future too much, it was one of the better pieces of speculative filmmaking I’ve seen in a while, and I did like the approach they took in examining the real-world contemporary efforts that serve as the basis for the speculation.
Anyway, if you get a chance to catch a rebroadcast, check it out.
Not too much new or interesting going on here in 2007. As mentioned, I went grocery shopping. I’ve put (more than) the requisite number of miles on my car to get my inspection done, but have been too lazy to make an appointment, though I suppose that I should.