The future of mankind is going to be very, very, dystopian.

[fightforfreedom]

I will use drones as just one example. Can you imagine drone technology 100 years from now. No one will be safe. People will be able to build deadly miniature drones in their basements. Imagine a drone the size of a grasshopper that can be used to kill a person, a world leader.

Right now in Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers have Drone Units. They fly small drones at night killing Russian soldiers in their sleep. The Russian soldiers have no defense against these drones. You can't hide from them because they have thermal imaging. You can't see them coming. You can't hear them.

Enjoy the time we are living in. If you think things are crazy now, the future is going to be flat out dystopian.

[NoRethugFriends]

1. As a 72 year old, I'll be gappy to miss this future.

BTW, just my opinion, nicer to use humankind than mankind.
And for a scary drone film, try getting to see 2022 Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts.
All five of them are excellent, though fairly depressing.

[Achilleaze]

2. Oh noes

[ck4829]

3. It doesn't have to be that way

[genxlib]

4. It has always been thus

Rocks to swords to muskets to machine guns

Balloons to planes to jets to drones

Spies to planes to satellites

Dynamite to grenades to bombs to nuclear missiles.

Humankind had been exceptionally good at killing and we are constantly getting better at it.

[Irish_Dem]

33. Yes this is the sad reality.

Humans like killing each other and just get better and better at it.

[2naSalit]

5. Makes me...

Thankful that I'm old and may miss all of the worst of it.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Only if authoritarians thrive. There can be a wonderful progressive future

Work towards it.

Putin shit will be scraped off Ukrainian shoes in time.

There is so much opportunity in the future, but wealth&income disparity and authoritarians (related) need to be seriously addressed worldwide.

The way to do it is to show how democracies like USA, Canada, Scandinavia and so many others work so much more effectively and joyously than Putin's Russia. It can and will be done. But sooner is better than later.

[FSogol]

7. Bullshit. We will prevail and the authoritarians will not.

Just because the Russians are poorly prepared and poorly trained is no reason to forecast disaster.

[fightforfreedom]

19. I used drones as just one example. Out of control technology is another.

Look at the internet. It has been around for 25 years, it's still in its infancy and it has taken over the whole world. We can't defend ourselves against it. All of us have had our identities stolen. Another country could shut down our power grid today if they wanted to.

Hospitals have to pay ransom to get their computers up and running. In the future there will be no privacy. Freedom will be just a word.

In the future every move we make will be tracked. Corporations will become more and more powerful. They are taking over everything now. A country being self sufficient is a thing of the past. All of this is happening now, we are in the early stages. Imagine 100 years from now, how advanced technology will become.

100 years from now, how many people will there be in the world? 15 billion, 20 billion? How do you control that? I would like to be more positive about the future, but I see things getting really dystopian.

We just went through, are still going through the most dystopian period in the history of our country. The Trump era, the era where truth and facts became the enemy. Science became the enemy. Trump voters turned into the fucking walking dead. It's going to get worse.

[FSogol]

22. So you are a pessimist? Big whup. Despite anti-science crowds, multiple vaccines were created

using new tech quickly to respond to a pandemic. There are dozens of new energy ideas in the works. There are system working to clean the ocean, reuse materials, capture carbon, etc. I have faith in the young people today. Their desire to fix problems, repair injustice, and provide a level playing field is inspiring. I'll take that over anonymous webposter giving us daily doses of toxic FUD.

Everything you mentioned is essentially a infrastructure problem. We can fund it now of fund it when it falls about. This civilization will still be trying to move forward long after you are gone. The kids today are proof.

[fightforfreedom]

26. Call me what you want. Everything I said is the truth.

The world is going to become more and more dystopian. There have been dystopian periods in the past, like the dark ages. But, people back then did not have access to things like science, facts. In the future technology is going to completely control peoples lives. The internet has already taken over the minds of millions of people. The truth is on facebook and twitter, ask the Trump voters.

[FSogol]

31. Nothing you said is the truth. It is just a weakly supported opinion. FUD!

[GoneOffShore]

35. There's a very interesting novel by Nick Harkaway, John Le Carre's son, titled 'Gnomon',

about an advanced surveillance state.

He posits a future where we might end up.

From the Wikipedia entry:

In a near future United Kingdom, now governed by a continuous direct democracy called the System, all of Britain is under constant surveillance by the omniscient AI called "The Witness." The Witness AI is purported to be completely impartial, doing nothing "unless public safety requires it. [...] It cannot be hacked, cracked, disabled or distorted. It sees, it understands, and very occasionally it acts, but otherwise it is resolutely invisible." Mielikki Neith is an Inspector of the Witness Programme—the "prosecutorial ombudsmen to the surveillance state, reviewing and considering any case that passes a given threshold of intervention."

[FSogol]

36. Thanks, I'm not saying there will be no difficulties, crisis, and disasters. We tend to

ignore problems (like the climate or infrastructure) too long. I'll just saying that dystopia isn't our future. Humans are to clever and resourceful to just give up like the FUD sellers want.

The point of getting people to give up and accept the what they call inevitable is to get them to not trust systems, drop out of the process, and to not vote. That's the message that Putin is pushing. That's the message the GOP is pushing. It is sad it is pushed here too.

The future possibilities of the world and our country are boundless. It is up to us and our children to make it happen.

[GoneOffShore]

37. I probably read too much dystopian fiction.

Harkaway's book does offer some hope though.

[FSogol]

38. I love it as fiction, we can do better IRL n/t

[GoneOffShore]

39. We do seem to be sliding into a dystopian scenario.

William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Nick Harkaway, China Mieville, and others seem to have done a pretty good job in describing what we're dealing with right now.

I'm also losing my sense of optimism, having watched Zenmour dodging and weaving on M6 tonight. And listening to Boris Johnson waffle and lie.

[MLAA]

8. On a positive note, I think we will have destroyed our planet before we reach that point.

I truly don’t believe we have 100 years left and have passed the point of being able to address climate change even if we could get the repugs to acknowledge it as the most serious threat to our existence.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I am beginning to think that I got the best of the 20th century and the least worst of

the 21st century in my lifetime. I could possibly have 30 years left or more given the longevity of my family, but I am honestly not sure I want to survive that long.

I wish I could have a more positive outlook, but I don't see the next decade or two being anything but dystopian and therefore I am not terribly sad to leave this world.

[MLAA]

15. I likely have about the same time horizon.

My reaction to what is likely ahead is to hoard books and DVDs. My husband asked what I’m going to do with all the unread books and DVDs, I said I was going to enjoy them when I’m a little old lady. He suggested, with a smile, I better get started!

[smirkymonkey]

27. We should enjoy each day as it comes.

Who knows what life will look like even a year from now?

Ever since Sept 11th (I was living and working in Manhattan) I have always felt like I had lost my innocence and naivete about a better future. It made me realize that even the most unimaginable things can happen and you have no control over it. Things that you could not possibly have imagined prior to them happening.

It was traumatizing at that time and we have barely had a break. Then came the Trump presidency, the pandemic and now the potential for world war because of the ego of one madman. Sometimes, i wonder how much more we can all take - the Ukrainians especially, but the world in general. There is just too much stress and uncertainty that has been going on for too long.

Reading books and watching DVD's (well, streaming them) is my go-to esccape these days. Music sometimes as well.

[MLAA]

28. Can't imagine being a Manhattanite during 9/11. Life changing.

I also added a few jigsaw puzzles to my items of escape.

[smirkymonkey]

32. It was a bizarre thing. A day I will never forget.

I was working in the West Village when it went down (near St. Vincent's hospital) and they were waiting for survivors, but hardly any came, because either people perished or they escaped. Not many injured and needing medical attention. It was surreal.

We all walked the march uptown or to wherever we lived or where people thought they could commute out of. Everyone had this look of shock on their face and most of the far DT people were covered in ash. There was total silence.

It was the strangest day of my life. Just a bunch of zombies marching up the street with no clue as to what to do next. Just keep marching away from the wreckage and there was no thought beyond that. i was just blank, and i suspect many others felt the same way. There were no thoughts in my head, i was just numb.

Just go home, I thought. I looked into the eyes of others and we empathized without words. I guess it is the closest this country has come to war, so i cannot even imagine the pain and agony of those in the Ukraine and feel guilty for being comfortable while they suffer. I only wish there was something that we, the people, could do for them.

[Hortensis]

9. The past was extremely dystopian. We've never had it so good.

(That's probably the understatement of the millenium, btw.)

We've made huge strides forward in planetary wellbeing in this century alone, with many more already happening.

And those drones now find lost children. In the dark. Before they freeze to death.

Sometimes those 2 steps forward for 1 back are actually 11 back for 3 forward. At the same time. Hard to figure when it's happening.

[betsuni]

41. +1

[Johonny]

11. The present of mankind is very, very, dystopian.

There, fixed it for you.

[Ron Green]

12. It would be nice to have the "Great Turning" from Empire to Earth Community.

More people need to go beyond eat, work, play in their lives.

[Martin Eden]

13. Climate change and ecological destruction are the greatest threats. Also nuclear holocaust.

Political systems come and go, but we don't have a viable backup to planet Earth for sustaining life itself.

[Elessar Zappa]

14. Past, present and future are all dystopian to an extent.

The future will be full of good things and bad things.

[LiberatedUSA]

16. The Dark Ages were pretty damn dystopian.

From prisoners being forced to grab a pebble from the bottom of a caldron filled with boiling water (if your hand looked bad a few days later you were guilty) to being alive while the bloody eagle is performed on you to large groups of people (the flagallents) going from village to village whipping themselves and screaming because they thought that would help appease god and stop the plague.

And no toilet paper.

[wiggs]

17. William Gibson books or Black Mirror episodes give a sneak peak. nt

[GoneOffShore]

40. Too right.

[lagomorph777]

18. I am happy that Russian soldier/looter/murders are facing a dystopian present.

Not too thrilled about the long term prospects, but maybe such things will be democratizing - force leaders not to make enemies, but make peace instead.

[Raine]

20. I'm not so sure there will be any earth left in a hundred years

at the way things are going now.

[SoonerPride]

25. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

The planet seen worse than us and done just fine.

We most likely will be extinct in the next 1000 years.

But the planet will be fine.

[Caliman73]

34. The earth will likely be around another 5 billion years or so.

It has been a ball of molten rock and buried beneath 2 miles of ice, covered in poisonous methane gas, and under water for most of its existence.

The only real threats to the earth are if it gets hit by an object of similar mass or when the sun becomes a Red Giant and incinerates it or pushes it out of orbit setting up possible collisions with other objects in space.

What we have to fear is making the planet uninhabitable to us and other living creatures.

[tavernier]

21. So the poor Russian soldiers who bomb hospitals

and schools and churches and maternity wards in full daylight have no safe place to sleep after dark because Ukrainians are fighting back?

Boo hoo.

[FSogol]

23. Won't anyone think of the aggressors?

[SoonerPride]

24. The real dystopia is climate change.

And is not just a maybe.

[Donkees]

29. Shadow Puppets

Nov 9, 2007

Hope and joy are critical to our existence. We must all strive to see the silver-lining... and then reach out and touch it! I am so proud to have had this featured at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival years ago! Thank you all so much for the kind words!

[marie999]

30. I think what the worse will be AI.

Eventually, it will think of humans as just another pest as we think of flies. Maybe it will think of us as pets or slaves.

[taxi]

42. These new and improved pens that we use to post here

sure seem to be mightier than the modern swords. This isn't the end.

[kentuck]

43. I could imagine a small drone landing on the side of your house and sticking like a magnet...

...and drilling a hole, like the Rover on Mars, and planting a small microphone and camera, and then flying away. Big Brother would be everywhere.

[taxi]

44. Would be? They clamp on the screens too.

When it's just a quick check they'll send a fly, get the info, and leave. For longer term use they send a larger platform in, like a beetle. It will be when you aren't home - the winged scarab arrives, crimps the device onto the screen, and flies away. It's nothing to worry about though, they've been doing it for years. Not too many people are up on the eavesdropping and surveillance techniques now in use, and if my suspicions are correct and if the cost of the fly is low enough they wouldn't even bother with the large ones anymore, unless as you said, there isn't a screen and they have to drill.