Future Folklore & Mythology - Looking Back On Our Time

I've often thought, what will mythology, folklore, legends and stories look like a few thousand years or so from now? Let's say the Apocalypse we're all subconsciously counting on actually happens in some expected way be it astroid, nuclear war, disease, ect. The worlds population takes a catastrophic hit, say %95 loss. History is mostly lost along with a vast majority of our technology. People return to hunter-gatherers more or less and what's left of civilization returns to pockets of tribes and small settlements.

Stories of what used to be filter down and fade away through the generations, fragmenting and losing accuracy. Interpretations of facts are skewed, exaggerated, forgotten or embellished. These stories slowly become more and more like fantastical tall tales and begin to form new mythologies, unique to whatever separate cultures exist.

What kind of stories will be told?

Take your mind back to when you were a child and to stories of old world magic and mystery. Now imagine a tale of a land long forgotten, where man was god of the earth, if only in number. Vast cities covered the globe, all connected by rivers and streams of rock, where upon growling wagons of metal and glass people were carried. Giant iron birds carried them though the sky and unsinkable boats of steel carried them through the sea, all by the power of this moaning growl. The world was filled with magic mirrors, some as large as a the largest tree, some as small as your hand. All moments in time were shared across the world and were all reflected from one mirror to another. People organized, commanded and controlled one another through the mirrors, speaking, seeing, knowing that any thought that crossed their mind, the mirror would have the answer. And so the people stared... and stared... and stared, giving their lives more and more to the mirrors until they were living entirely within them. And then the mirrors broke and with them did man.

......

So what's your take? What would be some other interpretations you might could imagine? Because the truth is, no matter how silly this may sound, it's far more likely to be than any Jetson's family daydream.

WOW. Your vision of those legends of our long-gone society turned to dust gave me goosebumps. Very interesting metaphor with the mirrors... interesting and terrifyingly accurate.

Though I think you've done a fantastic job above, it's obviously very difficult (if not impossible) to forecast the elements of our society/technology that might survive such an apocalyptic mass extinction event. The legends of Atlantis might be the closest analogue. And though it was described as a utopian society with advancements far beyond anywhere else in the world, those accounts give us only the vaguest impressions of life at that place in that time.

Great post, very interesting!

The gods would be akin to our world leaders. With stories from America as the Greek Parthenon, Eurasians as the Norse. Ect Ect. Fun thought. I would play dick Cheney as Jupiter. Who is your Jupiter pick?

a reply to: rexsblues

I think that as science kills the fantasy and time wears on mythology will be an exclusive ideology for aboriginal peoples and other savage unsophisticated primitive peoples. In the most advanced modern societies, where the people who are on the cutting edge of invention and discovery reside, mythological beliefs have been dead since Christianity had risen to power. As close as you will ever get to new mythology are fantasy fiction books. The only difference is you won't be worshipping the author's characters or making life altering decisions based on the fictional story within.

a reply to: rexsblues

It's funny that you brought up this thread, hubby and I were just talking about this the other day.

We figure that in 1000 years from now, some archeologist is going to dig up the book "Elvis: The King Lives" and mistake it for our bible, believing that we worshipped this deity by the name of King Elvis Presley, and our religion was called Rock and Roll.

a reply to: SurfinUSA

wow, there's so much wrong with everything you just said, it's hilarious. Try not to make it a point show off how much it is you.... 'know'.

....on secound thought, go right ahead.

a reply to: rexsblues



at least this is what i will tell all my offspring when the shtf and i am surrounded by all my wives and there is no more google

a reply to: rexsblues

The Star Wars saga in a thousand years would have become a legend of civilizations beyond the stars.

a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1

haha spot on, that's exactly what went through my mind when I typed all that out.

a reply to: rexsblues

One thing is certain, they will have found the Kardashian collection and locked it up in secrecy while the 'then' government establishes how the 'idiot generation' came to destroy itself with war, drugs and money.

a reply to: rexsblues

I do not understand. What is wrong with what I posted? In fact, everything I wrote seems right, now that I re-read it.

a reply to: SurfinUSA

I know, ...i know.

I thought I was being clever by posting a star wars response but upon scrolling through the previous responses I realized someone already beat me to it. But on second thought, this only reinforces the idea that star wars will be the stuff of legend 1000 years from now.

a reply to: rexsblues

S&F! Great thread! Can't wait to read

ETA: I can't think of any key players in present time that we would likke to romanticize and make bigger than life, but if it happens soon, Putin will be remembered.