Gloom But No Doom

My Predictions

And no, sorry, I don't have spell-check.

These predictions will only be accurate if the current timeline remains as it is today, May 2008. This was written in 1995 and still holds today. Extraordinary catastrophies will change the timeline, and hence, the predictions. By extraordinary, I mean things such as losing an entire civilized continent. Further, these predictions will not all come about at once. They will start in parts and those parts will be built upon and so on until the final picture is reached. The city domes and rooftop conveyances will be last. The date of this final picture is unknown to me; but, I guesstimate it will be complete on or before 2495. It could be completed by 2095, I really have no idea. Some of this material will be seen by the children of today.

Society

Is thoroughly class-based.

Most people live in tall, multi-family buildings. Only a handful of the highest-ranking city officials will have separate dwellings.

Cities are domed with some sort of plasma cap. The caps will moderate the climate and other conditions (temperature, CO2 and Oxygen, electromagnetism, light spectrum, air quality, radiation shielding, ultraviolet rays etc.) of the domes, as well as having detection devices to monitor these factors. There will be NO 'natural' weather inside these domes.

There are alley ways between buildings which are not patrolled by police, nor even by garbage collection. The alley-ways are cesspits of renegade urban dwellers, hoodlums, dirty politicians helping people commit suicide against their will, and so on. These ugly, disease-ridden areas are hidden under the thick canopies of trees, so the eyesore is not evident to riders of the rooftop conveyances. Further, the alleys are completely blocked from the contrasting GreenWays and Parks that also lie between buildings.

Rural people will not live in the domes and will be considered rogues, radicals, misfits and non-conformists. There will be access to the domed cities for these rural people and fishermen, farmers, miners, lumberjacks, quarrymen etc. to bring their goods into the cities and to purchase goods. These second-class citizens rights will be curtailed severely. They will not have access to the prestigious venues, service industries, city services, and markets. Further, they will be thoroughly screened in every humiliating manner conceivable before being 'physically marked' with a permit to enter the city. Subsequent visits will merely scan the permit marks. Permit marks will be updated over-time ... the update requirements vary by city and time period. Overall, the happiest people will be the rural people.

City criminals will be 'expelled' to the rural countryside. Criminal behavior includes most current crime types, plus, daring to challenge one's place in society. Individual thinking is not acceptable, all non-conformists are automatically criminals. So, the rural areas are populated with murderers, rapists, petty thieves, grand larcenists and even free-thinkers who dare to spread a message of love, hope, peace, justice, equality or other virtue.

A few domed and semi-domed resort areas will be available ONLY to the highest-ranking people. Most people will never wiggle their toes into the soft sand as the beach water recedes. Most people will never feel a gentle Spring breeze upon their cheeks. Most people will never get sunburned, nor know the REAL feeling of the sunshine upon their skin.

Transportation

Regular pedestrian transportation is by walking through underground tunnels. People carry a small handheld, rectangular plate with a screen that shows their precise location underground and the buildings above. Escalators deposit the tunnel walkers on the lowest building floor. From there, elevators take them to upper floors of the building. The underground tunnels have many large convenience areas with restroom facilities and small vendors. The underground is well lit, though, not bright. Many of the common people congregate here to socialize and meet other people.

Mass terrestrial transportation is accessed both underground and on rooftops. Anti-gravity elevators carry passengers directly from one station level to another. The mass terrestrial transportation uses an invisible rail, powered by some sort of electromagnetic technique we do not possess today (as far as I know.) These rooftop conveyances are quite extraordinary to look at, clean, safe and efficient.

In-City aerial individual transportation will vary. Some units can carry only one person, while others accomodate a family and even a large group of forty. This type of transportation is only for the priveledged class. No fossil fuels will be used for these units.

Inter-city transportation is aerial and special permission from both cities is required to travel from one city to another.

Mass aerial transportation units transport large groups from one city-hub to another, much like our airlines today. The aerial units look bizarre though, they don't look like our airplanes. In fact, there's a large variety of units and the shapes of the units are all variations of geometrical shapes. These largest of airports (so to speak) have more military than civilian vehicles, and, the whole atmosphere is dark and gloomy.

Marine transport? Unknown.

Reproduction and Life Span

Again, only certain classes of people will be allowed to reproduce and their lifespans will exceed 800 years. The lifespan for the majority of people is set at 50; though, this changes according to each different city's laws and by time period as well. Cremation is mandatory. Lifespan age is highly controllable. Reproduction is severely controlled and most people are sterilized before reaching pubescence. The highest-classes are the most corrupt, inbred, psychotic sociopaths. The common class is bred to be submissive, obedient and generally dull in personality. Creative-thinkers were erroneously bred-out, and the few that remain are certainly rural dwellers.

Medicine

There's no smoking, alcohol, drugs, carbonated drinks, coffee, tea or other caffeines, sugars or sweets of any kind legally allowed in the city. So, if a person's illness is caused by any of these consumables, they are not medically treated as they are 'criminals' to be unceremoniously dumped outside the city with other criminals. (Politicians and the highest-ranking citizens not included of course.) The same goes for sexually transmitted diseases which are most common in politicians and the 'upper-crust'.

There's little need of medicine in this bio-genetically engineered society. Mass innoculations don't even require a doctor's office visit. Instead, self-replicating nanobots surreptiously deliver all behavior and gene-modification, innoculations and other mind and body-warping changes desired by the ruling class.

Religion

Religion is illegal. This includes the new-age religion whereby God, angels, devils and demons are replaced with hypothetical aliens to replace them. Religion is a High-Crime and any criminals who indulge in religion are sent to a very special place where it is impossible to survive.

Communication

Every city person has their own portable Communication Center. This screen-like device delivers everything from entertainment to the children's homework by voice activation. There's no Free-Roaming Internet or Worldwide Web anymore. Information is strictly controlled. Computers are no longer binary and the entire computing language was rebuilt from the ground up.

Food

Generally tasteless and barely nutritious. They did finally figure out that the mid 1980's law that stripped the fat from meats is what caused the weight gain explosion that started right afterward ... but, they never changed that in the future. In fact, meat is grown in a lab, not on the hoof in the future.

[edit on 5-5-2008 by Trexter Ziam]

where did you ever find such a prediction?

Quite interesting, Trexter.

I basically need to hope for the exact opposite of every single thing you've said here (with very few exceptions) in order to get up tomorrow morning. Otherwise, I might just stay permanently in bed.

Edit: Okay -- rooftop conveyances are quite extraordinary to look at, clean, safe and efficient -- that sounds pretty good. That gives me some small hope.

Nicely written.

[edit on 30-6-2008 by Buck Division]