Speculative Future Timeline

I ran across a website that offered an extremely speculative, but kind of realistic, prediction of the future of humanity and space exploration. It starts out with the progression of humanity on earth, to technological breakthroughs, to advances in space exploration. It concludes with the eventual universe is nothing but a black expanse where all energy has been expended.

It goes from the 21st Century to well beyond 1,000,000,000 AD.


I'm assuming that some parts are realistic, while others might not be. But regardless, I've found it fascinating and am still reading through it all.

Speculative Future Timeline


Hopefully someone here will have found this as interesting as I have.

a reply to: EternalSolace
A couple of illustrations per page would spice it up a little.

Here are some from the 2060s:

2061 —
Halley's Comet returns

That seems predictable and not too speculative.
...

2065 —
Archival Discs are becoming unreadable

I always check my archival disks as soon as I burn them. I've had some that verified perfectly right after burning, then as little as a year later started to become unreadable, where maybe only 95% of the information was accessible. The life of archival disks varies based on many factors but it seems that stone carvings inside the pyramids will outlast our current data storage methods. Maybe we should put some really important stuff that we want future historians to know about on stone carvings?

I could write a whole range of possible futures which vary depending on certain factors not easy to predict. For example, will we develop cheap fusion power before a fossil fuel crisis occurs, or will there be a fossil fuel crisis due to lack of economical alternatives? Possible futures will branch apart depending on how factors like that play out.

originally posted by: EternalSolace
I ran across a website that offered an extremely speculative, but kind of realistic, prediction of the future of humanity and space exploration. It starts out with the progression of humanity on earth, to technological breakthroughs, to advances in space exploration. It concludes with the eventual universe is nothing but a black expanse where all energy has been expended.

It goes from the 21st Century to well beyond 1,000,000,000 AD.


I'm assuming that some parts are realistic, while others might not be. But regardless, I've found it fascinating and am still reading through it all.

Speculative Future Timeline


Hopefully someone here will have found this as interesting as I have.

The predicted approximated life span of a proton prior to degradation is 3,170,979,198,376,460,000,000,000,000,000 years (10^37 seconds), so subtract about 14,000,000,000 years (present approximate age of the universe) and that's about how much longer the universe should last. Just to give you an idea of time frames ;-)

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Arbitrageur

I should have explained the site a bit more. If you click on subject, for instance "Halley's Comet Returns", it goes scrolls down the part of the page with illustrations and an explanation on why it's predicted.

2061

Halley's Comet returns

The most famous of the periodic comets, Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner solar system in 1986. Like most comets, it has a highly elliptical orbit – taking it close to the Sun for only a short time. Several unmanned probes are sent to explore it during this year, including the first robotic lander.

When clicking about the Archival Disk:

Archival Discs are becoming unreadable

Archival Disc was a successor to the Blu-ray format, commercially introduced in 2015. In addition to a much larger storage capacity (initially 300 GB, later expanded to 1 TB), it also featured a longer lifespan. Various factors were known to affect the read/write quality of magnetic media – such as temperature, humidity, dust and other conditions, frequency of use and compatibility between disc and device. Archival Disc was designed to maintain readability for at least 50 years. By 2065, the first generation of these Archival Discs are becoming degraded. Any data on this storage medium that has not been backed up or transferred to an alternative format will now be lost.*

Those comes up after clicking the the subject title. It's a little clunky, but it goes a bit more in depth.

a reply to: EternalSolace

I just started reading. This is going to be fun!

The first advert on the Moon In 2015, a Japanese beverage maker becomes the first company to do commercial advertising on the lunar surface. In a major publicity stunt, Otsuka Pharmaceutical delivers a can of its popular soft drink – "Pocari Sweat" – on a 236,000 mile trip.* This is conducted through a partnership with Astrobotic Technology, a private space company, using a Falcon 9 rocket supplied by another firm, SpaceX. It is no ordinary can, but a specially designed capsule made from titanium, able to withstand shifts in temperature from minus 170°C at night to 110°C during the day. The drink is in powdered form, intended to be diluted at some future date by water obtained from the Moon itself. In addition, the capsule contains disks etched by laser with messages from children all over Asia.*

One year later, the Moon starts putting on weight and it's orbit slows. Not to be outdone, Budweiser sends a six-pack to the Moon. Then the Earth starts looking real good from the Moon's perspective.

Texting by thinking In addition to 5G, phones are now available with the option of texting by thought power alone.* This is achieved by a combination of eye-tracking technology and a sensor-mounted headset worn by the user. The headset contains a brain-machine interface which detects electrical brain waves and converts them into digital signals, then displays the resulting letters on-screen.*

In 2022, an inadvertent drunk text sent by a low level Paraguan diplomat to the wrong number in Thailand results in an international incident. Since neither county's military has the means to attack the other country, the result is Twitter War I. The incident is finally resolved when it is determined that auto-correct was at fault.

Brain implants to restore lost memories By now, it's becoming possible to replicate small areas of the brain with "neural prostheses" in order to repair damage from Alzheimer's, stroke or injury. This includes the restoration of lost memories. These devices can mimic the electrochemical signals from regions like the hippocampus (involved in consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory, as well as spatial navigation).

Simultaneously, a huge black market develops for implants to help people forget things. Frequently targeted memories include: everything I did after that last shot of whiskey, what I promised to do once elected, where I was on the night in question, things I did to make money when I was broke, and marriage vows.

a reply to: EternalSolace

If Humanity is still around in what ever form we care to become by the year 1,000,000,000 AD i expect we shall be a Type 3 civilization.

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: andy06shake

It's predicting that humanity will be entering the type 2 civilization by 3100 AD.


Humanity is becoming a Type 2


I've always wondered if humanity will ever be able to attain the energy levels required of a type 3. Kind of hard to fathom how it will be possible.

Humans will remain a type 0 civilization because of periodic cataclysms that reduce the population to a few hundred thousand.

God I wish I was born 100 years later!

The source was a good read but a bit depressing when you realise what is still possible and we'll all probably miss the good stuff

a reply to: flammadraco

The development of an anti-matter engine is what I hope to see before I depart earth.

But you're right. No one in our lifetime will be around to see humanity leave the solar system.

a reply to: eManym

I would like to think that eventually humanity will advance enough to significantly reduce the threat of cataclysmic events. Granted, no time soon. But eventually.

a reply to: EternalSolace

"Kind of hard to fathom how it will be possible."

Kind of like asking our caveman ancestors to understand quantum mechanics. Time and patience, possibly even luck are how we will get there, if we dont destroy our-selfs in the process.

Be nice to be able to build pocket universes all the same, how very god like. LoL

a reply to: EternalSolace

There's hope!

2160 — The world's first bicentenarians

If I'm not mistaken that would mean anyone born after 1960!

Yay!!!

Must live to 23rd century........

Well if we can get life expectancy up to 200 years it may be possible haha

originally posted by: flammadraco
If I'm not mistaken that would mean anyone born after 1960!
Yay!!!

Start saving for your 140 year retirement! Oh, wait. If you live 200 years, that means you'll probably have to keep working for 150 years or more. Flipping burgers at 115 years old might be pretty tiresome.

Awesome post Thankyou

I will enjoy looking at the link

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: flammadraco
If I'm not mistaken that would mean anyone born after 1960!
Yay!!!

Start saving for your 140 year retirement! Oh, wait. If you live 200 years, that means you'll probably have to keep working for 150 years or more. Flipping burgers at 115 years old might be pretty tiresome.

Somewhere in there, I read that it predicts a 20 hour max work week. I think automation and AI would play such a huge part in everything from manufacturing to agriculture, that there wouldn't be anything to do but maintain the systems.

I'd like to think that would also bring about the end of currency and the only pursuit would be that of knowledge.

a reply to: eManym

Unless of course we devise a means of riding out the epochs that present mini ice ages and other non viable climate scenarios our earth experiences via the construction of self sustaining low earth orbit facility, then eventual colonization of the Moon and Mars. Who knows after that it could be of to another star which would indeed hedge our bets regarding having all our proverbial apples in one barrel or star system as the case may be. Need to change the basic Human paradigm first i imagine.

a reply to: EternalSolace

We better do something to show we have advanced as a civilization. Let us make an enormous stone carving of naked anime characters for future generations. So thousands of years in the future, people can look up on it and collectively face-palm.

Wow... I now have a TON of reading to do... I want to look more into this... I mean the work that went into putting up links alone is a monumental task... and then there's tons of reading on each little link unbelievable... links to actual programs... how could someone or even a group of people do all of this research... I want to find out more about it's creation... It boggles the Mind, almost like an AI would have to be involved

Thanks! s&f!