What will the 2020s be like?

[BunMVO]

4 hours ago, Ferrariman said:

I'm still waiting for those flying cars in "Blade Runner" After all, the film was set in 2019.

Aside from that, I would also like to see this thread return to more of a good natured topic.  And just for the record, the current regime is responsible for Guideline 13.   I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I do believe in the 1st amendment.   However, the rule was added simply because we've seen these discussions go south way too many times. Here's my personal amendment:

Rule 13 a    If the discussion can remain civil, it continues. Once it gets out of hand it gets locked. 

This is a very peaceful site, please let's keep it that way.

I disagree that it’s gotten out of hand. I think that some people are just uncomfortable confronting frightening realities. However, I do agree that we should continue speculating about other facets of the near future.

[IA-SteveB]

I can still remember signing my mortgage papers years ago and seeing that it will be paid for in 2031.  Back then I was like, is that even a real year?  By that time I will be looking at condos on Mars.  Even 2020 sounds weird.  It is so funny to watch movies from the 80's predicting where we should be technologically speaking by this time.

Edited July 3, 2019 by IA-SteveB

[BunMVO]

4 minutes ago, IA-SteveB said:

I can still remember signing my mortgage papers years ago and seeing that it will be paid for in 2031.  Back then I was like, is that even a real year?  By that time I will be looking at condos on Mars.  Even 2020 sounds weird.  It is so funny to watch movies from the 80's predicting where we should be technologically speaking by this time.

Yeah, those numbers sound crazy. If I live to 103, which I probably won’t because I’m reckless with with things that endanger my health, I will live to see the year 2100. That means 103 years, 11 decades, 3 centuries and 2 millennia.

[jpaul1]

i just hope my blu-rays won't be deteriorated in 2020. but with nowadays industries you never know. since i can watch MV on DVD, and live in the countryside with few chicken to give me fresh eggs, i don't care much what happens to the rest of the world

[Dadrian]

2 minutes ago, jpm1 said:

since i can watch MV on DVD, and live in the countryside with few chicken to give me fresh eggs, i don't care much what happens to the rest of the world

Well there’s the post of the week  

[James]

On 7/4/2019 at 4:07 AM, IA-SteveB said:

I can still remember signing my mortgage papers years ago and seeing that it will be paid for in 2031.  Back then I was like, is that even a real year?  By that time I will be looking at condos on Mars.  Even 2020 sounds weird.  It is so funny to watch movies from the 80's predicting where we should be technologically speaking by this time.

Even 2019 sounds weird. I remember 1999 so vividly, and the early 2000s. And I feel like the 2010s just started and it went by with a flash and here we are in 2019, going on 2020. Scary. I'm gonna blink again and have grey hair. I still call it the "new millennium" and it ain't even new anymore 

[vicegirl85]

1 hour ago, James said:

Even 2019 sounds weird. I remember 1999 so vividly, and the early 2000s. And I feel like the 2010s just started and it went by with a flash and here we are in 2019, going on 2020. Scary. I'm gonna blink again and have grey hair. I still call it the "new millennium" and it ain't even new anymore 

LOL you are so right!

And the older you get, the faster it goes!

[IA-SteveB]

You are so right about time accelerating with age. I can remember high school seeming like over a decade and now years go by like weeks.  I think we spend so much time thinking about the future and how we want to be grown up that it seems like forever.  Now I look at the past and wonder how I got here so fast.

[Jerry B.]

Worse than 2019.

[BunMVO]

4 hours ago, Jerry B. said:

Worse than 2019.

Most concise and truest reply yet

[BunMVO]

4 hours ago, IA-SteveB said:

You are so right about time accelerating with age. I can remember high school seeming like over a decade and now years go by like weeks.  I think we spend so much time thinking about the future and how we want to be grown up that it seems like forever.  Now I look at the past and wonder how I got here so fast.

I’ve only been out of high school three years and it seems like a lifetime ago.

[Dadrian]

34 minutes ago, pmconroy said:

I’ve only been out of high school three years and it seems like a lifetime ago.

I’ve been out since ‘98 and it seems like 3 years ago 

Funny, but for me, the more years passed stack up, the shorter (and more pleasant) they seem. 

[BunMVO]

9 hours ago, Dadrian said:

I’ve been out since ‘98 and it seems like 3 years ago 

Funny, but for me, the more years passed stack up, the shorter (and more pleasant) they seem. 

Wow! 21 years. Crazy to think that when you were in high school I was just being born. My post-high school life has been a mess... only one way to go!

 

[James]

15 hours ago, IA-SteveB said:

You are so right about time accelerating with age. I can remember high school seeming like over a decade and now years go by like weeks.  I think we spend so much time thinking about the future and how we want to be grown up that it seems like forever.  Now I look at the past and wonder how I got here so fast.

School seemed like an eternity, still now it feels like I spent a lifetime with my childhood friends (who I'm not in contact with anymore as we went separate schools in separate areas and just drifted apart) even though in reality it was about 6 years (primary/elementary school). 6 years ago I was 19 and it's gone by so quick that I sometimes still feel like I'm 19 and not 25. Ages 5 - 11 seemed like a long time, but 19-25 went by in a flash. 

A theory I've heard about accelerating time has to do with age and the amount of time spent on earth. School for example, you start around age 5 and it goes on until you're 17 if you don't drop out. That's 70% of your life at school, which makes it seem like forever. But as you get older that percentage drops. When you're 27, that same amount of time is only 44% of your life. Same with years, when you're 1, one year is 100% of your life, when you're 30 one year is 3% of your life which makes a whole year feel like it's quicker and quicker because it's always becoming a smaller part of your life. 

Basically - The more time you spend on Earth, the shorter the days and years feel because they're a lesser amount of time compared to your life. 

Someone else could probably explain this much better than me. 

[BunMVO]

I think you explained it well, James. It makes sense. We probably reflect back on our lives in those terms. Once you're out of school, that's like all you ever knew, so when you get farther from it it's no longer all you know anymore. I mean if someone dropped me in a high school classroom I would stick out like a sore thumb and would feel really out of place. But I could probably still pass for one just barely.

[Ferrariman]

10 hours ago, James said:

Basically - The more time you spend on Earth, the shorter the days and years feel because they're a lesser amount of time compared to your life. 

and the years just get shorter and shorter.    Just the other day I said to my wife "half of the year is gone already"  before I know it I'll be trimming that damn tree again!

I've been out of High School for (drum roll please) 46 years!  I worked for 29 years on the Fire Dept and have been retired for 9 years!   Time definitely flies!

[BunMVO]

55 minutes ago, Ferrariman said:

and the years just get shorter and shorter.    Just the other day I said to my wife "half of the year is gone already"  before I know it I'll be trimming that damn tree again!

I've been out of High School for (drum roll please) 46 years!  I worked for 29 years on the Fire Dept and have been retired for 9 years!   Time definitely flies!

Hopefully you’re enjoying your retirement!

[Ferrariman]

Thanks!  Retirement is everything you've heard it to be and more!

[BunMVO]

3 hours ago, Ferrariman said:

Thanks!  Retirement is everything you've heard it to be and more!

There is the trope that once you retire you just wait to kick the bucket. E.g. About Schmidt.

It sounds like its in how you live it. If you are staying active and enjoying spending time with kids and their kids, vacationing, and passing on your knowledge and wisdom to future generations, then you will be making the most of it. It’s hard for me to even grasp the concept of retirement at my age since I’ve barely started out in th world, but I’m sure one day I will be happy to do so.

[jpaul1]

On 7/5/2019 at 8:14 PM, Dadrian said:

Funny, but for me, the more years passed stack up, the shorter (and more pleasant) they seem. 

definitely Dadrian, definitely. i have that feeling sometimes too, of time going lightning fast. but i enjoy so much more life, than when i was younger, that i don't complain about it. when you're young you think life lasts eternally actually. and you don't realize how lucky you are of.. just being alive

Edited July 7, 2019 by jpm1

[James]

So, I was just thinking, as I do... Since in the 2010s the "retro" scene was all about the 1980s and has become pretty darn popular among the youth. Does anyone think that in the 2020's the retro scene will be all about the 1990s?

Another thing to note is that I remember in the 2000s, the 70s was popular, and in the 1990s pop culture made a lot of references to the 60s, and in the 1980s there were plenty of 50s references. It seems like every decade lately has been inspired by 30 years prior. 

[Miami.Vice.1984]

Exactly James I Feel and have seen the same phenomenon also in recent decades too

[BunMVO]

5 hours ago, James said:

So, I was just thinking, as I do... Since in the 2010s the "retro" scene was all about the 1980s and has become pretty darn popular among the youth. Does anyone think that in the 2020's the retro scene will be all about the 1990s?

Another thing to note is that I remember in the 2000s, the 70s was popular, and in the 1990s pop culture made a lot of references to the 60s, and in the 1980s there were plenty of 50s references. It seems like every decade lately has been inspired by 30 years prior. 

That's very possible. But at the same time, what about the 90s is inspiring or cool? I know we had a lot of great movies, some of the last good music, the fashion was better (the early to mid-90s, not the late 90s with frost tips and horrible baggy clothes),  but it sure seems like the 1990s were quite the dull decade once you got past 1993 or '94. Not that I'm saying the 2020s won't be a '90s-inspired decade in the retro scene but it just seems weird... does that mean the 2040s will make references to this current decade?

[jpaul1]

only thing i remember from the 90s was euro house. i don't even remember where i was at that time

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by jpm1

[pahonu]

On 7/6/2019 at 12:31 PM, jpm1 said:

definitely Dadrian, definitely. i have that feeling sometimes too, of time going lightning fast. but i enjoy so much more life, than when i was younger, that i don't complain about it. when you're young you think life lasts eternally actually. and you don't realize how lucky you are of.. just being alive

Agreed, and I graduated high school 30 years ago.  Of course, I’m pretty clued in as to what high school is like now.  I teach in one.  LOL!  I’m still surprised when people my age or even younger talk about how high school has changed so dramatically since they were in it.  I honestly don’t think it has.  

I was an 80’s high school grad and we had the same kinds of kids I see every day: the good students determined to get to college, the kids that drop out, the ones using drugs that get kicked out, the athletes, the band kids, the ASB types, the ones into this kind of music or that, and many more.  They’re  all still around.  Most kids are pretty good, but I’d be lying if I said the problems aren’t pains in the a$$es!  But that’s not many and they were around when I was in high school too even if I didn’t hang around with them. 

I’m not too pessimistic about the future.  I’ve seen almost 25 years of kids pass through and they said many of the same pessimistic things about those kids back then.  Some of my former students are in their40’s now!?!?!