Speculation
September 13, 2006
First, in my now mandatory at least weekly post, a geeky thing. Joss Whedon is taking over as writer for my current (for the past two years or so) favourite ongoing comic book, Runaways. I was disappointed to hear that the creators of the book were leaving (and still am) but the guy who created Buffy is a good follow up and I hope that he does not get caught up in making movies that the book loses steam and starts to come out irregularly.
For those who do not know, Runaways is a book about a bunch of kids on the run and who find out their parents are super villains. To say any more is to spoil the fun.
So it is now a couple of days after the fifth anniversary of 911 and hopefully we can now escape all the retrospectives, memorials and what not. Not that we should forget that such an event happened, it is just that the media can just drown you with the entire same thing that everyone is already saying. Which is life has changed for all of us to varying degrees because of this single event.
So now the important questions that I know all of you are asking. Where was I when I found out? I was at Target looking for the new Princess Bride DVD for Holly. That weekend I went to Santa Barbara. At work I watched the wave of apathy across the majority of the kids I was working with at the time. And it saw my Dad embarrass himself in front of my relatives.
And now a word from one of the smartest men in the world Fareed Zakaria:
“In Perspective: Summer Labor
We are in the dog days of [summer]--time for the beach, mountains, or just a little time off; but chances are you’re still working. Meanwhile in Europe everybody is on vacation. In fact, Europeans get about three times as much paid vacations as Americans, but our hard work pays off with a more productive economy--right? Not quite; in fact the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark all matched or exceeded our economic growth rate in the 1990s despite having lavish worker benefits including generous time off.
The full explanation for high productivity is complex, but there seems to be one common factor recently--sectors that adopted new information technology have the fastest growth. One thing that doesn’t seem to play a role is a crazy work ethic. In fact, some experts believe extra hours worked might actually depress productivity beyond a point. Are you as productive at six at night as at nine in the morning? Probably not; so do your part for the American economy, take a vacation.”
Sometimes, it feels like Western Europe of going the right way into the future while the rest of the World just ambles after. Not just that they get more vacation time (and that they have better music), but they seem to embrace new ideas more readily than the rest of us. Of course, they have pockets that want to impede that progress but for the most part I believe they are leading the way.
So what is the future going to look like anyway? Let us take a look:
September 13, 2106
Western Europe has perfected the four day work week. The European Union has been around for so long that what was once known as individual countries is now the rough equivalent of self governing provinces or states. There is free passage between them and their shared currency is stronger than ever. But not all is perfect. Certain religious groups still feel the pain for being blamed for crimes of the past. They segregate themselves to ghettos, a small number being fully withdrawing into themselves and even a smaller number growing ever so angry towards those not like themselves. A small relief comes from a movement towards returning to the lands of their ancestors which are finally recovering from years of conflict and with the losing interest in what is left of their oil have embraced the global culture and become more tolerant after decades of xenophobia.
Tiny cells of hate still exist, they always will and not just here and not just with the Muslims. The cycle will inevitably continue. But the bigger picture is that the Arabian Union is for now, an example of stability. They hope that the recent acceptance of Israel as well as Palestine into the union will serve as an example to many and a sign of things to come.
The United States is still fifty states strong and is still the military powerhouse. They no longer have the same regard they had in the past, but they still make decent movies every now and then. The coasts have become overpopulated and over grown, with the East Coast finding more room by building upwards (and recently finished completion of the first two thousand story building) and the West Coast reclaiming more and more land from the sea (much to the chagrin of environmental activists). The gulf coast has been mostly depopulated due to constant barrages from hurricanes and Florida is now half underwater from rising sea levels.
The United States is one of the remaining countries and the last superpower to still depend on fossil fuels although they are catching up with the rest of the world in using more environmental friendly resources. A small isolationist movement exists, mostly in the southern states and religion has become a bigger influence on the whole as thirty four states are no longer teaching evolution in their public schools. Many believe this the reason that Canada has left the American Union making history by applying to the European Union.
Mexico is still a popular spring break destination. The rain forests are still there and are still in danger.
The sex ban that began a hundred years ago today in Columbia has been officially lifted. The gang wars that initiated the ban ended years ago but the ban remained in place although not enforced. Many believe this to be the beginning point that led Columbia to be the first homosexual majority place on Earth (see how it all began at the historical archives at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5341574.stm)
The nations of Africa have put in a consideration to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva to form a Union as well. Many believe that their proposed union will help cease the various border wars as well as maybe get their current environmental crisis back under control. In 2066, the hole in the ozone layer expanded to cover a third of the southern portion of the continent. Populations moved north which led to the aforementioned border wars. There is fear that the wars could spread to the Arabian Union, but experts believe that fear to have no ground. The United Nation believes a decision to the unionization of the African nations will come no sooner than 2015.
Meanwhile, the new Asian Union is still trying to find itself. Experts believe that the Union is too big at the moment, that Australia should not have been accepted and the vast economic differences amongst it members would make a shared currency next to impossible for the near future. The Asian Union headquarters is in Manila.
The Japanese are still the forerunners of new technology and recently presented to the world the first genuine artificial intelligence. It currently takes up two buildings worth of processors and reads at a fourth grade level. The team responsible for Pikachu, as they lovingly call it, claim that after twenty years of refining, they can get it down to just one building worth of processors and maybe have the reading ability on par with those who have studied in the school systems that do not believe in evolution.
Richard Branson is continuing working with his team in Japan at cybertronic implantations in replacing body parts. At 156 years, having conquered the entertainment and travel industries, he now considers living to be 250 years old to be his final frontier. His space tourism company just flew up its first batch of middle class passengers (mostly Chinese and a few Americans). His company has just broke ground on a facility that will begin lunar tourism boosted by the recent first manned expedition to Mars (touchdown is expected early next year).
China recently hosted its first real democratic election. And newly independent Hong Kong still makes the best action movies in the world (and Malaysia, the best comedies). America still outsources jobs to India.
Tibet is finally free.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/
First, in my now mandatory at least weekly post, a geeky thing. Joss Whedon is taking over as writer for my current (for the past two years or so) favourite ongoing comic book, Runaways. I was disappointed to hear that the creators of the book were leaving (and still am) but the guy who created Buffy is a good follow up and I hope that he does not get caught up in making movies that the book loses steam and starts to come out irregularly.
For those who do not know, Runaways is a book about a bunch of kids on the run and who find out their parents are super villains. To say any more is to spoil the fun.
So it is now a couple of days after the fifth anniversary of 911 and hopefully we can now escape all the retrospectives, memorials and what not. Not that we should forget that such an event happened, it is just that the media can just drown you with the entire same thing that everyone is already saying. Which is life has changed for all of us to varying degrees because of this single event.
So now the important questions that I know all of you are asking. Where was I when I found out? I was at Target looking for the new Princess Bride DVD for Holly. That weekend I went to Santa Barbara. At work I watched the wave of apathy across the majority of the kids I was working with at the time. And it saw my Dad embarrass himself in front of my relatives.
And now a word from one of the smartest men in the world Fareed Zakaria:
“In Perspective: Summer Labor
We are in the dog days of [summer]--time for the beach, mountains, or just a little time off; but chances are you’re still working. Meanwhile in Europe everybody is on vacation. In fact, Europeans get about three times as much paid vacations as Americans, but our hard work pays off with a more productive economy--right? Not quite; in fact the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark all matched or exceeded our economic growth rate in the 1990s despite having lavish worker benefits including generous time off.
The full explanation for high productivity is complex, but there seems to be one common factor recently--sectors that adopted new information technology have the fastest growth. One thing that doesn’t seem to play a role is a crazy work ethic. In fact, some experts believe extra hours worked might actually depress productivity beyond a point. Are you as productive at six at night as at nine in the morning? Probably not; so do your part for the American economy, take a vacation.”
Sometimes, it feels like Western Europe of going the right way into the future while the rest of the World just ambles after. Not just that they get more vacation time (and that they have better music), but they seem to embrace new ideas more readily than the rest of us. Of course, they have pockets that want to impede that progress but for the most part I believe they are leading the way.
So what is the future going to look like anyway? Let us take a look:
September 13, 2106
Western Europe has perfected the four day work week. The European Union has been around for so long that what was once known as individual countries is now the rough equivalent of self governing provinces or states. There is free passage between them and their shared currency is stronger than ever. But not all is perfect. Certain religious groups still feel the pain for being blamed for crimes of the past. They segregate themselves to ghettos, a small number being fully withdrawing into themselves and even a smaller number growing ever so angry towards those not like themselves. A small relief comes from a movement towards returning to the lands of their ancestors which are finally recovering from years of conflict and with the losing interest in what is left of their oil have embraced the global culture and become more tolerant after decades of xenophobia.
Tiny cells of hate still exist, they always will and not just here and not just with the Muslims. The cycle will inevitably continue. But the bigger picture is that the Arabian Union is for now, an example of stability. They hope that the recent acceptance of Israel as well as Palestine into the union will serve as an example to many and a sign of things to come.
The United States is still fifty states strong and is still the military powerhouse. They no longer have the same regard they had in the past, but they still make decent movies every now and then. The coasts have become overpopulated and over grown, with the East Coast finding more room by building upwards (and recently finished completion of the first two thousand story building) and the West Coast reclaiming more and more land from the sea (much to the chagrin of environmental activists). The gulf coast has been mostly depopulated due to constant barrages from hurricanes and Florida is now half underwater from rising sea levels.
The United States is one of the remaining countries and the last superpower to still depend on fossil fuels although they are catching up with the rest of the world in using more environmental friendly resources. A small isolationist movement exists, mostly in the southern states and religion has become a bigger influence on the whole as thirty four states are no longer teaching evolution in their public schools. Many believe this the reason that Canada has left the American Union making history by applying to the European Union.
Mexico is still a popular spring break destination. The rain forests are still there and are still in danger.
The sex ban that began a hundred years ago today in Columbia has been officially lifted. The gang wars that initiated the ban ended years ago but the ban remained in place although not enforced. Many believe this to be the beginning point that led Columbia to be the first homosexual majority place on Earth (see how it all began at the historical archives at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5341574.stm)
The nations of Africa have put in a consideration to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva to form a Union as well. Many believe that their proposed union will help cease the various border wars as well as maybe get their current environmental crisis back under control. In 2066, the hole in the ozone layer expanded to cover a third of the southern portion of the continent. Populations moved north which led to the aforementioned border wars. There is fear that the wars could spread to the Arabian Union, but experts believe that fear to have no ground. The United Nation believes a decision to the unionization of the African nations will come no sooner than 2015.
Meanwhile, the new Asian Union is still trying to find itself. Experts believe that the Union is too big at the moment, that Australia should not have been accepted and the vast economic differences amongst it members would make a shared currency next to impossible for the near future. The Asian Union headquarters is in Manila.
The Japanese are still the forerunners of new technology and recently presented to the world the first genuine artificial intelligence. It currently takes up two buildings worth of processors and reads at a fourth grade level. The team responsible for Pikachu, as they lovingly call it, claim that after twenty years of refining, they can get it down to just one building worth of processors and maybe have the reading ability on par with those who have studied in the school systems that do not believe in evolution.
Richard Branson is continuing working with his team in Japan at cybertronic implantations in replacing body parts. At 156 years, having conquered the entertainment and travel industries, he now considers living to be 250 years old to be his final frontier. His space tourism company just flew up its first batch of middle class passengers (mostly Chinese and a few Americans). His company has just broke ground on a facility that will begin lunar tourism boosted by the recent first manned expedition to Mars (touchdown is expected early next year).
China recently hosted its first real democratic election. And newly independent Hong Kong still makes the best action movies in the world (and Malaysia, the best comedies). America still outsources jobs to India.
Tibet is finally free.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/
posted by Catterpillarboy at 9:57 AM
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