Ep. 53: Toward the Year 2068

NonProphets

Episode 53 of the NonProphets podcast, in which Atief, Robert, and Scott talk about a 1968 collection of essays speculating what 2018 would be like called Toward the Year 2018. We talk about whether it's really possible to predict the future fifty years out (00:19); the difficulty of forecasting changing norms and tastes (05:12); what the book got right and what it got wrong (10:01); how much our lives have changed since 1968 (14:58); how technology is making it harder to know what is real and what is fake (20:45); how technology could make the problems of inequality worse (26:05); how technology is changing our ideas of privacy (28:19); what science fiction scenario is closest to what life will be like in 50 years (35:04); whether there will be more than 100,000 people in space in 50 years (37:34); the problem of technological unemployment (38:27); what country we would want to be born into in 50 years (45:18); and what people 50 years from now will judge us for doing (51:46). As always, you can reach us at nonprophetspod.wordpress.com or at [e-mail]. (recorded 2/23/2018)