How much of our culture will be remembered in 500 years?

Cafe Society
41

I think 2503 isn’t going to be “as far” for those folks as 1503 is to us.

I think it might be vaguely possible (some of) our genetically modified grandkids (born post 2050ish) will still be around in 450 years and so there will be a demand for some parts of our culture as in Damn I was thinking of my granddad today & he sure loved Sinatra, computer play me some Sinatra or I watched Bugs as kid lets see some Even if my timeline is wrong & folks ‘only’ start living to, say 120ish, 500 years is only 4-5 generations away as opposed to the 20-25 generations 1500 is to us. If consciousness can ever be downloaded into computers and preserved I’d expect more of it to stick around.

TMI I know – to answer more traditionally I would expect musicals remixed,restaged, modernized and reissued to the appetites of audiences of the day (Quick how many revivals of Oklahoma or other R& H Musicals on Broadway in the next 25 years? I guess +5*) R&H will be +/- 85 years old at that point – & expect the same of AL Weber and other hits of today.

  • That is just Broadway: I think Oklahoma has been performed in the suburbs and in High Schools continuously since it premired – South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon too. Expect Cats, Phantom, JC Superstar maybe non-nude Hair all (and et al.) to be here (remixed, remade, restaged as long as people like to here musical plays performed – which has been forever)
42

Oh yes, and I agree that comic book and cartoon characters (and other pop culture characters) may be the lasting icons of our age. (Sorry Walloon.)

Imagine what will happen if Congress ever quits extending the copyright law and allows characters such as Superman to enter the public domain. An explosion of interpretations of the character may follow.

Same thing for Star Wars, Star Trek. Hey, Captain Kirk may turn out to be be the King Arthur of our age! (Take that, cultural snobs! :wink: )

43

Well, as the 2010 Year Old Man said, “Liquid Prell was the greatest invention of all time.” Mothers and daughters were talking again! The bottle doesn’t break! You can drop a pearl in it and it just floats slowly…slowly…

44

I have, every one.

45

Every single thing will be remembered and revered.

Until someone goes out into the New Mexico desert and unearths that huge stash of still-sealed Pauly Shore DVDs buried in a landfill. After viewing one, our descendants will destroy everything from this era and erase everyone’s mind that it ever existed.

46

My artwork. I’m telling you guys, prices are going to skyrocket here in a couple of months when I go insane and keel over from untreated syphillus. Get on board now while you can.

47

Trust me, I never thought it was profound, maybe because I read it the first time at about 35. That doesn’t change that it might be pointed to as a turning point for first articulating teen angst, and in a way help to define what we now call a teenager. If that concept survives is another thing, but it sure as hell has shaped a lot of the media in the past 50 years.

Things don’t have to be good to survive or merit a footnote in history. I loved LoTR when I was 15. At 30 I found close to unreadable. However, as a phenomenon, LoTR deserves a footnote in the history of literature, as the starting point of fantasy, one of the largest genres for the past 25 years and still growing.

48

The Playboy bunny has my vote for the icon that will be most recognized 500 years from now. Future generations will look back and think that 2003 was one unending orgy.

49

Pound pastrami
can kraut
six bagels
:smiley:

50

Why is rap music juvenile?

51

Funny: I was just watching my DVD set of the entire series of Firefly (although it looks like there may be a theatrical movie). It’s set about 500 years in the future, and there’s a scene where two of the characters quote some Beatles lines to each other.

52

The Beatles? Nahhhh!

The Stones? Absolutely!

53

Because of this guy…

54

Sorta like how we nowadays think that the Ancient Roman Empire was one unending orgy?

55

In 2500, cars will be made out of nanotube extrusions. They’ll weigh 500 lbs, run on a teacup of water, and go 200 mph.

And they’ll be shaped to look like 1963 Corvettes.

I think a lot more of our culture will survive, in ways you wouldn’t suspect. Look at how many of our modern buildings still have hints of Greek and Roman architecture. We still make movies about Gladiators.

In 2500, the biggest movie hit of the year will be the 24th remake of “A Hard Day’s Night”, starring the digital simulacrums of the Beatles. The hottest new art form will be the total recreation of past people in digital form. Artists will immerse themselves in the movies of Bogart, or the newsreels of Hitler, and study their moves, expressions, speech patterns, etc. Then they’ll create digital version, or even robotic versions, and stage recreations of classic movies, or extend current series.

Now there’s a scary thought - It may turn out that the best movie in the Raiders of the Lost Ark series was Raiders XV, in which the recreation of Harrison Ford was so good some critics said it acted better than the original human version.

Perhaps “period immersion” will be all the rage. What do you do when you live in a sea of cultural data going back 500 years? Why, you ‘time travel’. It could be great fun to go back to the year 2030 by watching nothing but 2030 television, reading the 2030 archive of the internet, wearing 2030 clothes, and ordering a replicated copy of the 2030 C9 Corvette to drive around in. There will be big conventions of 2030-ists, where they all get together and live out classic events from the era - stock car races, sporting events, re-creations of major cultural events, etc.

The newest extreme sport will be air racing - no grav-lift allowed - everyone has to fly exact recreations of WWII fighters, down to the last rivet head. We’ll be automated enough and rich enough that people will be able to afford to do that.

And audiophiles will still be using tubes and listening to LPs.

56

Think of the speed at which information access has progressed. With the quadrupling (estimation - don’t nitpick) of the internet and information sharing in just the past five years, everything will be able to be accessed. Just think about it. Even now, if you want to find a Mork and Mindy episode, you can. If you want to find out about Roman orgies, you can. Even as I type, I’m making a time capsule to eventually be discovered in years hence by someone digging up an old hard drive somewhere. Like they are now able to extract DNA, no doubt people years hence (now, actually) will be able to extract information out of any old drive found in some antiquatic silicon and plastic box. History is being preserved as we speak. Almost every aspect and every opinion of it.

With that being said, what would happen if the only thing they found was the SD server? All history prior to 2503 would be based on three things:

**1. 1920’s style death rays

  1. Middle Earth**

and last, but not least,

3. Hi Opal!

All will wonder about Opal the goddess and why she was worshipped…

57

Antiquatic??? I meant Antiquated… Antiquatic would be some old submersible like “Nautilus.”

58

I think it’ll be the term applied to those who oppose giving full rights to genetically-engineered amphibious humans.

“Rev. Jerry Falwell IXX just said all amphibious humans should be rounded up and shot! He’s so antiquatic!”

59

Ahh, right you are Miller.

60

Heh, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still touring in 500 years. At the very least, it’ll be Keith Richards along with holographic projections of the other band members.