# Life in the year 3000 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 4, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754 "2007-06-04T20:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/1 "2007-06-04T20:52:14Z")
I’m disappointed I don’t have a flying car, holodecks, or 3D interactive porn. If I say “Tea. Earl Gray. Hot.” my wife says “Sounds good. Get me one, too.” I’ve never been to the moon. I’ve never teleported. I’m still a slave to my material desires. So, given another thousand years, do you think those pencil-heads at MIT can figure out a way to teleport my molecules to the moon (and back)? I envision a word where we all live free of material needs, and the porn flows like water. Either that or the earth becomes a barren, nuke-charred rock devoid of atmosphere and night-life. Tell me about _your_ vision of the future. ---
**Author:** ![Like\_Fry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@Like\_Fry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Like_Fry)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/2 "2007-06-04T20:56:17Z")
Please excuse my wandering brain, but isnt porn a material need? Yes I want matter transference and flying cars too. Futurama here I come… Fry ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/3 "2007-06-04T21:14:49Z")
Not much will change, but they’ll live underwater. Oh, your great-great-great granddaughter? Doing fine. Also, boy bands as far as the eye can see. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/4 "2007-06-04T22:35:17Z")
Mmmm…porn-water… I’m so thirsty. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/5 "2007-06-05T05:13:40Z")
Seconding the post above, I think life will be like Futurama. Seriously. I’ll prove it too, just give me roughly 1000 years. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/6 "2007-06-05T06:47:27Z")
Think really hard about what it was like in 1007. Pretend you’re actually there and of that time. Then imagine someone asks you what life will be like in the year 2000. I doubt anyone could have even come close. It’s probably like that for now/3000. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/7 "2007-06-05T11:10:10Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Not much will change, but they’ll live underwater. Oh, your great-great-great granddaughter? Doing fine. [/QUOTE] The way her gills blush is just darling. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/8 "2007-06-05T15:30:46Z")
In the year 3000, things have improved slightly, largely due to the absence of living humans. Improved, that is, for those species that have survived. ---
**Author:** ![frog\_princess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6bbea6/32.png) [@frog\_princess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frog_princess)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/9 "2007-06-05T15:33:33Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Not much will change, but they’ll live underwater. Oh, your great-great-great granddaughter? Doing fine. Also, boy bands as far as the eye can see. [/QUOTE] I am ashamed to admit that this is exactly what popped into my head when I saw this thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/10 "2007-06-05T15:37:20Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Think really hard about what it was like in 1007. Pretend you’re actually there and of that time. Then imagine someone asks you what life will be like in the year 2000. I doubt anyone could have even come close. It’s probably like that for now/3000. [/QUOTE] I’d probably agree with this. However I will note that Benjamin Franklin made some pretty accurate predictions about the future. He predicted the rise of mass air travel, and accurately predicted what the U.S. population would be 100 years later (his predictions were only off 1/10th of a percent) which is pretty significant considering just how small the U.S. population was in the 1780s and how large it was in the 1880s. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/11 "2007-06-05T15:40:41Z")
A hundred years is impressive, but 1000 is nigh on impossible. In fact, a person could probably just automatically discount anything he could think of. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/12 "2007-06-05T15:46:32Z")
1,040 years since the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup. (Sigh) ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/13 "2007-06-05T17:36:44Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Think really hard about what it was like in 1007. Pretend you’re actually there and of that time. Then imagine someone asks you what life will be like in the year 2000. I doubt anyone could have even come close. It’s probably like that for now/3000. [/QUOTE] Times ten. If you predicted in 1007 what it would be like in 1507, you probably wouldn’t have been too, too far off. You probably wouldn’t even have been that far off predicting what it would be like in 1707 or maybe even 1807. But 1907? Hardly. 2007? Forget it. The acceleration is now ferocious. No one can have the slightest notion what’ll be happening in 2207, let alone 3007. Of course, it’s very subjective. I say that someone in 1007 would probably have predicted 1507 with a fair amount of accuracy. But maybe that’s just me looking back and saying both times seem relatively similar, with a slow rate of development. Perhaps something such as Renaissance one point perspective would absolutely have floored someone from 1007. To see his world realistically captured in a drawing might have been astonishing and terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/14 "2007-06-05T18:10:14Z")
What will life be like in 3007? Hello, take a look around you! It IS the year 3007! The human race has been enslaved, and the sheepish population is pacified because they have been placed in a simulator that makes them think that the year is still 2007. We (the “leaders”) are able to mine their brainwaves through the use of zlorblaxes, powerful mind-control devices that resemble old -timey “personal computers.” Of course, we cannot let the enslaved people know anything about this. If they begin to suspect, the zlorblax will confuse them by filling their heads with random fish bottle mangrove carpool. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/15 "2007-06-05T19:12:34Z")
I don’t want to be the forecaster of doom , but I’m going to cast my vote for the charred rock. We can’t even share the roads and I’m thinking the world isn’t going to make it much longer if we don’t figure out to live peacfully together . ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/16 "2007-06-05T19:24:23Z")
Human nature is not likely to change. Even a thousand years from now there will still be love, and lust, and hate, and greed, and idiocy, and genius, and cruelty, and kindness. But we seem to be hard-wired for war. In the aggregate we’re vastly better-off as a species now than we were in 1007, by virtually any measure - but we now have the means to destroy ourselves entirely. At the height of the Cold War, Faulkner said he thought that humanity “will not only survive, it will prevail.” I hope he’s right… but I have my doubts. My vote: a peaceful, bustling, technologically-advanced and diverse republic spanning the Solar System. Who knows? We might even have a FTL drive by then, but the odds are very much against us meeting intelligent aliens anywhere in our galactic neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/17 "2007-06-05T19:34:55Z")
[QUOTE=Omegaman] I don’t want to be the forecaster of doom , but I’m going to cast my vote for the charred rock. We can’t even share the roads and I’m thinking the world isn’t going to make it much longer if we don’t figure out to live peacfully together . [/QUOTE] The human race as currently constituted is vulnerable to events, but the planet has been here for more than 4 billion years. The odds of something occurring to turn the place into a charred rock within the next thousand years are vanishingly small. Letting all our nukes go bang at once would be bad news for some higher order creatures, but it would only be a minor bump for the planet as a whole. If we really, really went for it we could possibly engineer a runaway greenhouse effect, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/18 "2007-06-05T19:46:02Z")
Anyway, from the perspective of a thousand years time, we will be looked back on as we currently look at earthworms. Just another creature with a common ancestor. In 3007 there will be no distinction between organic and machine life, no sentient being will need to “die” (such a quaint concept!). Fuck knows what kind of society that will be, but the seeds of immortality have already been sown. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/19 "2007-06-05T21:30:14Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] The human race as currently constituted is vulnerable to events, but the planet has been here for more than 4 billion years. The odds of something occurring to turn the place into a charred rock within the next thousand years are vanishingly small. Letting all our nukes go bang at once would be bad news for some higher order creatures, but it would only be a minor bump for the planet as a whole. If we really, really went for it we could possibly engineer a runaway greenhouse effect, but I doubt it. [/QUOTE] Well I’ll take your words as a vote for postive future. 😃 I’m only hoping I can leave it having made a difference for at least one person through sacrifice and doing good deeds when the opportunities present themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754/20 "2007-06-05T22:03:42Z")
[QUOTE=Omegaman] I’m only hoping I can leave it having made a difference for at least one person through sacrifice and doing good deeds when the opportunities present themselves. [/QUOTE] Me too. The other thing that you can do (and I’m no longer sure that I want to, and currently don’t have the opportunity anyway) is to have children. Continue the billions-of-years-old line of stupendous badasses[sup]TM[/sup] that are your ancestors, every single one of whom has struggled against adversity to reproduce: end result - _you_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-in-the-year-3000/406754.md?page=2)