Lots of good suggestions so far, Brave New World and Don’t Look Up would be right up there for me. But my #1 is this…
The Machine Stops (PDF) Written in 1909 so out of copyright, this book is so ahead of its time it makes remarkable reading today. The amount of things predicted that describe the modern day is incredible. It’s also not that long, so well worth a read.
Idiocracy/Dont look up/1984/Judge Dredd
My bets on Robocop style corporate dictatorship until terminator style annihilation occurs.
Star Trek was never on the cards.
Actually, star trek might be. In their lore, things got a lot worse before they got better.
World War 3 began in 2026 according to TNG, we’re close!
In the aftermath, the world became an irradiated apocalyptic hellhole for almost a century, most cities destroyed and governments collapsed. I’d say we’re well on our way to that state, question is whether or not we emerge better on the other side. I’d almost be okay with that if there was some assurance that humanity would come out as Star Trek afterwards.
100% no doubt The parable of the sower and subsequent book. I read that book - started reading it - in June this year and read it over about a month. It was very creepy to be reading a sci fy book set in the future that is now my present and while it is not as bad right now as Octavia Butler makes it out to be, we are definitely heading there if drastic action is not taken immediately.
Edit: the books in order: (Only two, sadly she died while writing the third but still both worth reading, there isn’t a clif hanger at the end) https://www.octaviabutler.com/parableseries
Parable of the Sower
It was written as near future fiction anyway. In fact the dates mentioned in the book start out in our past. Just the catalyst events haven’t quite happened yet. Add a few years to the dates and I could see us heading towards that kind of societal break down.
This book is haunting. It made me seriously consider buying a gun. If I could convince my wife to read it, we’d probably have an armory by now.
Idiocracy.
Birth rates are down everywhere and the majority of the people left making lots of babies are not the ones you wish would be having them. Being virtuous and on the “right side of history” means nothing if those values die with you and are not passed to the next generation.
Being virtuous and on the “right side of history” means nothing if those values die with you and are not passed to the next generation.
Why not?
People more or less adopt their values from their parents and the people they grow up with. The christian right and redneck hillbillys are making kids and thus their beliefs will carry over to the next generation but this is much less the case with the liberal left where not having children is much more common. Basically, the more educated you are the less likely you’re to have kids. This is true all over the world.
I understand how it isn’t passed on to the next generation. But I don’t see how that implies that being virtuous means nothing.
This is not the first time i’ve seen sentiments similar to this around here. Just know this is an extremely elitist and racist viewpoint, and is one of the core arguments in favor of eugenics.
I don’t see what’s elitist or racist about it. It’s just an observation of how things are. I’m not advocating for anything here.
Fair enough, apologies, didn’t mean to imply you were advocating for the viewpoint of others i have seen making similar statements, that we need to “do something about it”, which is generally rooted in white privilege and the belief that declining birth rates are leading to the collapse of civilization.
A eugenist pov would defend selecting human individuals based on their genetic makeup, something people have no control over and is effectively a prejudice. Idiocracy shows the degeneracy of society based on societal factors such as disinformation, wealth, etc. and is an accurate prediction of western society’s current state (specifically US, but is also valid in part for US-aligned nationstates such as France). My guess as a layman is there is some inverse statistical correlation between political knowledge and babymaking, but as we know, correlation isn’t causation, and if there is anyone to blame, it’s the bourgeoisie. Cut some heads in time for spring, they’ll regrow better
Horizon Zero Dawn: Total extinction by the 2060s because some mad, narcissistic Elon Musk guy overestimates himself and fucks it up for the whole world? Doesn’t sound too far-fetched to me right now.
I’ve gotta go with Mad Max here. Between the words oil obsession, rising aggression and dumbing down of society I can’t see it going any other way.
Brave New World
We’re already living it
Our drugs aren’t that good. And the system isn’t optimizing for maximum happiness.
I suppose he was referring to the general “this is fine” attitude.
Scroll down and keep the endorphins flowing.
I’m going to go obscure here and say that the world of 2077 from the television show Continuum
It ran for a few seasons; I enjoyed it for the most part. Not the best, not the worst. But definitely in terms of the premise where Corporations have essentially bought out failing governments, leading to an advanced surveillance state, and anti-corporate terrorists, etc… etc…
WALL-E. We just don’t have a way to escape yet, but the rest is happening regardless.
1984
A combination of Snow Crash and Idiocracy
Ah I love Snow Crash.
We’re already at the point of bizarre self-parody, cringe-irony, ultra-capitalism, but instead of pizza delivering street-samurai and a fascinating metaverse…
…we got grub/dash/food/rabbit/whatever and…“meta.” Ugh.
I hate so much that Idiocracy was so on the mark. Knowledge being lost, culture being 100% based on consumption, corporate warmonger leadership. The entertainment is basically there if you look at YouTube’s front page it’s like:
"OW! MuH bAwLz! (For $48,000,000?!?!?!) - 2 hrs. ago | 3 million views"
"Slappin buttz n’ moar munee - UpGrAyD (ft. GoonOhioSkebedeezyFR) - 1 day ago | 7.5 million views"
Can we choose? I’ll pick the Matrix. Yes we are slaves to the machines, but at least they give us happy dreams
100% its cyberpunk. corpo takeover with having to use technology to get by even when it is bad for you.
We don’t even get cool neon signs, everything is sad beige now… :(
honestly the neon all over like tokyo is one of the more unrelistic aspects to me. same with the private link. all the ads will be straight to the optic nerve and it will be so dreary when looking at it plainly.
Makes me think of
LOL! Aerodynamic efficiency is great and all but I’m also already SO tired of every compact and crossover looking like a friggin’ jellybean.
Yeah, but where the hell are my leg implants that allow me to double jump and air dash already?
That would be cool…but I tell ya what, we have Ray Bans that you can talk to which require an account and act as a personal body cam to use your every waking moment for spying, registering shadow-accounts for everyone you interact with, and ai training.
How’s that sound?
(Man, we’re in the stupidest timeline aren’t we…)
Lots of good responses in this thread so far, but I keep thinking of the newest Gibson trilogy with regards to “the jackpot” where the majority of the population dies from a series of “not quite the big one” pandemics and climate issues and society is taken over by the kleptocracy. I love Gibson’s books, but I wish he would stop accurately predicting our demise.
