[Writingworkshop] Futures story ideas

[Neale Morison]

Here are a few Futures story ideas. I have a feeling there are plenty 
more in my symposium notes. Please feel free to use these if you like.

Repeats -  We can re-experience some important events in our lives. We 
can watch the movies, play the video games. In the future, people are 
culturally biased not to have experiences that can't be relived, because 
it would be so sad not to be able to repeat them.

Meat - In the future no one eats meat. They've forgotten what it tastes 
like. They grow stuff in tanks but they strongly suspect it tastes 
nothing like real meat.

Verifiability - this is just a fashion in science, retarding progress. 
In the future it will go out of fashion, resulting in a new renaissance.

Longevity and Experience - In the future, with advances in medicine and 
education, people live two or three times longer and so they have a firm 
grasp of many disciplines in great depth. They have conversations like:
What did you do on the weekend?
I catscanned my entire collection of fossil hominid endocasts. How about 
you?
I spent a little time using my new virtual tectonic model to reassess 
the geological evidence for the BCE 1628 Thera eruption tying in with 
Lot's wife and Atlantis. But I basically just bummed around.

Mice - Gene experiments, inserting various genes from humans into mice, 
results in superintelligent mice, who become competitive with humans.

Science(TM) - The commercialization of science progresses to a point 
where there is no scientific research independent of the control of 
corporate boards and stockholders.

Ce n'est pas élégant - The French Academy becomes pre-eminent in world 
science and takes to banning research areas based on considerations of 
taste and elegance.

Ghosts - Improvements and innovations in measurement finally result in 
clear evidence for paranormal phenomena

Change of Climate - Far from being negative, climate change turns out to 
be an environmental pressure that results in a sudden evolutionary 
upsurge. More mutations and stressful conditions for many species, 
coupled with a warmer and more fertile environment that allows more 
diverse human lifestyles, takes the human race to the next level with 
some interesting animal companions.

Aliens - Von Danniken was right.

-- 
Neale Morison
neale at nealemorison.com
http://www.nealemorison.com
31 Maple Ave #2, Cambridge MA 02139
+1 617 460 9969