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(September 1999) [Printed in "Unpredictables" - a one-off fanzine for the special Aussiecon 3 ANZAPA mailing.] UNPREDICTABLESA collection of predictions about the world at the time of Aussiecon 4 (c.2010-2015 AD) prepared for ANZAPA Mailing 190 at the time of Aussiecon 3. Democracy will continue to grow throughout the world because it will be impossible to censor free expression. There will be the occasional vicious bloodshed but even the most repressive governments will have begun to realise that they are losing control over their citizens, and will gradually retreat into the background to concentrate on administrative tasks. Computers will be made of funky coloured plastic and will cost $20. They will fit into your pocket and be easier to use than a TV remote control. Software will be modular, interacting and dead simple to upgrade. Windows(TM) will die. They will make instant coffee that tastes almost as good as the real stuff. People will have become so media-savvy that they will no longer fall for advertising hype. Companies will be forced to use plain English and to provide intelligent answers to questions from consumers. Corporations will become less and less powerful as more and more of the power to manufacture and to produce moves into the hands of technology-equipped citizens. By 2010 most of the information you read will have been compiled by groups of citizens. They will present a Cartland Award each year for the best romantic novel. They will build fairly large scale homogeneous materials with nanotech assembler technology. (But heterogeneous materials like wood and rumpsteak will still be beyond our computational power to direct the assembly of.) The Big News Story will be the detailed planning for the first trip by humans to Mars. (They will live there.) They will have found hundreds of extrasolar planets - including a few dozen possibly earthlike ones. They will have begun to give them poetic names. They will plunder the SF literature! Aussiecon 4 will be held here, but there will be 'satellite-conventions' in hotel rooms in other cities in the world. Fans in these countries will watch discussion panels on high-definition videowalls, and will be able to participate in question time. There will also be fannish activities & online activities in all these cities. There will also be guests in other countries participating in discussion panels through videoconferencing. (Even when a World Con isn't taking place in your country and you can't afford to travel - you will still be able to participate.)
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Copyright © 1999 by Michael F. Green. All rights reserved. Last Updated: 6 April 2003 |