General / Off-Topic Basic living over a thousand years into the future?

[Mars]

In Elite we will let our imaginations run wild, ably supported by David Braben’s take on what space-faring and trading and combat will look like over a thousand years from now.

However, if your anything like me your end up spending much of your time in a game like this wondering about what its actually like in the future, and I mean the basics of living, not the stuff you see on screen. This thread is your chance to speculate on what the barest basics of day to day living will be like in the future.

Pick anything you like, but I had in mind stuff like Eating, Sleeping, Washing, Bathroom breaks, Learning, Gym sessions, Haircuts, Tattoos, whatever really.

 

[Mars]

Here is my take on a few:

Eating: Because eating is pleasurable I expect this to change very little, people will still take time to prepare good meals from fresh ingredients. Although on a ship or in a city you might be rapidly growing your own meat and veg in barrels in your kitchen (we can actually already do this in 2014). And what you produce would be largely indistinguishable from real meat veg, although its flavours and nutrients would be enhanced. I expect there to be very little actual farming occurring in the future except destined for higher end restaurants. I also expect there to be easily available snack bars for pilots which provide a full meal in one, but these would not be universally popular. Many pilots with time to kill, might prefer fresh food they prepare themselves or have a robot prepare.

Sleeping: I think this will become very tech enhanced. Your bed or pilots chair will have tech that triggers almost instant sleep through pulses or waves of low level energy. It will also maintain almost optimal sleep patterns monitored by a computer. As a result people will be able to sleep for just a few hours a day. Many pilots, or colonists once separated from earths 24hour day cycles will start to dip into sleep on a much more ad hoc basis. Perhaps grabbing 45mniutes several times a day, but essentially being awake full time.

Washing: Not so sure about this one. I at least expect showers to be sealed units that are more intense and include a long blast of hot air that means you step out completely dry, like if you have an outdoor shower on a tropical holiday and you’re dry again a few minutes later. I can’t quite envisage water being replaced (like star treks sonic showers) maybe I lack imagination on this. On a ship I expect the same water to be recycled through the sealed shower unit pretty much endlessly (with filtering).

Gym sessions: Would you need to work out? I don’t know. Maybe you would just decide on what sort of body you wanted and a computer would release the right mix of hormones and growth stimuli into your body to make muscles grow. I’m not sure how that would exercise the heart? Maybe in the future all exercise is cardio, and weight lifting is obsolete as you can have your body tricked into growing whatever muscle mass you like.

 

[Komemiute]

Didn't you forget anything?

*Wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

 

[Mars]

Didn't you forget anything?

*Wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

If you mean what i think you mean I am not sure how one improves on that, except perhaps with narcotics that modify your sensory experience. But then again people do that in 2014, and that is as much a question of narcotics and their psychotropic effects. Which I suppose could fit into this discussion, but feels more tangential.

Then again, narcotics are very much a part of this game. Maybe that's what their for, and why planets will pay so much to get tons of them, delivered at a time.

 

[Mobius]

Im just waiting for the posts from people complaining how unrealisic and immersion breaking your idea's are,

im loving it myself.

 

[Pyros]

Didn't you forget anything?

*Wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

You certainly are not referring to "mature content/activities", but pinball playing, right?

 

[Riedquat]

I would expect the 'virtual sex' industry to be huge, allowing you to have your pick of partner/s in a virtual environment which you body and brain is hooked up to, possibly even being able to design your perfect partner and choosing the environment.

I could see people becoming addicted to stuff like that.

 

[Mars]

I would expect the 'virtual sex' industry to be huge, allowing you to have your pick of partner/s in a virtual environment which you body and brain is hooked up to, possibly even being able to design your perfect partner and choosing the environment.

I could see people becoming addicted to stuff like that.

The games lore (stories) already implies that through its VR devices and dreamcast devices. In terms of industry it might be similar to the Games industry today with Steam, where you go to pick titles (digital partners) you like the look of and then digitally download to enjoy at your pleasure.


Incidentally, surely *that* is not the only aspect of future you guys are curious about, or have I just caught you all at a moment when the ardor is a little higher than usual.

 

[Mysturji]

If you mean what i think you mean I am not sure how one improves on that, except perhaps with narcotics that modify your sensory experience. But then again people do that in 2014, and that is as much a question of narcotics and their psychotropic effects. Which I suppose could fit into this discussion, but feels more tangential.

Then again, narcotics are very much a part of this game. Maybe that's what their for, and why planets will pay so much to get tons of them, delivered at a time.

And slaves.

 

[Jenner]

You certainly are not referring to "mature content/activities", but pinball playing, right?

I play pinball with my slaves all the time. Highly recommended.

As far as OP's question, I wonder if the average human lifespan will be substantially increased by this point? And how would that effect society and our perception of what it even means to be human? And what is the upper limit on the amount of time we can live, based on our physiology?

The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson focused a lot on that.

 

[ianw]

You won't have to wash manually - you skin will be constantly patrolled by nanobots that keep you clean, fresh and smelling real good.

 

[Mars]

As far as OP's question, I wonder if the average human lifespan will be substantially increased by this point? And how would that effect society and our perception of what it even means to be human?

Great question!

I think many scientists believe around 120 to be a functional limit, and this may be related to the Hayflick limit which looks at the maximum number of times cells will divide. Apparently this is to limit the scope for cancers to emerge , but I’m no biologist, so don’t really understand this are.

However, 1,000 years into the future surely cells could be tricked into immortality, and advanced medicine and computers would provide a safeguard against replication errors and cancers. If this were so human lifespan could not have a limit, which could produce considerable changes to civilisation. And perhaps resource conflicts.

You won't have to wash manually - you skin will be constantly patrolled by nanobots that keep you clean, fresh and smelling real good.

Ah yes, that makes a lot more sense, clever.

Although my ship over in SC has a shower in it, maybe my ship in E won't need it.

 

[Stachel]

I doubt people will 'eat' very much as suggested. Eating 'fresh' will become an optional 'lifestyle' similar to smoking or drug use is today. In the far future (and there won't be one because we'll be long extinct by the 31st century lol) eating will probably consist mostly of ingesting tiny amounts of highly concentrated amino acids and other essential nutritents that can be adapted to offset the effects of ageing. Since we'll all be aiming to run to 500 or so and eating is the #1 cause of DNA damage over the course of our ridiculously indulgent lives ..

 

[Iskariot]

In the far future I would choose to go full cyborg.
I would love to discover what it means to leave human weaknesses and cravings behind.

 

[roryscarlett]

In the far future I would choose to go full cyborg.
I would love to discover what it means to leave human weaknesses and cravings behind.

Problem is, weakness and cravings are all in the mind. And as far as my understanding of cybernetics goes, that's pretty much the most important part, the human mind!!!!

And with a mechanical/synthetic body, you may not be able to deal with the cravings. Though I guess Data was fully programmed in multiple techniques...

 

[Patrick_68000]

In the far future I would choose to go full cyborg.
I would love to discover what it means to leave human weaknesses and cravings behind.

Problem is, weakness and cravings are all in the mind. And as far as my understanding of cybernetics goes, that's pretty much the most important part, the human mind!!!!

And with a mechanical/synthetic body, you may not be able to deal with the cravings. Though I guess Data was fully programmed in multiple techniques...

I wonder if in a thousand years, humans will still be able to have basic feelings. Joy, sadness, fear, anger ... Perhaps the progress of science annihilate all the feelings and each human will have a neutral mood ? In all circumstances.

 

[Gibbonici]

Eating: Because eating is pleasurable I expect this to change very little, people will still take time to prepare good meals from fresh ingredients. Although on a ship or in a city you might be rapidly growing your own meat and veg in barrels in your kitchen (we can actually already do this in 2014). And what you produce would be largely indistinguishable from real meat veg, although its flavours and nutrients would be enhanced. I expect there to be very little actual farming occurring in the future except destined for higher end restaurants.

I think this would only be the case in high tech-level societies. In lower tech-level societies on worlds with good soil and sunlight, farmed food would be easier and cheaper to produce. Farming would also provide work and wages (at least seasonally, depending on the world). Even on higher tech-level worlds with low population densities and cheap access to farming technology (or slaves in the case of the Empire), agriculture could well be the economic basis.

Whether the produce from these worlds would be enough to feed highly populated high-tech worlds is a different story though, and that would be where your meat and veg in a barrel thing would come in.

I've always loved the potential variety of worlds, cultures and economies in these great star-faring civilisations we invent and latterly play in.

 

[Rog]

In the far future I would choose to go full cyborg.
I would love to discover what it means to leave human weaknesses and cravings behind.

 

[Gibbonici]

Perhaps the progress of science annihilate all the feelings and each human will have a neutral mood ? In all circumstances.

I don't know about that. Here in 2014 we're still every bit as emotional as the ancients. I don't think scientific advancement takes away anything that we don't give freely.

I mean look at all that cyberpunk literature from the 1980s. It was all about global networks and corporate power and the struggle to retain our humanity in the face of technology that was moving quicker than we could adapt to it. We've pretty much got all that stuff now, but for all their prescience those cyberpunk writers never foresaw what we'd use it for: funny cat videos, Facebook, online memes - and threads like this one.

 

[popuptoaster]

I think eating will remain much the same, maybe the price and availability of certain foods will change and we may get new hybrids or even new species from other worlds, vat grown meat could make it cheaper and leaner.

I think much will happen with sleep, maybe as the brain and body get better understood you will be able to just switch into sleep when needed and you could be kept in a deep enough sleep that your muscles could all be exercised by triggering nerve impulses without waking you up which may help counteract the effects of low G.

Maybe we wouldn't have to sleep at all by then, i think given over a 1000 years of progress humans will be all but immortal, regrown organs and limbs and better health care along with new drugs and genetic alterations my keep us alive until we simply get bored of it.

There is talk in some journals that the first person to live to 200 has probably already been born if medical science keeps improving at its current rate.