Which Science Fiction Visions of the World Tomorrow Will Come Closest to the Actual Future?

I don't think a utopian future isn't possible and hopefully probable, however the next decade or so will in all likelihood be very difficult for a great many people. Especially considering the rise of fascism and censorship. Just ask the people of Iran who have just spent the last week completely cut off from the rest of the world.
 
Well I would but... ;)
The odd thing with Iran is that the people I've met from there say it is nothing like how it is portrayed in the West.
They have been open, welcoming and accepting people that poke quiet fun at their own country. Far more than the Russians, Chinese and Americans I have met under similar circumstance.
They seem to find ways around most of the rules of their society they consider the odd or even idiotic.
Admitted it is a smallish sample and certainly not representative of everyone in the country. But it does remind me that the society I live in [and usually enjoy] is not necessarily the best and only model for society that should exist.
I can see a utopian future for humanity but it would mean a cultural shift [away from consumption and consumerism] for just about everyone and every society on the planet. And I see too many vested interests and plain-and-simple inertia for there to be any meaningful change.
 
since posting that, I thought a bit and I think that, ironically, 1960s Star Trek feels dated in part because it predicted the future, in part because Star Trek itself had such influence. that deserves a post of its own, though.
 
We'll never get anything like back to the future. :)
 
A mild spoiler for people interested in the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash (which recently entered Japan and will be available on Netflix in two weeks for people unable to see it in cinema):

There is a magnificent scene in which the protagonist, leader of a terrorist organization with strong background in ecology, speaks about his agend with a taxi driver (the driver unaware of his passenger's true identity). When the topic of the conversation switches to Earth's continuing decline, with people unable to fish, plastic littering beaches, you know the drill), the driver smiles, saying that what happens in a matter of centuries does not concern him if, to survive, he can hardly plan for the day after tommorrow.

The series was always heavily concerned with the decline of our planet's biome and, after 40 years, it is increasingly apparent the the vision of political instability caused by worsening climate is the most probable course of the coming century (if not the coming decades).
 
Looking at what is happening today, I think John Brunner's stories did a pretty good of forecasting the future.
 
I'm updating my impression of the future. P K Dick's stories are always in the back of my head, providing a partial explanation of the way things turn out with his settings and characters actions that seem familiar to real things in the world, even if they're on another planet or in another time. John Brunner is still in there with his day to day happenings, more now than ever. But now I have a new addition. After hearing so many expressions of "be well" lately, and watching store clerks in California asking thieves rolling shopping carts out the door loaded up with unpaid merchandise, not to not steal it, I am adding Demolition Man.

István Nemere, a famous Hungarian writer, has written perhaps as many as 60 sci fi stories, has accused the film of plagiarizing his novel "Fight of the Dead," so it could be his words, or the remaining 25 percent of the film he says wasn't part of his story. I have no idea if István Nemere was as sarcastic as Demolition Man turned out to be. I was unable to find out much about István Nemere and couldn't find any English translations. A little strange as he was a translator. One source said that some of his material was right up there with P K Dick, when it comes to who is watching the watchers.
 
The Global Warming prediction of Soylent Green seems have been somewhat accurate but, the world wis nowhere rear as bad and over populated as it was In that film and we aren't converting human being into edible green wafers.
 
BAYLOR said:
The Global Warming prediction of Soylent Green seems have been somewhat accurate but, the world wis nowhere rear as bad and over populated as it was In that film and we aren't converting human being into edible green wafers.
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I think the real world population is even more (or very close) than the source book Make Room, Make Room predicted, without the immediate dire consequences that he'd thought.
 
CupofJoe said:
I think China are trying to prove you wrong on the you can't make land deal... at least in the South China Seas.
For us in the North/Western world. I'm guessing little will change and when it does, we will be ret-conned in to it having been like that all along.
My vision of the future is somewhere between Brazil and 1984.
As for leaving this planet for others? Humanity and especially the industrialised parts of it, are like children demanding a new pet because the "old one" is dying. We can't look after the one we've got and now we want more? We never took it out for walks, or gave it a bath or took it to the vets. We NEVER followed the Vets advice about keeping it healthy. Why would we want to do that someplace new?
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I'm leaning towards 1984 also with a Chinese twist. I'm afraid authoritarianism is rising throughout the world and technology has advanced to the point it will be difficult to fight it. I also think that authoritarianism tends to greatly reduce if not eliminate scientific exploration beyond ways to increase and improve methods of control. So I think we will stop looking outwards into space except for warfare and surveillance.
 
asp3 said:
I'm leaning towards 1984 also with a Chinese twist. I'm afraid authoritarianism is rising throughout the world and technology has advanced to the point it will be difficult to fight it. I also think that authoritarianism tends to greatly reduce if not eliminate scientific exploration beyond ways to increase and improve methods of control. So I think we will stop looking outwards into space except for warfare and surveillance.
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The story Examination Day by Henry Slesar clear comes to mind . it was adapted for the 1985 Twilight Zone . Dystopian and very chilling stuff. They eliminate smart kids who could be threat to order of society. I hope that never comes to pass. :(
 
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Back in the 70's the oceans were considered to be bottomless pits. Thinking the oceans could drastically change was not something that could be seen back that then. Soylent Green had the ocean plankton severely crippled and the fish stocks had already run out. Latest report on the oceans is that the reflectivity has decreased or unknown reasons for the oceans worldwide. That causes the ocean temperature to increase just be soaking up more sunlight. Which means we have to work harder to keep the planet a few degrees cooler. The vast amounts of fresh water that isn't mixing into the ocean water but floating on it, plus the changes in ocean currents and prevailing winds, is all pointing to some kind of change in the oceans. The small stuff in the oceans will survive, it always has, its the bigger stuff that is getting hammered, Soylent had that right.
 
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