What'll we be saying in 20 years?

[Deleted]

The future is really unpredictable, but we all have fears and hopes regarding the future.

Can you think of some of the things we might be saying about our present lives 20 years from now?

-- Remember when we used to use drinking water in our toilets and for washing cars?

-- Remember when anybody was allowed to have as many cats or dogs as they wanted?

-- Remember when we still used paper money and coins?

-- Remember when there were still people living in the Middle East?

[Deleted]

-- Remember when land was affordable around here?

-- Remember when poverty was wide spread in India? (hopefully anyway)

-- Remember how primitive the internet was back then?

-- Remember when cars actually ran on gas?

-- Remember when oil refineries excisted?

[lagatta]

Remember when there were still private cars in cities?
(Cars, by the way, were originally designed as a very practical and modern technology for less-populated areas - there were already trains and trams in cities).

In an Asian language: Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi etc: - Remember when other cultures worried about the dominance of English?

Remember when people, even young, died of (X) (cancer, AIDS, preventable infections and malnutrition etc)

Remember when there was snow every winter here?

Remember when we took those old-fashioned, polluting "planes" to travel rather than reverting to safe lighter-than-air airships to cross oceans where trains were not practical?

Remember when there was no more train between Montréal and Boston?

(this one never changes) Remember when we were young?

(lagatta refrains from responding to reference to "cats and dogs" without adding "human children"...)

[emm]

*is already saying "remember when there was snow every winter here"*

Remember when there was a definate shift in seasons (here)

Remember when you could get a driving licence at 15

Remember 'alcopops' (the 15 year old drivers were particularly fond of them)

Remember free hospital services

Remember only needing a passport and visa to travel abroad

[tillystar]

I don’t think what people say will change any more than it has for eternity:

We don’t’ get snow like we used to

Summers aren’t as long as they used to be

Children are much ruder than they used to be

Crime is much higher than it used to be

[Deleted]

Some cybercrooks intercepted my transfer while I was paying the electric bill.

Those damned kids reprogrammed the car so that the red lights couldn't stop it.

I'm going to the oldtimers club because they're going to show some flat movies this afternoon.

[paristraveler]

Can you believe that people actually used to leave home and go and live somewhere else just to get a college education?

[spindrift]

Those barbaric surgeons of olden days, what primitive methods they used especially when extracting teeth, sawing off legs ........

Imagine having to stay married to someone for your lifetime...it's not natural.

Remember the waste of water used in all those daily baths, washing in grime instead of using a shower.

[lagatta]

You mean they'll have no opportunity to leave their parents' home?

Don't worry, they'll think of something.

[Deleted]

....Remember when whites were the majority in the US/Canada etc...

...Remember what a marriage ceremony was for?

...Remember when there was a church in every town?

...Remember those primitive medical procedures?

[james]

Where are dem blue pills?

[Deleted]

Kids used to have to get up at a certain time and go to school to listen to a teacher.

[rikita]

remember when we had electricity and technology and stuff like that? and lived in houses? anyway, let's hurry back to our cave, i think there is another of the mutant-animals coming to hunt us.

[Deleted]

Remember before they found out that organic food causes cancer?

[paristraveler]

Remember when people had to actually drive their vehicle themselves? They used to kill each other because they kept crashing into one another's cars. Can you imagine? How barbaric and ignorant!

[fumobici]

Remember when only men and women could get married?

[Deleted]

(But in 2010, 6 European countries have already made the move -- Portugal joined the club yesterday.)

[spindrift]

What are laptops? (our brains will be wired with micro-chips - nanotechnology).

[rikita]

also one non-european one, right? i read the other day that in argentina there was recently a marriage (like, not equal to marriage, but a real marriage) between two men in ushuaia - the problem there is you have to find a community that is willing to do so, but it is allowed.

[imec]

It's allowed in Canada.

[lagatta]

Same-sex marriage has been legal for some time here. Not surprisingly, it has become a lucrative draw for the tourism and wedding industry - quite a few gay and lesbian New Yorkers (in particular) come up here to get hitched and take in the sites and food.

Isn't it also the case in DF (Mexico City)?

[rikita]

good... yeah i didn't say it wasn't there (canada or elsewhere) - just because only europe was mentioned, and argentina was the first non-european one that came to mind as i had read that article recently...

unfortunately in germany afaik there is still just something similar to marriage (don't know the english term) but not actually the same as the marriage between man and woman...

[lagatta]

What is it called in German?

In France there is PACS (Le Pacte civil de solidarité) a form of civil union. This is not only for same-sex couples but also for the many heterosexual couples who never wished to marry - here in Québec we hold the world championship for that.

Kerouac will tell me if PACS pacts are concluded between people who never had or wanted to have sexual relations. At one point a gay male friend I love very much (platonically) was saying we should be "married" - it was a bit of a joke but I could see that making sense about people who are very much tied together "in sickness as in health".

[Deleted]

I don't think there are any sex police (maybe in 20 years?). When the PACS was first invented, they mentioned that "even two unmarried farmers who want to put their farmland and assets in common could sign a PACS" -- but of course ideas like that were more to take the focus off gay couples due to all of the opposition in parliament. I think that now something like 90% of the PACS are signed by heterosexual couples.

[Deleted]

People actually tended gardens in the dirt in their very own backyards.

[traveler63]

Remember when we actually had running water in ARizona instead of having to pay $10.00 a gallon for imported water.

[rikita]

not sure actualyl what it is in german...

[Deleted]

People used to have children at random instead of being assigned procreation dates.

[Deleted]

Remember when Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliffe still had hair?

[Deleted]

Am I the only female out there who doesn't find Brad Pitt all that great? Johnny Depp looks too much like someone I know to find him attractive.