Let's Predict the Future

[johndaw16]

With the close of the school year my current campaigns are coming to a close. Subsequently, I'm working on creating new ones to play sometime in the future. A long standing ambition of mine has been to play a gritty William Gibson-esque campaign set in the near future. Now's my chance, and I need help.

I want to set the game between the years 2155-2205. What I need you guys help with is extrapolating a rough timeline of important events that have happened between 2005 and 2155. Creating a timeline will help me flesh out the world and add a bit of realism and sense of history to everything. The timeline could have anything in it...from important technological advances to the death of a celebrity or anything. The more creative and more variety I get the better the end result will be.

The only thing I ask is that when submitting an event or happening you keep its explanation limited to a few sentances. So here's my first one...

Transportation
2019 the first year that sales of hydrogen fueled cars surpassed gasoline/hybrid powered car sales. The GM made Poseidon coupe and sedan led the market, followed closely by the Honda Civic H.

 

[drothgery]

Eh. More than even ten years out it's difficult to guess. About the only safe thing to assume is that some things won't change much (including some that you'd never expect to stay the same), some things completely unanticipated will become amazingly common, and a few common projections will be right (everyone expected flying cars in 2005, no one expected the internet, everyone expected something like cell phones).

 

[Dakkareth]

2012: ELE

 

[Cergorach]

Take a look at Transhuman Space, it's very detailed.

 

[johndaw16]

I guess maybe I wasn't clear enough about this. Drothgery I know you can't predict the future with any actually accuracy but I'm trying to create a reasonably believable timeline. It doesn't have to be completely plausible but having one helps and I'm just looking for creative ideas to include. Cergorach thanks for the suggestion of the product but right now I'm strapped for cash and don't have the inclination to buy any new RPG products. I might be liable to buy a product later on when I've figured out more on how the world will look in 2155. Right now just some ideas and events would be cool.

Thanks

John

 

[Zappo]

Two centuries at the current rate of technological advancement are way too unpredictable. Could be anywhere between a cyberpunk-level tech in a still-recognizable world to something not recognizable at all (everyone living in virtual reality ala Matrix? Widespread genetical engineering? FTL travel?)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Important question: First contact or no first contact?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Nuclear war in Asia reshapes the nations in that region to be almost unrecognizable politically. Religious extremism in Africa in the mid-21st century -- a result of AIDS wiping out large portions of the continent -- does the same for Africa. On the other hand, South America leaves the Third World status behind forever around the same period.

First contact, yes, but not first person, but via long distance discovery probes instead. No FTL communication.

 

[WayneLigon]

2010 - England joins the European Union after a disasterous series of internal political scandals. Tony Blair assassinated by Indian terrorists, though later documents suggest it was a 'housecleaning' ordered by elements within the British Government.

2033 - Geneticists successfully recreate an extinct species

2041 - Revolutionaries topple the Brazillian government

2045 - First artificial intelligence engine (ALIX - Artificial Language Integrated eXtra) passes the Turing Test.

2043 - US officially recognizes Tiawan as an independent state. Tense relationships with China develop and dissolve.

2050 - Whitlow Base established on the Moon.
2052 - European Unification ends with the signing of the Paneurope Accords, which creates the new superstate of Europa.
2056-9 - American 'Brain Drain' as corporations spin off scientific research divisions to Europan subsidiaries as American policies clamp down on 'rogue elements'.

2058 - A series of power struggles within the Chinese Communist Party leaves the major players weakened, without a power base, and without support of the military. trade and technology initiative stagnate over the next several years.

2062 - Cheaper intelligence engines enable hands-free driving in the most crowded traffic corridors in the US.

2065 - 2071: Pope Linus III convenes the Third Vatican Council. Abolishes the requirements that priests be male or celibate, among other sweeping changes in the Church.

2072 - First confirmed human clone to live past 6 months created in Singapore.

2073 - Second generation ALIX intelligence engines come online. This is the last of the series to be built completely by human hands.

2082 - Third generation ALIX engines come online. Three of these engines control 6/7th of all vehicular traffic in North America

2092-2099 - Chinese Civil War, as Xiang's New Revolutionary Party topples the Communist regime. A series of sweeping purges kills more than six million people from 2099 to 2107.

2097 - First sustained fusion reaction in CERN-backed lab in Vienna, monitored by a prototype fourth-generation ALIX.

 

[boredgremlin]

doom, gloom and slavery of mankind.

Over the next hundred years global warming will cause oceans to rise and precipitation to increase. Creating more standing water pools and causing malaria and other mesquito born deseases to grow increasingly common and lethal. Until the warming eventually flips the mid atlantic current, which combined with the increased cloud cover cause a dramatic lowering of global temperatures leading to a new ice age.
According to sattelite data the magnetic poles are reversing. This happens about every 50,000 years. It takes around a century to complete. During this time the magnetic field surrounding our planet weakens, and cancer rates from UV radiation dramatically increase. Human fertility is one of the first bodily systems affected by UV radiation. Resulting in ever increasing rates of sterility and birth defects.
Also the weakened magnetic fields result in more slippage between continental shelves causing more common and more severe earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The age of terrorism and religious extremism leads to ever escalating conflicts across the world, especially in the middle east. At the same time the mapping of the human genome leads to designer viruses specifically designed to target certain genes (and thus races). Terrorists get a hold of these and turn them into weapons, and use them. The western nations strike back brutally.
India and pakistan finnally stop posturing and nuke each other.
All this combines to prevent mankind from properly meeting the enviromental disasters brewing. The ice age nearly destroys mankind until 150 years from now the global population is down to around 10,000 people. And into dark ages technology. Like during the last ice age. The next 50 years are mankind struggling back from the brink of extinction.
So theres your campaign world. 200 years from now, late middle ages technology with pockets of surviving high tech. Lol and of course very low magic or none at all, depending on how open minded you are (since this is real world based).