What Could the World Look Like 200 Years from Now? (Research for Novel)

[Tintin]

I'm doing some research for a fictional novel I'm working on. The world I'm creating is rather similar to ours and the story I'm writing is probably going to be set 200 or so years into the future. I'm trying to brainstorm the kinds of people groups that may still exist in a world that's becoming more and more relative every year eg. truth is seen as relative, there is no good and evil, and yet what was good is now considered evil and what was evil is now considered good. The break-down of the governments, law and order, the family unit, values in general.


So far I have...

*Major religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism (or something similar)
Islam may be reduced to a few desert tribes after intense retaliation from others, once they realise the danger

People with body modifications eg. basic plastic surgery, fake tails etc. *all the way up to full body modifications in order to look like the animals they believe they are (this is only a little more extreme than what's already happening)

*Superstitious materialists eg. pure materialists (those who believe in nothing beyond the five senses) who strangely believe in things like ghosts and spirits (we already see this amongst so-called materialists)

Small groups of naturalists who believe in absolutely nothing beyond the five senses

Occultists

Lovers of animals and lovers of children

Nihilists

Racists

Conspiracy theorists

Animal hunters

Nature worshippers

New Age

Criminals of all descriptions


I imagine governments will disintegrate and people will become tribes or look for kings and queens again. In many ways, it would just be like the Old Testament times (except in the light of New Testament revelation).

Most of these people groups I would only touch on very briefly to flesh out the world (those without an asterisk), as I have no desire to immerse myself in such things. Can anyone think of any other groups that may exist 200 years from now, based on what we see the direction our world is headed, today? This isn't the sort of thing I can Google.

Thanks, friends!

 

[zeroturbulence]

This might not help with your novel but I believe that 200 yrs from now, if the world survives that long, there will be a one world government and just like it says in revelation, everyone will be required to have a mark or number on them in order to buy or sell. I didn't come up with that myself of course, but I do believe it.

Also, the government will preside over such things as what music and art is allowed, all religion will be outlawed and gender will be no longer relevant. All food will be organically grown in giant, weather-controlled greenhouses and meat will be produced in labs that can artificially grow meat tissue from animal cells. Hmm this is kind of fun..

 

[RickyZ]

The world in 200 years -

Ruled by Christ

Judged by saints

The righteous clothed in white

The unrighteous appearing naked

Weapons made into farm implements

Lions laying with lambs

Evil bound and unable to act

The earth in a garden state

Worldwide peace

Grain, wine and oil in abundance

A single worldwide language

whole families reunited





Why would you write about anything else?

 

[Tintin]

The world in 200 years -

Ruled by Christ

Judged by saints

The righteous clothed in white

The unrighteous appearing naked

Weapons made into farm implements

Lions laying with lambs

Evil bound and unable to act

The earth in a garden state

Worldwide peace

Grain, wine and oil in abundance

A single worldwide language

whole families reunited





Why would you write about anything else?

Thanks, but I'm not writing biblical fiction. This will be a sci-fi/fantasy/thriller.

 

[Tintin]

This might not help with your novel but I believe that 200 yrs from now, if the world survives that long, there will be a one world government and just like it says in revelation, everyone will be required to have a mark or number on them in order to buy or sell. I didn't come up with that myself of course, but I do believe it.

Also, the government will preside over such things as what music and art is allowed, all religion will be outlawed and gender will be no longer relevant. All food will be organically grown in giant, weather-controlled greenhouses and meat will be produced in labs that can artificially grow meat tissue from animal cells. Hmm this is kind of fun..

Thanks, Zero. I'm not looking to write an end times novel or anything similar. This will be its own beast. So I don't want to introduce the Mark or the Anti-Christ or anything that pertains to some popular eschatological views and to book series like Left Behind. I don't even want to include a one world government. Maybe a huge State-run citadel is a good compromise (I can see slavery becoming a big thing again). As for your other ideas, there are a few good ones. Especially about gender no longer being relevant. And maybe even the food based developments. Thanks, brother.

 

[RickyZ]

Biblical fiction... hmmm....

 

[Tinkerbell725]

200 years from now there will be more suffering. Those things you mentioned will be intensified. Anarchy is everywhere. Like sodom and gomorrah part 2. A time when you can only count in the fingers the number people left who are righteous. A new disease will spread its called zombie syndrome and it is caused by eating too much GMO's and foods with secret ingredients such as fetus. The devil loves watching walking dead and decided to make that tv program a reality.

 

[Grace-Like-Rain]

I am imagining a society group that stresses all-inclusiveness to the point that ANYTHING is permissible (crime is okay - if a criminal identifies himself in that way, he should be encouraged to pursue it, etc). Anti-hate laws to the extreme - no one allowed to speak out against any sort of crime or bad behavior, due to this inclusiveness.

Another group (in contrast) might be the morality-policed state, in which it is illegal to engage in even the mildest "immoral" deeds. Telling a lie might be severely punished by the law. Thinking bad thoughts would not be tolerated. Outwardly moral ideas and thoughts, heavily rewarded. "We are never unkind to animals" - vegan... "We must never harm a tree" etc... People's thoughts, homes and lives are monitored constantly to ensure that they are behaving morally. Basically moral slavery.

You might explore a society which uses something odd as it's currency. Maybe a drug of some sort that the people are addicted to. They work to earn it, spend it on other necessities, and whoever is able to grow/collect it holds all the power of it. Or perhaps it is a genetic enhancement. Genetically enhanced people in this society are able to survive in a way that others cannot, therefore being more powerful. All the people live solely for this enhancement or currency.

An genderless society which has no men or women, only "gender-neutral" people who have lost their unique identities. Children are formed genetically (maybe even physically genderless) and raised to conform to this standard. Any attempts by children or others to lean more toward male or female are restrained. Any child that starts displaying too much of one gender is quickly "trained" to deny that part of themselves. You might explore a relationship in which two young people break out of their brainwashed state and embrace who they know themselves to be.

That's all I can think of for now. Fascinating topic! I'm interested in the world you are creating. I love sci-fi and fantasty worlds. Please do drop us snippets of your world as it starts to blossom!

 

[Grace-Like-Rain]

Oh, I see someone already mentioned the genderless society.

Hey, how about a helicopter-parent state, in which children are raised in such a way that they are 40 years old before they are considered an "adult" and can do things on their own without their parents' help. Parents would be going to ridiculous lengths to care for their grown children. "Continued education" like college will have reached an extreme, such as 15 years of study for a standard degree. People would be required to get a degree before being considered an adult, able to move out of their parents house or marry or have children or even care for themselves. Basically a huge fear that younger people will not be prepared for life, and must learn more or prove that they can make it on their own before being allowed out into society. Fear of failure, fear of allowing younger generations to "fail", and thus micromanaging their lives until they reach middle age.

 

[Tinkerbell725]

200 years from now all the glaciers have melted. All those scenarios feared by climate change experts are happening. Animals become crazy and will attack everyone specially humans. Calamities happen everyday. The earth have just self destructed. THE END

 

[AsifinPassing]

Well tintin, I suppose it depends on what directions you want to take it in. I'll almost entirely be referencing anime (as future is a big topic within that art/entertainment form):

1. Post-Apocalyptic Time Paradox: Mankind advances so rapidly that it ends up almost destroying itself. Only remnants tend to be left of the old tech and history of the 'futuristic or golden age', and things have regressed back to a pretty rudimentary and antiquated state. The realization of this tends to be societies ranging from primitive communism to slave societies to feudalism.

Most also tend to take magic vs science or supernatural vs natural sub-themes when using this approach. Some who are particularly interested in darker themes also like to take humanity to its most brutal and selfish state here (though usually not entirely, but authoritatively), and also tend to add monsters, mutations, etc etc.

2. The Land of Tomorrow - These archetypes tend to ad absurdum toward something like hubris without necessarily taking the darker apocalyptic route. 'Tomorrowland (not the movie)' tends to focus largely on a society which focused primarily on progress, technological advancement, scholasticism, etc. Lives tend to be inundated (or lived vicariously such as in the movie surrogates or anime like SOA) with robotics, full dive technology (literally inserting your consciousness into a movie, game, etc) and other technological advances. Ethics and scrutiny about human-robot relationships tend to be the main focus from paranoia, slavery, interpersonal relationships, exploitation, etc etc... These stories tend to be full of broken-Utopian themes (perfect society at the expense of certain people, places, resources, machines, etc), and the repercussions thereof.

3. Space Age - Galactic adventures ensuing due to either man's endless thirst to go father, learn more, etc...or the struggle for survival after depleting the planet of sustainable living (sometimes advancement through war to this point as well, in such cases as Gundam). Anyway, this is the Quantum world of Star Trek, Star Wars, and every other story where you are no longer limited in your ability to travel, and discoveries, story lines, and directions you could take this are literally endless because you're opening up the whole universe to exploration (or really, the whole human imagination).

There are a few others, but that pretty much sums up futuristic story making. 80-90+% of futuristic stories, movies, anime, etc...will fit into one of these three categories, and the particular scenarios and issues of focus are up to the writer.


In fact, my avatar is 'Sammy', an android/futuristic PC from the anime 'Time of Eve'...which is one such futuristic anime story.

 

[MollyConnor]

Lots of debt...
College would cost $500,000 a year!

 

[AsifinPassing]

Lots of debt...
College would cost $500,000 a year!

Oh Molly...that's like 20 years, not 200... ^_~ -_-0

Depending on where you go, it can already easily be $100k a year. More if you're going to an ivy league college without scholarship and such.

Mine university here in Oklahoma is about $30-50 a year or semester depending on what course of study you take, if you have help or not, and the options you choose (such as living in the dorms, meal plan, fees, yada yada).

I've already paid about $30k of debt back, and my parents have paid at least double or triple that amount before I had to start paying my own way.

 

[zeroturbulence]

Thanks, Zero. I'm not looking to write an end times novel or anything similar. This will be its own beast. So I don't want to introduce the Mark or the Anti-Christ or anything that pertains to some popular eschatological views and to book series like Left Behind. I don't even want to include a one world government. Maybe a huge State-run citadel is a good compromise (I can see slavery becoming a big thing again). As for your other ideas, there are a few good ones. Especially about gender no longer being relevant. And maybe even the food based developments. Thanks, brother.

I know it sounded like an end times world, but its actually based on the way things have been going in the last 15 years or so. The world's economy is in turmoil because the EU, China and Japan are having financial troubles like they've never seen before. Russia is hurting because of the low price of oil, The US is now the largest oil producer in the world, but the Saudis are artificially keeping the price down to bankrupt the US oil industry (and it is slowly working). We already have the World Health Organization and the World Bank and the European Central bank. There are companies like Monsanto that are using labs to try and clone animals and genetically modify crops, etc... There is even a company that is trying to grow meat in a lab like I said..

Growing meat … in the lab

 

[Tintin]

200 years from now there will be more suffering. Those things you mentioned will be intensified. Anarchy is everywhere. Like sodom and gomorrah part 2. A time when you can only count in the fingers the number people left who are righteous. A new disease will spread its called zombie syndrome and it is caused by eating too much GMO's and foods with secret ingredients such as fetus. The devil loves watching walking dead and decided to make that tv program a reality.

I agree about anarchy everywhere. I haven't heard about this zombie syndrome. It could have some truth in it (I know they put all kinds of crap in much of our food). I'm not sure I believe the fetus stuff (that wouldn't be allowed). But you've given me a few good ideas I can play with. Thank you, Tinkerbell.

 

[wwjd_kilden]

I am a bit pessimistic , so I struggle to think of anything positive in a 200 years from now world.

I think religion will be controlled in larger parts of the world, where only the standardised versions are accepted.
I think there will be more wars, more poverty, more disease and more ... open / visible / displayed sin
(yeah I know you said it wasn't an end times story, but you know... I think there will be more "Ooooh, look at me and my body and my guns and my money and and ...."

T.S Eliot wrote in one of his books "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper"
... I think he got it right.

 

[coby2]

the Millenial reign

 

[coby2]

Aeroplanes and cars on water only for the regular people, the ones with transformed bodies can go anywhere and if you want to bother a CC member you just think about them and whoop you're in their room.

 

[Tintin]

Well tintin, I suppose it depends on what directions you want to take it in. I'll almost entirely be referencing anime (as future is a big topic within that art/entertainment form):

1. Post-Apocalyptic Time Paradox: Mankind advances so rapidly that it ends up almost destroying itself. Only remnants tend to be left of the old tech and history of the 'futuristic or golden age', and things have regressed back to a pretty rudimentary and antiquated state. The realization of this tends to be societies ranging from primitive communism to slave societies to feudalism.

Most also tend to take magic vs science or supernatural vs natural sub-themes when using this approach. Some who are particularly interested in darker themes also like to take humanity to its most brutal and selfish state here (though usually not entirely, but authoritatively), and also tend to add monsters, mutations, etc etc.

Thanks, AsifinPassing! This is some great stuff. The world I'm working on will largely follow your first example (with some differences). But you've really got me thinking. Cheers.

 

[wwjd_kilden]

Aeroplanes and cars on water only for the regular people, the ones with transformed bodies can go anywhere and if you want to bother a CC member you just think about them and whoop you're in their room.

Now that would make for a interesting law enforcement

Criminal gets caught by police
Criminal imagines being on a deserted island, whoosh disappears
Police imagines criminal in jail, whoosh, criminal is in cell
Criminal imagines being on a desered island....