[GreyGhost]

Just for fun, and apologies if this has been done before. I've tried to arrange these roughly in order of doomer-osity. Let us know your vote and the reasoning behind it.

Minority Report
Advanced traffic systems and gadgets abound. There are still slums, but the mainstream live a life of mall-browsing and suburban normalcy.

Blade Runner
Damaged weather adds to the claustrophobia of mega-city sprawl. Cultures overlap to the point of incoherence. Lots of bicycles.

Soylent Green
Extreme overpopulation results in food shortages. What there is being of poor quality and suspicious origin.

Logan's Run
Global civilization has ended - but pockets remain in enclosed biospheres, living pleasant lives (with the exception of certain harsh rules required to maintain this existence).

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
A barren wasteland is sparsely populated by tiny communities desparately trying to survive onslaught from dominant biker gangs.

[Pixie]

The Postman. Say what you will about the plot of the film--that is unimportant. The world it portrays is closest to what I imagine a powered down world will be like (minus the ending).

[Pixie]

To describe: a reduced population scraping for food, isoloated from each other, and living largely without power, except where there is a resource, such as a hydro plant, combined with some knowledge in how to make it work. People squat in the remains of the cities and towns of the 20th Century and gather together for defense against bandits. Eventually, the urge to rebuild a civilization leads to a defeat of the raiders and a return to something resembling a nation, though perhaps on a smaller scale.

[dinopello]

A boy and his dog.

Scrounging for sex and food with pockets of weird societies of varied means and of course telepathic dogs.

[Pretorian]

if you like kaboom movies so much I can reccomend" Letters from a Dead Man" 1986

[DomusAlbion]

I'm with Pixie. Postman describes best the powered down world of the future.

Of course there will be enclaves of technology inhabited by the rich and powerful ala "Soylent Green" or Christian Bales "Equilibrium" but for most the people it will be small towns/communities that prevail by the work of their hands and the use of local resources.

[TheDude]

Beat me to it, Shanny. Don't think it'll be that grim though. At least, not worldwide.

I liked Beyond Thunderdome better for depicting a society, and some of the workings therein. Also the variety - Max wandering around with his team of camels, Bartertown, the H/G kids.

[jasonraymondson]

Bill and Ted San Dimas of the future (2688)


It's real, it just has to be real

[AirlinePilot]

Somewhere between "Children of Men" and "The Postman".

The Postman is really a very likely powered down world. I also agree the book is far superior to the movie.

I'd suggest some other ideas, one is from an Orsson Scott Card book called "Folk of the Fringe". Another is from a book called Dhalgren.

We probably wont do Mad max but I wouldn't rule it out. All of this hinges on everyone basically remaining calm and civilized.

What do you think the chances of that are?

[Madpaddy]

No debate for me whatsoever.

The world of 2050 if it still exists will resemble Monty Python's "Quest for the Holy Grail".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

[Ferretlover]

I think it will resemble a mixture of movies-depending on where you live and what has happened.
There will be aspects of Bladerunner, Mad Max, Demolition Man (above ground and below ground communities), The Omega Man, Red Dawn, Soylent Green, V for Vendetta, and others, and all because we didn't heed Michael Rennie in The Day in the Earth Stood Still!

A Boy and his Dog-that was a good movie!

The only thing left that could add to our problems is invasion by aliens!! (heehee)

[hubbertspeak7777777]

With all this talk about the end of civilization and Kevin Coster, I'm surprised no one mentioned that turd of a movie known as Waterworld. With the rate that the ice caps are melting, the premise may not be so farfetched.

Or maybe something worse will happen... like maybe Costner will start making movies again (gasp!) I'd take an asteroid impact over that any day of the week. After thinking about that horrible scenario, peak oil doesn't seem so bad all of sudden.

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hubbertspeak7777777', 'W')ith all this talk about the end of civilization and Kevin Coster, I'm surprised no one mentioned that turd of a movie known as Waterworld. With the rate that the ice caps are melting, the premise may not be so farfetched.

[Pixie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hubbertspeak7777777', 'W')ith all this talk about the end of civilization and Kevin Coster, I'm surprised no one mentioned that turd of a movie known as Waterworld. With the rate that the ice caps are melting, the premise may not be so farfetched.

[GreyGhost]

The poll results show a level of doom that is higher than I expected. The only truly cornucoppian choice was "Minority Report" and it gets a mere 6% of votes. Not only that, the highest response was Mad Max, with 34% thinking we are there by 2050. Are you serious?

Do you really think the world will be dominated by barbaric hordes, by 2050?

Surely we can at least aim for a world which is still a globally viable civilization, even if it has a reduced population (say 1 billion, that was supported pre-oil). All we would need is:

Mandatory:
* reign in our population growth
* avoid nuclear exchanges
* build alot of solar power plants or other renewable energy while we still have the energy to do it
* preserve knowledge bases, survival encyclopedias in easily readable formats

Optional:
* fusion power

I'm not saying it would be easy, but still.

[Pixie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GreyGhost', 'T')he poll results show a level of doom that is higher than I expected. The only truly cornucoppian choice was "Minority Report" and it gets a mere 6% of votes. Not only that, the highest response was Mad Max, with 34% thinking we are there by 2050. Are you serious?

Do you really think the world will be dominated by barbaric hordes, by 2050?

Surely we can at least aim for a world which is still a globally viable civilization, even if it has a reduced population (say 1 billion, that was supported pre-oil). All we would need is:

Mandatory:
* reign in our population growth
* avoid nuclear exchanges
* build alot of solar power plants or other renewable energy while we still have the energy to do it
* preserve knowledge bases, survival encyclopedias in easily readable formats

Optional:
* fusion power

I'm not saying it would be easy, but still.

[Pixie]

By the way, if I did not believe peak oil was here, I'd have voted for Blade Runner, and in my opinion, that's a far worse future in the long run.