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Need a Date

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
Hello everyone

As some of you might know, I am writing a crime story set in an atompunk(ish) world. Think of the culture of the 1950's in our world, combined with futuristic technology. I have a slight problem however. That is that I can't choose how far in the future the events will take place. My choices are narrowed down to the 2150's and 2250's. Both dates end with 50 because... well I don't think it needs much explanation.

Personally I think 2250 simply looks better as a number. However this would mean that the USA has stagnated culturally for 300 years in this world, which does not feel right to me. On the other hand 2150 might be a bit too optimistic a date for achieve intergalactic travel.




Oh and sorry for the clickbait title. I couldn't help myself :)
 
I actually like the concept that the USA has largely stagnated culturally for about 3 centuries. It kind of fits. We are so divided right now, that cultural stagnation is almost a guarantee. You can't grow as a culture when you have one side blaming the other for everything wrong, and the other side blaming the one for everything not right.
 
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CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I actually like the concept that the USA has largely stagnated culturally for about 3 centuries. It kind of fits. We are so divided right now, that cultural stagnation is almost a guarantee. You can't grow as a culture when you have one side blaming the other for everything wrong, and the other side blaming the one for everything not right.
Actually I think this is exactly when you do get changes in culture. It's when everything is ticking along nicely that things tend to go stale...
To quote Harry Lime...
"You know what the fellow said — in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace — and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
As for a date
2150 looks nicer to me but it is absolutely with no reason behind it...
 

Queshire

Auror
Mind the references to real world politics.

Hmm..... I agree with Cup I guess. For no particular reason, 2150 seems to fit the retro-future aesthetic better to me.
 
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Actually I think this is exactly when you do get changes in culture. It's when everything is ticking along nicely that things tend to go stale...

See, I would agree. Except we're not talking about 2 opposing sides with a third group in the middle trying to make things work. That's how advances always happen- people working in the friction. Now we simply have the friction. Nothing else, apparently.

So I don't have a problem with the original 2250.
 

WooHooMan

Auror
You could go further and say there was some kind of apocalypse and the current setting is the result of civilization "restarting". 3150's sound good for that.
 
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Peat

Sage
I like 2250. 230 odd years of cultural stagnation would make no sense, but neither would 2150. I think you have the problem either way and I'm guessing most readers won't crucify you as long as you take an honest intelligent swing at showing the world moving.
 
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230 odd years of cultural stagnation would make no sense, but neither would 2150. I think you have the problem either way and I'm guessing most readers won't crucify you as long as you take an honest intelligent swing at showing the world moving.

Honestly, it's a handwave that most scifi readers don't much care about. "Oh, hey. It's 3 thousand years in the future and, other than the tech, it's a world I recognize. Cool." That seems to be almost the entire science fiction community. And if the tech is largely the same, but the world is different? They're good with that as well. All you need is a handwave explanation.
 

Vaporo

Inkling
Honestly, it's a handwave that most scifi readers don't much care about. "Oh, hey. It's 3 thousand years in the future and, other than the tech, it's a world I recognize. Cool." That seems to be almost the entire science fiction community. And if the tech is largely the same, but the world is different? They're good with that as well. All you need is a handwave explanation.

It depends on what part of the science fiction you're targeting. For "soft" science fiction like you seem to be looking to write, it's ok to handwave things, but for "hard" science fiction where you actually go and figure out the science behind all of your futuristic technology, you may want to be a bit more detailed.
 
It depends on what part of the science fiction you're targeting. For "soft" science fiction like you seem to be looking to write, it's ok to handwave things, but for "hard" science fiction where you actually go and figure out the science behind all of your futuristic technology, you may want to be a bit more detailed.
Although your not wrong, I was combining what I know of sales in the genre with the concept we were given. "Atompunk" definitely tends toward "soft" scifi, and soft is most of what's selling right now.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I'm with Christopher Michael. It's not going to matter to me one whit. Most everything in Heinlein's future timeline presented a world that was culturally about the same, just with new tech. He sold pretty well.
 
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Russ

Istar
2150 works fine for me.

The pace of technological change is going upwards at crazy rates, and changes tend to stick. I think our world will be utterly unrecognizable technologically speaking by 2150.

Culture is way more funky and sometimes cyclical. You don't have to posit cultural stagnation for the same culture to be in place in one hundred years or so, it could well have changed and simply come back to something that looks like the 1950's.
 
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Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
Thanks for the input everyone. What I gather is that both dates could work for most of you.


2150 works fine for me.

The pace of technological change is going upwards at crazy rates, and changes tend to stick. I think our world will be utterly unrecognizable technologically speaking by 2150.

Culture is way more funky and sometimes cyclical. You don't have to posit cultural stagnation for the same culture to be in place in one hundred years or so, it could well have changed and simply come back to something that looks like the 1950's.


I doubt technology is advancing that quickly, most modern day inventions are merely advancements of previous works. Personally I feel like the rate of technological advancement is slowing down. I do however fully agree with your point concerning culture. Large portions of my world have changed culturally since the 1950's. I Could simply say that this change happened to some degree in the USA as well, but that it simply reverted to its 1950's culture while other countries didn't. That way I can also explain how the USA's culture could remain largely unaffected by numerous big events in the world's history.
 

Queshire

Auror
You could have it where they see the 1950s as a "golden age" and are choosing to model themselves after that era similiar to how the renaissance was influenced by ancient Greece.
 

Russ

Istar
Thanks for the input everyone. What I gather is that both dates could work for most of you.





I doubt technology is advancing that quickly, most modern day inventions are merely advancements of previous works. Personally I feel like the rate of technological advancement is slowing down. I do however fully agree with your point concerning culture. Large portions of my world have changed culturally since the 1950's. I Could simply say that this change happened to some degree in the USA as well, but that it simply reverted to its 1950's culture while other countries didn't. That way I can also explain how the USA's culture could remain largely unaffected by numerous big events in the world's history.

You should google some good articles and data about the rate of technological change currently ongoing. The numbers are stunning.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
No one ever tries to cast the 1970s as a golden age. Or the 2010s! It's interesting what eras we pick for our future visions. And for our fantasy settings, for that matter.
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
No one ever tries to cast the 1970s as a golden age. Or the 2010s! It's interesting what eras we pick for our future visions. And for our fantasy settings, for that matter.

I'm thinking of uniting Japan, England, Belgium, the Netherlands and some smaller countries and regions in a mixture of 1980s/Cyberpunk. Some other country blocs will probably be based at least partly on real world 20th century time-periods as well. So, that's pretty close right?
 
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