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Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Difference between revisions
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Obviously, the setting of most [[Flash Forward]] stories, though they usually don't make a big deal of it except as a minor joke (in the case of a show like ''[[The Simpsons]]'', a major joke). Of course, [[Science Marches On]], so it's fun to watch 10 years later to see how wrong they got it.
Shows set here seem to have a higher than usual failure rate, as well as falling victim to [[Science Marches On]] and [[The Great Politics Mess
Both ''[[Max Headroom]]'', and the film ''[[Brazil (Film)|Brazil]]'', [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] the [[Zeerust]] problem by setting themselves explicitly "20 Minutes into the Future" and "Somewhere in the Twentieth Century," respectively (rather than identifying specific dates) and by [[Schizo
See also [[Next Sunday AD]], which is completely indistinguishable from the present, but claims to be happening in the future anyway. How much [[Applied Phlebotinum]] it takes to flip [[Next Sunday AD]] into full-scale Twenty Minutes Into The Future is an interesting question, since many stories employing fictional technology are actually set in the ''present''. Compare to [[Urban Fantasy]] as the magical version. Inverted by [[Twenty Minutes Into the Past]].
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** ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion (Anime)|Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' justifies the tape player by establishing that it was his ''father's.''
* ''[[Serial Experiments Lain (Anime)|Serial Experiments Lain]]'' has a creepy [[Opening Narration]] that states "present day, present time", but it's obvious by the cell-phone-esque HandyNAVIs and the existence of a [[Cyberspace]] that this is not the case.
** A direct [[Shout
** There are some indications that it actually takes place in an [[Alternate Universe]].
* ''[[Patlabor]]'', made in 1988 and set in 1998. "This story is a work of fiction -- but in ten years, who knows?"
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== [[Film]] ==
* Seminal movie example: ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', which in the titular year had commercial spaceflight and space stations, moon bases, cryogenics, and at least two sentient computers. Oh... and [[The Great Politics Mess
* The sequel, ''[[Two Thousand Ten|2010: The Year We Make Contact]],'' had a major confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union occurring back on Earth in that year.
* It's looking like we won't [[I Want My Jetpack|get our hoverboards and flying cars]] in time for ''[[Back to The Future]]'''s vision of 2015. The humongous six-channel televisions are getting there, though, and at least it doesn't [[Ridiculous Future Inflation|cost $50 for a Pepsi]]. And beating the movie by four years, [http://www.geekologie.com/2011/09/nikes-back-to-the-future-shoes-are-here.php Nike released the self-lacing sneakers in September of 2011]. It gets more fun when you listen to the DVD's audio commentary by the producers and staff: "Queen Diana... we really missed the mark on that one."
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* ''[[Gattaca]]'' is frighteningly plausible. Beyond the culture shift brought about by genetic engineering, we see little that would be out of place in our own society, except perhaps the neo-noir fashions and pianists with twelve fingers. However, the fact that we people can map and interpret the entire genetic makeup of a human being, based on a raw cell sample, in a matter of seconds using only a handheld device is far beyond what we're likely to have in the near future.
* ''[[Minority Report]]'' famously had a group of futurologists working on the staff of the movie to make the shown future as plausible as possible. Discounting the precognitives and the somewhat improbable traffic system, the future they came up with, with its omnipresent retinal scans and subsequent total loss of privacy (as well as businesses using said scans to bombard you with advertising) and gesture-based computing controls, certainly could happen.
** With reference to the gesture-based controls, anyone who has seen an [
*** Well, technically the [
** Probably not his rapid-recovery eye transplants though, barring levels of nanotech not otherwise demonstrated in the film.
** There is frequent use of thin and flexible OLED displays, most prominently for advertisement and commercial purposes, such as showing animated cartoons on a cereal box.
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** It could also be taken to mean that the Autobots have either taken it upon themselves or at least helped to repair the damage done to the pyramids in Giza by Devastator ''Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'', during the ten years between both movies, as "Revenge of the Fallen" is set in 2009.
* Poked fun at in ''The Lake House'', when the female lead (who lives [[Next Sunday AD|two years in the male lead's future]]) teases him by claiming that [[Zeerust|people eat food pills and drive flying cars]] in her not-at-all-distant future.
* Implicit in the 2010 ''[[The a Team (Film)|The a Team]]'', where the "crime they didn't commit" takes place during the supposed final US withdrawal from Iraq and the UCAVs that attack the team's plane are namechecked as [
* In ''[[Inception]]'', the only futuristic technology seems to be the technology to enter another person's dreamscape, but that is only used by a small number of people.
** Used ''constructively'' by a very small number of people. We get a brief glimpse of an "opium cave" where people go to have shared dreams in Mombasa - That pretty strongly implies that unless it's illegal, and if it is, it probably has a fair deal of recreational use in the Western world, as well.
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** The themes in the book extrapolated heavily from the 1950s "[[The Beat Generation|Beat Generation]]" subculture, which was the precursor to the counterculture movements of the '60s and early '70s. Its "Church of All Worlds" was based on elements of the neo-pagan/"New Age" mystery religions which were gaining popularity among disaffected youth of the time. Heinlein himself wrote that the book "could not be published commercially until the public mores changed. I could see them changing and it turned out that I had timed it right." Many prominent figures of the counterculture would refer to ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' as a major influence on their thinking and philosophy, particularly the aspects of free love, communalism, and social liberation. Beyond merely predicting the counterculture, the book helped to create it.
* [[Spider Robinson]] has a habit of setting stories five to ten years in the future and including elements such as zero-gravity vehicles, over-population to the extent that murder is no longer a crime even in ''Canada'', futuristic swear words ("You taken slot!") that have completely replaced our current Saxon words, and dilating doors" and a character glancing at his "watch finger". Robinson has in fact had to redate some of his own stories in reprint: the original (1982) edition of ''Mindkiller'' was set in 1995 and 1999, the reprint in 2005 and 2009.
** His [[
* David Brin's ''Earth'' is set in 2050 or so, and one of the primary notes in his foreword is how ''difficult'' it is to create a believable world set 50 years in the future.
* Earth in Garth Nix's ''[[Keys to The Kingdom]]'' books seems to be situated here, especially in terms of medical technology -- understandable, as part of the backstory involves a deadly flu epidemic.
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* Carl Sagan's ''[[Contact]]'' was written in 1983 and set in the late 1990's. Sagan did not foresee the fall of the Soviet Union at the time of writing and the Soviets had a large role to play in the events. He also did not foresee the cell phone, as characters used pagers still. He did ambitiously have a character who solved the grand superunification theory (something that eludes us even today and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future)... And other human technologies that turned out to be beyond what eventuated in the late 90's, such as orbital space stations serving as retirement homes for those who wished to extend their lifespans and could afford it, and shuttle services to go between earth and station.
* Justin Cronin's ''The Passage'' starts in a 2018 where A terrorist massacre in the Mall of America has resulted in an America wherestate borders have checkpoints, a second Class 5 hurricane has resulted in New Orleans becoming directly controlled by the federal government and Jenna Bush is Governor of Texas. Also India and Pakistan nuked each other. [[It Got Worse|The it gets worse]].
* Harry Harrison's 1966 novel [
* ''Taken'' by Edward Bloor takes place sometime in the 2050s. The date is never specified, but it is hinted at by characters mentioning the recent 100 year anniversary of ''[[I Love Lucy]]''. The major differences are that indentured servitude is legal, the ultrarich live in extremely gated communities, and it is common for the children of the ultra rich to be kidnapped for ransoms.
* It's implied that ''[[Ender's Game]]'' and the ''[[Enders Shadow]]'' series take place in Earth's near future; Earth itself is almost unchanged, but military technology is much more advanced (though it also appears to take place in an alternate world where the Warsaw Pact remained a powerful threat). [[Fridge Brilliance|It could be that in a world where aliens have attacked and killed a sizable amount of people, all funding when straight to the military and space travel, causing other technology on Earth to stagnate.]] The books following ''[[Ender's Game]]'' explicitly take place 3000 years after the first one, so it's averted there.
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** This is most likely because Bellisario wanted to keep the time-travelling within Sam's lifetime, but also within the audience's past, so the show's "present" couldn't be too far in the future.
* ''[[Sea Quest DSV]]''. Genetic engineering. Compulsory vegetarianism. Air-processing plants. First season: 2018. And the "Dagger" [[Super Soldiers]] created during the "Dark Age of Genetics" (2001-2003).
* The setting of a bunch of episodes of ''[[
** In ''Mawdryn Undead'', producer John Nathan-Turner demanded that one of the story's time periods be 1977. This caused Script Editor Eric Saward incredible trauma, because he knew about the UNIT dating situation and, more importantly, he knew the fans knew and would pillory the creative team for the 1977 decision. This is exactly what happened.
** The Second Doctor's companion Zoe comes from the 21st century, but few dates are given for her era... until in ''The Mind Robber'' (aired in 1968), she is familiar with a cartoon character from the year 2000, implying that she's from a few years past that time at most. Or that she's a comics geek, which wouldn't be out of character for her.
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* Inverted in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' in the episode "2010", where contact with an advanced civilization willing to share technology makes 2010 a much different world than it was at the time of filming. A very visible bit of [[Zeerust]] is the fashions of this 2010: taking a cue from ''[[Wild Palms]]'', President Kinsey wears an outfit that would look more at home in ''1910''.
* ''[[Space Island One]]'' was set on a space station just a hair more advanced than would be possible today.
* An interestingly related setting is that of the new ''[[
** The prequel series ''Caprica'', set about 50-60 years prior to the main series, follows the pattern to a degree by dressing the characters in fashions reminiscent of the '40s and '50s.
** In addition to similarities in clothing, the series features other modern-day elements, such as British rifles and American HMMW-Vs.
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* ''[[Trauma Center]]'': It's 2018. AIDS has been eradicated, tumours can be removed by a simple process, and there's a wonderful antibiotic gel that disinfects, arrests bleeding and ''instantly heals'' small wounds. On the other hand, weird man-made parasites called GUILT are tearing up your organs from the inside, petrify your liver and wrap webs around your heart, draining it of its energy.
* ''[[Uplink]]'', written in 2001 and focusing on [[Hollywood Hacking]] in Far-Off Year of 2010 AD, has more than a few issues. For the more technically-oriented gamer, this can lead to either [[Narm]] or [[So Bad It's Good|unintentional hilarity]]. A 60 GHz processor is quite slow (a tribute to the megahertz race of the moment), and gateway computers with multiple processors are common, while only specialized systems support daughterboards. BBS software still holds a major part in the world, and [[Inter NIC]] can be used as a proxy and hacked into with a basic dictionary attack.
* ''[[Frontlines Fuel of War|Frontlines: Fuel of War]]'' takes place in the year 2024. The biggest differences are that military robotics are widespread(everything from hand-held flying recon drones to [[Gatling Good|minigun]] and [[Stuff Blowing Up|mortar]] equipped mini-tanks to hand-held miniature attack helicopters to automated sentry guns); the XM8, or at least a heavily modified version of it, is in widespread service; and that oil is about to run out(specifically, [
* The SNES cult classic ''[[Earthbound]]'', released in North America in 1995, takes place in ''199X'', making it seem like a very different game once 2000 rolled around.
* ''[[Killer 7]]'', with a good measure of alternate history.
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[[Category:Hollywood History]]
[[Category:Cyberpunk Tropes]]
[[Category:Twenty Minutes Into The Future]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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