2021 thoughts (since nobody made one)

Taking bets on whether 2021 seems optimistic. :woman_shrugging:

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How about 2030 thoughts?

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In 2021 the West will continue its decline and it will be clear that the East will overtake the West in the future, beginning the Asian Century that will be dominated by China.

Looking back at the second half of the 20th century, there was a lot of turmoil in Asia. I think we will start seeing that in Europe and North America instead. The economic hardship will make it worse than it would have been without the pandemic, similar to what we saw in the late 1920s, fuelling mass movements.

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I have this nagging idea that there will be some kind of currently unthinkable internet crisis.
Everyone is thinking that things can’t get worse but I wonder how many missed exercise and going outside so much that they would trade unlimited internet and an hour’s outdoor exercise a day for unlimited outdoor exercise and an hour’s internet a day…

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We’ll create artificial general intelligence around 2032, which will gain superhuman intelligence a few months later and become impossibly smart for us to understand within seconds. It’ll then keep us like we keep dogs: we get food, don’t have any obligations, lazy luxury life without worry. (meanwhile the AI colonises the universe, accidentally wiping out 95% of life on Alpha Centauri by introducing a computer virus the Centauri AI had never been exposed to).

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Just don’t give me zombies; I hate zombies.

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Sounds like this to me:

And as long as we get to sing in binary like Michael Mills, I am actually ok with that :upside_down_face:

But till 2032, since I am in a “say it with music” mood, I think that there are two most possible scenarios for 2021.
The “good” one:

And the really bad one:

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2021: The Return of the Covid Casualties!

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If it actually happens, I will hunt you. :woman_shrugging:

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This was envisioned (humans as alien pets) in Tom Disch’s Mankind Under the Leash

Zombies actually provide an excellent metaphor in the movie 28 Days Later (not to be confused with the sequel, which was pure trash). And the zombie novel, The Girl with All the Gifts is riveting, although guilty of perverse sentimentality.

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Yep, I know, and also that theory about America producing more zombie or more vampire series/ movies/ (games, in later years) depending on politics era.

Still hate the genre.

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One can exercise also indoors tbh. Feel free to DM me, would be happy to share some info (for free and with no ill intent, just trying to spread awareness of what is available. my mind was blown a couple years back when I discovered this stuff)

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Opposing internet indoor with exercises outdoor is quite outdated now.

People use phone with internet outside and go to gym indoor.
Well around me at least.

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Apologies @ronin3 and @Groin, my poorly expressed thought was about something worse than covid lockdown rather than comparing exercise and the internet or indoor or outdoor exercise.

All I was trying to say was that there are things people would miss more than the things that were sacrificed this year. And that just as we didn’t anticipate the pandemic, who knows what might happen this year that we can’t anticipate. The first thing that came to mind was some kind of internet crisis.

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Just saw a twitter thread (in German language) about news headlines that wouldn’t have made any sense pre-Corona:
https://twitter.com/Schattleitner/status/1358805157795033090

Let me translate some of the highlights for you:

“IS warns terrorists not to travel to Europe”
“Saxons may only move within a 15 km radius”
“After borders got closed, Brits are short of Broccoli”
"Bakeries work as hub for ‘illegal hairdressers’ "
“It’s LEGAL to read a book on a park bench!”
“Vienna transport executes passengers without masks”
“Butcher attracts customers with toilet paper”
“Police discovers hotel full of tourists”
"Kindergartens and schools stay closed - Kretschmann: ‘The mutants are here’ "
“Health department advises to masturbate”
“Why you don’t need to be afraid of the door handle”

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I am bit pessimistic now.
Looks long to vaccine all, mutants are jumping out of the box. People will get more against lack of freedom even if it’s needed and economy policy will consume all his helps
2021 may end worse as 2020

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This doesn’t make sense even now, unless it is being sarcastic or they actually are carrying out very harsh punishments.

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Right. :grin:
It’s from an Austrian newspaper and I translated it literally. It also makes no sense in German German, and I don’t know (just have a vague idea) what it is supposed to mean in Austrian German.

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Seemingly in Austria ‘Exekution’ can also mean ‘seizure’ (Pfändung), just as in English. I didn’t know either of course, before looking it up.

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