Am I living in the future?

I think fantasy will have a beautiful, sparkling bloom when it breaks out of the Medieval Europe mold (mainstream, I know people write other stuff).
There are so many stories waiting to be told, and only so many ways one can write an elf.

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Yes, but that is the commercialism I was talking about. Nothing sells like the tried and true you’ve heard a hundred times. I’d like to see someone tackle the Popol Vuh as source material, or some Aboriginal traditions.

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Nnedi Okorafor writes fantasy that is Africa-centered, so you might want to give her a try.
(thanks @KAOSkonfused for the recommendation, I must fit her books in my future purchases somehow, the previews were cool)

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Wakanda forever

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Great observation. Never realised that it was medieval Europe molded.

My favourite fantasy is Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy.

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We seem to be drifting off topic.
So let’s either get back on topic or ask a moderator to split this and form a new topic - Science fiction & Fantasy - which then could be incorporated into What non-Go book are you reading right now?
And now back to the future :grin:

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Here’s a funny film from 1972 about what living in the year 2000 might be like:
(unfortunately only in German, no English subtitles :slightly_frowning_face: . the last part focuses on “today’s” problems)

And here’s something a bit similar in English:

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This reminds me of the “tomorrow’s world” programs i loved as kid. Don’t know if they can be viewed out of the UK

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No, they can’t :angry:

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Oh dear, YouTube maybe?

This clip makes me feel like the future is already the past! Although I’m not overly surprised that cassette nav didn’t take off…

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Still in the future. Landlines being switched off in 2025…

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There’s some irony there, with the internet initially being transferred through phone wires, and now the phones will be routed through internet wires.

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Seriously though I don’t know a single person that still has a landline in their house. It’s basically just a business feature now with the rising dominance of mobile phones.

My mother barely uses her smartphone for communication, and my father doesn’t even have a mobile phone. If I want to reach them, I use the landline.

The same holds for my grandmother, but that’s perhaps less surprising.

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This is exactly it. I assume there will be some kind of widget that makes a traditional curly wire phone work in this brave new world.

My internet still arrives this way. Who knows if/how this will change… I guess the wires will still be there when the “system” is switched off.

Most people have a landline here, because it’s still way cheaper for people who talk on the phone rather than text.

Also, I’ve encountered many people who use company phones for lengthy personal conversations on the regular, because they are cheapos.

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My mother is the same, but she has a mobile anyway for emergencies and so didn’t see the point to keep paying for a landline.

Mine does which he needs for work, also to my knowledge no landline.

Lucky you <3 I don’t have any grand-parents left. If I did, I admit they would surely still have a landline.

Almost all post-paid mobile plans in Australia come with unlimited talk and text, so essentially all you’re really paying for is the phone and how much included data you want. I’m not aware of anyone out of their teens that still uses pre-paid plans or pays for their talk minutes :man_shrugging: I haven’t personally paid for talk minutes for well over a decade now… and since leaving the home I grew up in, I’ve never lived in a house with a landline.

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No, unfortunately. :crying_cat_face:
I think there’s one such plan, but the cost only makes sense for professionals.

I’ve always had a mobile plan and not prepaid, but many don’t.

Btw, internet connection requires a phone connection by default here, so if people pay it they usually would use it anyway.

I personally normally only call from landline to public services that are charged extra when you call by mobile phone, no matter the plan, and seldom to older people who answer their landline only.

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Here i m not sure if new generation know what is a landline. Some years ago i could get a fix phone as a combo bonus with mobile but i think it was connected via the web

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I think a lot of our NBN (internet) plans come with an included IP based “land line” phone number… but I don’t think many people plug a phone into it… I know we don’t (though technically the number exists anyway should we ever want it)

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