Future predictions

I find Stephenson’s view of the future somewhat plausible. As far as technology goes, I would almost wonder if he was psychic. Not only did he foresee the internet and some of the subculture that goes along with it, but he also predicted to some extent underarmour (a strong and elastic yet very breathable material) which kind of impressed me. It is hard for me to imagine life without any of the technology we have today though, and I’m pretty sure I missed some of his other technological foresight because I just assumed that it was already in existence.

I don’t believe that Stephenson’s imaginary communities will ever become reality. He seems to predict that as globalization progresses and different cultures are forced to interact, they will feel threatened by one another and retreat into ethnically similar communities. I think this is true to some extent. Some books I am reading now on globalization and religion cite the insecurity that is caused by globalization for the recent growth of Islam. People in the Middle East are confronted with western ideas and technology that threaten their ways of lives, and they turn to religion for assurance. However, there is no reason that people cannot have a strong ethnic or religious identity and still be tolerant of one another. My prediction for the future would be almost the complete opposite of Stephenson’s in this aspect. I would predict that as cultures interact more and more with one another they would begin to mix and become more tolerant with one another. Instead isolating themselves within their own ethnic groups, I predict that people will mix so much that there will only be one ‘race’ of people. When cultures intermix so much and people intermarry there is also the question of how the child will be raised. I would predict that this could lead to one more common religion as parents of two different religions raise children.

I also had a problem with the general chaos that was caused by everything being a franchise. I wouldn’t enjoy living in that type of a world, and I imagine that many people feel the same way. If things were to ever move to this extreme I think that people would express their discontent and we would move towards the other extreme, keeping us at equilibrium between government and consumerism in the long term. The same goes for the ability to sue for just about everything. At a certain point people will get fed up with things and put a stop to them.

Stephenson did do a great job with the technology for the future, but I see his other predictions of more of a social commentary. He parodies the way things are today to make people think about things that that they might not otherwise think about.