X-Message-Number: 9693
Subject: What will the future look like? (was: Revivification)
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 14:14:30 -0500
From: Will Dye <>
Jason Shroff <> writes (in CryoNet #9676):
> I am on this mailing list because I am fascinated with the Idea of
> immortality. My hobby is 3D-graphics. After reading Mr. Halperin's book,
> the first immortal I decided to do a sci-fi pic called Revivification.
> It is in the Raydream Gallery http://www.geocities.com/soho/museum/4725/
I just wanted to welcome you to CryoNet. I've been on for many years
now, though I don't post much. It can get a bit tempestuous at times,
and no mailing list is immune from the old signal-to-noise problem, but
by and large it's a pretty good list, IMO. Glad to have you join in!
I looked at your Raydream pic. Nice! The quality of the production
is very professional. I especially liked the coffee cup & office
environment cues like the company logo. The "just another day at
the office" images, mixed in with futuristic stuff, is a good mix.
It adds probable realism, and it provides a way for the audience to
keep a link with familiar things. As you learn more about what
revival will probably be like, no doubt you'll come up with better
ideas about what the patient/equipment visuals will probably look
like.
For what it's worth, I've taken a different attitude about how I
think the future will "look". I think that straight lines and
angles tend to add tension in an image. Simple-geometry curves,
like circles & parabolas, help quite a bit, but even then they don't
match what I see as the most soothing and inviting types of shapes:
natural, especially botanical. Stuff like forests, mountains,
seascapes, and maybe even lines that are borrowed from (but not
overly suggestive of) animal forms. In other words, stuff that
looks like the result of a slow growth or erosion, rather than a
20th-century manufacturing process.
IMO, these growth/erosion lines are more esthetic -- most people
are more relaxed in a serene countryside than in a building. We
resort to straight lines and simple geometries for reasons such as:
1. It's easier to draw out the plans.
2. It's MUCH easier to manufacture.
3. It used to be impressive back when things were done
by hand and manufacturing straight lines and regular
patterns was difficult.
In an age of machine intelligence and nanorobot manufacturing, I
believe that the above reasons will be of far less importance.
Perhaps (as long as we keep the standard-model brain), we'll move
back towards the imagery that we're quite used to as a species.
Thus, when I envision a futuristic scene, I think of it as one which
seems very *historical* visually, meaning that it looks like
something that would be immediately comfortable to most of the
humans throughout history: trees, plants, rocks, horizon, etc.
Mixed in with the natural stuff, however, would be some additions
from the modern world: planned meeting/work/play areas, molded
places to sit or rest (such as a crook in a tree that very slowly
morphs into a comfortable, custom-shaped bed when you rest in it),
true 3-D computer displays (unless we choose to put all the displays
inside each person's retina), pleasing scents that are carefully
planned as the "signature" of an area, fine foods that are literally
plucked off a nearby tree, ubiquitous "foliage" that (among other
things) gently takes away garbage when you toss it over your
shoulder, etc. Of course, there would be still be quite a few
omissions from true nature, such as frequent sub-optimal lighting,
tornadic weather, bad smells, inconvenient pathways, bugs, and the
occasional human-hungry predator. But in this scenario, all these
conveniences would not be extended to the point where they start
to dominate the general look and feel of the environment.
The future would look pretty much like the distant past.
Of course, the future will be quite different from what *anyone*
today can imagine, but I think that scenario planning can still be
useful now and then. Science fiction can sometimes serve that
function, so I take it fairly seriously when it starts to address
things like cryonics and nanotech. To those who are starting to
suffer from a bit of "future shock" from all the potential changes,
it may be conforting to think of a plausible option where the look
and feel of the enviroment would be comfortable and familiar even
to the vast majority of humans in history. We can hardly say that
about a city today.
I would certainly avoid any of the "futuristic" visuals that I think
will be laughable down the road because there will be no good reason
to use it when the future arrives. Things like computers that speak
in halting short phrases, CRT's, and ugly "computer" fonts like the
ones that were designed with tabs here and there to make them easily
machine readable. Such things remind me of laboratories with
useless electric arcs floating by, or everyone dressed in silver
spandex leotards with little hoops around the wrist.
Well, I guess I've kind of digressed a bit, but I hope you found the
idea interesting. Welcome to CryoNet. I hope you find it enjoyable
and informative.
--Will
_________________________________________________________________________
William L. Dye \ "...it would seem that our Lord finds our
\ desires not too strong, but too weak... We
\ are far too easily pleased." --C. S. Lewis
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