So I've been carting around my copy of Cyberspace, set in 2090, but written in 1989, because I like contrasting its rules with those of SpaceMaster:Privateer... and I recently re-acquired the RMSS books of my misbegotten youth on a whim...
That is neither here nor there. What is Here is that I recalled reading somethign about Madonna in that timeline, long after she should have no longer been relevant, and recalling that by all sane 1980's era lights, she already should be long forgotten... and yet, while much diminished from her lofty standing in the late eighties, is still around and seems likely to continue limping along on the fringes of celebrity until the heat death of the sun.
So, out of naked curiousity I pulled out the book and perused the entire Timeline, looking for the exact date of the entry... well, I didn't find it (another timeline in a near future game? missed it? Who knows!).... but I did see some interesting entries, which I figure I'd share, because why not!
It starts in 2000 by stating that all the communist countries start allowing more laissez-faire capitalism, with communism on the decline, though it carves out a special exemption for China with regards to Hong Kong, which makes this entry hilariously wrong. However, it then goes on to talk about retina and voice and fingerprint technologies for Data Security... which is merely... early.
2001 talks about in home FAXing of Media! Hello INTERNET!!!! Oh, also it talks about Navstar tracking of planes and boats, which is actually severely lowballing what actually happened sometime near 2001 with ONSTAR in personal cars...
2008 was the first Whoa! moment for me, when I was going through the list, in that it has a bloody and successful revolution in Iran. Well, the Green Revolution wasn't notably bloody nor particularly successful, but placing it in the timeline? What should be my margin of error for Nostradamus recommendations here? One year sounds emmenantly reasonable!
2013 however, provides one of the more balancingly 'off' entries, when it suggests the reunification of Germany... which as you might recall happened just one year after the book was published.
2014 only draws attention by using Jihads in context with social unrest, but is actually unremarkable, I think... mind you, I'm glossing over all sorts of entries that might be tied to real world events happening around the same time, but are too vague and/or too wrongly specific (the Eco-terrorist torpedoing of an oil tanker happening around the same time as the BP gulf spill? meh. )
2016 however, has a rise of neo-nazism in America... which no matter how you view the politics of the day is still a very spot on placing of Neo-nazi and America on the timeline together. Peroxide futures are on the rise even as we speak!
On the other hand 2018 is when police started wearing kevlar vests, apparently. That seems off by almost as much as the German Reunification!
Going to the Future! we see the rise of smaller nations in 2019 (and a NEW Dali Lama, so we got that going for us, I guess?), then a hilariously misguided and late description of THE NET in 2020, which is coupled with.... The Elimination of the Middle Class in 2021?!?! Ok, that's... creepy.
But then it goes to hell again by having 'Black Africa' invade South Africa to put an end to Apartheid (er... White Rule) in 2022. What the hell guys? THe closer the event was to actually happening the less likely you thought it would occur?
2023 sees widespread proliferation of Nukes in third world nations. Off by about a decade or so, I'd say. On the other hand: No more Speed Limits on Interstates! Lets pray that happens, eh?
There is a fun entry for 2037, where the Fifth incarnation of STAR TREK is on TV, helmed by Kirk's grand-daughter and played by Shatner's Granddaughter. What are we up to currently? Twentieth? Someone didn't understand entertainment executives very well, obviously! I think we hit the fifth Trek show before 2000, but I'm too lazy to check.
On the other hand, they've got Vanna White retiring from Wheel of Fortune in 2055... which seems legit.
I was going to end there, as the entries are increasingly divorced from predictive reality by the rules of Cyberpunk (such as the dominance of Japan and Crystal Palace space structures and Mars being nearly habitable or some shit...), but I do want to call out a face slapper from 2072 where a missing unit of cybersoldiers in South American 'resurfaces' on Easter Island... This is just bad geography, people! You might as well say they surface mysteriously on Hawaii, for fucks sake! Hell, almost any other island in the Western Hemisphere (not saying anything about the Hemispheres of Hawaii and Rapa Nui necessarily) would be more believable. Or are they saying that Easter Island has somehow drifted into contact with South America? Because that would be a bit more important to note than a bunch of psychotic cyber-soldier deserters just... I dunno... walking out of... what? the Jungle? to slaughter all the locals on an Island Two-motherfucking-thousand miles away.
So that's a strange and funny look at the world people professionally predicted for the future way back in 1989. Some entries are shockingly on-point, even if in relatively minor ways, others are hilariously misguided.
So, anyone have any interesting timeline observations to share?
Shadowrun had wi-fi invented 50 years from now, I think.
Predictions about the future, especially in technology, are usually hysterically wrong. Second only to predictions about politics.