To provide some context as to why I chose that title, I discovered this post by https://www.reddit.com/user/Cannibeans/ detailling how they met a man 'Jerry' who claims he's a time travler. They put up an AMA and asked 'Jerry' questions from people who wanted to know about the future.
Please note that ; JERRY IS NOT A TIME TRAVELER. DO NOT LISTEN/BELIEVE HIM. Here's the link to the 3rd post : https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/drnioc/ask_jerry_the_time_traveler_about_the_future_ama/
I'll be copying and pasting the contents here. It is NOT FACTUAL/REAL, there is NO EVIDENCE, but they are detailed predictions, and some are KIND OF plausible. Others not. I want to hear about your opinions in regards to this post. I'd like for you to review and test these predictions.
I will repeat this: JERRY IS NOT A TIME-TRAVELER. THESE AREN'T FACTS, JUST PREDICTIONS. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.
By https://www.reddit.com/user/Cannibeans/ :
Jerry is a man I met at the library. We started talking and he explained to me that he's from the future, the year 2137. He doesn't like our "primitive" computers and so is unwilling to do an AMA himself, but is fine sitting and reading while I ask him questions as per usual. You can find the first AMA here, and the second one here.
Currently I am sitting in the library with him and we're ready for your questions! This will likely be a shorter day than usual but we'll go for as long as we can.
Jerry's knowledge about a great range of topic has thrown me off quite a bit, because he'll casually mention very complex topics and when I do some research, he tends to nail it. No googling on his part. He just rattles these things off while reading a book about a totally unrelated topic.
Jerry was born in 2034 in the New Republic of Arcadia, existing in modern-day Oregon for the most part. He comes back from the year 2137, where the Earth population is roughly 12 billion, Luna (the moon's) population is roughly 1 million, and Mars' population is roughly 2,000.
When people ask what ethnicity he is, he says Arcadian.
Jerry is his "21st century name," invented for him being here. His real name, which he's shown me on his driver's license, is Kajjixi, with an equally odd last name that I won't reveal since as far as I can tell, it's a legitimate ID. The driver's license is part of his fake documents for living in our time, it didn't come from his own time. He said the reason it displays his real name, Kajjixi, is because of an error, and it's supposed to say Jerry.
He said there was a surge in popularity with baby names to go with very unique ones not based in history or tradition, so some people went a little wild, which his parents seem to have done.
He changed his name later in his life, something that's very common when you can live forever. Go through a major event? Change your name, because you're a new person.
He speaks very clearly with an almost.. crisp accent. You can just really tell what words he's using, if that makes sense. Uses complex vocabulary. I consider myself pretty well-read and I've had to get used to asking him what certain words mean that he's using. I've also caught him using some words that aren't technically correct, but his retort is always "You know what I meant, right? Therefore I properly communicated."
He does stand out. He's very tall, easily over 6'5" ft, bald, very muscular with insanely blue eyes. His mannerisms are just very curious. He takes a brief second to think before just spewing out perfectly worded sentences. I can tell he's a very smart person.
The librarian here told me the first day I met him that he's mildly autistic and has been coming here for a while. I asked him about it and he said he was autistic, though highly functioning. I asked that they surely would've cured something like in the future, and he said it's not seen as something that needs curing in the future.
New Republic of Arcadia takes up the northwest, most of modern-day Oregon, southern Washington, parts of northern California and western Idaho. Most of the northern US is sold or willingly merged into Canada. Western coast of California becomes Pacifica. Eastern California, Nevada, parts of Arizona and Utah becomes New Mojave, while Phoenix becomes its own territory to the south and even grabs some of Mexico below it. Texas is still just Texas.
Most of the others keep their general borders but take on various names that have historical significance or are based around leaders at the time who championed secession. Here's some he named: Franklin, Gray, Chicago, Roanoke, Muscogee, Jeremiah, Askan, Barnett, Fisher, Young-Lane
Major Events:
- 2030s - Australia is first to receive a signal from a nearby star roughly 100 lightyears away. The complexity of it insists it's extraterrestrial, but skeptics remain. The message is sent via radio waves and is roughly 13 minutes long.
- Kurdistan establishes itself. Taking up large portions of northeastern Syria, the Kurds enter war the first day they're established with Turkey, citing self-defense. Turkey begins a military campaign to quell the new country at the behest of the rest of the world, and conquers parts of Syria, Cyprus and even begins fronts into Armenia citing Kurdish uprisings. Russia, the US, UK, Australia and numerous other nations step in. This is essentially the largest war that is to come, known as the War of the Battleborn, or the Old Kurdish War. Turkey loses large swaths of their eastern territory to Kurdistan, which the other powers let them keep. To appease their land loss, Turkey gains control of Cyprus.
- United Amazonia forms, largely due to political unrest, but they gain lots of global support as they fight for the preservation of the Amazon in lieu of climate change. Most of the Amazon region of Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana and parts of Columbia join up. The remnants of Brazil form South Brasil.
- Kashmir declares independence, deemed the most significant political event of the century. The locals largely accept death is inevitable from their stance, but do so anyways. Pakistan, China and India keep weapons pointed at one another and now Kashmir, but localized movements near the border with Kashmir on either side gain traction and convince both governments to step down and let Kashmir rule themselves. This also leads to a worldwide Nuclear Agreement to begin decommissioning all nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, China does not back down from Kashmir and refuses to do anything about their nuclear weapons, so the protest movements quickly turn to an anti-China sentiment that spreads even further.
- 2040s - China collapses. Riots begin in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the western regions with a few terrorist attacks. During this, Kim Jong-Un dies of medical issues (conspiracies of poisoning) and the power vacuum within North Korea causes China to attempt to take control, but they fail miserably with the other fronts drawing their attention. South Korea, Japan and the Philippines begin taking in NK refugees and NK declares itself a new government of the people, Choson. However, the damage is largely done and those who do remain don't see any kind of drastic change in quality of life, rather the military just isn't around anymore. World pressure coupled with internal instability causes their government to collapse. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan and Guangdong declare independence. Northern regions vote to join Mongolia. What remains of China reforms into Zhongguo.
- Canada splits into three new countries, Canada which makes up the southern portion from Vancouver to Toronto, Athapask which makes up the northwestern territories and most of the islands, and Quebec, which makes up the eastern part.
- 2050s - The Singularity. Japan invents a very advanced AI that in turn creates a digital haven for us. Everyone "plugs in" to shed their physical bodies and download their brains to the internet to live there forever, as it's seen as the natural evolution of humans. In the first few microseconds, it collapses and everyone is booted out back to their bodies. The AI self-delete the digital world they created, as well as themselves, with only a message to never do something like this again. As the AI was basically seen as the closest thing we could call a god, everyone listened and the plans for it were scrapped entirely. Jerry wasn't part of this as he wasn't old enough to "plug in," but he saw the fallout. The general assumption was that everyone suddenly gained access to all information, but because we're humans, we did the wrong thing with it. Instead of consolidating all we know about engines to make the most efficient engine, we looked up our spouse's internet history, checked financial records of our employers, followed paper trails of our politicians, etc. and within seconds, everyone was out to get everyone else essentially. The AI determined this was inevitable with this kind of power, so it deleted itself and what it created to "save humanity." We never tried it again.
- Shortly after, humanity develops the Cure for Death. The technology is based around nanobots and simple upkeep of the body manually. They're taken daily in the form of shots. Normal people appear perpetually 25ish or "prime," though this depends on when you started taking the shots. If you're 80 when the cure is discovered, you'll appear 45ish perpetually instead. You're not invincible with nanobots, you just don't age, so someone can still stab you in the heart and you'll die. This discovery spurs a new grouping of people called the Naturalists who choose to take on immortality until around 100 years of age, and then choose to die through voluntary suicide, which becomes legal worldwide. It's mostly the older generations that choose to die.
The new version of a modern-day "I'm better than you" vegan is what they call a Naturalist, the
group of humans who choose to die. He calls them hypocrites because they still keep their
immortality up until around 100 years of age, then they choose to die, instead of actually aging
like your body naturally would until you die.
I asked if there was a name for people who choose to be immortal, and he said they're just called
people. He asked if we had a name for people who take medicine, or if it's just considered normal.
Same applies in the future.
- This begins the opening of Cryogenics labs and new medical advancements to bring people back, one of the few successful ways to do it. People frozen even from our time are brought back with minor side effects, given immortality and de-age. Some opt to be frozen again.
- 2060s - Oil Famine. Nicknamed as such because of the economic unrest it causes in the middle east, the large players get desperate and the area breaks down into small wars once more. Saudi Arabia forcibly annexes Yemen and Oman and begins oppressive waves of control in the regions, met with much resistance. Bahrain and Qatar band together with diplomatic relations to Kuwait, Iran undergoes a revolution to form New Persia, Afghanistan loses its northern territory to be Hazarastan, and Israel receives invasions from numerous sides before collapsing itself. Palestine forms and with the area beginning to calm down a bit, other world powers ensure the captured nuclear weapons from Israel are used for reactors to supply power to the local regions, something that seems to actually occur.
- Romania and Hungary apparently have a conflict in the 2060s but it's quickly resolved. Whatever caused it ended up spurring some other drama that involved Serbia and its surrounding nations, and he specifically remembers details about corruption but not too many specifics. By 2137 however, Romania is doing pretty well.
- We stop using paper money entirely by the 2060s.
- 2070s - USA Collapses. During a "cold civil war," the federal government loses power over the states. Jerry specifically says the legalization of cannabis is what leads to it, as the states realize they can pass legislature in direct conflict of federal law and if enough of them do it, the feds will cave. They begin doing this increasingly so until the 2070s when some states begin pardoning federal prisoners and exercising state law to release them within their borders. It leads to numerous genuine stalemates between state and federal authorities and even a few shootings. State nationalism soars and local military bases, staffed with locals, begin disregarding federal orders in favor of state orders. Before long, President Jameson decides that if the American people don't want a federal government, there shouldn't be a federal government. Nationwide county votes decides what counties will join what newly formed republics, and a push in the north even allows some counties to join Canada and Quebec. Out of the USA, 25 new republics are formed; New Arcadia, Pacifica, New Mojave, Phoenix, Apache, Young-Lane, Askan, Fisher, Jeremiah, Texas, Franklin, Atlanta, Jackson, Florida, Roanoke, Muscogee, Chicago, Gray, Virginia, York, Barnett, Boston, New Maine, Alaska and Hawaii.
- We translate the first 4 minutes of the alien message, and it turns out to be physics equations. Most line up with what we already have, but one stands out as being different than our version. Our equation for the gravitomagnetic field for a rotating body differs from theirs. Jerry doesn't know what the difference is, he just remembers news of it being that equation. Debate spurs over who's incorrect, us or the aliens. The message, past this point, appears to shift drastically in structure and still has not yet been deciphered. By this point, we send a message back, though by the 2130s it still hasn't arrived.
- 2100s - Time travel is invented in 2112. Jerry doesn't know how it works, he just knows it's expensive. It's done on a special space station in a large orbit around the Earth and Luna, what they call the moon. It's a small room that you're put into, and once secured floating in the center where you can't touch any sides, the agency in charge sends a signal to the station and you're sent back in time after all the preparations are made. He said from the outside, a person who "warps" back in time appears to freeze before slowly shifting to a red color and then vanishing altogether. The grandfather paradox doesn't exist and he can't change his future. Essentially all they're doing is slipping into a different dimension that occurs however long in the past from theirs, with minor differences. These differences are the equivalent to an atom having a different charge on the other side of the universe, nothing insanely big. Long story short, his future is still our future, he just can't affect his own time by being in ours.
{What animal was most affected by climate change?}
Zooplankton. At some point in the early 2040s, they had a mass dying off that severely affected marine life, and in turn terrestrial life. Humans became more dependent on land-based food than ever which temporarily increased the effects of climate change, but the silver lining was it spurred a fresh wave of solutions to the overarching problem. By the 2130s, almost 100 years later, ocean life is still recovering but slowly doing so. The vast majority of marine life species alive today no longer exist in the future, but they're working on bringing some back through DNA samples.
{What was your education like?}
He received what he calls standard education when he was a child and never went to a university/ college until after they cured death. With suddenly more time to focus on academics, he started college and took dozens of classes that interested him. Interestingly, the concept of a degree was done away with, and instead people go to college for individual classes on subjects that pertain to their profession, not an end-result that has a bunch of "largely worthless prerequisites."
{Who is the most famous person of your time? Who is the oldest?}
Allan Garvey. He's a multi-billionaire and one of the wealthiest people alive, owning the largest colony on Luna and a partial colony on Mars, though he seems to have some prejudice against Mars colonization in general. He made the majority of his money on Earth through the development of cheap transport, hemorrhaging income for years before finally turning a profit in the long run. He used the additional income to begin his empire on Luna through massive mining operations. He also primarily bankrolled the research into time travel, and although he just funded the researchers, he's largely viewed as the inventor. His most recent endeavor is placing asteroids in orbit around Luna to mine.
The oldest person alive in 2137 is around 170, though Jerry doesn't remember their name. This would mean this person was born in the 1960s and received immortality in their 80s. Jerry said this is kind of pointless since every normal person will reach that age eventually as well, so why keep track of it?
{What kind of music and sports are in the future?}
Music is very diverse, and they're going through a cultural shift to very ancient works. The general idea of "useless history" that he's talked about is not something emulated in the music industry, so very ancient instruments and sounds are seeing a resurgence, and genres are largely based around which culture is being emulated. Despite them wanting to remain "authentic," Jerry says a physical instrument simply can't beat a computer emulation in regards to sound quality, so music is still 100% computer but sounds like something more real. Singing is rare, and music is more about rhythms.
The most popular sport is something called The War Games. Crowd-funded teams of advanced robotics literally go to war for public entertainment, with the more ridiculous concepts being the most popular. Essentially a "team" is just a small group of programmers and robotics experts who tweak robots at the requests of the people who fund them. The more money you give, the larger say you have. Once you've built an army to your liking, you go head to head against another army. Winner has to stick with their concept, the loser has to change things up to try again next time. Some examples he gave was one of the more popular ones being themed entirely around robotic dogs, hundreds of them, battling against a team themed around fire, i.e. excessive flamethrowers. This extends to air battles, combat vehicle wars and as part of a special celebrating the 10th anniversary, they did one in space as well. Apparently it was a neat concept but most of the teams couldn't properly design their robots for war in space, so it was one of the more boring seasons. Sometimes teams join up to battle other groups, sometimes they combine into one team. It's a very fluid sport with its own little world of politics, and it's strange if you don't have some kind of interest in it.
{What is social media like in the future? Video games?}
Social media as it exists today no longer does in the future. There's an "app" called Pockit that holds all of your personal information; banking info, identification, a personal bio, etc. Essentially everyone uses this, and when meeting new people you share the base-level information from this to get an idea of what they're like, as well as using it for essentially everything else. The way he talked about it, Pockit becomes the new Google essentially. The days of posting what you had for breakfast are long gone; no one cares anymore.
Video games are massive, and are essentially the main form of personal entertainment. VR is where we're headed but it's so ingrained in the real world that you never technically leave it. Advertisements aren't placed on billboards, they're simulated in VR where everyone can see them. People have virtual pets of their liking, virtual butlers to emulate, and yes virtual significant others as well. He said it's not as common as I likely think, but it's still common enough that it's a whole market.
{What's the current political state of conflict today? (Venezuela, Hong Kong, North Korea, Syria, etc.)}
Venezuela isn't a country anymore, and was merged into a country called United Amazonia. He doesn't know anything about the protests going on, but regards the country as a pretty nice place in his time so I suppose it ends up alright.
Hong Kong loses. China takes control and it becomes a police state, though he isn't sure when this occurs. The only reason he knows this is because in the 2040s there's a revolution and China loses not only Hong Kong, but a few other territories as well, and Hong Kong remains independent up until his time.
North Korea remained secretive and closed off for a long time until they collapsed in the 2040s, surprisingly because of China. China got desperate for control with the other revolutions from all sides, so they began to enact it on NK after the death of Kim Jong-Un and it led to an economic collapse. South Korea took their opportunity and offered support for as many North Koreans as they could, with Japan, US and the Philippines helping out. Afterwards, it largely just becomes a shell of an independent government ruling the very few people who decided to stay.
{ Are cosmetics and plastic surgery still a thing or has orthotropics and mewing taken over? }
Both still exist and are very advanced, able to achieve very real-looking alterations without ever knowing an operation was done. "Not like the primitive stuff you see in your time." It's not as popular, however, since there's so much alteration via VR in the future. People walk around as their chosen avatars all the time, and until you make physical contact it's impossible to tell they aren't there. There's restrictions on what you can and can't be, but there's a lot of leeway in what you can choose. As such, most people just prefer to change their face that way, instead of spending lots of real money on an actual physical change.
You can't physically be any animal or inanimate objects, except for human-shaped robots and mannequins.
Everyone is still human, but with VR playing such an integral role in people's everyday lives, you can take on whatever avatar you want. "Furries" aren't distinguished from anyone else taking on any other VR appearance different from their own, though the limitations mean mild animal features are really all that can be done.
It can simulate touch as well. Since it's done through a brain implant, it simulates textures and everything pretty accurately just by spoofing what those sensations feel like and sending false signals.
{Elon Musk?}
He does know the name Elon Musk and says he's remembered as a pioneer of the future, but unfortunately wasn't part of it as he later becomes a Naturalist, their word for people who choose to die instead of taking on immortality.
{ Is time travel expensive? Are there certain laws about telling people you’re a time traveler? }
He says it's expensive and he had to save up quite a bit for it, though this is his third time. He compares it to a very luxurious vacation for us. I asked him for a specific figure and helped him do some research to understand what money means in our time (he seemed really confused on it), and we came up to about $100k for a trip, not including whatever you're depositing for "proportional income" in the past. For example, he spent enough in the future to ensure he has roughly 10 years worth of money in his account today so he can just live and not have to worry about it.
There are no rules about telling people he's a time traveler.
{ Can he still access the internet and whatnot from his time? }
No, he has to use ours, which he thoroughly hates and therefore just tries to avoid it altogether. Hence, library. He thinks it's primitive, incredibly slow, and filled with worthless nonsense. All the major events I've listed so far essentially come from his memory of them while they were happening or research before the 2050s when they started locking up certain subjects away from public access. You can still get to them, you just need to apply and need a better reason than "I'm curious."
What happens with climate change?
According to Jerry, it goes pretty bad. Our oceans take the biggest hit and still haven't recovered by the time of 2137. By that time, over 50% of the species alive today have gone extinct in the wild, though many remain in captivity for reintroduction at a later time. Coral reefs are no more, the sea levels have risen a few inches on average and global temperatures are very high. Things seem to be going in a better direction, however, with massive CO2 condensers everywhere and desalination programs along most coasts. Most of our energy in the future comes from nuclear and solar power.
You said crimes committed in the past are logged and brought against you when you return to the future. Are there any examples of historical killers that ended up being time travelers from your time?
The only example he knows of was a corporate head who lost his position at a company called Promex and went back in time to murder the founder because he felt it was his fault. It became a big scandal and ethics debate in the future as to whether or not past lives matter in their time, since there's an infinite number of them. Eventually, the argument that "if any human life is given meaning, they're all given meaning" won out, and he was convicted of murder and given the death penalty the next week. He's sure it's happened other times but doesn't know any other specific examples.
What does your day-to-day routine consist of?
Wake up and take your daily shot and pills containing everything you need for the day. He says there's various systems and daily tasks to handle around his home, then he heads off to do whatever he likes for the day since he's retired. Most of the time this consists of staying in and hanging out with friends in whatever VR world they want, but sometimes he'll call a Bud (self-driving car-like drone) and head out somewhere. Sounds like a lax life.
How advanced are cybernetics? Examples?
Pretty advanced, though the use of them isn't very popular. Cybernetics are largely seen as something you get only if necessary, and otherwise you'll want to remain as "human" as possible. There's not a stigma against them, but apparently people who go a bit overboard experience "phantom body" sensations that can get out of control. It's still being studied in his time, but the false sensation of a person's leg falling asleep while they have no actual leg seems to compound until it's unbearable, and they need to be given medication for it to go away. As such, most people just get the brain implant that allows access to the internet and VR and call it a day.
What is considered the standard of beauty in your time? What's attractive?
It's almost entirely personality-based. Since taking on various avatars in VR is commonplace, emphasis on physical appearance isn't much of a thing anymore. Romantic relationships are based almost entirely on personality.
How are babies born in the future?
Everyone is a petridish baby. Doing it the natural way is considered irresponsible and dangerous since you're introducing otherwise preventable complications. In order to have a baby, you have to apply and be approved. Babies are grown in a lab setting in incubators and carefully monitored throughout, with genetic tweaking only allowed to be used to remove genetic disorders and diseases, not picking hair colors or anything like that. Mothers are given a medication to help simulate the chemical processes of being pregnant, without any of the negative side effects. It's more just to help bonding and those motherly instincts. Once the baby is birthed, the parents take over parenting from there.
Are there the equivalent of Amish in your time?
Yes, and they've grown in population since our time. Same deal generally, they don't like technology and instead choose to live in what they consider poverty. They're viewed much more negatively in the future, as they're considered either stupid or ungrateful.
What happens to Native Americans?
After the collapse of the USA, there's a considerable resurgence in their culture. Many of the republics take on names dedicated to them, but it's not just an homage. Since many of their nations remained stable throughout the entire thing, a lot of the new republics include Native American leaders.
What's the most popular VR game?
He says it changes constantly, but the most popular one before he left was a horror-based game called Blinded, where you had to primarily navigate by touch and feel (something simulated via brain chip) while other players give you directions on solving puzzles and navigating a maze. There's another team of players doing the same thing, except their blinded person is out to kill the other. Oddly enough this is a Disney game.
What's the most popular general brand?
Disney runs entertainment, GrayCore runs travel, VP runs food.
What's the deal with firearms in the future?
Military weapons are largely railgun and missile based, with some lasers thrown in for defense. Personal defense largely doesn't exist in the form of firearms, as police forces are mostly drone-based with an average response time of 1 minute in the city.
What happens to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?
Something called Commodity takes over. It's essentially a cryptocurrency with basis in real-world commodity; so having 400 comms is the equivalent to, say, 100 grams of silver.
{ What is marijuana use like in his time? } and {What about the opioid crisis and other harmful drugs}?
Cannabis is kept but is seen as primitive if you smoke it. Instead, they have an altered synthetic THC molecule that gives a much better high with no negative side effects (dry mouth, dry eyes, paranoia, etc.). Recreational drugs are very common and legal, and there's a wide variety, all synthetic, that do whatever job they're meant for even better.
Addiction is still around, but is easily managed with medication to the point it doesn't really matter. You get addicted, you can get clean tomorrow.
{How are we progressing on the social equality front? (racism, sexism, etc)}
This was one I asked early on, I was curious too. Most of that is pretty much eradicated, though he said the difference in treatment career-wise between male and female, we'd likely call sexist today. He said it's very biologically-based, so some jobs only take either male or female, with few exceptions. I asked for an example and he said generally, females perform more intellectual roles, such as teaching, and males more manual roles, such as mechanics.
{What kind of jobs to people have? Are we still service oriented?}
Sort of. Humans guide machines to do the work. I mentioned mechanics, I was curious about that because it seems like something we would've eradicated, and he explained that if, say, a drone breaks down, a mechanic would take it apart by guiding robots to do the heavy lifting, get into the computer of the drone, troubleshoot with the help of AI, fix the problem with the robots, get the drone working again. He said it's like every position is management, and your subordinates are robots.
{What societal problems does his society have?}
There is still some animosity between regular people and Naturalists, humans who choose to take immortality until they're 100 or so, and then choose to die. Jerry specifically compared Naturalists to humans who refuse to take medicine, and asked if we had a name for humans who do take medicine, or if it's just normal. I said fair point. He sees the Naturalists as kind of how we see vegans, but if vegans were way more hypocritical. Naturalists treat others who keep it as abominations of nature, despite scientists proving long ago (has this already happened? or will it happen?) that without our broken biology, humans could safely, naturally live to be nearly 200. He described them as very pompous people and treat others terribly, all just because they want to die.
{Do people still have children? What happens when you get tired of living? Do you stop taking the nano bots or is there a type of euthanasia? Maybe it hasn't happened yet as the oldest person is only 170...}
Yes, but it's not nearly as common. Most people don't, and those that do rarely if ever have more than one kid. If you get tired of living, which has happened according to him, you can go to have your nanobots shut off and then wait another 80ish years to die, or just get euthanized. Voluntary suicide is legal and generally seen as the way to go.
{ What happens to religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism? }
Buddhism sticks around as the most popular religion (not even 4% of human population), all the others are barely practiced at all and largely forgotten. Mostly everyone is atheist. When we first talked about future religions, he mentioned that the vast majority of humanity was atheist, with little pockets of religion still existing. Specifically, he said buddhism was still around and of all the religions, the most popular. He doesn't know much about it, but knows it's very popular in Tibet and is ceremoniously their official religion, one of the few governments to have one. Side note, they're one of the territories that gained independence in the 2040s.
{ How do people in his time view LGBT? How do people prevent interbreeding with relatives ? }
Sexuality is like hair color, you can just do whatever. No religion means no basis for homophobia, and overpopulation means no social pressure to procreate, so bang who you like. Population of 12 billion, I figure there's enough fish in the sea (not literally, apparently most fish are extinct).
{Does the UN exist?}
Yes, the UN sexists but has been overhauled so many times it's basically a whole new thing. Aside from India, United Amazonia (Brazil, Venezuela, a few others), New Haven (New Zealand) and the various republics that now make up the former US, power is pretty evenly distributed.
{What about race and colour?}
Races and color still exist but the concept of racism is largely gone. He said if anything, it's been flipped, since we've learned that "pure" humans are African, and most other races are in-part the result of breeding with other hominid species, making them less human technically.
{ What are some crazy new Innovations (other than time travel and Pockit and Immortality) that has ultimately changed the way people lived in that dimension.and how far has video, camera, VR quality and 3D replicating gone? }
He said he misses is the ability to download information. When you're born you're given a small brain implant that connects you to the internet, and the majority of your learning comes from that. Someone can bring up a topic you've never heard of, but in a matter of seconds you've got a fairly good grasp on the basics. The topics and depth of the information itself is very limited, but he says it's frustrating to hear about something new and not be able to just immediately understand what it is.
Cameras/videos didn't get much more advanced than they are today, at least in how we perceive them. They're high quality in the future, but because our eyes are biological and faulty, we can't get the full benefits from looking at them. Instead, you take a picture, and then have fun zooming in until you can make out essentially microscopic details. However, by the time of 2137, they're outdated technology as a whole. Instead you use the same product for emulating VR to capture an entire scene, and can them emulate it around you at a later time. Really enjoyed that one picnic you took after a long hike up a mountain? A picture can help you remember, but why not relive it and have it perfectly simulated around you in VR?
{ Marriage?}
Marriages are still a thing but they're equated to roommates for tax incentives, it's no longer considered a romantic affair. Instead, people are more fluid in their relationships and go along more naturally with how they feel instead of along arbitrary hallmarks like being "official." Most people have a romantic partner for a few years and then move on to someone else, with plenty of variance as well. People do meet and stay together for the rest of their lives.
{Can you travel to the future?}
Yes, forward time travel is possible, but hardly anyone does it. When going to the past, you can pay extra to have a bank account filled with proportional funds to live in that time, something Jerry's done. However, when traveling to a time that's already invented time travel, the same agency runs it throughout, so they will always send you to their agency to be processed and won't let you transfer funds so you don't ruin their economy. As such, going forward in time is being thrusted into the very bottom of a society you don't understand, so why would you do that when you can go back to the 80s and be filthy rich for a while?
{Do people live in Abundance or is there poverty? What about 9-5 jobs?)
Generally, people are pretty well off, but there's still poverty in some parts of the world. Much less than today. 9-5 jobs aren't a thing anymore, people work a few hours a day, 3 days a week. Mostly everything else is handled by AI.
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