I was reading a book on social life of the upper-middle class and new rich of the American 1920s and realized so many things we now do proudly were considered socially taboo back then. This was especially the case for clothing, makeup, women in certain public spaces, etc. What do you think will be different in the 2120s? Or maybe even the next 50 years?
Wearing clothes of the opposite gender.
Hopefully people’s weird hang up about gender all together won’t be around in 100 years.
I am going to operate under the following assumptions:
-the current global trend towards authoritarian governments will continue and become more prevalent
-balkanization will be the new norm: an atlas will show more numerous and smaller countries
-climate change (extreme heat, extreme humidity and sea level rise) will make large regions functionally unfit for human habitation by reasons of lethal heat and/or humidity, loss of coastal access, lack of potable water and/or loss of sustainable agriculture.
-we’ll be well into the technological curve for AI and robotics. We’ll have gone past the early stage where people over-estimate technological capabilities and far into the later stages where people will under-estimate technological capabilities
-if cash is still legal, it will be useless for all legitimate transactions because no institution wants it. If it still exists, it will only be useful for peer-to-peer illegitimate transactions: crime, drugs and sex.
-whatever is bad now will be worseSo: social taboos that exist today that will not be taboo in 100 years?
-slavery: we already see slavery in all but name in the form of privatized prisons and wage-slavery (work a soul-killing minimum wage job, or die/be homeless). What if the cost of being able to emigrate from a country or region that is uninhabitable is slavery, whether real or de facto? It’s the cheapest form of labor.
-murder: being deemed outlaw will make a comeback. An outlaw is outside the protection of the law, so killing an outlaw is not a crime.
-extortion: governments and government proxies (militias, death squads, religious sects) will exercise sanctioned extortion
-hoarding: if you are living in an unstable balkan state or are an unpopular minority in one, hoarding will not be pathologic
-civilian ownership of firearms
-racism and nationalism; best way to keep out undesirable climate refugees is to de-humanize them
-corporations being into every piece of the pie: a logical extension of the trend to privatization or “wanting government to be run like a business” is the replacement of nation-states by corporations or zaibatsu-like alliances of multiple corporationsHuman genetic modifications for improved physical/mental/emotional performance and aesthetics reasons. I’m sure furries will get what they want someday.
God I hope to wag a tail in my lifetime.
Being overweight. It’s a matter of years before a magic pill cures obesity.
Obesity will no longer be seen as a social taboo, but as a disease than can be cured.
I dunno about taboo, but I think there’ll be a lot fewer “monosexual” (homo/hetero people) and a lot more bi/pan people. I think we’re seeing an increase already in acceptance that most people have at least a few people of their non-preferred gender they’re attracted to, and those kinds of mentalities will permeate to a mushy continuum of sexuality, rather than hard categories.
