The Vietnam War is the Forever War.
So you want the 60s, taken into the future but how far into the future? I mean, what you can do is take what their view of the future would be like. You know, brown American servant robots, flying around in jetpacks, going to jupiter for work in your atomic rocket ship. Or was that the 50s? Or the 70s? I don't know anymore.
Short Hair
The Age of Aquarius was supposed to begin in 1973. Every person on Earth would suddenly realize that we are all brothers and sisters, that labels don't matter, that we should all live together in peace and harmony. All wars would end. Nearly all weapons, including nuclear, would be recycled into tools. The economy would shift to sustainable, organic industries, and most people would move to communes and raise their own food. Hunger and poverty would end. Global warming would gradually subside. Spirituality would increase, but it would be of a more personal sort.
It wouldn't be that easy, of course. People don't magically become tolerant and wise. If we reached a tipping point, though, the demagogues, the greedy, and the troublemakers might become unpopular. Without military pressure, research in some areas would slow down. It might take several more decades before the personal computer or the Internet became a common tool, if ever.
Under World. It rocks!
IRL, President Carter responded to the OPEC embargo by calling for a massive program of increased energy efficiency, conservation, and renewables. His speech stated (accurately) that we could have 15% of our electricity from solar by 2000. With the continued leftist dominance, he would have held on against Reagan, or replaced by someone even more set on this strategy. The money from military cuts and high taxes on the rich could have been used to do this even faster. There would have been massive investment in renewables research; we could very well be mostly renewable by now. You're right that this would have slowed research in other areas; I'd estimate off the top of my head that tablets and such would have been delayed about 20 years, and the Internet, without the foundation of ARPANET, might have taken even longer to become a true network.
Would the system work? The problem with the communes was collective action: everyone wanted to take drugs and have sex (and I can't blame them) instead of keep the places running. Hence all need and no ability. If you tried to structure an economy this way, it would have to be either a command system, which could very easily turn into USSR-style communism, or have a procedure for ejecting people who weren't pulling their weight (see http://www.simpleliberty.org/research/and_then_there_were_none.htm
for details of this concept).
I think it's more fun if you keep the social conflicts that characterized the 1960's going forever, rather than having one of the many factions of that time win. Society is permanently polarized into violent vs. peaceful by reactionary vs conservative vs. liberal vs. radical factions (eight in all). This sounds like the basis of a fun role playing game.
Funnily enough I'm making a super hero setting set in the 1960s. I got a magazine about all the shit that went down in the 60s to even help me look up all the stuff that happened.
rollin' on dubs
Robert Taber's book War Of the Flea was written as The '60s kicked off. His book on insurgent warfare is still studied today.
While he did make a few predictions, one that was off the mark was an insurgency in the United States. While several activists were inspired by the various revolutions, none were able to turn that into real heat in the street...
...except...if The '60s "never ended" then the US would have faced sevearl urban movements boiling over into active insurgent campaigns. And of course a "counter-revolution" from the old guard.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
Not really a setting yet so much as a question.
I'm a big fan of Fallout 3, which, As You Know, takes place in a world where The '50s never ended (well, technically they just stuck around for over a century and ended with a bang).
I've been wondering about what a world would look like if other decades or cultural eras didn't end, and I keep coming back to The '60s. I'm mostly talking about the American Sixties, or possibly British, since I know that the decade has other connotations in other countries.
What would such a Sixties-world have in it? Here is what I have so far:
edited 3rd Feb '11 11:40:59 AM by Carbonek13
Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time, but now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time. - Moondog