Twenty Minutes Into Future Settings

My story is set in 2020-2030, and I need to learn how advanced technology might be during that time. For example, there is a military helicopter that can use sound waves to break through glasses and incapicitate large group of people.

About firearms, will we still be using ammunition based guns or something more advanced?

I also wonder, what kind of computer will we be using in two decades? I'm thinking of voice operated computer that is completely portable, and solar energy might be used enough to power many nations.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I'm writing a story set in the 2040's, and I say "not significantly".

By the 2040's, tablet computers have become the norm alongside laptops (desktops have become mostly a niche thing for gamers and other people who need lots of CPU), currency has gone entirely digital and analog cash has been phased out and made illegal. Artificial uteri and "synth-printing" *

have apparently been invented, because my premise needs these things in order to work.

The capacity of computers has skyrocketed naturally, to the point where a desktop can support a very simple virtual reality system *

VR videogames have recently made their debut on public specially-designated supercomputer systems and some nerds play their own VR videogames on homemade Beowulf clusters.

Alongside, 3D enviroscreens (as I call them) have also made a breakthrough, and it is immensely popular for people to gather and view major news articles, sports, and such in enviroscreen bars. They're too big to have in the home, though. Slightly older than the VR videogames are the games written for the enviroscreen, and it is also popular for people to take their games to these screens and play there.

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I highly doubt that guns will move any significant distance away from ammunition anytime soon. By the 30's, the new non-ammo projects that the military is working on will still probably be a niche thing.

Different people have different accents and irregularities in the voice. Voice-operated computers would either be extremely difficult to set up or just be inconvenient altogether. Solar panels also do not absorb a lot of energy, so they can't exactly power nations.

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My biggest and best word of advice to you is to just read up on the sciences into which you are dwelling and learn what you are doing.

edited 2nd May '11 4:12:42 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Ooo...this can apply to me, since two of my stories (a superhero one and a vampire one) take place in the 2030's.

I heard that they're developing off-shore wind farms that will produce more power than coal plants, so you could use that.

edited 2nd May '11 5:32:47 PM by chihuahua0

Speaking for Remus:

• Guns will still use bullets. The HK 416 and FN Five-seveN are standard issue assault rifle and pistol, respectively.
• Laptops will be the norm, but very large, very thin glass panel screens (as in ONLY the glass panel) will be available to those who can afford them. The keyboards on the laptops will be their own touch screens and can be converted into another viewing screen or the left side of a fold-in-the-middle E-reader. All screens will be glasses-free 3d.
• New cars will all be electric, but barely anybody can afford one so most cars are still current or near-future models. Chrysler and Ford have both gone under.
• Everyone has a smartphone. Most people use a headset. These headsets automatically activate in the event of an important government broadcast, allowing the government to essentially beam propaganda into everyone's brain...

One sec, off to go add that to the script since I really like that idea. Bye!

My story's based in the 2080-2090s, so it's probably a bit later than you're talking about, but "twenty minutes" seems to get shorter and shorter depending on Moores Law.

If I rewind the timeline slightly and focus on technologies from 2050 or so, the world still has:

• Augmented reality and gesture recognition. Imagine the computer from Minority Report, but in a pair of Cool Shades. (3D is automatic, because it projects into both eyes individually.)
• Cryptographic signatures are on everything. Essentially, fraud is impossible, because no computer in the world can compute a fake signature. It simply requires too much effort. (Though otherwise, computer hardware essentially operates At The Speed Of Plot, with the added caveat that the plot does not hinge on a computer being unable to do something that is theoretically feasible.)
• Electrical power is produced by mostly fission but also nuclear fusion reactors, and distributed cheaply via superconducting power lines across the globe.
• The beginnings of a hypersonic rail network appear, using a combination of superconducting maglev trains and vacuum tunnels.
• Supercapacitor research has lead to viable Energy Weapons, and to almost all cars being electric.

That's not all of the plot-important technology, but the rest of it depends on a handwaved bit of physics called "Minovsky Dynamics" and the Phlebotinum that gets built from that.

I think I have a more optimistic view of technology than you lot do.

edited 3rd May '11 5:16:22 AM by Yej

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

Given how many centuries firearms have involved some form of explosive or deflagrating charge propelling a mass at lethal velocities, I don't see firearms changing a hell of a lot in 20 or so years. New materials maybe for some of the high-end models, perhaps a few more exotic weapons available, especially in the quest for non-lethal (as opposed to lethal and "less-than lethal") weapons but there's a metric fuckton of good old fashioned firearms out there and they're not going to vanish in the next couple of decades. People are not going to change to new firearms overnight - not everyone would be able to afford new-fangled weapons and most people are going to stick with what they know and what has proven itself reliable in the past.

Rather than the popular far future image where everyone has high-tech weapons and only a few mad enthusiasts have "ol' fashioned slug throwers", this would be the other way 'round with most people with good ol' firearms and a few people trying out the new-fangled stuff.

Would armor piercing/explosive/incendiary be a common use in warfare within two decades? I just don't have a good grasp on how fast military technology advance.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

IIRC, incendiary rounds are banned by the Geneva Conventions, so no. Not entirely sure about armor piercing or explosives.

edited 3rd May '11 5:45:25 AM by Yej

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

Really? How come?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Actually, no. They're banned by the Hague Convention of 1899, which IIRC bans the use of explosive shells less than 400 grams in mass. Among other things. Most countries are signatories to the Hague Convention, a notable exception being the US. But they abide by the rules anyway.

Of course, given that this is the future, exceptions could be made...cybernetic enhancements are one area you might do that. Lifting projectile restrictions against cybernetic targets is a good move.

edited 3rd May '11 8:06:06 AM by RiotousRascal

I'm also having trouble when it comes to fashion. I like current fashion, especially man in suits and girls in blazer-style school uniform (what do ya call it?) and such. Judging by how fashion changed in two decades past, I think it would be even more radical in upcoming twenty.

Does anyone, especially those of you who have more optimistic opinion on our science, suppose that we would have developed a more renewable energy source in two decades? I sure hope so.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Let's face it: whatever you come up with for 20 Minutes into the Future fashions is only going to reflect the fashion of the present day. See Zenon Girl Of The Twenty First Century, which is from the nineties, and Back To The Future part 2, from the 80's.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.