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Gryphonadmin
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22746 posts
Dec-31-19, 11:28 PM (EDT)
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"glancing back (and forward)"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Dec-31-19 AT 11:29 PM (EST)
 
Twenty years ago right about now—as the world remarked to itself that, it having been the year 2000 in some parts of the world for a few hours now, nothing seemed to be happening to the computers—I was in the garage apartment at my grandparents' old place in Oxbow, working on... something? The original Aegis Florea, maybe? We had watched the New Year celebrations from London on CBC earlier in the evening, as by 11 o'clock my grandparents were long since asleep, and I don't recall taking specific notice of when it turned midnight in the time zone where I actually was. There wasn't a TV upstairs, and I wouldn't have gone down and turned on the one in the living room with Gram and Gramp in bed.

The 1999-2000 transition was not too momentous for me. I was back from California and living in Waltham by then; I'd have to dig out my resume to remind myself which of the largely interchangeable doomed tech companies I spent that period working for I was on at the time. We were closing in on the end of the regular series of Neon Exodus Evangelion (the last episode to come out in 1999 was 3:7). Symphony of the Sword wouldn't happen for another year and a bit.

That was the last Christmas-New Year I spent in Oxbow, although I didn't know it was going to be at the time. I didn't make it up there the next year, and in 2001 they abruptly sold up and moved closer to (but still not into) the nearest town that had a hospital. I think about that sometimes, how you don't always know that the last time you do something is the last time you'll be doing it.

Not directly related to the above, a random musing about 2020:

Back in the 1970s sometime, there was a secondary feature in a few Superman comics featuring the Superman of the year 2020. I'm pretty sure he was meant to be the original Superman's son, although who his mother was never came up. It didn't really matter, because he was presented as exactly like the regular Superman of the day, just in stories set in that unimaginably distant future year, 2020. I only dimly remember the stories now, but one thing I distinctly remember is a scene in which Superman saves a rich person from jetpack bandits who were trying to carjack (although that word was unknown when the story was written) his flying Rolls-Royce, as one does. They weren't after the car itself, though; they were after the Lincoln Memorial penny the rich man was carrying, which, the narration solemnly assured the reader, was the most valuable collector coin in the world.

And of course there was Cyberpunk 2020, which I played when I was 19. The funny thing is that at 19, I couldn't really imagine being 46, but at 46, I can easily imagine being 73. I dunno if I'll make it there, we can't predict these things, but I have no trouble envisioning what it'll be like if I do.

Only 12 years until Bubblegum Crisis becomes a period piece!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
glancing back (and forward) [View All] Gryphonadmin Dec-31-19 TOP
  RE: glancing back (and forward) Verbena Jan-01-20 1
     RE: glancing back (and forward) Mephronmoderator Jan-09-20 2
  RE: glancing back (and forward) Sofaspud Jan-28-20 3
     RE: glancing back (and forward) Gryphonadmin Jan-28-20 4
         RE: glancing back (and forward) Star Ranger4 Feb-03-20 5
  RE: glancing back (and forward) The Traitor Feb-07-20 6
     RE: glancing back (and forward) Sofaspud Feb-11-20 7
         RE: glancing back (and forward) Verbena Feb-11-20 8
             RE: glancing back (and forward) BobSchroeck Feb-11-20 9
                 RE: glancing back (and forward) Star Ranger4 Feb-12-20 10

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Verbena
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1129 posts
Jan-01-20, 08:44 AM (EDT)
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1. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #0
 
   Amen. And Happy New Year, everyone.

I'm not going to get into my personal life--things are actually going well now for me generally speaking, far better than in 2000, but that's not the topic here.

I'm only a couple years younger than you, Gryphon, and I've felt much the same way. They say that youth is wasted on the young, and it wasn't until I hit my mid-30's that I really understood how little I was even -trying- to understand how the world really works. Now I'm older, wiser, and reflecting that 1000 years ago I'd be on my deathbed now, barely able to share that hard-earned wisdom with anyone. Instead I'm in a good IT job, training people half my age, and it feels good.

Mind you, even in the 90's I looked at Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun (originally set in 2050) and realized that the latter might not and the former definitely would not reflect what technology is really like in that year. A lot of the gritty realism of any cyberpunk genre piece is about how no matter how cool the technology is, human nature (particularly, corruption and greed) is still what drives the story. That general principle is just as true for virtually any sci fi anime.

That said, we may have a unique opportunity upcoming. I don't know how old Mike Pondsmith was when he invented Cyberpunk 2020, but he's deeply involved in the new CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 game. Since he's seen that same sort of change, I'm interested to see if that sort of insight translates to the new setting. (Of course, in game technology still reached unreasonable heights in 2020, so if the rate of change didn't slow down, the point may be moot.)

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge


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Mephronmoderator
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Jan-09-20, 03:29 PM (EDT)
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2. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #1
 
   As far as Mike Pondsmith feels about 2020:

You may have noticed the cars don’t fly yet. But we have tiny boxes that can reach out across the world and cause robotic slaves to do our bidding. We shape metals and plastics to our personal wills, and yes indeed, we make real cyberwar we can put on our children.

So it looks like I got that part right.

But we also have inherited other 2020 things. We have more guns and weapons than we know what we do, and people are shot down every day. There isn’t enough money, not enough food, never enough drugs (except for the corporate approved ones). Our world is running on the edge of self destruction from so many sources it’s an extinction roulette. And the Megacorps do rule almost everything, from the stuff we buy on the vast consensual hallucination we call the Internet, to the entertainment we wallow like a brain dance on stems, to our actual identities and scraps of personal privacy.

So it looks like I got THAT stuff right too.

— Mike Pondsmith

The original.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"


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Sofaspud
Member since Apr-7-06
444 posts
Jan-28-20, 06:16 PM (EDT)
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3. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #0
 
  
>
>Only 12 years until Bubblegum Crisis becomes a period piece!
>

My roommates and I have plans for New Years Eve 2032, and it absolutely involves a marathon viewing of Bubblegum Crisis.

Not sure what else it involves yet -- tacos, probably, but that's a given for NYE -- but we first planned that viewing almost ten years ago.

--sofaspud
--I kind of want to play the 'spot the anachronism' drinking game but I suspect we'd be shitfaced before the intro to Tinsel City Rhapsody is even finished


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Gryphonadmin
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Jan-28-20, 06:19 PM (EDT)
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4. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #3
 
   >--I kind of want to play the 'spot the anachronism' drinking game but
>I suspect we'd be shitfaced before the intro to Tinsel City
>Rhapsody
is even finished

That would happen now, let alone in 12 years. Pay phones! Sylia getting her morning newspaper by fax! Cathode ray tubes! Cabled network connections everywhere!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Star Ranger4
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Feb-03-20, 10:50 AM (EDT)
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5. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #4
 
   >
>That would happen now, let alone in 12 years. Pay phones!
>Sylia getting her morning newspaper by fax! Cathode ray tubes!
>Cabled network connections everywhere!
>
Yea, Verily, shut up and pass the booze, Gryph.

Of COURSE you wernt
expecting it!
No One expects the
FANNISH INQUISITION!

RCW# 86


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The Traitor
Member since Feb-24-09
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Feb-07-20, 09:44 PM (EDT)
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6. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #0
 
   Twenty years ago, I was... seven. Yeah. Things have moved on a bit since then. I've changed a lot. Taller. Longer hair. Girl now, so that's wild. Also, and this is a recent development, I've just got my Masters degree in Creative Writing. A lot of that is down to reading fanfic in general, and UF in particular.

So thanks Gryph. =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.


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Sofaspud
Member since Apr-7-06
444 posts
Feb-11-20, 01:57 AM (EDT)
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7. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #6
 
   >Twenty years ago, I was... seven.

... well, now I feel old.

--sofaspud
--they don't make these standard-issue canes like they used to, I tell you what


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Verbena
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1129 posts
Feb-11-20, 04:49 PM (EDT)
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8. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #7
 
   >>Twenty years ago, I was... seven.
>
>... well, now I feel old.

Yeah. So do I. :/


------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge


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BobSchroeck
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2267 posts
Feb-11-20, 07:52 PM (EDT)
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9. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #8
 
   >>>Twenty years ago, I was... seven.
>>... well, now I feel old.
>Yeah. So do I. :/

Twenty years ago I was celebrating my tenth wedding anniversary...

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.


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Star Ranger4
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Feb-12-20, 06:14 AM (EDT)
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10. "RE: glancing back (and forward)"
In response to message #9
 
   >Twenty years ago I was celebrating my tenth wedding anniversary...
>
>-- Bob

which does not make me feel any older than I know I am, but DOES fill me with an entirely different melancholy.

Of COURSE you wernt
expecting it!
No One expects the
FANNISH INQUISITION!

RCW# 86


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