Yesterday, I was poking around and reading up on the history of one of my favorite short stories when I saw a Wikipedia link to 2026, when the story takes place. Now, I knew that Wikipedia had pages for each year, outlining major events from that year, but I didn’t realize that they even had coverage for the future. So, of course, I pushed it a bit further to see what else was there.
2058: The Beatles catalogue will enter the public domain (thanks, Sonny Bono!).
2075: The UN predicts the world will peak at 9.1 billion people. And I turn 100.
“In the 44th century, around the year 4380, Comet Hale-Bopp is expected to return to the inner solar system. It last dominated the skies of Earth in 1996-1997.”
5700: “In the DC Comics universe, the Green Lantern at this point will be Pol Manning (actually an identity taken by Hal Jordan and Salakk).”
How far out does it stretch? The 11th millenium and beyond. I’m already planning my party for 10100 (one googol): “If the theory of black hole evaporation is correct, it is predicted by many astronomers that all the black holes in our universe will evaporate by around this year.”
It’s an easy way to lose a lot of time, reading about what’s going to happen.
Posted in Technology
Maria October 31, 2006, 8:09 pm
Ryan, you shouldn’t read too much about the future. It may cause a disruption in the space-time continuum and destroy the universe.
Paul November 1, 2006, 2:39 am
That 11th Millennium page is wild:
“5,000,000,000 (five billion): The Sun becomes a red giant and all life on Earth, possibly Earth itself, is destroyed, barring unforeseen circumstances, unless advanced technology can prevent this.”
Let’s hope that we can solve that problem. If we can put a man on the moon….
jk November 1, 2006, 3:06 am
When I glance at the title of this Ping, my brain reads “Wikifurniture.”