Sci-fi Anime from the past. Shit they got wrong or right about the distant future, only decades later.
| It's the far distant future… THE YEAR 1999+ lol Sci-fi Anime and just fiction in general, have always loved throwing out distant-future dates that don’t feel so distant anymore. Turns out, a lot of those futures are now. Some predictions hit closer to home than anyone expected, others are hilariously off the mark. Case in point, "Silent Möbius" , set in the far-off year of… 2024. lol Beyond hovercars, space-age skyscrapers, and architecture that look like they were sketched up as rejected ideas on a slow day in something like George Lucas’s notebook, "Silent Möbius" actually nailed a surprising amount about the “future”. One big one? Environmental collapse. In "Silent Möbius", Tokyo is a city choking on its own hubris. In reality, we’re watching climate change hammer modern cities in eerily similar ways. Tokyo literally built an underground “cathedral” to keep floodwaters at bay, and the government is scrambling, to this day, toward net-zero. Swap "Lucifer Hawks" for record-breaking heatwaves, mega-storms, and overflowing rivers, and suddenly the AMP’s work feels a little less like fantasy and a lot more like allegory. Where it completely goes off the rails is obviously the supernatural shit. No interdimensional demons, no psychic police squads, no magical barriers holding the world together (unless you count bureaucracy. lol). Our actual “weapons” against existential threats are now AI models, urban planning, and infrastructure... not mystical swords or spirit charms. Even some of the technology featured in the 1991 "Silent Möbius: The Motion Picture" film got a lot of shit right about technology. Where today we have micro communicators, computer tablets, to even destructive gun like weaponry one can hold with a single hand. Even today we have AI that one can actually have conversations with too... Even to this day, Japan still uses Fax machines too. lol But that’s kind of the genius of "Silent Möbius". It was never really about the demons. It’s about what happens when humanity ignores the cracks in its own world until they widen into full-blown catastrophe. The Hawks are just a flashy metaphor for the things we’d rather pretend aren’t there until it’s too late. So yeah, "Silent Möbius" in 2024 is both hilariously wrong (sorry, still no psychic cops) and uncomfortably right (turns out environmental collapse doesn’t need monsters to feel apocalyptic). In the end, the scariest part isn’t the fantasy, it’s how close the metaphor cuts to reality. lol For an Anime released in the 90s, where the distant future was actual not that far off... "Silent Möbius" got a lot about the future right than wrong. Unlike a classic modern example in western media, like "Back to the future", where the author Zemeckis got so much shit wrong about the distant future in the year 2015, that it's comical in itself. lol Anyone else wish to share some examples? |
ColourWheelAug 30, 6:10 AM
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| I know I saw tablets in one anime. I forgot which. |
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I know for a fact in 80's scifi anime that takes place in 2500's they still used wired phones and CRT TVs and vhs, lol vhs was being phased out by the 1990's. |
| Ghost in the Shell (1995) was right about some things, like thinking entities (machine intelligence) being created in the sea of information (big data). https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/the-puppet-master-was-right-ghost-in-the-shell-at-30 |
| Maybe war?😅 that never ends... surely touch screens/panels too, although I can't think of an anime where I saw them in last. |
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| Akira is an obvious example. Released in 1988, set in 2019. It somehow predicted Tokyo would be hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics, but I don't think Akira's future got much else right. It's very much a vision of the 80s' Japan: teenage delinquents without a future, violent biker gangs, a decaying metropolis, societal collapse, daily protests and crackdowns, doomsday cults, unchecked military operations, laser weapons, esper research in secret government labs... |
| My favorite is Idol Tenshi Youkoso Youko, made and set in 1990. Episode 38 claims that smiling will disappear 30 years in the future. Sure enough, I saw no smiles in 2020. Remember11 (2004) predicts that by 2011, Japan will not require people to change their name to match their spouse when they marry. It also predicts human cloning. |
| その目だれの目？ |
| "Shit they got wrong or right about the distant future, only decades later." This is called retrofuturism. It has its audience - people enjoy the stories, the characters and the concepts as an interesting failed thought experiment. Also such shows are sort of time capsule what people were thinking about the future in this time period. The anime in focus - Silent Möbius...naaah, too melodramatic my taste. The german dub on Vox didn't helped much, since my knowledge of the language was (and is) almost non-existent. I have dropped it several episodes in. |
Reply to Zarutaku
Ghost in the Shell (1995) was right about some things, like thinking entities (machine intelligence) being created in the sea of information (big data).
https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/the-puppet-master-was-right-ghost-in-the-shell-at-30
https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/the-puppet-master-was-right-ghost-in-the-shell-at-30
| @Zarutaku uh, machines can't think the term "artificial intelligence" doesn't just mean created by man, it means the apparent intelligence is just a simulation if it could think it'd be sentient sorry but your chatbot is not sentient |
Reply to XMGA030
@Zarutaku
uh, machines can't think
the term "artificial intelligence" doesn't just mean created by man, it means the apparent intelligence is just a simulation
if it could think it'd be sentient
sorry but your chatbot is not sentient
uh, machines can't think
the term "artificial intelligence" doesn't just mean created by man, it means the apparent intelligence is just a simulation
if it could think it'd be sentient
sorry but your chatbot is not sentient
| A classic case of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect Michael Kearns said: "people subconsciously are trying to preserve for themselves some special role in the universe". By discounting artificial intelligence people can continue to feel unique and special. |
ZarutakuAug 30, 10:14 PM
Reply to Zarutaku
A classic case of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect
Michael Kearns said:
"people subconsciously are trying to preserve for themselves some special role in the universe". By discounting artificial intelligence people can continue to feel unique and special.
"people subconsciously are trying to preserve for themselves some special role in the universe". By discounting artificial intelligence people can continue to feel unique and special.
| @Zarutaku It's nothing more than a collection of zeros and ones. Being made more complex than ordinary software doesn't cause it to miraculously cross the line over to consciousness. Those people are bullshitting everyone when they claim that a piece of software is literally conscious. It's a joke being played on the masses backed by nothing but sophistry. I remember when teachers and parents would always sharply correct kids for calling a computer "smart," because that signifies intelligence, which means sentience. Now everything with a PCB is "smart" and literally has a soul. Haha.... |
Reply to XMGA030
@Zarutaku
It's nothing more than a collection of zeros and ones. Being made more complex than ordinary software doesn't cause it to miraculously cross the line over to consciousness. Those people are bullshitting everyone when they claim that a piece of software is literally conscious. It's a joke being played on the masses backed by nothing but sophistry.
I remember when teachers and parents would always sharply correct kids for calling a computer "smart," because that signifies intelligence, which means sentience. Now everything with a PCB is "smart" and literally has a soul. Haha....
It's nothing more than a collection of zeros and ones. Being made more complex than ordinary software doesn't cause it to miraculously cross the line over to consciousness. Those people are bullshitting everyone when they claim that a piece of software is literally conscious. It's a joke being played on the masses backed by nothing but sophistry.
I remember when teachers and parents would always sharply correct kids for calling a computer "smart," because that signifies intelligence, which means sentience. Now everything with a PCB is "smart" and literally has a soul. Haha....
| Sounds like you believe the human brain isn't a biological computer. |
Reply to Zarutaku
Sounds like you believe the human brain isn't a biological computer.
| @Zarutaku It's a biological interface between consciousness (the soul) and matter. Someone oughta ask their AI if it had a near-death experience after they last powered it off. Better yet, astrally project and see if they can't contact this allegedly sentient computer program on the other side. Thing's just not alive. If it's not alive it's not capable of thinking. |
Reply to XMGA030
@Zarutaku
It's a biological interface between consciousness (the soul) and matter. Someone oughta ask their AI if it had a near-death experience after they last powered it off. Better yet, astrally project and see if they can't contact this allegedly sentient computer program on the other side.
Thing's just not alive. If it's not alive it's not capable of thinking.
It's a biological interface between consciousness (the soul) and matter. Someone oughta ask their AI if it had a near-death experience after they last powered it off. Better yet, astrally project and see if they can't contact this allegedly sentient computer program on the other side.
Thing's just not alive. If it's not alive it's not capable of thinking.
| Sorry, I'm not interested in spiritual debates. |
 ..................................... |
XMGA030 said: Callin' BS right now. That was NOT in dirty pair. That was actually a pretty well known episode for it's time period. From the episode, “Love is Everything! Risk Your Life to Elope!”. If I remember correctly, I think the original line actually came across as a rhetorical question (the way it was being stated), not some flat statement. Some shit along the lines of like “Imadoki junin ni hitori wa seitenkan shiteru jidai yo?” "imadoki" = nowadays / these days / in the present age / in this day in age. "junin ni hitori" = one in ten people / one out of ten. "seitenkan" (sei)+(tenkan) "sei" = sex / gender, "tenkan" = change / conversion / transformation / reassignment. "shiteru" = doing / is / are doing / being in the state of doing / has done. "jidai yo" (jidai)+(yo), "jidai" = era / age / period / the times. Where adding "yo" at the end is simply just a sentence ending particle shit like saying "you know" or "I’m telling you". In the context of this being a question, it could even be loosely localized as "Nowadays, don't we live in an era where one in ten people have transitioned?" Not like I watch anime with subtitles, but whoever localized it in that screenshot, did a good enough job minus the fact they didn't realize it was simply a fucking rhetorical question not a statement. lol This is also a perfect example where humor gets lost in translation. Because someone stating something like this is just fucking ridiculous. That would mean anyone's immediate family that consists of a dozen members on either parent's side of the family, at least one person has had a sex change. lol Maybe if Anime was produced with a fictional "live studio audience" sound bites of people laughing in the back ground during scenes, like they do with Western sitcoms, people would realize when something was suppose to be humorous or not. lol Either way the statement is incorrect, even if that shit wasn't meant to be a question. One out of ten people today do not have their fucking sex changed. lol Maybe one out of 200 people would sound more reasonable, but certainly not one out of ten and globally that number could be even extremely lower if someone went out of their way to actually do the freaken demographic research on it. lol |
ColourWheelYesterday, 4:31 AM
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| yeah sure... that line wouldn't count here anyway because it didn't foretell the future, unless you really think 10% of the population had a doctor chop their ween off, lol |
Reply to ColourWheel
XMGA030 said:
Callin' BS right now. That was NOT in dirty pair.
Callin' BS right now. That was NOT in dirty pair.
That was actually a pretty well known episode for it's time period. From the episode, “Love is Everything! Risk Your Life to Elope!”.
If I remember correctly, I think the original line actually came across as a rhetorical question (the way it was being stated), not some flat statement. Some shit along the lines of like “Imadoki junin ni hitori wa seitenkan shiteru jidai yo?”
"imadoki" = nowadays / these days / in the present age / in this day in age. "junin ni hitori" = one in ten people / one out of ten. "seitenkan" (sei)+(tenkan) "sei" = sex / gender, "tenkan" = change / conversion / transformation / reassignment. "shiteru" = doing / is / are doing / being in the state of doing / has done. "jidai yo" (jidai)+(yo), "jidai" = era / age / period / the times. Where adding "yo" at the end is simply just a sentence ending particle shit like saying "you know" or "I’m telling you".
In the context of this being a question, it could even be loosely localized as "Nowadays, don't we live in an era where one in ten people have transitioned?"
Not like I watch anime with subtitles, but whoever localized it in that screenshot, did a good enough job minus the fact they didn't realize it was simply a fucking rhetorical question not a statement. lol
This is also a perfect example where humor gets lost in translation. Because someone stating something like this is just fucking ridiculous. That would mean anyone's immediate family that consists of a dozen members on either parent's side of the family, at least one person has had a sex change. lol
Maybe if Anime was produced with a fictional "live studio audience" sound bites of people laughing in the back ground during scenes, like they do with Western sitcoms, people would realize when something was suppose to be humorous or not. lol
Either way the statement is incorrect, even if that shit wasn't meant to be a question. One out of ten people today do not have their fucking sex changed. lol
Maybe one out of 200 people would sound more reasonable, but certainly not one out of ten and globally that number could be even extremely lower if someone went out of their way to actually do the freaken demographic research on it. lol
ColourWheel said: I mean haven't gotten around to it, however, in the Dirty Pair universe isn't it easy? Sci Fi universes, usually make the process easy, and often reversible. I mean if it was, I would probably switch my sex back and forth, like it was a form of fashion. Frankly if I could keep a lot of the benefits of male anatomy, and the aesthetic look of female anatomy, I would probably just choose that. Maybe one out of 200 people would sound more reasonable, but certainly not one out of ten and globally that number could be even extremely lower if someone went out of their way to actually do the freaken demographic research on it. lol The medical treatments, less desirable results at times, and irreversibility of transition today, is why a lot more would be hesitant to do it. If it was just about money, and there were no consequences.. it would be pretty high. |
BilboBaggins365Yesterday, 8:14 AM
BilboBaggins365 said: I mean haven't gotten around to it, however, in the Dirty Pair universe isn't it easy? Sci Fi universes, usually make the process easy, and often reversible. I mean if it was, I would probably switch my sex back and forth, like it was a form of fashion. Frankly if I could keep a lot of the benefits of male anatomy, and the aesthetic look of female anatomy, I would probably just choose that. In the "Dirty Pair" Anime, the Father of the person in question from the scene is rejecting them for changing their gender. Basically their father’s complete disapproval of them. Implying that shit is irreversible. If it was a matter of simply just being able to change ones gender back and forth, I doubt the father would have made such a stink about the whole fucking thing. lol Yuri’s line is at best understood as fucking comic exaggeration, not lore about the world. lol Either way, most people I know in real life who have watched the "Dirty Pair", who rely on subtitles, over half the humor in that series goes completely over their fucking heads... Yuri sometimes acts like a complete bubbly airhead in the series and blurting out a rhetorical question like that as if it's some fact about "one out of ten people" should be an instant no brainer for anyone who understands Nihongo fluently and has any common sense that her statement was thrown in there as humor, not some fictional futuristic statistic. lol This is just another reason why relying on subtitles to understand shit sucks when watching any Anime. lol |
ColourWheelYesterday, 9:01 AM
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Reply to BilboBaggins365
ColourWheel said:
Maybe one out of 200 people would sound more reasonable, but certainly not one out of ten and globally that number could be even extremely lower if someone went out of their way to actually do the freaken demographic research on it. lol
I mean haven't gotten around to it, however, in the Dirty Pair universe isn't it easy? Sci Fi universes, usually make the process easy, and often reversible. I mean if it was, I would probably switch my sex back and forth, like it was a form of fashion. Frankly if I could keep a lot of the benefits of male anatomy, and the aesthetic look of female anatomy, I would probably just choose that. Maybe one out of 200 people would sound more reasonable, but certainly not one out of ten and globally that number could be even extremely lower if someone went out of their way to actually do the freaken demographic research on it. lol
The medical treatments, less desirable results at times, and irreversibility of transition today, is why a lot more would be hesitant to do it. If it was just about money, and there were no consequences.. it would be pretty high.
| @BilboBaggins365 Frankly if I could keep a lot of the benefits of male anatomy, and the aesthetic look of female anatomy, I would probably just choose that. so like....you wanna be a futa? lmao |
Reply to XMGA030
@BilboBaggins365
so like....you wanna be a futa? lmao
Frankly if I could keep a lot of the benefits of male anatomy, and the aesthetic look of female anatomy, I would probably just choose that.
so like....you wanna be a futa? lmao
| @XMGA030 It's more keeping my physical strength/speed that matters to me. I like biking/playing various sports etc. If anything I wish I had more physical strength. That and just the whole concept of periods sounds pretty bad, and women have other aspects like having less heat tolerance, that doesn't sound ideal. What's down there would matter less, I am bi, IDC. Still sure....why not? Double the fun. |
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