[FlamingCobra]

• stone age
• bronze age
• iron age
• middle age
• renaissance
• industrial age
• information age/computer age/digital age (now)
• ????? age

Sometimes the current age is called the "space age." But I hardly think that name is accurate, since we do not have a significant presence (a foothold) in space.

Some predict the next age will be the "fusion age." Some of you may ask what actually marks the beginning of the next age. Although there is no clearcut answer, I would say that a technological milestone that brings sweeping changes to society would mark the beginning of the next age.

While the next age could be the real space age, maybe it would be better to give it a different name, like the "cosmic age."

Another possibility is a new era where there is neither nuclear fusion nor a human foothold in space, but instead a world gone green; a complete switchover from fossil fuels. Possibly even a world where rural areas have contracted and most people live in cities and use public transportation. Maybe even widespread maglev use and a migration away from traditional railways/subways.

I just wanted to know what you guys think. 

[StarSlayer]

The End Times

[MP-Ryan]

Ask a historian in a few thousand years.

The scheme you listed is biased towards an interpretation of history relying on the contemporary as a fixed point; the period we can the Stone age lasted several thousands years.  The industrial age is a period of just over 100 years.  Big scale difference.  Frankly, I suspect historians in the future may quit using the subjective classification scheme altogether, or the period following the middle ages into our future (so the Enlightenment onward) will all get lumped together.

[Mefustae]

The End Times

Not for a while. Technically we're due to his the Dark Age of Technology next.

[FlamingCobra]

Ask a historian in a few thousand years.

The scheme you listed is biased towards an interpretation of history relying on the contemporary as a fixed point; the period we can the Stone age lasted several thousands years.  The industrial age is a period of just over 100 years.  Big scale difference.  Frankly, I suspect historians in the future may quit using the subjective classification scheme altogether, or the period following the middle ages into our future (so the Enlightenment onward) will all get lumped together.

Well the stone age is divided into 3 sub-ages:

The Paleolithic
The Mesolithic, and
The Neolithic

I just put them all together for the sake of argument.

So I guess a better way to put the question is:
"What is the next big leap?"

[Nuke]

after ww2 it was the nuclear age and that lasted clean throughout the cold war and probably ended with he fall of soviet russia. the space age really didnt last that long, i would even argue that it hasnt really started yet. but it happened almost parallel to the nuclear age, it probibly started a little later and ended a little later. the information age kinda started in the late 70s well into both the nuclear and space ages and lasts till now.the fact that we've had so many ages occurring concurrently seems to indicate we dont know what age were in right now. and that is for someone several hundred years from now to decide.

[redsniper]

Transhuman Age

[Kszyhu]

The Last Age. Humankind will exhaust all usable resources on Earth, and without sufficiently advanced space presence it won't be able to sustain it's continued existence.

[The E]

Stupid topic is stupid. We cannot predict what the next step will be, thus trying to come up with a simple moniker for that step is futile.

Although I am kinda hoping for a Singularity, as long as we can avoid the panopticon kind.

[bigchunk1]

This is not a stupid topic! Don't you find enlightenment from educated predictions? Is it not a noble scientific passtime to guess at what cannot be proven?

Here's some of my guesses:

Space Age(you forgot this one!): In the search for new ways to acquire resources and take advantage of satellite technology private markets begin to capitalize on space. The idea of a space elevator does not sound so bad if you have governments waiting in line for multi million dollar rides. Nations revisit the idea of the 'Star Wars' missile defense system as a measure against smaller nations finally being able to construct nuclear ICBMs. 'Rods from god' satellites can hit a target within minutes and with no risk to the attacking nation. The field of war expands, as it did in world war 1: land, sea, air and... space?

Information Age continues: Computing power becomes faster and more portable, making populations able to organize revolutions with a few simple touches on a keypad. Knowledge as property of the elite fades as academic content becomes freely available to anyone who wants to study it.

Robotic Age:  Attack Drones, automation of factories, Potential effects on the job market and the gdp as a whole. One man can do what used to take 50. What will this mean for the disparity of wealth? 

Biological Age: Sweeping advancements in medicine and the understanding of the human genome. Life expectancy goes up, nutrition and exercise are redefined, sickness becomes easier to cure, and the question of genetic engineering of animals and plant life is brought back into the political arena by sheer practicality. Imagine an edible staple food plant that can grow in unfarmable conditions (desert? Tundra?), feeding millions who have nowhere else to go.

The Fusion Age: The sun's secret for creating energy has been unlocked and is practiced on earth. Fusion Power plants are the first to appear, followed by a massive push for more electric cars and high speed rail. Electric bills sharply fall and nations struggle to restructure their economies around this new form of power.

The Banker's Reign: Those bastards tricked us with an overcomplicated system of money and they end up taking over our economy. They plant computer chips in our mind and make us all into slaves, building pyramids in their image. Resources deplete themselves and whole populations stave due to mismanagement. This is the second dark age, but we shall overcome...

Look, most of what I say could turn out to be untrue, but I think it's natural to predict where technology will go.

[Dark Hunter]

Look, most of what I say could turn out to be untrue, but I think it's natural to predict where technology will go.

And it will provide barrels of laughs for people 100 years from now. 

EDIT:
Found the more complete, original article.

[redsniper]

Look, most of what I say could turn out to be untrue, but I think it's natural to predict where technology will go.

And it will provide barrels of laughs for people 100 years from now. 

That list... is actually pretty good. They had no concept of the airplane and were way too optimistic about hydroelectric power though.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, a great deal of that list is eerily prescient.

[sigtau]

I dunno about you guys, but I don't have a pneumatic tube delivering food and supplies to me daily.

[Aardwolf]

That list... just... wow.

Especially things like

Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances.  Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.

[Dragon]

Indeed, with the exception of air tubes for goods delivery, mobile forts and streetcars going extinct, it's pretty much spot-on.
In fact, the major thing they didn't thought about was the possibility of heavier than air flying machines, which is understandable.
Even animal extermination would've been plausible if humanity didn't caught on the fact this was insane and didn't went out of it's way to preserve plants and animals.
They also missed on how important oil would be. If it wasn't oil-based fuels, the prediction about coal would've been fairly plausible, and the world would have to be powered by water (this was before Einstein, so there was no way of predicting nuclear power).
In short, this list is a rather good prediction for it's time. If something on it isn't true, then it could usually be traced to a single invention that changed the world completely. If it wasn't for Einstein and Wright Brothers (both completely unknown at the time of writing this list), it would've been even more accurate.

[Mefustae]

Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides.

To war!



And to be honest, the "rolling forts" idea isn't too far off from the heavy tanks built right up to the beginning of the Cold War. Mobile, cannon armed, heavily armoured, and capable of moving as fast as trains in great cavalry charges. The principles are all there.

[Nuke]

scatter technique. if you make enough informed predictions about the future, some of them will be right.

[Mongoose]

Man I want those things to exist.  So bad.

[karajorma]

scatter technique. if you make enough informed predictions about the future, some of them will be right.

Yeah but they got more right than wrong. Some were spot on even. Others were very close to the overall end effect if not the method by which it would be achieved. For instance they never realised that music would be recorded rather than telephoned in live but they were close enough in terms of the effect.