[Scourge of Ages]

I will postulate that, given the current rate of progress, the next age will be called...

The Machine Age!

Because of nanotech and stuff, and Deus Ex looking pretty darn plausible.
*postulation for entertainment purposes only and does not reflect the opinions of management. All rights reserved, void in Domincan Republic

[ssmit132]

There won't be any more ages because Scourge of Ages right there will get rid of them all.

[Nuke]

the next age will have no name because none will remain to name it.

[JCDNWarrior]

Some technology is planned way in advance. Some things we see in movies 20-30 years ago are now really developed, for instance. Some things described in books 50 years ago are now reality. As such that list is not that strange to have right - it's like a far-future television guide with a dose of optimism and current state-of-mind.

As for Age, I'm not sure. Could be a few things, we're nearing a crossroads period of time though where depending what happens we'll know what comes out strongest, be it a new dark age, the real Space Age, a new Feudal Age or whatevermaybe, we'll see later on.

[Herra Tohtori]

What will the next age be?

AGE
OF
AQUARIUS

[redsniper]

Well.... that settles that. We're done here, on to the next thread!

[Rodo]

future age.

[Nuke]

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.

there are some good predictions in there but there are a lot of bogus ones. if you consider each prediction as a set of predictions in which some are right and some are wrong. for example

There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America and its possessions by the lapse of another century. Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next. Europe, seeking more territory to the south of us, will cause many of the South and Central American republics to be voted into the Union by their own people.”

if you read the first sentence this prediction is close to being correct (you could nitpick that its off by 50 million though). this by itself is one prediction. but there are 3 more predictions that follow that are totally bogus. so this prediction is only 25% correct. most people glancing over the list will only read the first part and assume the prediction is 100% correct and be somewhat amazed. so if you break down the list into individual predictions (instead of the numbered list created by the writer for readability), you will find that there are more wrong predictions than correct ones.

its fun to watch classic scifi and see how many things they predicted that came to pass, star trek predicted cell phones. of course at the time portable handheld radios were already being used by the military (ive seen a lot of nam documentaries), so their flip communicators were a forward projection of existing technology. i see a lot of forward projection of the technology that was being developed around 1900. for example the prediction on the development of hydroelectric power. they had dynamos and water wheels back then, so it was only a forgone conclusion that you could harness the movements of water to generate power, and a mere 30 years later, you have hoover dam. small scale powerplants were likely already in use for electronics research being done at the time. this is forethought, not prescience.

[666maslo666]

We are now living in Petroleum Age, which began in 1859 by drilling of the first oil well. Next age will be called Nuclear Age, and will begin sometime in this century when cheap oil runs out. It will last a few hundred years. After that, who knows, maybe Transhuman age?

[Goober5000]

Man I want those things to exist.  So bad.

Have you watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?

[Mefustae]

Have you watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?

That movie was boss. The only thing more awesome than a flying aircraft carrier, is a flying aircraft carrier captained by a British Angelina Jolie.

[Mongoose]

Man I want those things to exist.  So bad.

Have you watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?

Yep, and the anime series Last Exile to boot.  That sort of stuff comes up a lot.

[Nuke]

its not like the us military hasn't done a ****ton of experiments on aircraft nuclear reactors. of course to manage an airborne carrier youd need a craft about 4 times bigger than a c5 galaxy. and a means for aircraft recovery. the problem really wouldnt be in the size of the aircraft but rather figuring out how to land plane that is experiencing a ****ton of wake turbulence. perhaps some kind of annular bay that can ensure a tunnel of smooth airflow behind an aircraft that planes could make a safe approach through. i figure once in the bay wind deflectors could be jacked up so that the planes may be moved to a hanger deck. launching would just involve locking the landing gear in a restraint of sorts, dropping the deflectors, then the pilots will set their engines and control surfaces for release. would be a tricky operation but im sure its doable.

[NGTM-1R]

its not like the us military hasn't done a ****ton of experiments on aircraft nuclear reactors. of course to manage an airborne carrier youd need a craft about 4 times bigger than a c5 galaxy. and a means for aircraft recovery. the problem really wouldnt be in the size of the aircraft but rather figuring out how to land plane that is experiencing a ****ton of wake turbulence. perhaps some kind of annular bay that can ensure a tunnel of smooth airflow behind an aircraft that planes could make a safe approach through. i figure once in the bay wind deflectors could be jacked up so that the planes may be moved to a hanger deck. launching would just involve locking the landing gear in a restraint of sorts, dropping the deflectors, then the pilots will set their engines and control surfaces for release. would be a tricky operation but im sure its doable.

FICON and some WW2 Russian conveyer projects have proved it can be done with existing aircraft at smaller sizes, but really with inflight refueling there's no reason to do it.

[Bobboau]

Now -> Dark Age of Technology -> Age of Strife -> Age of the Imperium

on this topic, I like these commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8

The funny thing is the main thing they got wrong was the company that brought it to us.

and actually a lot of those things look kind of dated now.

[Mikes]

Prediction #19:  Grand Opera will be telephoned to private homes, and will sound as harmonious as though enjoyed from a theatre box. Automatic instruments reproducing original airs exactly will bring the best music to the families of the untalented. Great musicians gathered in one enclosure in New York will, by manipulating electric keys, produce at the same time music from instruments arranged in theatres or halls in San Francisco or New Orleans, for instance.

Hey... not too far off! Except most crappy MP3 players and IPods hardly sound "as harmonious" as the real thing haha!

[Nuke]

its not like the us military hasn't done a ****ton of experiments on aircraft nuclear reactors. of course to manage an airborne carrier youd need a craft about 4 times bigger than a c5 galaxy. and a means for aircraft recovery. the problem really wouldnt be in the size of the aircraft but rather figuring out how to land plane that is experiencing a ****ton of wake turbulence. perhaps some kind of annular bay that can ensure a tunnel of smooth airflow behind an aircraft that planes could make a safe approach through. i figure once in the bay wind deflectors could be jacked up so that the planes may be moved to a hanger deck. launching would just involve locking the landing gear in a restraint of sorts, dropping the deflectors, then the pilots will set their engines and control surfaces for release. would be a tricky operation but im sure its doable.

FICON and some WW2 Russian conveyer projects have proved it can be done with existing aircraft at smaller sizes, but really with inflight refueling there's no reason to do it.

you can do it on a small scale but thats not really the idea. it currently takes several days to move an aircraft carrier into a strategic position. a supersonic airborne carrier could be on site in hours instead of days, running on nuclear power it can stay airborne for months or years, and would only need to land for maintenance. for it to be effective it would need to be large enough to carry multiple fighter wings and support craft, fuel, munitions, provisions, etc. it would need to have most of its systems serviceable in flight, with redundant systems that can take over if a system needs to be serviced inflight. it would need to carry effective anti-missile systems, and potentially have stealth features. it would be the ultimate war machine. dont you want it to be our war machine?

[Mars]

All yours for the low low price of 5 Nimitz.

[newman]

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.

Well, yes, but I believe you missed MP-Ryan's point here. The Paleolithic is further divided into 3 main subgroups, each of which has it's own subgroups. The Paleolithic lasted for over two and a half million years. The big historical time periods after it were each a lot shorter - probably not an exact exponential curve, but I'd have to look into it. At any rate, MP-Ryan's point here was that the modern ages last exceedingly short compared to the old ages. Whether or not the Paleolithic was subdivided into subgroups has really no bearing on his argument.
In general, humanity's historical ages are marked by technological progress, which doesn't advance in a straight curve. You get a long period of the same ol' same ol', followed by some technological breakthrough that allows a "boom" of sorts, and many of that period's advancements merely tag along on this basic new technology that was discovered. The difference to the old ages is, it no longer takes millenia between two distinct "periods". I would call some period a distinct historical age based on whether or not the lifestyles of people are vastly different to previous eras due to technology available. Based on this, I would call this age the age of communication; our internet, email, cell phone enabled every day routine made the modern way of life completely different to what it was just 30-40 years ago; a far cry from millions of year's worth of roughly similar lifestyles.

[Nuke]

All yours for the low low price of 5 Nimitz.

granted its probably cheaper and just as good to have an aircraft carrier or two in every ocean than to own a couple stratocarriers.