Pastimes in the Future
In the past, pastimes were a little grisly, don’t you think? Cockfighting, bear baiting, bull fighting, boxing…to say nothing of cage matches and then the most gloriously violent and gruesome entertainment of the Roman Colosseum! It seems mankind has a penchant for the unkind.
In some renditions of the future, we’ve tamed down. Even now, we more often turn to the National Football League and the thrilling heroics of our virtual realities.
One thing all of the pastimes listed here have in common: they’re spectator sports.
Not all Sci-fi futures feature once-removed violence and arm chair inhumanity.
In my future, everyone with the means to do so engages in electronic entertainment. Pastimes are largely noodling around on media that’s immersive and engaging. They’ve just taken the Oculus and Meta and all that AR/VR to the next level with implants and appliances that give their virtual realities more verisimilitude. One company’s slogan is “Believe Your Eyes.”
A couple of my readers have challenged me to think about the have-nots. In the world of 2055 I have crafted, there’s ever-greater disparity between the rich and the poor, and as I’ve mapped out the future of my future, it’s only going to get worse. By the end of Bewildered, rich and poor are coming to terms with the difference with vigor.
So, if the average person is not sporting HeadGear and Implants, what is s/he doing with idle hours in 2055? If one has any spare time after looting and pillaging and subsistence living, what would one fill time with for fun?
I believe a deeper dive into pastimes and fun would be worthwhile. I sometimes wonder how illiterate people, just a century ago, found much to do. If they weren’t reading, I suppose they might be playing cards. They might play games like Mancala. They could find enjoyment in roping calves, or mutton bustin’ or steer wrestling. I’m sure pleasure and escape might be amplified via mind altering substances, as it always has been.
As a teacher of literature, it pains me some to imagine a population without words. Nothing to read? Was there some ban on books or worse, a la Fahrenheit 415? Did all books trend so far digital that they are no longer in circulation? Was education so watered down that eventually it didn’t matter, for you could tune in all you needed to know via other media? I need to decide all these things in my world build.
I do know that no matter how poor or oppressed people get, they still have vivid imagination and they still need an outlet for all the angst of daily living. Pastimes will never be a thing of the past. I know, too, that storytelling is not only one of the most endearing pastimes, it also carries the lore of a people. Storytelling pulls people together and fuels the imagination. I believe that so long as we have voice, we’ll be telling and singing stories around the campfire.
So how do you think the impoverished and illiterate of the future might find their fun? When I visit Cowtown and see the “Stick and Hoop” games, I have to hope there’s more to entertain than simply that. Would people revive the violence of old? Would they short circuit high tech pastimes with something more meaningful? What would you do, unplugged and uneducated?
I could use your help with this.
Comment below.
Image from Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boys_with_hoops_on_Chesnut_Street.jpg#/media/File:Boys_with_hoops_on_Chesnut_Streetps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boys_with_hoops_on_Chesnut_Street.jpg#/media/File:Boys_with_hoops_on_Chesnut_Street.jpg
