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www.WhatWere- WeThinking.net

A future reflection on today
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www.WhatWereWeThinking.net if a website that allows users to post what they think or hope will change in the next few decades, cenutries, millenia...

Post your idea and give semi-viable reasons and alternatives to people affected by the changes in a light-hearted manner, much like the halfbakery. The posts must begin: "What were we thinking? I can't believe we used to..." Two examples:

"What were we thinking? I can't believe we used to rely on oil for transportation and heating 20 years ago."

Obviously, something should probably change with the dependence on oil at some point soon. It seems like the wave of the future is electric cars eventually. This affects many people in the oil industry. A few ideas to help them out. Since we all care about the big oil companies, they could have electric filling stations. In 20 years time, a technology could be developed to charge your car's battery in the same time it takes to fill up your car now, and at the same rate as gasoline, taking inflation into account. What about people who work on oil rigs? They could be paid to dismantle their places of work. (Who wouldn't like doing that?) I'm sure many others are affected in this industry and that's what the annotations are for, to add or critique and idea just like this site.

Or it could be conversational:

"What were we thinking? I can't believe we used to bury people in the ground when they died."

"Mommy, what are you babbling about?'

"Well, Timmy, as early as 80 years ago people used to bury their loved ones in little boxes in the ground when they died. Then we started to realize the health risks when the boxes, or caskets as they were called, floated up to the ground during flooding. That's when they started to cremate, or burn, all the bodies after death. All the people who used to sell the caskets started selling urns. Those are like little vases that hold the ashes. Up there on the mantle are your grandparents and your Aunt Britney, named after the famous neurosurgeon Britney Spears from the 2020's. And many of the medical examiners used to embalm people."

"Mommy is a m-bomb like a f-bomb?"

"No, Timmy, it's not. And don't interrupt me again. There were also people who used to dig holes six feet deep to put the boxes into. They were then hired to dig up all the oil pipelines in the world when we stopped depending on that."

"Wow, mommy. What were we thinking?"

"Yeah, we were kind silly, huh?"

P.S. www.WhatWereWeThinking.com was already taken but not operational apparently...and I didn't want to do www.WWWT.com b/c people would think it was What Would Willie Touch? or something like that.

goober, Sep 06 2005

Long Bets http://www.longbets.org/
Very like what you propose: leading thinkers (and regular goobers) record long-term predictions and make long-range bets. [land, Sep 08 2005]

[link]






       This would quickly (instantly?) become a political rant site, and there must be enough of those around already.   

       But remember the day when someone thought it would be a good idea to let people post half-baked ideas on the Internet - what *was* she thinking?!
DrCurry, Sep 06 2005
  

       What were we thinking? Did you know we used to use women's bodies to make babies? They grew really big inside like parasites until they had to be expelled through the phone holder slot. Gross.   

       This is sailing very close to [m-f-d] list, but I really like the concept so it's a bun from me.
wagster, Sep 06 2005
  

       //in a light-hearted manner, much like the halfbakery//
You really mean this don't you?
Susan, Sep 06 2005
  

       Well, it used to be Susan.
goober, Sep 06 2005
  

       Sometimes it still is. I just thought it was a sweet remark. Welcome back.
Susan, Sep 06 2005
  

       //through the phone holder slot// heh. I see [benfrost] becomes a famous inventor in your future.
Worldgineer, Sep 06 2005
  

       Thanks Susan. Unfortunately, any sweet remark was cancelled out by my Val Kilmer comment in the "Natural Disaster Insurance" thread.
goober, Sep 07 2005
  

       Thanks for the link [land] - what a fascinating website.
wagster, Sep 08 2005
  

       "What were we thinking Mommy? We used to let Michaels Bay and Moore direct movies!"
Eugene, Sep 08 2005
  

       "What were we thinking? I can't believe we used to communicate using sounds!"   

       "Stop thinking that!"   

       "Sorry"
Mr Phase, Sep 08 2005
  

       Yeah, that's a pretty cool website, but a little too stuffy for my tastes. Lighten up over there.
goober, Sep 08 2005
  

       List, rant.   

       In other news, what's up with those margins?   

       PS Hello again everybody. I've been on a work-enforced half breakery.
Texticle, Sep 09 2005
  

       [Texticle], The margins appear that way because [goober] has utilized a title that is too long without inserting spaces. It screws up the layout. Typically, the title line should be limited to 21 or fewer characters (excluding spaces) in order to appear correctly here and on the Overview index. This title is 26 characters.
jurist, Sep 09 2005
  

       Texticle, it's not a rant or list...it's an idea about a website to go list your rants...and the title is fixed now, o.k.?
goober, Sep 09 2005
  

       So you could do www.thinking.com...?
DrCurry, Sep 09 2005
  

       Does that work for everyone? //The Simpsons// "I can't believe 'Smell 'ya later' replaced 'Goodbye'." //The Simpsons//
goober, Sep 09 2005
  
      
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