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  1. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    Dance club of the future

    Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by Rzero, Aug 31, 2020.

    I'm writing a story that takes place in the near future. I haven't and won't be specifying an exact date, but it takes place some time in the next twenty years or so. Technology has advanced a decade or two. VR and AI actually do the things we wish they would do now. Things like self driving cars and 3D printers have changed the way people live, but no more so than any technology ever does in a short period of time. People have the same problems and absolutely no one's wearing a jetpack. You get the picture, I'm sure.

    Here's my problem. The first scene takes place in a dance club, and I can't think of changes to make that would denote "this takes place in the future." I can't wait for chapter two to suddenly spring that on people either. So I need some help coming up with things that might be different in a club ten or twenty years from now. Everything I've included so far from glow-in-the-dark drinks to crazy clothes to light shows all sound like things I saw in clubs as early as fifteen years ago or more. Any ideas?
     
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  2. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Where cushions are comfy, and straps hold firm.
    Interactive Touch screen games built into the tables.
    Maybe LAN type chat network in touch screen tables
    for people to hook up with people at a distant table(s).
    Could add a NeoRetro twist on the cage dancers thing.
    I think aesthetically going with a fancy industrial look,
    or something kinda HR Geiger inspired would fit in,
    you know the whole cyberpunky vibe stuff with wires
    and hoses, and random computer tech bits as decor.

    Well that is all I can think of for now. If I come up with
    anything else, I'll be sure to stop back in. Hope this helps. :)
     
  3. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    As someone who does this for a living, I can say that very little will be different. Nightclubs haven't changed much in the last forty years. Compare Studio 54 to a modern day NYC nightclub and about the only difference you would see is smartphones, hairstyles, and clothes.

    Maybe more liberal/legalized drug use? Or a different kind of intoxicant that is like a drink but not?
     
  4. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    The year is displayed on the marquee, people discussing the 20-- election, a 201-- car model is referred to as old, a celebrity is seen either in person or virtually to be a decade or two older than he is now. I don't know if any of those are helpful.
     
  5. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    I like that. I was also thinking they might order drinks the same way. Again, these are technologies that exist today, but they aren't being used to my knowledge for table texting.
    Thus the conundrum. I've seen documentary footage of clubs and raves in the 80's that very closely resembled the ones I attended in the O's
    One of the few future things that ended up in the chapter is a new drug. I'm almost exactly describing ecstasy with an acid chaser, which is called candy flipping, but whatever. It sounds new.
     
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  6. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    There you go. Sounds like something you'd go in a club. The club is usually the proving ground for new narcotics.
     
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  7. Thorn Cylenchar

    Thorn Cylenchar Senior Member

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    If VR is a thing, are holograms a thing as well? Have the band/DJ be holograms, have them manipulate the vr experience of the customers with various affects to go with the music.
     
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  8. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    Some good advice here, but I particularly like @Homer Potvin and @Friedrich Kugelschreiber's suggestions. Friedrich's is subtle and leaves no doubts, but Homer's would be more fun to write (drug use/new highs etc). I note you're already doing this, and I have to say when I was writing my future-set novel I had more fun inventing street names for my drugs than I did with any other aspect of the book. Two of my favourite 'future drug' ideas both came from films. One (the name of which I can't remember) had users taking the drug as eye drops, and The Minority Report with those little single-use inhaler things.

    I think you have to be careful not to fall for what I see as a common mistake in future-set fiction, and that is making things futuristic for the sake of it. A lot of the sci-fi from the 60s and 70s was very guilty of this, putting people in stupid - and often totally impractical clothes - because... well it's the future and everything's going to be widely different. But probably not, as @Homer Potvin points out.
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2020
  9. CrimsonAngel

    CrimsonAngel Banned

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    I like this idea! I think you should flesh this out more.
     
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  10. KiraAnn

    KiraAnn Senior Member

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    Reminds me of that old British tv show UFO. Supposed to be happening in the 80’s.
     
  11. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah. I don't so much mind them getting the future wrong - I mean none of these people have crystal balls - but it's when they invent something futuristic and you just spend your whole time thinking, why? Why would that be how it works? It's totally impracticable.
     
  12. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    Thanks! It's just the setting for the intro scene though. I don't know how much fleshing out it needs as a concept. I'm up to 36k now in the book, and the club has been briefly featured in a couple more scenes.

    Although, I need to "future up" the whole first half in draft 2, if I want it to match the second half of the story, which takes place in space, so if anyone has any more ideas about the club, I'm still listening. :)
     
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  13. PaulaO

    PaulaO New Member

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    I see privacy laws (or the lack thereof) to be more important to us even in that short a time period.

    Many places offer free wifi today. But using a texting screen on your table means your information can be tracked (and with your implied permission).

    Perhaps one has to let the screen read their drivers license which also can be stored and have ads directed to you then or later.

    Their drink orders can be tracked, too, perhaps so the next time they come and show the screen their i.d., it asks if they want that same drink again.

    So maybe they discuss who should order the drinks because perhaps one doesn't want to be traced (again?) or is of the political party most against information tracking.

    Such tracking exists now (more or less depending on the level of paranoia one feels) so exploding it in a few years would help the reader link to the time frame, even if it is not mentioned.
     
  14. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Retro! A return to the swing clubs of the 1920s. candle mood lighting and partnering with strangers. (I'm serious) In the sense that things adapt and change, and just because we have neon lights and smoke haze now means we will likely drift away from that to something different. 1980s clubs are similar by very different to 2020. 1920s clubs too were quite different. The only similarity is a predominantly young clientele and new music of the time. Figure out the music, the club will appear to suit.
     
  15. DriedPen

    DriedPen Member

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    If you go to hospitals, they have robots that deliver medications to the various departments of the hospital. You could have them deliver drinks. Their cell phones unlock the drinks from the covered top so no one steals their drinks enroute, or puts something in them. ???
     
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  16. GraceLikePain

    GraceLikePain Senior Member

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    Uh...uh....

    - Automated self driving taxis for the drunk?
    - Holographic bands that can be ordered through a handheld device.
    - Touch-screen menus for drinks like they have at McDonalds (and make sure you have a character complaining about them, lol)
    - Robot bartenders with primitive AI that are supposed to emulate friendly barkeeps, but are really just glorified updates of Dr. Sbaitso. Also a real barkeep who gets annoyed that his bosses want him to use the thing.
     
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  17. DriedPen

    DriedPen Member

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    You could make it realistic and have the World Centers for Disease Control have everyone at the club dancing at 6 feet apart, with audible body alarms if anyone gets within the individual club-goer's potential infectious sphere! (Tongue in Cheek humor)
     
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  18. LazyBear

    LazyBear Banned

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    Communication
    Any references to today's social media sites would be as out of fashion as grandma going online with a dial up modem to check Facebook (replaced by TikTok) using Microsoft Windows (replaced by Linux/Android). All slang must be made up yet easy to get from the context.

    Music
    All new music will be "so fresh" to the young people while the old people remembers the original songs that were ripped off from 2025. Heavy base will always appeal to younger people, because base sounds remind them of heart beats from inside a womb.

    Gadgets

    The more high-tech society becomes, the more people want to forget it when getting off work. That's why board-games are back in fashion now. Some church designs tried to hide support structures and put all focus on the paintings when size alone wasn't inspiring visitors anymore.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2020
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  19. Thomas Larmore

    Thomas Larmore Senior Member

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    In twenty years, everyone will have a device installed in their head that has all the functions of a cellphone.
     
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  20. CrimsonAngel

    CrimsonAngel Banned

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    Are you serious? That doesn't seem real.
     
  21. Thomas Larmore

    Thomas Larmore Senior Member

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    It's real. They've already figured out how to move a mouse cursor with brain signals.
     
  22. CrimsonAngel

    CrimsonAngel Banned

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    Where did you find this information?
     
  23. Thomas Larmore

    Thomas Larmore Senior Member

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    Google: "controlling a computer through brain signals" and you'll find a bunch of articles.
     
  24. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    I've seen videos of moving the cursor. It's jicky and apparently difficult to make it move in a specific direction. The last I knew, it was mostly being used for paralysis victims to answer binary, yes/no questions. It may have advanced since then. Still, the likelihood of the technology progressing to the point that we can do everything we do now with a phone through thought by 2040 seems farfetched. The part I doubt more though is the part where people have major, invasive, expensive surgical implants en masse to avoid pulling phones out of their pockets, especially considering the fact that technology changes and advances so quickly that everyone with a five-year-old implant would be hopelessly obsolete and in need of a major, invasive, expensive surgical upgrade. I suppose it could happen though.
     
  25. Thomas Larmore

    Thomas Larmore Senior Member

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    The implant will be a slot. The phone itself will be easy to remove and replace.
     

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