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WI: The 90s never ended?

Necromancery time:



What? I saw this and couldn't help but think of this thread. I'm not even a 90's kid and I feel a weird sense of vaporwave-y nostalgia for the illusions of the 80's and the 90's because at least y'all had illusions.
 
I should know, I'm an early commenter on that video (under the name ArlequineLunaire), although oddly I didn't really make the connection back to this thread until you did.

In fact, the video shows that arguably the question "What if the 90s never ended?" has become even more relevant, given that it's roughly the time the Democrats are now promising to return the US to, and to a lot of other places given the US' power on the world stage.
 
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I feel this thread has mostly talked about the far future, like a century past the 90s, which yeah is what I wanted to explore since this is about sci-fi retro-futurism. But I'm thinking we should also discuss a bit more closer in time to the 90s themselves, like the 00s to today, especially if we assume that the obvious turning points are Gore getting elected and the War on Terror not happening.

I had a concept for a story set in a fake decade, working title 'The Exties', basically commenting on when something's nostalgic for someone else but not you (like imagine how someone who's not into the 80s would feel watching Stranger Things). The initial problem was I couldn't work out where in our timeline I could fit The Exties in without raising massive questions and butterflies, until I remembered this and felt it might work as a distant prequel (say set in an alternate '00s or '10s) to the more cyberpunk-y story I've been describing here.
 
So I've only just learned (from youtuber Jordan Theresa) that there may be a specific name for the type of retro-futurism and aesthetic we've been talking about here: Y2K, which you may've seen also called Kaybug. It's supposed to cover the style and look from roughly 1997 to 2001 (pre-9/11), although I've heard people expand this to the years 1995 and 2003. There's also this Guardian article (from 2016, so I may be a bit behind in this) for more info.

Reason I say 'may' is that is thread can also cover the early 90s, like the Y2K aesthetic wouldn't really take e.g. Nirvana or the SNES into account, but it's still fitting enough.
 
One thing from the nineties at least for computing was the continuation of the lack of standardization for computer components from the 1980s.

Like you had to manually adjust and tune you sound card. The soundtrack for everything sounded differently depending on the sound card/general MIDI synthesizer which made the output range from earrape to being better than the music of the windows versions of the game. Also oh god the drivers and the stacks of floppies they came with.

So you would probably have a continuation of that
 
Okay, so as legendarily bad as the Johnny Mnemonic movie is, on the bright side it may be a goldmine for this type of aesthetic. This comparison to the book (for, er, what little can be compared to the book) goes over stuff like futuristic fax machines, mini-discs, the internet being a realm on its own, and sci-fi VHS (just... forgive the constant mispronunciation of yakuza):




That said, so far I've been discussing a bright, neon, upbeat (on the surface anyway) aesthetic, which neither the Johnny Mnemonic book or movie embody. So something closer to that, when it comes to the futurisation of 90s tech, may be all the 'GirlTech' toys released back then. I'm not a big fan of Billiam as a presenter, but this video of his covers that topic well:

 
Traveller76 said:
Transhuman Space had a sourcebook dealing the developing and more dangerous parts of the world called Broken Dreams. Basically this was where technology that was obsolete or no longer updated and supported was sold or dumped off, leaning to a variety of rigging and alternate technologies. You even had the Transpacfic Socialist Alliance which basically had the state holding all the intellectual property (developers and creators got a fee or rights to market from the state). So your setting could be one of these cities or countries or even space colonies being built up from all the discards. As for Venus, maybe they are Offplanet banking or medical centers for research or investments that are questionable.
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Yeah, reading this thread after it was bumped, the whole 'neo-luddite' thing never really stuck me as on-brand for a 90s inspired setting. Neither did the cyber 9/11 slash y2k cyberwar for that matter. If the goal is to lean into the consumer exuberance and excesses of the 90s, I'd instead propose a kind of Jenga tower of babel situation: The reckless need to consume and easy VC money lead to a bunch of smaller companies constantly innovating and creating whole new offshoots of technology....which are just as quickly buried and forgotten, replaced by the next new thing.

The challenge for hackers comes from trying to frankenstien parts together from dozens of different eras, none of which actually share the same set of standards. Just jacking in to a site takes jiggering a handful of tempermental compatibility layers into talking to each other. On the other hand, the schiztotech of the future moved in circles more than a straight upwards progression, so if you manage to recover a decades old tapedeck, once you figure out how to actually read it, it could have some lostech breakthroughs that are a generation beyond the latest and greatest. Or it could just be someone's porn stash.
 
Spoit said:
The challenge for hackers comes from trying to frankenstien parts together from dozens of different eras, none of which actually share the same set of standards. Just jacking in to a site takes jiggering a handful of tempermental compatibility layers into talking to each other.
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As I stated before with computing during the nineties, even contemporary parts that share the same standards and are hell to configure and are a dice throw to see if they worked.

I mean:

Code: 
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6

In autoexec.bat

+ configuring jumper pins for I/O IRQ DMA and others

Means very little to people not computer savy and a little more to people who are judging from the guesswork and trial and error that people did back then

EDIT: Memory management was also a pain
 
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if the historical and cultural space of the 90's never ends the US would still be attempting to maintain international relevance by leaning on it's hard power, It would do this by positioning itself as the policeman of the world. But unlike the focus on terrorists in the 2000's the US would focus on "rogue states" think operation desert shield, and desert storm in the 90's the immense pressure put onto Iran in the 2010's regarding their nuclear program. we would likely also see the US destabilize any countries that try to challenge the OPEC deal where oil is sold for US Dollars.
 
GriffonCrimson said:
if the historical and cultural space of the 90's never ends the US would still be attempting to maintain international relevance by leaning on it's hard power, It would do this by positioning itself as the policeman of the world. But unlike the focus on terrorists in the 2000's the US would focus on "rogue states" think operation desert shield, and desert storm in the 90's the immense pressure put onto Iran in the 2010's regarding their nuclear program. we would likely also see the US destabilize any countries that try to challenge the OPEC deal where oil is sold for US Dollars.
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Naaaah. They'd just use the IMF as a blunt-force instrument: "You want to develop? Tough titties, privatize your public services and let French multinationals buy your raw materials up or starve. Or get coup'ed on."
 
I was a high school grad of 96 and a college grad of 2000. I can barely remember the 90s.

I was too busy going to school at the time and didn't care about the news. 9/11 was the first thing that caught my attention, but it wasn't a 90s thing. It was in 2001.

You can easily handwave that away if you want to. I wouldn't call it disrespectful. It's more alt-history, and you'd be forced to make up stuff or the entire War on Terror not happening.

Are you going to have the tech and things of 2000-2020 be mostly the same?

On Y2K, it was overhyped, but the real use of it. Repairing/replacing/ future-proofing systems that had been around since the 70s and had just been chugging along. COBOL was still sort of vaguely around, but those experts were retiring quickly.

It was mainly a great excuse that IT could wave at managers to get various RMS projects approved at the time.

There is a UNIX time thing for 2038 that you could have done the same thing. Is UNIX still around in your future? Has anyone even mentioned Linux? Open Source was supposedly a wave of the future. Really, it was more of making sure the code was around and contractors could charge to work on it.

Thinking back on the War on Terror. In some respects, that and the entire War on Drugs are just an excuse to throw money at different groups of cops. I always was more irked at the War on Terror than the stuff that actually happened. I knew folks were going to go nuts and then the nation would waste billions on a snipe hunt in the middle east because we were pissed off mad.

If you are doing the 2090s or 2190s, you need an accidental megacorp. You could have walmart and/or amazon running sections of the country. They didn't want to, but if they wanted anything done or basic roads taken care of, they had to take steps.

I'm from Arkansas. I always laugh my ass off at anyone whining that walmart is killing their local stores. Snorts. Walmarts basically supports entire communities by existing. If your tiny local store couldn't survive, it should have died off. One thing folks forget is that the average new small business barely lasts 2-5 years before failing. We've had tons of small local businesses that have survived walmart. Others can as well.

What might actually kill off walmart? Household replicators. It would take something like that and even then walmart would likely end up surviving in some form due to money and size.

Are you going to do the entire Covid thing? That's changed the world and everything. If you have the same events happen without our various instant shipping companies and video streaming services, it could be radically worse.

Folks couldn't just stay home if they didn't have the tech or supplies to support it.

Doing the Al Gore for President and instead of the 9/11. Somehow that avoided or delayed the renewed middle east crap. We end up spending billions trying to avoid peak oil or on his environmental projects. Maybe the entire wind/solar thing gets extremely invested in at that time or electric/fuel cell cars are funded.

You could always have someone actually figure out fusion.

On a 90s tech, instead of USB flash drives, we end up with 10 TB DVDs or whatever they decide to call them. That was always something that was being released and upgraded and replaced. Everyone had CD drives, needed a CD burner. Then wanted to watch DVD movies. Then hey that's a far more than you'd ever need to back up. I remember when my HD was 14 GB bought in the late 90s.

I don't think that I've seen any computers come with Blue-ray players and no one cares about writing to that or the other format. USB flash drives and cheaper external HDs just sort of killed that. You could easily have that trend keep going though.

Hmm, one thing you kids don't realize is what scifi land of awesome future that we are currently living in. What's your internet speed? I had dial-up for the longest time. DSL and Cable were expensive or only in certain areas, but never mine. Don't even get me started on fiber.

Trust me, you are browsing the internet through a god damn supercomputer with an insane bandwidth connection. Sure, we haven't invented nerve gear, yet. But you can download a CD or an entire GB rather quickly.

I recall having to wait hours for one 3.5 MB file. Oh, P2P file sharing.

If covid had hit back in 96, we would have had to all go to school. No one could do video streaming at the time. The bandwidth wasn't there much less the video conferencing part. The shipping companies were mostly the same, but you wouldn't have depended on them for many of the routine things we do today.

Oh, depending on how you want your setting to go, you could do secret bio war in the background. I had vaguely recalled TV fears of super plagues that the US or USSR had developed and were sitting on. Covid is the nearest we've seen of that sort of thing. In fiction, think Umbrella Corporation without the biomonsters part.

Instead of a bloodless, but annoying cyberwar, we could end up having had to deal with an out of control undeclared bio war.
 
There was an RPG called Millennium's End that came out in 1991, Second Edition came out in 1993. It was a Techno Thriller setting in Miami 1999. The Gulf War went nuclear which caused a massive spike in oil prices as oil fields were contaminated or destroyed. By 1999 we see various changes like a rise in terrorism from various political and religious groups of all stripes, techno-terrorism (electronic terrorism), organized crime and various public and private groups gaining military weapons. We see a federal Europe, Japan under Marital Law, Cuba without Castro, some technological developments like the Internet, maglev and limited electric vehicles but also environmental damage. The game was more into small skirmishes and tactics since your character worked for a Private Investigation/Security Company but I thought the setting sounds perfect.
 
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