How Fringe Predicted Our Real Future...

hey guys Tyler here as viewers of this

channel may know Fringe is one of my

favorite shows of all time a science

fiction drama that aired on the Fox

network from 2008 to 2013. Fringe

follows a division of the FBI tasked

with investigating strange events using

fringe science no it's not just the

X-Files it's different okay I swear in

season 2 we're introduced to a parallel

universe that's more technologically

advanced but whose environment has been

badly damaged by so-called soft spots

disturbances in the fabric of space and

time fringes alternate universe has long

been fascinating to me and in this video

I'd like to highlight some aspects of

their alternate reality that have been

prescient in predicting our real future

let's get started

broadly speaking I think the differences

between our universe and fringe's

alternate reality Fallen to three major

categories Science and Technology

politics and pop culture these might

seem like rather arbitrary categories

but hopefully they'll make more sense as

this video progresses starting with

Science and Tech this is perhaps one of

the most glaringly obvious features of

the alternate universe that sets it

apart from real life indeed one of the

biggest things that stands out about

their world is of course the

environmental degradation a blight has

caused coffee and avocados to become

incredibly rare and expensive subject to

strict rationing changes in atmospheric

conditions force people to wear masks

and use inhalers in public bees can grow

to the size of a grapefruit sheep are

extinct and novel viruses periodically

spread among the population Tremors even

Shake places like Manhattan that are not

in your major fall lines in Universe at

least as of the early 2010s the public

explanation for all of this is of course

climate change however the real

explanation is that the actions of Dr

Walter Bishop namely kidnapping his

deceased son Peters doppelganger in 1985

and upsetting the balance of mass

between both universes has accelerated

the decay of the natural world that said

there are real life parallels to several

of these examples of ecological

deterioration climate change is very

real and is continuing to impact our

daily lives certain food products

becoming scarcer and more expensive is

certainly no strange notion to most

consumers in the 2020s with the Fallout

of the covid-19 pandemic having

disrupted Supply chains the price of

chocolate is also expected to rise

significantly in the coming decades as

cocoa harvesting is impacted by drought

soil depletion and competition with

commodities like palm oil used for

biofuels speaking of viruses in the

alternate universe smallpox has not been

entirely eradicated with at least one

outbreak in north Texas documented on

screen and multiple characters reference

an avian influenza pandemic in the mid

to late 1990s that claimed millions of

lives a stark parallel to the death toll

of covid in our more recent history

again this was all written over a decade

ago when memories of a more recent SARS

outbreak swine flu and other epidemics

were still fresh and of course pollution

from Mass industrialization around the

globe continues to impact air quality

driving up cases of asthma while masks

being commonplace is also something

we're all intimately familiar with by

this point Point as for the giant bees

well large killer bees do exist and

sightings of them have become more

frequent over the past few years and

while domestic sheep are not on the

endangered species list we are in the

midst of Earth's sixth major mass

extinction as for Tech I've made

multiple videos about the alternate

universes more advanced technology which

you should check out if you haven't

already links in the description the

show depicts a variety of areas that

demonstrate the other sides

technological superiority among these

are space flight consumer gadgets

medical technology and more he's got

third degree burns over 90 percent of

his body he's gonna need three months in

a nanite regeneration chamber

there are also machine human hybrids

called shape shifters that much like the

T1000 can pose as just about anyone

um yeah we're we're not quite there yet

but in addition to things like compact

flip phones in 1985 electronic paper in

2004 and fancy transparent phones in

2010 fringe's alternate reality does

showcase one development that has become

extremely common in the Modern Age

hands-free communication namely rather

than today's air pods or a traditional

Bluetooth headset civilians and Fringe

agents alike in the alternate universe

wear what is called an ear cuff it's

exactly what it sounds like a

cuff-shaped device that seems to

function much like a Bluetooth earpiece

fringe's alternate universe is also

notorious for depicting a level of space

flight technology that is frankly

decades ahead of our timeline next to

artificial official intelligence space

is often one of the most ambitious

Realms in science fiction for making

predictions including Blade Runners

off-world colonies which exist as early

as 2019. in the case of Fringe such

differences start out relatively small

in the season 2 episode dream logic we

see a poster in Peter's bedroom

commemorating the space shuttle

Challenger's 11th mission on June 28

1984. in real life Challenger only flew

five missions up to this point although

the space shuttle Columbia is made in

flight was famously delayed by two years

due to various mechanical issues clearly

on the other side these were fixed from

the get-go but more than that in the

season 3 episode Olivia we see an

advertisement for daily flights to the

Moon available to the public it's not

clear If this means that lunar Landings

are so cheap that your average Joe can

do it or more likely that circum lunar

orbital flights are available at

probably the cost of a plane ticket this

is still insanely expensive in real life

today but several factors could have

accelerated the reduction of the cost of

space flight in fringes alternate

universe first off the space shuttle

Challenger disaster which delayed the

shuttle program for three years it

didn't help matters as it set back

NASA's plans for manned space

exploration the collapse of the Soviet

Union also dealt a blow to U.S science

as a key source of competition meant

Congress was less willing to fund risky

expensive Ventures like the space

station Freedom or superconducting super

collider infringes alternate reality

it's possible that the Challenger

disaster didn't happen and we know the

Soviet Union also exists their more

active industrial sectors than they post

Soviet States likely contributing

further to climate change as well

finally private space flight companies

like the company glatterflug that offers

daily flights to the moon and Fringe

have certainly played a pivotal role

this is definitely true in real life as

companies like SpaceX have helped lower

launch costs and the billionaire playboy

fantasies of the likes of Richard

Branson and Jeff Bezos have actually

taken Rich citizens into low earth orbit

gliderflugs advertisements seem to be a

logical extension of that oh yeah and

they have helicopters equipped with

autopilot a clear extension of

self-driving car technology in real life

perhaps among the more subtle yet still

visible flavors of alternate history on

fringe's other side are there politics

and Society aside from relatively common

alternate history tropes like JFK still

being alive the twin towers still

standing and different people being

depicted on currency Fringe features

some rather interesting tidbits that

have proven somewhat prescient of modern

politics one notable difference is that

the U.S government on the other side

seems to be even more authoritarian than

in real life for instance public ID

cards called Show Me's are required to

use public transportation in New York

City that said people seem to be

relatively comfortable or perhaps I

should instead say used to rather broad

police Powers one example is fringe

division given broad authority to

quarantine areas compromised by soft

spots using a gaseous mixed year called

Amber 31422 which after hardening

occasionally traps civilians inside who

are then declared legally dead among the

areas that have been quarantined in the

show are Madison Square Garden in 1999

trapping 10 000 people and part of the

campus of Harvard University since at

least 2003. we also learned that a 1990

vortex in the East River claimed the

lives of 165 civilians half of whom were

children okay kind of getting off track

when it comes to politics besides

quarantine zones we learned that Federal

legislation treats all kidnappings as

possible Fringe events until proven

otherwise and after 9 11 which instead

destroyed the White House and Pentagon

the U.S government under imminent domain

relocated the Department of Defense

headquarters to Liberty Island now a lot

of the Amber stuff might be concerned

considered essential to limit the damage

of surprise wormholes the worst kind of

wormholes though to be fair the

collateral damage has prompted at least

one public protest in New York City but

aside from authoritarian concerns which

tend to resonate a little bit more in

the modern day if you know what I mean

there are some more neutral political

differences for example we know that the

U.S has three major political parties in

fringes alternate universe while this is

not something that has actually come

true yet the 2016 election showed that

third party politics haven't been

entirely discredited this generation and

support for the two-party system is at

an all-time low besides the Democrats

and Republicans America's third party

infringe may be somewhat populist in

nature as its members in Congress oppose

a bill that would Institute a two-child

policy in the United States in response

to Resource short shortages I hopefully

shouldn't have to explain why such a

policy would be incredibly

counterproductive regardless we don't

really know anything else about this

third party though one theory of mine is

that they could have stopped the bailout

of big Banks during the 2008 recession

as far as other differences Martin

Luther King Jr is famously on the other

side's twenty dollar bill arguably

foreshadowing the real life decision to

replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet

Tubman on hour 20. the U.S also seems to

make more use of the metric system at

least on some road signs and as for the

alternate universes society and pop

culture well I also have an entire video

about that as well Link in the

description let's just say they really

love movie sequels yeah Fringe really

did predict our future didn't it

this video was never meant to be an

exhaustive list of every difference

between our universe and fringe's

alternate universe nor necessarily a

recap of their entire alternate history

timeline

although if that's something you guys

might be interested in

you know that I have that you know that

I've been documenting this stuff for for

like well over a decade at this point

instead what I've hopefully demonstrated

without hopefully stretching my

credibility too much is that the show's

setting in the early 2010s rather

smartly forecasted various societal

trends that were at least seeing the

seeds of today cyberpunk Vibes and our

daily lives private space travel

catastrophic climate change and supply

chain shortages political

authoritarianism and epic

dissatisfaction with the two-party

system even civil rights activists honor

money while fringe's alternate universe

does feature some wacky traits like all

the zeppelins flying around on many of

the points that I highlighted in this

video it does seem like the writers did

at least a little homework having said

all that thank you all so much for

watching if you enjoyed this video be

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that's all I have for this week

and don't forget the boy is important

[Music]

oh yeah and they also predicted NSA

spying they monitor all the

communications networks that's probably

how they do about Central Park

safest if we don't try to communicate

with one another

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