Census of the future

[speleobat2]

My brother was just hired to work on the 2010 census. I told him to make sure his handwriting was legible.

He said, "What handwriting. We'll be using hand held computers with wireless capability."

What will people do a hundred years from now when they are working on their family trees and don't have any of those mystery records to decipher?

Carol

[emanday]

No worries Carol

There'll be plenty of typos instead

[Currie]

Hello Carol,

Don’t worry too much about typos, I think they’re developing handhelds that will give a low voltage shock through the keyboard whenever a typo is detected. Nothing dangerous, just enough to rattle the toenails.

Probably in 100 years time we’ll all be too busy keeping afloat, or avoiding being burnt to a crisp, or from being freeze dried or whatever but who knows.

But looking on the bright side we’ll probably still be happily struggling through the great depression of 2010 and maybe in our spare time we’ll be contemplating the strange round plastic thing with the hole that we found in GG Granny’s cardboard box in her bomb shelter and wondering what to do with it.

The big-time hobby in 2109 could be basket weaving or something equally useful and genealogy will have returned to being the preserve solely of the rich and powerful as it has been until relatively recent times. The rest of us will be too busy trying to stay alive.

The most popular genealogical activity will probably be breeding, to replace the numbers lost in the great financial embarrassment of 2040, the great roast of 2050, the great war of 2060, the great freeze of 2070, the great famine of 2080 and the great plague of 2090.

But trying to predict the future is a risky business. After all look at Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” from 1968 and Orwell’s “1984” from 1949. They were pure fantasy, the products of hyperactive imaginations. I mean to say, computers aren’t taking over and they’re not spying on us? Surely not!

What time’s the next bus to Jupiter?
Hal

[marilyn morning]

Carol wrote

What will people do a hundred years from now when they are working on their family trees and don't have any of those mystery records to decipher?

They'll just press a button and find all our research.......hopefully Ancestry corrects all the mistakes by then.

[wini]

Expanding on Alan's theories, where will the records of immigration to Mars and beyond be held?
Maybe by then Earth will have been abandoned as a result of the rising seas and temperature change.
Then when we are all on Planets and satellite homes around the stratosphere "The war of the Worlds" are bound to turn out to be true.
And don't joke about 1984, a few years late butr it is here.

wini

[speleobat2]

Or maybe people will just discuss their DNA maps.

Can you imagine--Well, we know our 4x great grandDad had 7% of his genes from here, 36% from over there, 45% from that branch, but we're really confused about this 3% that appear to be Evonian...

Carol

[WilmaM]

Are any Talking Scotties part of the trial run this month?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/hig ... 936795.stm

Census rehearsals in rural areas
Residents of west Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris will be the first in the UK to fill out a census questionnaire online.

The three areas have been selected for dry runs of the Scottish population count, which is due to be held for real on 27 March 2011.

The rehearsals on 29 March this year, will see questionnaires delivered to 50,000 households.

However, those taking part will have the option of filling in the forms online for the first time.

[AndrewP]

Are any Talking Scotties part of the trial run this month?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/hig ... 936795.stm

Census rehearsals in rural areas
Residents of west Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris will be the first in the UK to fill out a census questionnaire online.

I don't think it will include me, probably too far towards the south-west.

All the best,

AndrewP