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Old 06-11-2016, 01:12 PM   #1
Astromancer
 
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Default Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

I saw the cover of a recent magazine, it was either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, with this guy from Quebec on his flying skateboard. Clearly a fan of Marty McFly. Still, what are the silly and dangerous sports of 2100?

Some aren't silly I suppose. Getting biomods so that you can swim and dive anywhere in Earth's Oceans would be a blast. But is it something the cool kids do?
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Old 06-12-2016, 08:12 AM   #2
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Some aren't silly I suppose. Getting biomods so that you can swim and dive anywhere in Earth's Oceans would be a blast. But is it something the cool kids do?
It only takes one celebrity and yes, right?

But when this sort of thing comes up I always wonder why anyone thinks the mix is much different. How many sports can you name that didn't exist in 1930 (as long in the past as 2100 is in the future after all)? Are there any really popular ones on that list?

As importantly, the assumption always seems to be any changes are technology driven. That's wrong, popular sports almost all can be played with little or no equipment, and certainly no body modifications. They become popular because lots of people play them as kids, and kids don't have a lot of money to spend on equipment. This is especially true for team sports - where you'd need groups of kids to buy the gear. If you have a sport that requires more than a fraction of a percent of starting wealth to participate in at all, it better be an individual one if you expect it to last. You can have a spectacle that costs a lot of money, but it's not really a sport if nobody other than the professionals can participate.
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Old 06-12-2016, 09:13 AM   #3
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

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Snow boarding is very popular and didn't exist in the 1930s. Same with skate boarding and roller blading. All driven by technical changes making it possible.
Snowboards might post-date the 1930s (though there's a claim for 1939), but don't really involve a new technology - nothing obvious prevents you from building a snowboard any time after the invention of woodworking. The roller blades do have a technology component, but the first roller skate rink opened in 1857, and most early roller skates are in-line.

Are any of the rest of those even sports. Maybe the hang gliding, but are there even any parachuting or scuba competitions? I suppose you can race in anything that can move, so I suppose you could theoretically hold a scuba race, but I've never heard of one. An endurance event seems pretty pointless - biggest tank wins?
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Old 06-12-2016, 09:19 AM   #4
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

I think the place to look for new sports in TS is low gravity. There are communities of kids raised on Luna or orbital habitats. They are probably structurally the same as most terrestrial games - run, dodge, throw, kick and/or hit with stick - but will need different rules and may look rather different.
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Old 06-12-2016, 09:39 AM   #5
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

Wasn't there a competition on how far one can move without a spacesuit on Luna?
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Old 06-12-2016, 10:58 AM   #6
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
It only takes one celebrity and yes, right?

But when this sort of thing comes up I always wonder why anyone thinks the mix is much different. How many sports can you name that didn't exist in 1930 (as long in the past as 2100 is in the future after all)? Are there any really popular ones on that list?

As importantly, the assumption always seems to be any changes are technology driven. That's wrong, popular sports almost all can be played with little or no equipment, and certainly no body modifications. They become popular because lots of people play them as kids, and kids don't have a lot of money to spend on equipment. This is especially true for team sports - where you'd need groups of kids to buy the gear. If you have a sport that requires more than a fraction of a percent of starting wealth to participate in at all, it better be an individual one if you expect it to last. You can have a spectacle that costs a lot of money, but it's not really a sport if nobody other than the professionals can participate.
This is smart and logical. I asked for silly. But thank you for answering.
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Old 06-12-2016, 11:03 AM   #7
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

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Playing computer games? Is that a sport or not?
NOT! Computer games, like chess, go, and backgammon, are games. Sports require some kind of physical skill. If it is less physical than darts it is clearly a game.

Your other points were sharp and perceptive. If the baseline is the year 1700AD then every sport on the planet except Caber Tossing has been radically altered by technology. Three hundred years from now the changes will be bigger.
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Old 06-12-2016, 11:05 AM   #8
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

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Wasn't there a competition on how far one can move without a spacesuit on Luna?
That sounds extreme.....and extremely fatal!
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Old 06-12-2016, 11:11 AM   #9
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

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That sounds extreme.....and extremely fatal!
Not with TL10 bushbots standing right beside you! (And I don't mean for emergency uploading.)
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Old 06-12-2016, 07:49 PM   #10
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Default Re: Extreme Sports! and Extremely silly ones too!

Another thought - not all sportsmen are still biological. Ghosts loaded into custom shells could play some pretty insane sports "safely", and even have fair competitions if all the players use the same model shell.
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