Do people still smoke in the 22nd century?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

But TS tends to assume more the replacement of clunky "natural" drugs with something smarter and more controllable. So one might see drug use, but probably not any drug which anyone here has heard of - at least in Fifth Wave areas.

I don't completely agree with that. I don't see alcohol going away, for example. And hashish or opium seem to have a reasonable potential for the same sort of connoisseurship of natural products as wine, brandy, coffee, or cigars. On the other hand, I could see all the highly purified things like heroin, morphine, and cocaine being given up for total synthetics.

Bill Stoddard

[Ciaran]

I can see certain sectors of a particularly decadent society valuing cocaine grown from the plant more highly than the mass-produced synthetic stuff in much the same way that organic foods or natural diamonds are valued over their alternatives. Drug use is often all about cachet.

[Lorka]

The confessions of a smoker hehe:

I spend all my childhood being wildly against smoking and then when I was 20ish I tried it and was instantly hooked and smoked 20-40 a day from that point on. Everyone I knew was smoking and after an RPG session the room was so cloudy that you could hardly see anymore ... ahh the good ol days.

Now 15 years later I have two kids and an environment where smoking is frowned upon, and to be honest I think its a filty and disgusting addiction that ought to be outlawed. I allways go outside to smoke, and take breathmints after smoking if I am at a social situation with non-smokers - because I know how vile it is for non-smokers.

I still smoke about 5 a day since I cant quite, I dont have the willpower to ignore my cravings when the body calls out for a chemical it thinks is needed for survival. As a non smoker try going without drinking anything for a whole day it will be hard but doable now continue the next day, its impossible. Smoking is like that for me and I wish I never started.

I have tried all the other nicotine products and none of them work that well, because they taste like sh!t and most importent is that they dont give you the kick you get from a cig. When you inhale that first smoke you get a slight high that is very very mentally addictive. So whenever I tried some of the other stuff I could do it for weeks and then one night drunk I would get a cig and blammo back to the smokes :)

As someone said earlier if cigerettes where invented today no modern country would legalize it.

That said, again like someone before me stated, there is no end to humans stupidity and thus I think you will see smoking 100 years from now.

My wife dropped smoking when she got pregnant the first time and havent touched em since with not problem at all.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Occasionally, I find myself suggesting to the spectre of E. E. Smith that the antidrug policies of his Lensman novels make no sense...

Umm, is trying to find philosophical consistency in pulp writing really a useful habit?

Originally Posted by whswhs

I wonder if there's a word for this sort of imagined conversation?

well, there is...

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Umm, is trying to find philosophical consistency in pulp writing really a useful habit?

Oh, absolutely not. Though I'm sure it's less harmful and less annoying than smoking.

Bill Stoddard

[Khaoticphury]

I'm an asthmatic and I smoke, which is dumb, but I digress. However, in 2100 people

Won't smoke because of:
1) Particulate contamination. (for high tech facilities)
2) Fire hazard
3) Distinctive olfactory signature ("He smells like fish and Dunhills, upload it to the AI and release the hounds.")
4) Overzealous health groups that gengineered a virus that decimated the tabacco plant
5) The latest clubs feature cetecean DJs; you have to be amphibious to be cool and nothing mangles a pack of expensive cigarettes like a trip to the pool.
6) It's legal to smoke, but it's illegal to dump non-biodegradable filters anywhere or dispose of them in normal trash, effectively tethering the smoker to obscure and unconnected areas of the city
7) The wording for smoking legislation is almost word for word the same legislation they use to regulate when and where sex offenders can be, thus creating an extremely unsavory association.
8) Smoking makes a grand resurgence. New product lines of nanite swarms are released that wall in the smoke with the smoker until his respitory system filters it below a set pollution level. Smoking makes a grand disappearance.
9) Purchase of cigarettes automatically enrolls you in a continuous and invasive datamining project to determine destructive lifestyle choices and their nuerological underpinnings.
10) Profiled by chemical dependancy, much easier to pick out by surveillance. Or snipers.

People will smoke because
1) There's no other good reason to carry a firestarter in your pocket.
2) amongst criminals and rebels, it's a sign that you are highly resistant to memetic programming that tells you NOT to smoke, thus proving that you can probably break other laws/rules.
3) They are classic film afficianados and they smoke all the time in their virtual world.
4) to show off their awesome new cancer proof lungs
5) the same reason you buy 200+ mph sportscars, islands or private jets: because you can!
6) a smoker wanders around much more than a non-smoker. Very few other vices exist where you can just stand around outside your office and not be accused of sloth. Provides ample opportunities to skew profiling of your movements. Or even just go outside.
7) As a despised minority, you will find common ground with like minded people from all walks of life. Great for social networking and low level contacts.
8) Because after all the bitching and whining about how nasty smoking is, they'll turn right around and pour on half a bottle of perfume that I'm allergic to and smells like dead weasels. I and my watery eyes will continue smoking out of spite.
9) Snazzy accessories, like cigarette case/flask combos (I'm sure alcohol is just as shunned by this point, so might as well plan ahead). These of course can be shoved chock full of covert equipment and weapons.
10) In cinematic games, it's impossible to blow up anything without a slow-motion shot of somebody flicking their cigarette into a pool of gasoline.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Max Schreck

Or has it been banned or gone out of style? Or has it enjoyed a sudden resurge in popularity due to filter lungs biomods and carcinophage nanosymbionts, so that now everybody smokes like in the 1940's?

Max

Actually it was condemned by King James in quite similar terms to those used today, mainly differing in the lack of scientific jargon. There is no reason that people won't smoke then and it is probable that they will.

[Lonewulf]

Originally Posted by Khaoticphury

10) In cinematic games, it's impossible to blow up anything without a slow-motion shot of somebody flicking their cigarette into a pool of gasoline.

Well, when you put it THAT way... :D