How easily can cultural tidbit attain 'immortality'?

[Geronimo]

Ever notice that a few items in history seem to have achieved a kind of cultural immortality in that they continue to see use regardless of trends in fashion in recognizable form decade after decade, century after century? Things like classical music, Shakespears plays, or religious texts are good examples. Well, does anybody think any of the pop culture of recent decades has any chance to achieve such immortality or is it clear that something more special is required? I guess I'll assume that something like recognizably human civilization will continue for at least a few more centuries. So far I'd bet on at least some of the pop music recordings of the last few decades achieving this sort of status, but maybe the rest of you have other ideas?

[Space05us]

Star Wars and Star Trek will be around for at least a few more decades. Barbie might make it into a century or two.

[Frozzy]

Spam!

[GePap]

Something of this era will attain the status of cannon. No idea what exactly, but somehting must.

The new increase in the ability to store data will make it much easier for certaint things to make it, though anything that is tied to closely to the time in which it was made does not have much chance, as it looses a connection to other times.

[Geronimo]

hrmm, perhaps I should add twinkies. If we throw a couple boxes in the Yucca mountain depository they will probably outlast the nuclear waste.

[Verto]

Harry Potter?

[Geronimo]

I'd have to give Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings better odds than Harry Potter but then I have to admit I haven't gotten around to reading a Potter book yet.

[Space05us]

Spam!

at first I thought you were calling this thread spam.
I dont think spam will be famous for much longer.

Jokes last a long time though, anyone care to finish?

"I can make you speak Idian."

(points at your shirt) "You have something on your shirt."

[Dr Strangelove]

"Lord of the Rings"?

[mrmitchell]

Frozzy's right. Spam is a food, a God-status comedy group's skit, and an unsolicited commercial e-mail--all 3 of which are very important things to be. A triple-whammy, if you will.

I already said, Monty Python will stay around. As will Star Trek...even if only for the symbolism if true, utter geekiness. Star Wars is nothing but a line of movies, and its chances of still being more than a cultural footnote in, say, 25 years is a little doubtable.

As for my own suggestions:

-Pop music recordings will be studied by music scholars as "the Dark Ages" of musical recording. (If only we were so lucky...)
-the concept of a beige box holding delicate electronics hooked up to another beige box with a screen will go out. Who knows when? but it will go out. (slow) prototypes of "computer glasses" already exist. as wireless connections become cheaper and faster, and computers themselves become smaller, cheaper, and faster, eventually we'll start carrying around notebooks everywhere, having something simple (say an mp3 player) integrated into our clothes, or have, hell, PDAs all over us. Who knows?
-DVDs will probably not last long. it's probably already possible with technology to double or triple their capacity in a smaller format, were it not for the need of a single simple standard.
-Apolyton will be a cultural landmark by 2020. After civilisation (not the game) collapses, alien archaeoligists will discover "think boxes" with data about an "ultimate civilisation site", suggesting that this "Apolyton" was an important world forum.
-soft drinks will be around until caffeine is banned. expect people suing Coca-Cola for making them addicted, and kids growing up thinking of caffeine with the same stigma that cigarettes have today. It's an unfortunate inevitability as more "protect the Idiots" groups get together and do things like sue fast food for making ppl fat
-people who send message spams on IRC will be hunted down by a whole federal bureau devoted to the task. the Federal Task Force on Killing Spamming Bastards
-Fast food places will, for the most part, have cleaned up their act and offered the bland, boring thing called "healthy" food. you'll roll through the drive-through and get a McBurger with no fat, no preservatives, and no taste. But they will, indeed, be around.

(kinda threadjacked there a little, have I? I dunno. It's kind of a vague topic really )

[mrmitchell]

Harry Potter?

Perhaps if Rowling's books did NOT become instant box office hits, it might help their staying power. A whole part of megafandom lies in being a fan while it ain't something big.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by mrmitchell


(kinda threadjacked there a little, have I? I dunno. It's kind of a vague topic really )

Only a little. I guess I was hoping to have people identify things that have a shot of surviving indefinately in human culture rather than for instance, predictions of what technology will continue to be used in the relatively near future.

[Frozzy]

Originally posted by Space05us
at first I thought you were calling this thread spam.

I was hoping someone would do that

[mrmitchell]

Originally posted by Geronimo


Only a little. I guess I was hoping to have people identify things that have a shot of surviving indefinately in human culture rather than for instance, predictions of what technology will continue to be used in the relatively near future.

Meh. Technology IS culture, fool.

As for the "culture" around us, Hollywood movies and music will probably be looked upon as the "big pile of **** from the 1900s" by future historians. However, we will always have The King (of rock n' roll), "big hair" and "80s" will always be synonymous, etc. But aside from a few links as, say, Britney Spears = Slut, I can't think of a lot of the drivel that is produced today becoming a cultural thing, ESPECIALLY anything "high culture" like Shakespeare or Classical Music would be.

I suspect Albert Speer will come in about 15 minutes and tell you about how rap is the new Shakespeare...ah, it'll be a good laugh.

[notyoueither]

The music of the Sixties.