I'm playing through Deus Ex - Invisible War and it got me thinking whether any aspect of it was a possible or likely premonition of the future. Are genetic enhancements going to be the new plastic surgery? Is nuclear warfare inevitable leading to a harsh Fallout type wasteland? Are we likely to interact or be invaded by an alien species? Will there be a virus outbreak that leads to the near extinction of mankind.....or perhaps mutates the infected in to zombie-like creatures?

Feel free to add any other games of any era to the list.

I know it's sad to bump my own thread but there are many philosophical and visionary people on GOG that I thought it was worth another shot. :)

I'm afraid the biggest thinkers were so disappointed by Invisible War that they stopped playing it before they could do serious analysis and interpretations of the ideas conveyed by the game. :p

I don't know whether you already finished the game or not so i'll just say that Invisible war in particular poses rather different questions.

I'm thinking that warhammer 40k is pretty accurate actually :P
In the future humans will live in massive overpopulated hive cities, but not initially. What will happen first is that science will advance ala Star Trek style with clean efficient technology, off world colonies and highly reasonable residential ordinances. Then there will be some kind of titanic conflict that will sent the galaxy into ruin. The subsequent scramble for power will have the effect that regional powers will grab whatever technology and arms that they can, and rush to field them in battle without the least regard for the best way to use the technology nor why it works the way it does. There will be an inevitable second galaxy wide civil war in the wake of the devastation left by the first in which each of these regional powers attempt to fight for their piece of the pie. In this age of strife(iirc), the greatest of human advances will be lost and a lawless and segmented galaxy will result with exploding population numbers (since all the powers will be more concerned with their warlike neighbours than with the people under their control). Sometime or another a secret organization will come to realize that in its fragmented state the human race will be no match for any sustained onslaught by an alien species, or demos from the warp. They will start to plan the emergence of a god-like leader to unify the galaxy. With their premonitions of the dangers contained in the warp, and on the fringes of the galaxy, they will instill in this leader a sense of great urgency. This leader will go on a several decade long hunt for ancient human technology, in particular genetic engineering, with the aim to create an unstoppable army of super soldiers. The leader will succeed, after yet again plunging the galaxy into all out war, and create an Imperium of Mankind. With his power consolidated, he will turn his attention to where the true danger will ultimately come from : the warp and the fringes of the known galaxy...

I haven't finished it, no. I didn't want just to refer to DXIW but also Fallout, Zombie (virus) outbreaks, interaction with an alien species etc..

I think that a virus strain is possible that will impact a large proportion of the human race. Nuclear fallout is an obvious choice but my feeling is that it's going to be an accident in a plant rather than an act of war.

Nukes are actually pretty useless weapons. Absolutely noone would use them because it would mean that everyone else would use them immediately in retaliation and everybody would die.

Switzerland is turning into Arstotzka, by popular vote.

For a long time (first books then movies and then games) bigger was a sign of the future but I think it's safe to say things are going in the opposite direction (for better or worse) so if it makes you feel any better we were obviously wrong about that so maybe we are wrong about the whole "Deus Ex thing".

As for the other options, Zombie apocalypse is just not happening because if we rule out the occult and presume that it would be some kind of human rabies virus, then the easiest way to overcome it would be place people in quarantine and wait for the infected to just die out which would happen sooner rather than later if they only craved human flesh.

Aliens on the other hand is a rather unpredictable thing because it's mostly about their philosophy and attitude towards others on a species level. If their philosophy would be centered around them being superior beings or whatnot, like space nazis, there would be no means of convincing them otherwise because people don't usually think about what would the gang of roaches in their basement think when you unleash the exterminator on them. That would be like total war with no rules whatsoever so surival of the human race would be unlikely since the easiest way to conquer a planet would be through biological weapons that in ideal case don't harm you much, or are easy to clean up after, and wipe everyone else out, while you're sitting comfortably in your spaceship on Earth's orbit. Basically there would be no actual "war" going on if the aliens wanted to take our planet by force.

I doubt genetic enhancements is going to be the new plastic surgery because I doubt in the future, most people will be able to afford that kind of surgery. And the government probably won't allow it for civilians even if civilians have the money. Civilians with genetic enhancements could use those enhancements for crime or just to spread chaos. Is nuclear war inevitable? I don't think so. Most "humans" are stupid animals but not stupid enough to kill each other in such a way, everyone loses. Ask any random idiot on the street and he or she will say nuclear war = bad.

I guess "games of future" will be filled with microtransactions to the brim. No more health or ammo packs, no no, just "give us you Credit card number NOW"."oh noes, you loss all your lives...but fear not, for just $9.99..."

Nukes are useless weapons because they destroy everything that war and aggression is done for.
Resources, land and people are basically what makes war worthwhile. Nukes destroy this.

Yes.