What companies do you think

[Miss Chicken]

will still exist in 50 or 100 years time?

Microsoft? Apple? Google? Walmart? Amazon? Monsanto? Coca Cola etc, etc.

and which companies do you think will certainly disappear?

 

[jayceee]

The Tyrell Corporation.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The Tyrell Corporation.

Weren't they known by a different name in the book?

 

[Starkers]

They were, can’t remember what it was off the top of my head but I looked it up last year because I’d got the Kolchak series on DVD and it featured an android built by the Tyrell corporation! I figured it must have been from the book but nope, so either just complete coincidence, or Blade Runner’s script writer was a fan of Carl Kolchak.

On the subject of Blade Runner, weren’t there lots of Pan Am ads in that film? I guess that’s the trouble for film makers, you imagine some firms are near immortal, then they just cease to exist.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Just pulled my rather aged copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep out and the company is the Rosen Association.

I am not sure about Pan Am in the movie as I haven't watched the movie in probably 20 years. I preferred the book to the movie.

 

[jayceee]

On a more serious note, how is one defining longevity in the context of corporations/companies?

The name of a company?
The underlying companies which merged with it?
etc ...

In terms of long lived American companies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies_in_the_United_States

- Wiley (1807-present)
- Citigroup (1812-present)
- Colgate (1806-present)

 

[Use of Time]

Budweiser and Coke. There will always be a need.

 

[JarodRussell]

Budweiser and Coke. There will always be a need.

A need, yes. But at some point there's going to be a manager that ruins those companies and the name vanishes.

 

[Naira]

Boeing and Airbus? There are not many companies making airplanes and it seems difficult for new ones to become larger.

 

[Pondwater]

The Tobacco Industry.

 

[Amaris]

Carl's Jr.

 

[auntiehill]

Probably Johnson & Johnson. They have medicine, first aid, baby products, beauty products, eye care, skin care, etc. They have over 250 subsidiaries worldwide. I don't think they are going anywhere, any time soon. People will still get sick, will still have kids, will still want to look better, etc.

 

[Miss Chicken]

The Tobacco Industry.

That is one industry that I think has a good chance of dying out especially as smoking laws become more restrictive.

Re: What companies do you think
Budweiser and Coke. There will always be a need.

I do think that Coke will be around in 100 years time. I think there will be beer companies but not neccessarily the ones that exist today.

 

[scotpens]

. . . I am not sure about Pan Am in the movie as I haven't watched the movie in probably 20 years.

I don't recall Pan Am being mentioned in Blade Runner, but it did figure prominently in 2001: A Space Odyssey (as did the Bell System).

Who could have predicted in 1968 that the Bell System would be broken up and that Pan Am would cease operations well before 2001?

At least Hilton Hotels and Howard Johnson's are still in business, and I'd hazard a guess that they'll still be around in half a century.

Boeing and Airbus? There are not many companies making airplanes and it seems difficult for new ones to become larger.

Aircraft manufacturers in recent years haven't so much disappeared as merged: North American Rockwell, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, McDonnell-Douglas (which later merged with Boeing), France's Aerospatiale being absorbed by Eurocopter. Maybe 50 years from now there'll be one humongous megacorporation making all the world's aircraft. Then it'll be broken up because of an antitrust suit and here we go again . . .

 

[RoJoHen]

I hope my company still exists in 50 years, for I will be the king.

 

[Tosk]

. . . I am not sure about Pan Am in the movie as I haven't watched the movie in probably 20 years.

I don't recall Pan Am being mentioned in Blade Runner [...]

It wasn't mentioned, but we do see ads for them nestled amongst the buildings. Not only that, but Coca Cola, TDK, and Atari (a comeback!) will all revert back to the '80s versions of their logos in 2019.

 

[Captrek]

Who cares? What really matters in all of our lives is: Will TrekBBS still be around in 50 years?

 

[Miss Chicken]

Boeing and Airbus? There are not many companies making airplanes and it seems difficult for new ones to become larger.

Aren't planes practically at their largest size possible because airports cannot take airplanes over a certain wingspan and the largest airplanes today have already reached that maximum?

 

[scotpens]

Boeing and Airbus? There are not many companies making airplanes and it seems difficult for new ones to become larger.

Aren't planes practically at their largest size possible because airports cannot take airplanes over a certain wingspan and the largest airplanes today have already reached that maximum?

Did Naira mean the planes or the companies getting bigger?

An airplane with a 500-foot wingspan would be awesome.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Yes, now that I re-read she was talking about the size of the companies. I should have thought it through better.