So we kind of started to get off-topic on another thread, but I found this to be an interesting discussion. I thought it best make it's own thread for continuation however.

To recap - there's two schools of thought as to how Pre-War society in Fallout's America advanced, and how we arrived at the situation as it was in 2077, before the War started. (I'll attempt to state these in as unbiased a manner as possible, but that said my own bias ought to be pretty clear.)

One school of thought asserts that society remained "locked," culturally from the undefined "timeline split" sometime in mid-1950's. The predominant styles, tastes, and aesthetics of 2077 America are as they are because it's remained that way for roughly 120 years.

The other school asserts that society and technology advanced and evolved along divergent lines from ours following the "split," and in that time came full circle to what we see in 2077. The predominant styles, tastes, and aesthetics of 2077 America are a result of the natural cycle of cultural development, and it so happens that the in vogue style of the time was sensibilities and informed by pulp science fiction views of the World of Tomorrow.

The important thing is that in either case the destination is the same. The only difference is the road taken to get to that end result. This is all academic, of course - neither approach (to my knowledge) has been confirmed categorically. What I find compelling about discussions of this nature is that the stakes are zero, and neither conclusion is mutually exclusive to the other. I can play my Fallout game with one viewpoint and not encounter anything to contradict my conclusion, and likewise for those with the opposing viewpoint.

As I see it (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong,) we're dealing with "soft science" fiction in Fallout. You have an end result, but the supporting information is there mostly for color. It's not really designed to stand up to too much scrutiny in the first place. (For example, Star Wars' "soft science fiction" vs Star Trek's more "hard science fiction." You're not really supposed to ask how Hyper Drive works in Star Wars, while there's entire technical manuals dedicated to Warp Speed in Star Trek.)

So that, anything not explicitly nailed down in canon exists in a sort of "probability bubble." It's basically Shroedinger's Cat. Unless otherwise stated in-game any potential variable can be said to "exist" with the same potential. It really comes down to a matter of preference. That said, I don't think there's anything wrong with having some fun with some of the concepts, either.

Anyway, that's my stance. Here's a couple quotes from the other thread in order to continue the discussion (and of course, like all threads - if no one's as interested in this as I am, then it'll just quietly fall to the bottom of the thread list...)

I don't think it would be a culture that does a loop or anything. I'm not expert, but I don't think we resemble too many past cultures of the US (namely the 1890's which was 120 years ago).

But thinking about it, I doubt that for more than a century a country just stayed in a single never changing culture.

Maybe it is a mix of the two or something. Like the "world of tomorrow" thing going on, that never really goes away, just what we perceive as "tomorrow" changes. What they ended up thinking could have been very similar to the 1950's, but in between 1960-2077 different styles and what not came and went.

So it's the retro-future, of the retro-future, of the what people in the 50's thought would be the future? I kinda like that notion.

Exactly.