Is the "future" what you expected?
 

I was watching Back to the Future 2 on tv the other day. It's interesting to see how this movie portrays 2015, and other movies portray the years after 2000...hover cars, robotic helpers, video phones, holographic advertisements, self-drying clothes, etc. Obviously some came to pass (video conferencing), but most are pretty far fetched even five years from now. So is 2010 all you old timers thought it would be? :)


this '93 ad is pretty spot on:
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Just watch the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. I am still waiting for an intelligent self aware computer.

2001 was written in the 60s before man landed on the moon.

It is very unlikely we will ever see a hovering skateboard from Back to the Future.

Future sucks. I wanna go back..

No... we were promised more leisure time because the machines would take over the menial tasks.

Instead we have become slaves to the machines.

The toughest part for any futurist is to see the major technologies that change the world. The cell phone and the Internet fundamentally changed the way we do business and communicate.

I remember the days when a long distance phone call was crazy expensive. I had to go to the one location in the house with a phone to make a call. Now we don't even think about dialing anywhere coast to coast from any location.

The "future" movies don't address the economic issues. That is unless you consider "Soilent Green."

The economy that we will endure for the rest of time is not what I expected. But then, I'm a slow learner.

i'm STILL waiting for my jet pack

The future will be government and corporate stalking and classification of individuals, in order to best manipulate society as a whole.

The future is yesterday.

Agreed....To add a line from Meatloaf....

"The future just ain't what it used to be"

Perhaps we are headed towards a bleak Blade Runner future.

The 1966 movie, Fahrenheit 451 (based on Bradbury's book) depicted a wall-mounted widescreen TV:

YouTube - TV Interativa (Fahrenheit 451)

Gene Roddenbarry had a lot of stuff figured out in the original Star Trek, including:
- Bluetooth devices (Ohura's earpiece)
- Cell phones (Communicators)
- iPads (computerized writing tablets)
- Solid-state memory (rectangle memory squares that record video)
- Babel-fish (Universal translators)

In Star Trek, The Next Generation, we also saw:
- Touch screen displays (The instrument panels on the Enterprise)
- "Speakerphone" type devices (Tap the Starfleet badge and start speaking)
- 3D Movies / TV's (Holodecks)

So - back to the OP's question -- is the future what I expected? No - it is far more than what I thought it would be - the future is now! :D

-Z-man.

If anybody told me back in the 60's that I'd be paying over $3 per gallon for a mix of gas and alcohol, and entry level P-cars at $60,000, I'd have considered them nuts...

A lot of truth here. What we have, when compared to 50-70 years ago are not an improvement.

Poppycock.

Medical advances alone are almost beyond understanding. My life is better in almost every way. My 60 inch high definition TV at home is flat amazing. Pun intended. Just 20 years ago this very method of conversation would have been science fiction for the average American.

I never went to a single school that had air conditioning. We did not live in a fully air conditioned house until I was in high school. A/C alone would keep me from going back in time.

There is a guy in OKC living at home today that does not have a heart. He is on the waiting list so in the meantime he has an artificial heart, and he is at home!

Times are different for sure. Somethings are not as they were. Most things are orders of magnitude better. At least in my world they are.

Do you realize 90% of the people in this world do not have a flat screen, A/C, or even an automobile?

Some other things I never thought would happen in my lifetime:

- Scientists have unraveled the mysteries of the human DNA
- Cloning
- Digital x-rays
- 35mm cameras replaced with digital SLR's
- For diabetics, sensors that can track blood sugar levels every five minutes, and insulin pumps the size of a cellphone. (Note: that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to advances in medical technology)
- Electric and hydrogen powered production cars.
- Self-parking cars
- Automated parking garages
- The ability to "see" beyond our solar system.

Still to come??
- Contact with alien life forms in the universe
- Self-driving cars
- A cure for cancer, aids, epilepsy, diabetes...etc.
- world peace
- human travel to another planet
- a perpetual motion machine / free energy machine

Just to name a few...
-Z-man.

A jet-pak would be cool, but what I'd really like is an orgasmatron:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1289586595.jpg

we are still behind Japan in the vending machine sector ;)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1289587070.jpg

Glen,

Agree with you on the above material things but what about the lack of morality in our society these days? School kids cannot even spell let alone count or do simple math today.

Having a flat screen television or cell phone is not that important when you do not have a job, education or future...

Joe A

Joe, it just depends on where you look. 50 years ago there were plenty of illiterate and immoral people. They just weren't brought into our homes by reality TV.

I posted this on another thread. There still is some hope:

Picking Up Butch - ESPN Video - ESPN

They did not have one in the past either.

Stone age people are just in the iron age now.

Just like Nostatic said, there were LOTS of very poor illiterate people in the past. There is a major hospital in the metro area that got started as a home for pregnant girls. They are one of the oldest hospitals around.

I worked with a lady that used to run a drug store. She said there were lots of customers coming in for cocaine, laudanum & opium. Drugs and prostitution have always been around. Ask any black man that grew up in the 30s or 40s if he longs for the "good ol days"

America has no future it is all used up!

The Future?

Reminds me of that song from Little Orphan Annie about tomorrow, "you're always a day away"

Having a job, education or future is not that important if you have a cell phone or a flat screen.

where's my flying car?
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/10/05/miracles-youll-see-in-the-next-fifty-years/

Love the instant/cheap communications. Internet, e-mail, facebook, Star Trek communicator err... cell phones, Netflix are a huge leap from 20 years ago. I smirk and shake my head every time I launch the movie of my choice from Netflix.

Disappointments? Can't believe we still lack answers for world hunger, clean water, and energy. Biggest disappointment is that people still kill each other over religion and lines drawn on maps.

The cell phones are great, better than star trek.

Communication might be a little too good for our own good.

Where's 50 Weeks of vacation a year?

I'd rather have an Orgasmarator

http://top10kid.com/wp-content/uploads/t10orgasmo.jpg

Everything in that commercial was spot on. Except the company that brought it to me was Apple.

no no - you have confused 2 different things

it is Soylent Green - with a Y

the Soilent stuff... is BROWN

Uh, we''ve got the answers for pretty much all of those. The hang-up is implementation - even the people that need them get in the way of that, often for reasons related to the second sentence.

We're progressing technologically by not socially, in large part because we're using social frameworks and value systems thousands of years out of date.

Tabs has no future he is all used up!

"the future ain't happened yet!"

The future is now..........
 

If you really want to mess up your day, just remember that "now" will be "the good old days" at some point!

"It's not that liberals are not smart, it's just that most of what they know is not so! Ronald Reagan

I used to hear old men saying the country (and world) is going to hell in a hand basket. Now I find myself thinking the same thing. My expectation of the future is pretty grim. I see politicians and people running our government putting themselves and special interests before everything to the detriment of our present and future condition. I don't see them being able to get anything accomplished for the good of the country or its citizens, and I see our country being another flash in the pan in future years. I also see China positioning itself to be the preeminent power in the future by investing in long term goals rather than short term personal gains as our politicians are doing. They already have our nuclear secrets and now a computer 47% faster than our best. They are buying our debt and manipulating their currency to their advantage as we set by and whine. While we live beyond our means (as we have been for a long time), they ruthlessly manage things for their long term benefit. When the time comes, we will be just one of the followers as countries turn from us to the next super power. Sad.

Hope that was't too PARFy.

Nah.

BTW, modern music is corrupting today's yute...

according to Plato, anyway. :)

It's fairly much what I thought it would be.

But I sure was wrong about those computer thingies that everyone seems to have.