In the Year Two-Thousannnnd

[Diamondback]

Fururists as a whole have a dismal record of predicting much of anything even a short time into the furure. Bah!:rage:

"Since when can ... predict the weather--let alone the future?"
Point to anyone who can ID the source on that quote. (Clue: mid-1980s, directed by Robert Zemeckis.)

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I've found "The Jetsons" to be one of the more realistic interpretations of the future. Everyone is pretty much lazy (George's occupation is pressing a single button and he still complains about it!). Food capsules are an everyday meal, robots clean your house, no one walks but uses a treadmill, the world is heavily polluted and even in the sky there's too much traffic. Oh and instead of an intercom for your boss to contact you in the office building, he'll just open a giant television screen in your office and yell "Jetson!"

 

[Elaina]

My great grandmother wrote a paper when she was young (between 10-14) about the future (which why is it that by the time I got to HS in the mid 90's this was no longer one of the things we do?) Granted the old woman was a bit after 1901, but it still stuck. I believe it was written sometime between 1912 and 1915, but no one else can tell me either in the family.

She described some things, like politics ("It will remain the same, but they will make lying into an art form."), religion, and she was Catholic ("We will have a Pope that will destroy the faith in the Church, and as such, people will altogether drop it, or go to fantastic ends to prove that they believe in the oddest things in rebellion against the Vatican." As a side note, this did indeed happen to her. When she was in her late 20's/early 30's she started practicing Voodoo.), economics ("Everyone will always tell you it was better in the last generation. This will never change. Ask anyone with grey hair if times were rough when they were children, and you will always get the reminiscence that there was plenty to eat, clothing was prettier and sturdier, and the wars were a boon to their pocketbooks.") and a few other silly things, like the typical space travel and colonization of Mars, books going the way of the dodo, and the sun blowing up. But she did hit the clothing issue:

"One hundred years from now, women and men will look alike. Women will wear pants, bob their hair and dress and act as a man. Men will also let their hair grow, help with the children and "women's work" and one will not be able to tell the man from the woman. Acting mannerly will be a thing the elderly do, and the young will be embarrassed to be associated with anyone that clings to ways society considers ancient."

She was an uber feminist, tho, and got a big fat red F scrawled across the first page with the comment "Tales of the macabre are not acceptable in my class".

I don't have the paper in front of me, and my mom wasn't willing to let me transcribe it over the phone but for the little I got in here.

 

[Jerekson]

"Do you think people will be able to breathe underwater in the year two-thousand?"

First one to get the reference gets a cookiee

 

[Down2BDapper]

I like that they made the leap directly to flying machines without even considering cars. Then once cars WERE invented everyone wanted a flying one. Seems the future of human society lies in the sky. Maybe the Jetsons isn't too far off.

Incidentaly, I want one of those flying machines.

 

[Rachael]

I'm still waiting for my robot maid. Pretty upset about that one falling through.

 

[Sydney Loren]

Undersea Tourist Boat

Close enough?​

"Do you think people will be able to breathe underwater in the year two-thousand?"

Seinfeld?

 

[staggerwing]

My grandmother, born in the 1890s, told me once how her father used to say that when she grew up, people would be flying from place to place. Most prople thought he was nuts, but she thought this sounded exciting and couldn't wait for it to come true. Of course, his prediction did come true, but it came true for her in a very personal way when around 1975, I took her for her first and only airplane ride. Throughout the mid to late 70s, I would often fly to New York to visit with her and listen to her amazing stories. Just to show how the future has "progressed" since then, back in those days I could land at Flushing Field in the heart of NYC and take the subway to her apartment. Had to dodge the clotheslines on final approach, though!

 

[dhermann1]

Pneumatic tubes

Pneumatic tubes (mentioned in the LHJ arrticle) were a very cool technology that came and went. I remember department stores that had them. There were pipes all around the ceilings and walls of buildings, with an air pump sending blasts of air thorugh them. At every counter there was a little terminal, with a hole where you could insert little can like objects that held papers such as orders and cash. They opened a slot in the tube, stuck the can in, and then rotated the tube closed again. The flowing air would suck the can down to a central clearing station, where it would be routed up to its destination. They clacked and rattled and hissed all over the building. They sound very steam punk, but they were extremely efficient and effective systems. The city of Paris had a city wide pneumatic mail system that operated from before 1900 until about 1970. I doubt that there's even one in existence any more, but they were extremely cool.

 

[warbird]

Pneumatic tubes (mentioned in the LHJ arrticle) were a very cool technology that came and went. I remember department stores that had them. There were pipes all around the ceilings and walls of buildings, with an air pump sending blasts of air thorugh them. At every counter there was a little terminal, with a hole where you could insert little can like objects that held papers such as orders and cash. They opened a slot in the tube, stuck the can in, and then rotated the tube closed again. The flowing air would suck the can down to a central clearing station, where it would be routed up to its destination. They clacked and rattled and hissed all over the building. They sound very steam punk, but they were extremely efficient and effective systems. The city of Paris had a city wide pneumatic mail system that operated from before 1900 until about 1970. I doubt that there's even one in existence any more, but they were extremely cool.

About the only place you see them anymore is at banks.

 

[Sydney Loren]

Pneumatic tubes (mentioned in the LHJ arrticle) were a very cool technology that came and went. I remember department stores that had them. There were pipes all around the ceilings and walls of buildings, with an air pump sending blasts of air thorugh them. At every counter there was a little terminal, with a hole where you could insert little can like objects that held papers such as orders and cash. They opened a slot in the tube, stuck the can in, and then rotated the tube closed again. The flowing air would suck the can down to a central clearing station, where it would be routed up to its destination. They clacked and rattled and hissed all over the building. They sound very steam punk, but they were extremely efficient and effective systems. The city of Paris had a city wide pneumatic mail system that operated from before 1900 until about 1970. I doubt that there's even one in existence any more, but they were extremely cool.

I've seen them at banks and Home Depot.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I like that they made the leap directly to flying machines without even considering cars. Then once cars WERE invented everyone wanted a flying one. Seems the future of human society lies in the sky. Maybe the Jetsons isn't too far off.

Incidentaly, I want one of those flying machines.

I want George's flying car that folds up into a briefcase so you don't have to park the dang thing. Very convenient in town.

 

[MrBern]

Pneumatic tubes (mentioned in the LHJ arrticle) were a very cool technology that came and went. I remember department stores that had them. There were pipes all around the ceilings and walls of buildings, with an air pump sending blasts of air thorugh them. At every counter there was a little terminal, with a hole where you could insert little can like objects that held papers such as orders and cash. They opened a slot in the tube, stuck the can in, and then rotated the tube closed again. The flowing air would suck the can down to a central clearing station, where it would be routed up to its destination. They clacked and rattled and hissed all over the building. They sound very steam punk, but they were extremely efficient and effective systems. The city of Paris had a city wide pneumatic mail system that operated from before 1900 until about 1970. I doubt that there's even one in existence any more, but they were extremely cool.

Had them in my office building until about the mid `90s. Very handy until one jams. Computer networks pretty much made them obsolete.
The movie BRAZIL has a nice depiction of the system.

 

[Treetopflyer]

The Chicken or the Egg?

We look back on how people predicted the future and think "They were close to right on allot of things" but did we invent those things based on their predictions? The flip phone for instance, did that come about because someone was a Star Trek fan?

 

[carebear]

Alternately, how did function shape form?

Did the technology for speakers and mics on early phones require that they be as close to the ear and mouth as a traditional phone?

If so, did that have as much influence on the "flip" design as Star Trek?

 

[eldonkr]

I predict that ten minutes in the future I'll have eaten all the chicken and dumplings lol

 

[Jerekson]

Seinfeld?

Ding ding. /cookie

 

[Edward]

"Since when can ... predict the weather--let alone the future?"
Point to anyone who can ID the source on that quote. (Clue: mid-1980s, directed by Robert Zemeckis.)

Ah, the Hill Valley Clock Tower... I wonder if they ever did get it working again, orf did they decide to preserve it?

I remember seeing a 50s (I think) illustration of a sapce Pirate boarding another spaceship..... with a slide rule between his teeth. lol The thing about sci-fi is that, good or bad, it all tells us something about the age in which it was made.