Sometimes, it’s fun to go back through old magazine and newspaper columns and read what people in the past thought our current lives would be like. It’s especially fun when the article happened to come out between 1950 to 1965, when science fiction hit a “golden age” of sorts due to seemingly every other film Hollywood produced in that time was of the sci-fi genre. This titanic wave of the fantastic seemed to fuel people’s imaginations as much as they captured them, because the “what will life be like in the future” articles from this era are filled with some incredibly zany stuff.
For example, check outthis quaint little article from 1961. While they did nail a couple of things, like the bullet train that connects Japan and electric sliding doors, most of the things they concoct are either partially possible now or just flat out ridiculous. Equally absurd is how the article is bookended, as the writer opines that life will be so easy that people will die of boredom, and that what is written should be considered science “fact.” Considering that I don’t have my own hovercar or rocket belt, I’m thinking that the author needs to take that sentence back.
Articles like this, though, really make me appreciate the genius of science fiction writers who do indeed successfully predict future gadgets and gizmos. Stuff like Jules Verne calling nuclear power or Ray Bradbury hatching interactive entertainment through your TV (not to mention that it’s looking more and more like robots in the style of Isaac Asimov will be plausible in my lifetime or in the next generation’s lifetime at the very least). It makes me wonder what kind of vision-lacking people used to write this stuff. Were they pressed to meet a deadline? Did they really love to watch “The Jetsons?” Was it wishful thinking on account that the writer had to take the Studebaker to the mechanic yet again? If they were still alive when one of the predictions came true, did said writer freak out with glee/terror?
Of course, what’s going to happen when people 50 years from now read about predictions that are being made currently about the future? How wrong will the futuristic sages be at the century’s midpoint? Will they be able to look at Mike Judge’s biting satire “Idiocracy” and confuse it as a documentary instead of a comedy? I’m hoping I’m still around here to find out.
May 21, 2008 at 3:34 am
1) Where did you find this?
2) Where is my 24 hour work week?
3) “Foodless food” = Twinkie, but they have been around since 1930
4) Transportation at a penny a mile – Now that would be something I would really like to see with my 82 mile commute.