Will we be able to transport to work in the future? (image: CBS Studios Inc)
“I remember when I used to think the year 2000 was the future. What an IDIOT I was.” - Jonathan Coulton (Jan 4, 2010 via Twitter)
As a free society we’ve always had a Utopian view of the future. This view has been reflected in movies, in literature and with cutting edge technology. From the realization of an actual hand held tablet similar to the one Picard held as he strolled around the Enterprise, to the imagined designs of futuristic electric cars - the future has always been one step ahead of the present. I guess that’s why it’s called the future. Growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the 2000’s were always “the future.” Well, now the 2000’s are gone. So where are my flying cars? Where is my floating skateboard?
These ideals and visions of the future were ingrained into our brains as children, little did we realize that it was strictly fiction. However, the bright point is that all “future” technologies are based on a vision, in effect - fiction. The Dick Tracy comic strip envisioned video phone watches in the 1930’s. Electric cars have always been a stable of science fiction novels. Even the movie “Demolition Man” wasn’t far off in it’s envisioning of future mergers of companies and PC behavior. So in another way of looking at it, the future is here. We’re living in it. Sure it’s not exactly as we imagined it to be, but it’s getting there. I always warn though, if we’re not careful we’ll all be wandering around a complex in jumpsuits, cautiously checking the crystal in our palm as we wait for Carousel.
I have an issue of Popular Mechanics from February 1950. I’m sure you’ve heard of this issue. This is the one where they wonder what kinds of innovations will take place by the year 2000. There are some very interesting ideas in the article, some of which have come to fruition, and some of which are just plain stupid. First off, the picture on the front of the article shows the fictional town of Tottenville. The has a center, then the roads and the town radiate out from it. It’s one big circle. While perhaps fictional in 1950, one would only have to look at the Florida town of Rotonda from space to see the reality of it.
Next up were some great and really bad ideas. The best is still something that hasn’t been fully realized. The article hypothesized that we’d drop our dependence on nuclear power and switch completely to solar power. In this sense, it’s not the future yet as we’ve yet to convince our politicians that the solar power lobby will have as many bags of cash as the nuclear & coal lobbies if we just get them going. The article suggests homes and office buildings being built on the cheap out of prefabricated metals and clay sheeting. While the price tag of $5000 for a home is still a dream, many office buildings are put up using prefabricated framework.
Switching to the home, it’s suggested that in the year 2000 men would be using a chemical solution to shave with. I don’t know any men that use Nair, but clearly it exists. What does the future hold for shaving? I’m guessing something with lasers. Oh wait, that exists too. We are clearly in the future of shaving. How about electric stoves that heat food in a fraction of the time it takes ovens? We have the microwave. What’s the next step? We only have to turn to Star Trek for the answer to that. Or Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Food replication is the future. We’re not quite there yet. The magazine kind of suggests that with eating food that was made from sawdust. I’m not much of a physics honk, so I can’t really wrap my brain around how that might be possible. How about dishes that dissolve under hot water? Yeah, we have so-called “disposable” plates but those are thrown in the trash and really wasteful. Quit being lazy. Wash your dishes.
If you want to check out the February 1950 Issue of Popular Mechanics, this blog has a nice layout of the pages. And before you comment, I am aware Popular Mechanics revisited the subject in 2000 with another set of things we’ll see in the next 50 years. But since it’s only been ten since that was published, I decided not to feature it.
The point is, we’ll always be dreaming about the future and what it has to offer. Advances in technology and the daily advancement of micro-technology will ensure we’re all still dreaming of the future. While we take science fiction for granted these days (I don’t, I believe everything I read in sci-fi novels is possible) we can’t discount their influence on future generations of inventors and creators. While we might not have cars to fly around in, we do have electric ones. While we don’t have food replicators yet, we do have devices that we can hold in our hands and be connected to the world. There is a lot of the future that is here already, but we’ll always be in the present. So here’s to looking to the future, because by my observation, it’s not here yet.
