Tech | May 29, 2009 | 5 comments

Why our 'amazing' science fiction future fizzled

source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/05/29/jetpack/index.html

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(CNN) -- At the 1964 New York World's Fair, people stood in line for hours to look at a strange sight.

They wanted to see the "Futurama," a miniaturized replica of a typical 21st century American city that featured moving sidewalks, computer-guided cars zipping along congestion-free highways and resort hotels beneath the sea.

Forty years later, we're still waiting for those congestion-free highways -- along with the jet pack, the paperless office and all those "Star Trek"-like gadgets that were supposed to make 21st-century life so easy.

Daniel Wilson has been waiting as well. He's looked at the future we imagined for ourselves in pulp comic books, old science magazines and cheesy sci-fi movies from the 1950s, and came up with one question.

Why isn't the future what it used to be?
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5 comments // Why our 'amazing' science fiction future fizzled

  • twitterbot
    • 0
      twitterbot  

    • @NEWESTPRODUCTS on twitter says "Why our 'amazing' science fiction future fizzled: If only the future looked like "Star Trek's,&.."

    • 2 years ago
  • twitterbot
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • Give it time. Yes, Science Fiction had us expecting flying cars and transportation by now, but are we so spoiled that we can't see what we HAVE?

      I can talk to people around the world with a click of a mouse. I can plan a road trip and have a machine map it and tell me how to get there every step of the way. People can survive Cancer, live with HIV and have their missing limbs replaced with robot parts that hook up to their nerve endings. We can peer into the universe, the human body and organisms unseen by the human eye.

      I think the present, and the future, are going to be fine!

    • 2 years ago
  • boywhocould
    • 0
      boywhocould  

    • (disclaimer) I think the Mankind is destroying itself for no good reason other then "its the way of things"

      but..... as devils advocate I must admit that when people have idle time and no "forced" outlet i.e needful things, responsibility etc. . . bad things can happen, it is naive to assume if life was easier that people would reallocate their lives to something creative 100% of the time, most would I'm sure but enough "bad apples" would undermine what ever system said idle time would demand.

    • 2 years ago
  • iamfree
    • 0
      iamfree  

    • Why isn't the future what it used to be?

      very simple question...MONEY is the ultimate hindrance to technology.we have the brains and resources to build a worldwide amusement park if we wanted...our monetary system does not permit fast growth in the technologies that free humans from simple or seemingly difficult task...our masters want us working not relaxing.

      namaste

    • 2 years ago
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