Well did the future live up to it?

[Stacey Steve]

Talking in the smokers shelter yesterday and the subject of the millenium came up.

I said that I felt cheated as when I was a kid, my vision of the future was Dan Dare and things like that.

Why haven't I got a car that flys?
Why aren't all people slim and walking round in one piece suits?
Why aren't robots doing all the graft (call centre staff excepted)?

Is there anything you believed would be here now, that hasn't materialised?

[HeyWayne]

There's stuff available now that I couldn't have even begun to imagine as a child. In fact I'm using one thing now - this laptop.

Also if someone had told me when I was 10 (or even 20), that I could fit and listen to all of my tapes/CDs on something no bigger than a fag packet....

[Two_Sheds]

I remember when I was about 10 and we were moving house (and changing our phone number) 'wouldn't it be good to have your own phone with your own individual number, that you didn't have to change when you moved house'


Now I have a mobile phone that plays music and takes photos. Incredible really.

[Zem]

You sound like a TShirt my OH has:

They lied to us
THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FUTURE
Wheres my Jetpack,
wheres my robotic corporation,
wheres my dinner in pill form,
wheres my hydrogen fueled automobile,
wheres my nuclear powered levitating house,

wheres my cure for this dilemma

[snuffer]

I remember them saying that because, in the future, machines would do so much of the work we would all have stacks and stacks of leisure time. They never mentioned how we were supposed to earn enough to enjoy it though.

I also remember it being said that electricity generated from nuclear power would be so cheap it wouldn't be worth sending out the bills. That one definately didn't pan out.

[bobleponge]

If someone had told me when I was 18 that by my mid 40's I would easily pay over 3 English pounds for a pint of beer I should never have believed them.
But back to your thread SS, the technological advances in the last century have easily outweighed all the previous centuries combined. Powered flight 1907(8)? man on the moon 1969. 62 years between the 2 dates, quite staggering. From cashpoint machines to the hubble telescope to the Mir space station. All that achieved in less than a hundred years. Imagine the changes in his life that Harry Patch (last fighting Tommy) has seen.
By the way, I actually do wander around in a one piece suit at the weekends, imagine Big Daddy and you're about there.

[Alison]

You sound like a TShirt my OH has:

They lied to us
THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FUTURE
Wheres my Jetpack,
wheres my robotic corporation,
wheres my dinner in pill form,
wheres my hydrogen fueled automobile,
wheres my nuclear powered levitating house,

wheres my cure for this dilemma

Shame about some of them but thank God we don't have dinner in a pill form (although suppose some ping meals aren't that far from this ) and what on earth would we want a nuclear powered levitating house for, would be a nightmare to nip out the back for a few herbs for tea if you were levitating 10' off the ground!

[zazen999]

I remember the wrench of trying to decide which cassettes to take on holiday with my sony walkman...now I could if I wanted take the whole collection, including vinyl, and anything else I want to buy off i'tinternet - and do you know what - i don't!

I have an electric [well - hybrid] car, which people have a go at me for being too quiet!

And my phone also takes photos, plays music, gives me radio, can tell me which meetings i've got coming up, lets me make notes, is a stopwatch...etc etc. and I keep forgetting to take it with me.

I also took delivery of a device which delivers boiling hot water within 6 seconds of pressing a button, and saves 65% of the energy in producing the same amount of water using a kettle. We've never drunk so much tea!

I never wanted a jetpack, or a robot; and decided against buying one of those vacuum robots - even I'm not that lazy.

We've got fresh water coming to the house, we're wired to the electrical mains and gas piped in, and windows to keep the cold out.

We're really lucky, we've got a good deal all in all over here. And that's something to be really grateful for.

[Two_Sheds]

I remember them saying that because, in the future, machines would do so much of the work we would all have stacks and stacks of leisure time.

It's called unemployment

[Capsid]

The shame is that we have all this and take it for granted, yet kids in some developing countries still have a long, long way to go.

[FionaH]

I remember day dreaming about the year 2000. Ive got loads of stuff I never imagined I would have......grey hair and wrinkles for a start

[bobleponge]

Of course, 20 years ago there wouldnt have been smoking shelters for you to have had the discussion in.

[Zem]

Shame about some of them but thank God we don't have dinner in a pill form (although suppose some ping meals aren't that far from this ) and what on earth would we want a nuclear powered levitating house for, would be a nightmare to nip out the back for a few herbs for tea if you were levitating 10' off the ground!

Well that's clearly why you'd need the dinner in the form of a pill

[smallblueplanet]

Advances in technology I never really thought about, I read too much sci-fi! But when I was younger I used to try and imagine what it'd be like for people to be free from all want - I couldn't see it happening in the future, but wondered about it all the same.

[Polly Fouracre]

I remember washing day as a child in the 1950's and my poor old mum heating the water in the copper then soaking, scrubbing, mangling then rinsing three times and mangling again. I remember her saying,"One day there'll be a machine invented where one puts one's dirty washing in, press a button and it'll all be done for you!"
I also remember tinking that in 2000 I would be 50, that day would surely never come!!