Somehow I managed to end up as co-chair of a science fiction convention here in Oregon, and the theme I’ve come up with is Futures Lost-a look at books, movies and television shows that taken place in a future time that we’ve bypassed(Space: 1999, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Deathrace 2000, etc.)
I’ve got three or four tracks of panels to fill, and two tracks of 24-hours-a-day videos to show, and I need ideas!
1984: A look back on the dystopian futures of the past, and their real life counterpart.
Predator 2 was set in 1997
Most of Heinlein’s Future History was set in the 20th Century. Remember, by this time we should have colonies on Venus (Login of Empire) and Nehemiah Scudder should have been preaching in the deep south.
Do comic books count? In DC Comics, the atomic war that set the stage for the Atomic Knights series took place in 1986.
When did the show Lost In Space supposedly take place?
Yup, comics count. Thanks for the reminder.
1997
And the Gerry/Sylvia Anderson series “UFO” was set ten years in the future: 1980.
“Just Imagine” (1930) was set in 1980.
Things to Come or Shape of Things to Come (I’ve seen to mentioned both ways). Made in 1936. Predicts a global war in 1940. The war doesn’t end until far into the 60s or 70s.
I should mention that the theme has a subtitle- Where The Hell Is My Flying Car? 
I’m going to get as many old magazines as possible, like “Popular Science”, that displayed flying cars in a futuristic setting, and put them on display.
Star Trek’s Eugenics Wars were set to start in the late 90’s.
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy was about a war between the USSR and NATO. No USSR, no war.
Going from the timeline is Tales of Known Space, Niven’s early Known Space timeline is void. Before 2000 we should have had expeditions to Mercury ( The Coldest Place ) and Venus ( Becalmed in Hell ). Cetaceans should have civil rights ( and be known as sentient ), and mandatory organ donation for various crimes law. And Mercury rotates, so as Niven admits The Coldest Place was known to be impossible between it’s writing and publishing.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
The Terminator
Escape from New York
The Omega Man
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
“First Spaceship on Venus” (1960) was set in 1970.
I need to double check, but IIRC the Forever War started in the first decade of the 21st century.
US Robotics and Mechanical Men, of Isaac Asimov’s Robot series, was founded in 1982.
Space: 1999 by Gerald and Sylvia Anderson predicted that the moon would be knocked out of its orbit in, um, 1999 by some sort of industrial nukular accident.
And old series called “My Living Doll” had military scientists inventing a completely autonomous robot that looked just like Julie Newmar in the 1950s. If only! It starred Bob Cummings.
But if you want to talk about The Bob Cummings Show, a sitcom starrring guess who that featured an actual Aerocar (the one designed by Gore Vidal’s father).
You need a section for 1970s SF that predicted ecological and economic collapse by the end of the 20th Century. Soylent Green, based on the novel Make Room! Make Room!, is a perfect example of this, but there was a lot of SF back then that predicted the end of personal cars, private property (at least as regards food), breathable air in the cities, and urban culture.
You need a section on Cyberpunk (Neuromancer through Snow Crash) and its predecessors (Riders of the Purple Wage, Blood Music). By the early 21st Century, Japan was going to Own Us All and Megacorporations were going to be more important than the rather comical and ineffective rump governments still in existence. (Oh, and Atari was going to be a hot property, too. ;)) Massive body modification was going to change the very idea of being human. (“Whatever you do to a rat, you can do to a human. We do just about everything to rats.”)
The original launch date of the Jupiter 2 mission to Alpha Centauri (Lost in Space) was 1997.
1996, according to Wikipedia. William Mandella was born in 1975.
How about John Brunner’s Shockwave Rider? As I recall, it’s supposed to take place in the early 21st century (I’d check, but the book is (still) packed somewhere). And there’s Zelazny’s My Name is Legion, although that might be a bit further out (again, it’s packed or I’d check).
Good time to break out my favourite sig.
Wild Palms takes place in the far-flung future year 2007. We haven’t quite lost 2007 yet but I somehow don’t imagine we’re going to see seamless VR in the next 10 weeks.