# Lost Futures **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123 "2007-10-18T01:26:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/1 "2007-10-18T01:26:21Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/2 "2007-10-18T01:39:21Z")
1984: A look back on the dystopian futures of the past, and their real life counterpart. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/3 "2007-10-18T01:40:11Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/4 "2007-10-18T01:44:09Z")
Do comic books count? In DC Comics, the atomic war that set the stage for the Atomic Knights series took place in 1986. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/5 "2007-10-18T01:44:34Z")
When did the show _Lost In Space_ supposedly take place? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/6 "2007-10-18T01:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] Do comic books count? In DC Comics, the atomic war that set the stage for the Atomic Knights series took place in 1986. [/QUOTE] Yup, comics count. Thanks for the reminder. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/7 "2007-10-18T01:50:15Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] When did the show _Lost In Space_ supposedly take place? [/QUOTE] 1997 And the Gerry/Sylvia Anderson series “UFO” was set ten years in the future: 1980. “Just Imagine” (1930) was set in 1980. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/8 "2007-10-18T01:53:53Z")
[Things to Come](http://imdb.com/title/tt0028358/) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/9 "2007-10-18T01:54:34Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/10 "2007-10-18T01:54:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/11 "2007-10-18T01:55:09Z")
[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan](http://www.themovietimeline.com/film1218) [The Terminator](http://www.themovietimeline.com/film1267) [Escape from New York](http://www.themovietimeline.com/film423) [The Omega Man](http://www.themovietimeline.com/film1874) [Conquest of the Planet of the Apes](http://www.themovietimeline.com/film3363) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/12 "2007-10-18T01:59:51Z")
“First Spaceship on Venus” (1960) was set in 1970. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/13 "2007-10-18T02:28:50Z")
I need to double check, but IIRC the Forever War started in the first decade of the 21st century. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/14 "2007-10-18T02:32:57Z")
US Robotics and Mechanical Men, of Isaac Asimov’s Robot series, was founded in 1982. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/15 "2007-10-18T02:37:20Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/16 "2007-10-18T02:47:12Z")
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.”) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/17 "2007-10-18T03:09:36Z")
The original launch date of the Jupiter 2 mission to Alpha Centauri (_Lost in Space_) was 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/18 "2007-10-18T03:12:29Z")
> [@](#): > > I need to double check, but IIRC the Forever War started in the first decade of the 21st century. 1996, according to Wikipedia. William Mandella was born in 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/19 "2007-10-18T03:21:19Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123/20 "2007-10-18T03:57:07Z")
[Wild Palms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-futures/423123.md?page=2)