# Technology that was supposedly supposed to happen by now **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828 "2004-06-23T17:09:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/1 "2004-06-23T17:09:33Z")
What technologies have you heard about long ago that never came about? I remember a presentation in high school back in 87’ from a guy demonstrating a robot saying that by 95’ the majority of homes will have a robot in them. Popular Science magazine has shown flying cars on their pages since I started reading them in grade school in the 70’s. While hybrid cars are gaining popularity lately, I think we all were supposed to be driving solar powered or electric cars by now. While most homes do have personal computers, weren’t they supposed to be controlling everything in your home from one central location (heating and cooling, lighting, tv, stereo, appliances). After going to the moon in the 60’s, weren’t we supposed to have men on Mars by now? While Europe and Asia have a couple high speed trains that were all the rage in the 80’s, America never got anything faster than Amtrack? ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/2 "2004-06-23T17:18:39Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > While most homes do have personal computers, weren’t they supposed to be controlling everything in your home from one central location (heating and cooling, lighting, tv, stereo, appliances). single point of failure? no thanks. I seem to recall that everyone thought that by the year 2000, since hardware would be cheaper and we’d have more storage capacity, all old software would be obsolete and replaced; we wouldn’t have to worry that year data was stored as two digits. I think picture phones were supposed to be the rage (though they called those radio phones) and they took off and died in the 80s, though they are ‘back’ again now. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/3 "2004-06-23T18:41:15Z")
Video phones. We were all supposed to be using video phones by now. I think we could be, too, if the market hadn’t discovered that people really don’t WANT video phones. I have enough problems without thinking about whether or not I look good enough to answer the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/4 "2004-06-23T18:47:22Z")
I have a collection of old Donald Duck comics (the _Carl Barks Library_), and one of them depict Donald as Rip Van Winkle. He wakes up in the wondrous world of 1990! Flying cars, people who walk around in pieces, rubber buildings… man, 1990 was great! [See #17](http://www.brucehamilton.com/gladstone/AAA%20Steve%20Files/wdcsincolor.htm) ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/5 "2004-06-23T19:04:02Z")
Well, _2001: A Space Odyssey_ had picture phones, passenger shuttles to the moon, Artificial Intelligence, and cryogenic stasis (including revival, which is the hard part). We were also supposed to have the majority of the power grid switched to hydro/solar/wind/fusion. Hmmm, what else… Oh, right. Sex-bots. That’s all I can think of right now. ---
**Author:** ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/6 "2004-06-23T19:28:55Z")
Flying cars! Dang it, I want my flying car. Oh yes, and Sex-bots. Better yet, an Orgasmitron. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/7 "2004-06-23T19:33:15Z")
In grade school (mid 1970s) I read in a book that our food would someday all come in the form of small capsules, supplying all of the nutrients we would ever need. As eating is as much a pleasure as it is necessary for survival, I could never see this actually come to fruition. I don’t even know if such capsules are used by people who might be stuck in the desert or something and need something on which to survive until they are rescued. The same book, I think, also said something about how kids in the future would not have to leave home to go to school. They could all watch their teacher on a TV monitor. While this could, in theory, be done to some extent via the Internet, I don’t think most working parents would want to stay home all the time since their kids would never leave the house. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/8 "2004-06-23T19:57:20Z")
Non-painful mammogram machines. gordammit. ---
**Author:** ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/9 "2004-06-23T20:12:47Z")
Trans-global rocket flights - New York to Tokyo in two hours. Colonies on the moon. Self-aware intelligent talking computers. Umm…did I mention the Orgasmitron? I did? ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/10 "2004-06-24T02:55:57Z")
Cars with desmodromic valvetrains. Cars with gas turbines. Cars with automatic pilots. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/11 "2004-06-24T04:36:30Z")
I remember reading in elementary school about 6th grade that before the turn of the century telephones would have view screens to see the conversants. Camera phones and web cams made this come true. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/12 "2004-06-24T04:42:47Z")
dude, VIRTUAL REALITY! ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/13 "2004-06-24T04:43:10Z")
It would be nice to have some portable phones that you can carry around. That’d be really sweet. ---
**Author:** ![LtningBug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/73ab20/32.png) [@LtningBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LtningBug)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/14 "2004-06-24T06:06:08Z")
I remember reading a Boy’s Life magazine (the Boy Scouts magazine, that is) once, and there was an article by Isaac Asimov that said that cars would be entirely automated soon. This was around '89 or '90. I remember being terribly disappointed that I would never get to drive a car. Looks like I had nothing to be worried about. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/15 "2004-06-24T07:50:32Z")
\*hehehehe, \ ***JThunder** 🙂 . How about a portable _clock_! ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/16 "2004-06-24T08:09:14Z")
I’m still waiting for my jetpack. C’mon, people, it’s 2004. It’s the future now. Give me my damn jetpack. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/17 "2004-06-24T08:10:53Z")
…I just seem to remember that, back in the 60s, NASA had a design for an inflatable emergency shelter, for emergency use by astronauts on the moon. I’m certain that it never actually flew in space. But, I do remember seeing some photographs of a prototype being tested. Does anyone else remember this thing, or what it’s proper name was? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/18 "2004-06-24T08:12:39Z")
Well, that bites…that last post was supposed to be an OP. Though, oddly enough, I think it actually works as a reply to this thread. How weird and lucky. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/19 "2004-06-24T13:06:39Z")
Back in 1987, there was a lot of fuss about room-temperature superconductors. They were supposed to be commercially viable within five years. What happened? The great disappointment of 1989: Cold fusion! It was supposed to provide free energy, a new golden age of unlimited prosperity, and pave the way for Vinge’s Singularity. Not to mention ending our dependence on foreign oil so we would never have to send men to die in the Middle East. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828/20 "2004-06-24T14:17:29Z")
> [@FisherQueen](#): > > Video phones. We were all supposed to be using video phones by now. > > I think we could be, too, if the market hadn’t discovered that people really don’t WANT video phones. I have enough problems without thinking about whether or not I look good enough to answer the phone. LOL. Yep. Although, to be honest, I never look good enough to answer the phone. My problem would be, at least at home, am I dressed or not? I’d have to keep a robe around to answer the phone. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-was-supposedly-supposed-to-happen-by-now/251828.md?page=2)