# The future that never was **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068 "2011-08-25T18:39:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/21 "2011-08-25T20:39:08Z")
1999: A gigantic alien space fortress crashes on Macross Island. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/22 "2011-08-25T21:06:33Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > August 1985: [Warsaw pact forces invade West Germany, Norway and Turkey.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_World_War:_The_Untold_Story) After the Soviet Union launches a nuclear strike at Birmingham, England, and suffers a retaliatory strike on Minsk, a rebellion overthrows the Communist government. Except for the date and the nuclear strikes, I thought at first you were going for Tom Clancy’s ‘Red Storm Rising’ (this case, the invasion of Western Europe was a fient so the Warsaw Pact could grab Middle Eastern oil resources). For both, there was the same rebellion-overthrows-warriors in USSR government, and then everythings all nice and peachy (except for the death and destruction of course). BTW, anyone else remember that nuclear explosion going off in the Florida Keys?(True Lies) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/23 "2011-08-25T21:15:28Z")
On “Doctor Who” - The Cybermen invaded Earth twice during the late 20th century - in London circa 1972, and Antarctica in 1986. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/24 "2011-08-25T21:19:42Z")
2010 - The countries of Earth ban aluminum (David Brin’s _Earth_). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/25 "2011-08-25T21:21:20Z")
1999: Hey, where’d the moon go? ---
**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:** [August 25, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/26 "2011-08-25T22:06:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The Jupiter mission was eighteen months after the monolith on the moon emitted its squeal. I wasn’t sure about that one. I knew there was an eighteen month gap between the second and third parts of the story. But without watching the movie again, I couldn’t remember if 2001 was the year the monolith was found on the moon or the year the giant space baby was encountered out by Jupiter. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/27 "2011-08-25T22:08:15Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > 1999: Population of New York 36 million, infrastructure crumbling. Harrison, _Make Room, Make Room_, 1966. I don’t know if _Soylent Green_ is set in the same year, but I suspect so. No, I checked because I was thinking about including _Soylent Green_ in the OP. The movie was set in 2022. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/28 "2011-08-25T22:10:25Z")
The [Tales of Future Past](http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm) website has much of this kind. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/29 "2011-08-25T22:10:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ll have to scour my books later – there are plenty of examples, especially around the year 2000. Mack Reynolds is a good example. He wrote several books specifically set in the year 2000. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/30 "2011-08-25T22:12:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I wasn’t sure about that one. I knew there was an eighteen month gap between the second and third parts of the story. But without watching the movie again, I couldn’t remember if 2001 was the year the monolith was found on the moon or the year the giant space baby was encountered out by Jupiter. The Film 2010 establishes the Discovery mission was in 2001 so the moon monolith was found in 1999. Of course the whole joint Russian/US mission to Jupiter in 2010 and Jupiter turning into a star seems not to have made CNN. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/31 "2011-08-25T22:15:24Z")
[Semi-relevant XKCD](http://xkcd.com/887/) ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/32 "2011-08-25T22:25:35Z")
Sometime in the 1930’s Bronson Alpha destroys the Earth. A few scientists work hard to perfect space travel and colonize companion planet Bronson Beta. (1933) ---
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/33 "2011-08-25T23:15:21Z")
Missed the Wandering Sickness in 1967 [_Things to Come_ 1936](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come) Bri2k ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/34 "2011-08-26T00:45:05Z")
1960 – The first mechanized road is built between Cincinnati and Cleveland (“The Roads Must Roll” by Robert Heinlein, 1940) 1996 – The Year of the Domino, where the US government relocated to Hammarskjold Center, on Mars and the superpowers are the Brazilian Union of the Americas and the Pan-African League ( **American Flagg!** , 1983). 2000 – The US is turned into a socialist utopia ( **Looking Backward** by Edward Bellamy, 1888). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/35 "2011-08-26T02:35:16Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > Of course the whole joint Russian/US mission to Jupiter in 2010 and Jupiter turning into a star seems not to have made CNN. Was it a Russian/US mission, or a Soviet/US mission? ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/36 "2011-08-26T05:07:09Z")
2007: Flying saucer crashes in Grinnell, Iowa. Agents of an ultra-secret government agency sent to investigate disappear. Slug-like aliens with the ability to control their “hosts” nearly take over but are decimated by [DEL]exposure to terrestrial infections[/DEL] a disease which originally infected an extraterrestrial human colony. Oh, and there are flying cars. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/37 "2011-08-26T05:37:07Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > But there’s a more important, more fundamental issue here: > > _WHERE THE HELL IS MY FLYING CAR???_ But the _The Jetsons_ was just _a cartoon_. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/38 "2011-08-26T05:37:28Z")
How are any of us around? In 1986 an alien ambassador told the UN that we would be destroyed over our small talent for war. After the UN drafted a world peace treaty the ambassador said we misunderstood and that we needed to show a greater talent for war in order to be of use to them. - [A Small Talent for War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Small_Talent_for_War). ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/39 "2011-08-26T08:48:53Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > August 1985: [Warsaw pact forces invade West Germany, Norway and Turkey.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_World_War:_The_Untold_Story) After the Soviet Union launches a nuclear strike at Birmingham, England, and suffers a retaliatory strike on Minsk, a rebellion overthrows the Communist government. > > But there’s a more important, more fundamental issue here: > > _WHERE THE HELL IS MY FLYING CAR???_ [Avery Brooks](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzm6pvHPSGo) has been demanding to know that for over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/40 "2011-08-26T12:31:19Z")
“The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength. By the early 1970s over 75 percent of the people living on Earth were under 21 years of age. The population continued to climb—and with it the youth percentage. In the 1980s the figure was 79.7 percent. In the 1990s, 82.4 percent. In the year 2000—critical mass.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068.md?page=3)