# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/61 "2011-08-28T03:02:58Z")
Read my lips. HAL became operational on 12 January 1997. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/62 "2011-08-29T19:38:49Z")
1999: Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top-secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the project accelerator, and vanished. ---
**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 29, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/63 "2011-08-29T20:27:36Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > 1999: Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top-secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the project accelerator, and vanished. Hey, you said yourself it was top-secret. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/64 "2011-08-29T21:27:07Z")
2004 - global feline distemper pandemic renders _Felis catus_ extinct. (_To Say Nothing of the Dog_, Connie Willis) ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/65 "2011-08-29T22:25:36Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I love the novelization of [Logan’s Run](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan's_Run), that **WotNot** alludes to with hir quote. Hir??? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/66 "2011-08-29T22:57:57Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Hir??? I have no idea what sex/gender WotNot is, so his/her, or hir. I guess I could have used “their” instead. English could really use a good neutral singular pronoun. ---
**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 29, 2011, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/67 "2011-08-29T23:17:14Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I love the novelization of [Logan’s Run](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan's_Run), that **WotNot** alludes to with hir quote. The book wasn’t a novelization. It was written in 1967. The movie was adapted from the book in 1976 (although it also took a lot from another lesser-known movie called _Glen and Randa_, which was made in 1971). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/68 "2011-08-30T00:53:00Z")
2002: Nomad, the first interstellar probe with an onboard artificial intelligence, is launched (ST:TOS) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/69 "2011-08-30T01:47:39Z")
In 1869 there was that brick moon fiasco. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/70 "2011-08-30T09:47:33Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I have no idea what sex/gender WotNot is, so his/her, or hir. I guess I could have used “their” instead. English could really use a good neutral singular pronoun. There is one: “their.” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/71 "2011-08-30T11:29:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 1998: President Chet Roosevelt holds a telethon to save the American economy. _Americathon_ (1979) During the Administration of the Governor of the State of England- Chuck Windsor. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/72 "2011-08-30T11:51:03Z")
We’re still waiting for the Big One to hit California, dropping everything west of the San Andreas into the sea (the _Dream Park_ books - the date of the earthquake gets “updated” in the sequels but IIRC it’s 1985 in the first book and 1995 later). ---
**Author:** ![cinsavant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@cinsavant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cinsavant)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/73 "2011-08-30T12:24:17Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Maybe it was a Woody. if you’ve got a woody that lasts a thousand years GO SEE A DOCTOR!!! ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/74 "2011-08-30T22:12:06Z")
The Billy Joel song “Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)” is about New York City being dismantled. The lyrics are narrated as a reminiscence of the long ago event, so technically the destruction of NYC already happened. \<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami\_2017](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_2017)\> ---
**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 31, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/75 "2011-08-31T03:07:19Z")
2006 - Paul McCartney is the grandfather of Vera, Chuck, and Dave. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/76 "2011-08-31T07:50:25Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > On “Doctor Who” - The Cybermen invaded Earth twice during the late 20th century - in London circa 1972, and Antarctica in 1986. By around 1976, not only had British astronauts returned from a Mars mission (those radioactive aliens notwithstanding) but Guy Crayford managed to reach Jupiter! (Of course he brought back some other aliens and their silly androids, but what the hell…) ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/77 "2011-08-31T13:17:31Z")
2009 - Baby Diego, the last baby on the planet, is born: (_Children of Men_ (set in 2027, but he was 18 when he died). ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/78 "2011-08-31T21:25:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The [Tales of Future Past](http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm) website has much of this kind. Wow, thanks for this link, **BG**! ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/79 "2011-09-01T01:19:04Z")
Reader’s Digest or someone like that used to publish a Book of Lists every year that had predictions. In about 1980 some nut predicted that in 1999 a black rainbow would appear and suck all the oxygen from the Earth’s atmosphere. Maybe it was just a metaphor for the election of Hugo Chavez. ---
**Author:** ![pete66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8c91f0/32.png) [@pete66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pete66)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068/80 "2011-09-03T20:34:27Z")
In 1979 The Earth was destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial express route. I hope you all remembered to grab your towels. oh and “Dont Panic” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-that-never-was/594068.md?page=5)