# The (SF) Futures Left Behind **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2015, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674 "2015-01-01T12:59:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/41 "2015-01-05T15:41:11Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Never got to ride in the Flying Sub when I was in high school, either. Damn, damn, damn, damn! :mad: It was overrated. The flying Sub I recall had a piece of metal get stuck in an engine. Climbing out on the wing to remove it, during a storm no less, sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/42 "2015-01-05T15:48:28Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > TCurrent editions of the book are set in 2021. Surely by the 1980’s it was obvious that the only way the world of the book could exist would be if it was in a considerably further future. By now though, it should be obvious that it couldn’t exist in 2021 either: > > [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F) Well, we’re not exactly living the good life in the off-World colonies yet, are we? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/43 "2015-01-05T21:14:45Z")
The TV version of [The Martian Chronicles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_Chronicles_(miniseries)) predicted that we would colonize Mars in 2004 and nuke Earth in 2006. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/44 "2023-07-02T21:36:33Z")
Bumped. I just read William F. Nolan’s 1977 sf novel _Logan’s World_, a sequel to _Logan’s Run_. He mentions a devastating earthquake that destroyed San Francisco and mangled but didn’t fully bring down the Golden Gate Bridge on April 16, 1988 (the Oct. 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco was pretty bad, but not _that_ bad, fortunately). Also in the book, in 1991, the Crazy Horse Memorial was completed (actually still under construction in our timeline, see [Crazy Horse Memorial - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial)) and a massive computer complex, the Thinker, installed in the caverns beneath. Central Park was filled in and huge skyscraper housing complexes were built there to address a NYC homelessness crisis in 1997, at the direction of Mayor Margaret Hatch (the city still hasn’t had a female mayor in our world). ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2023, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/45 "2023-07-02T21:40:51Z")
The way we’re going, give it a couple of years. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/46 "2023-07-04T18:55:51Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Since it’s 2015, which is the year that Marty McFly travels forward to in _Back to the Future II_, it’s gotten me to thinking about all the other SF futures that we’ve caught up with, or have already left behind. > > … > So what are your favorite futures that we’ve already left behind, or are catching up with? This thread comes to mind. 😃 Also they managed to hold the 2020 Tokyo Olympics without a Akira-esq psychic event. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/47 "2023-07-04T19:26:30Z")
Would you know if we had? I mean, that’s the thing with major psychic events. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/48 "2023-07-04T21:10:46Z")
_2001: A Space Odyssey_, _Blade Runner_, _Akira_, _The Running Man_ (1987), _Soylent Green_, _The Terminator_, _Reign of Fire_, _Pacific Rim_, _Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet_, _Roujin Z_, _Yesterday_ (2002), _The Island_ (2005), _Real Steel_, _Rollerball_ (1975), _Robocop_, _A Scanner Darkly_, _Timecop_, _Escape from New York_, _Mad Max_, _Deathrace 2000_, _1990: The Bronx Warriors_, _2019: After the Fall of New York_, _Absolon_, _Americathon_, _Brick Mansions_, _Iron Sky_, _Annihilation Earth_, _I, Robot_, _V for Vendetta_, _The 6th Day_, _Surrogates_, _Terminator Salvation_, _Back to the Future Part II_ , _A Boy and His Dog_, _The Sisterhood_, “Little Lost Robot” (from _Out of This World_), _Freejack_, “L.A. 2017” (from _The Name of the Game_), _Beyond the Time Barrier_, _Dog Gone Modern_, _Barb Wire_ (1996), _Cherry 2000_, _Johnny Mnemonic_, and _Daybreakers_ I made a list of such movies and television episodes for a possible movie day that a group I belong to might possibly do in the future, but obviously we can only do a few of them. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/49 "2023-07-05T02:55:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Would you know if we had? I mean, that’s the thing with major psychic events. In the film Akira (1988) this particular event was a black hole that swallowed half of Neo-Tokyo. It’s just notable in that the final battle takes place in 2019 in an under construction Olympic stadium. As it happens the actual Olympics ended up being held in Tokyo IRL in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/50 "2023-07-05T04:07:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He has a practical deep-space drive invented, developed, implemented, and launched on a manned mission within ten years after the writing of the book. Nothing is _ever_ developed that fast. The version of Forever War that I read had a foreword from Haldeman in which he acknowledges that the time frame was unrealistic, but he needed the senior officers at the start of the book to be Vietnam vets so he stuck with it. ---
**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:** [July 5, 2023, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/51 "2023-07-05T06:41:04Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > In the film Akira (1988) this particular event was a black hole that swallowed half of Neo-Tokyo. It’s just notable in that the final battle takes place in 2019 in an under construction Olympic stadium. As it happens the actual Olympics ended up being held in Tokyo IRL in 2020. ⁢ Well, 2021. ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/52 "2023-07-05T11:39:55Z")
> ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/53 "2023-07-06T14:18:50Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > _2001: A Space Odyssey_, _Blade Runner_, _Akira_, _The Running Man_ (1987), _Soylent Green_, _The Terminator_, _Reign of Fire_, _Pacific Rim_, _Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet_, _Roujin Z_, _Yesterday_ (2002), _The Island_ (2005), _Real Steel_, _Rollerball_ (1975), _Robocop_, _A Scanner Darkly_, _Timecop_, _Escape from New York_, _Mad Max_, _Deathrace 2000_, _1990: The Bronx Warriors_, _2019: After the Fall of New York_, _Absolon_, _Americathon_, _Brick Mansions_, _Iron Sky_, _Annihilation Earth_, _I, Robot_, _V for Vendetta_, _The 6th Day_, _Surrogates_, _Terminator Salvation_, _Back to the Future Part II_ , _A Boy and His Dog_, _The Sisterhood_, “Little Lost Robot” (from _Out of This World_), _Freejack_, “L.A. 2017” (from _The Name of the Game_), _Beyond the Time Barrier_, _Dog Gone Modern_, _Barb Wire_ (1996), _Cherry 2000_, _Johnny Mnemonic_, and _Daybreakers_ Are the years given in there the years that the book/movie was released, or the year the events in the book/movie supposedly were to take place in? Noting that most of the items in the list have neither, so it’s really rather meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/54 "2023-07-06T14:58:00Z")
Blade Runner was set in 2019 so definitely past that one (the sequel is 2049 I think). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2023, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/55 "2023-07-07T01:31:05Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Are the years given in there the years that the book/movie was released, or the year the events in the book/movie supposedly were to take place in? They’re the years that the movie was released. These are all movies and television episodes, not books. I indicate the year for the movies when there are several movies by that name. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/56 "2023-07-20T22:30:40Z")
Don’t know about Outer space drama in particular, but a big part of the set-in-the-future dates being not too far in the future is creating tension in the viewers’ minds. “Who cares about the future 0.5 kilo years away? But 25 to 50 years - that’s within my lifetime, or at least my kids’.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/57 "2023-07-21T00:33:45Z")
By now Billy Joel should have seen the lights go out on Broadway. ([Billy Joel - Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) (Official Audio) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYwBvysy3Q)) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/58 "2023-07-21T17:55:39Z")
We’ve missed the two key dates in _The Door into Summer_: 1970 and 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/59 "2024-01-25T18:47:08Z")
In another Heinlein book, _Space Cadet_, there’s reference to the unsuccessful 1971 _Astarte_ mission to Venus, and Lt. John Ezra Dahlquist’s heroic self-sacrifice to stop a military coup in 1996 (discussed at greater length in the short story “The Long Watch”). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674/60 "2024-01-25T19:34:36Z")
So, after seeing all too many examples in literature, WHY would an author give specific dates for their apocalypses? . “The date is February 19th, 2024, and one of the rings of Saturn has come loose, heading towards earth like a spinning frisbee… one woman scientist, her loyal servant, and a robot stand against **The Ring Of Saturn**!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sf-futures-left-behind/708674.md?page=4)