Roughly around, say, the '40s or '50s?
There’s another thread in here talking about what life would be like in the next 50 years, but did any scientists have guesses about what life would be like today? How accurate were they?
I read an essay by Heinlein, written in the 50s about what life would be like now, but about the only details I can remember were fast transportation and hot grandmas.
I knew a hot grandma…she was 27, though…
That word in the subject was of course supposed to be “life”, not “liife”, can one of the moderators change that for me?
Yes, there were lots. I’m sure I saw some articles on exactly that subject last year. I’ll see if I can locate some specifics. Some were on the mark, most were wildly inaccurate.
And of course, you might try re-watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was even closer in time, for a few laughs.
I distinctly remember go to see the General Electric “World of Tomorrow” pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. I can’t recall how far in the future they were predicting, but it was probably either the year 2000 or 50 years from 1964. I thought the Moon City and the Underwater City were really cool. And then there was this enormous machine simultaneously cutting down the Amazon Rain Forest and laying down a concrete superhighway behind it as it went . . . Progress!
I also recently re-read a lot of “pyschics predictions for the year 2000” published in The People’s Almanac about 1970. If you ever wanted evidence for pyschic predictions being total BS, it’s a goldmine. Probably 1% of all the predictions came true, and then only the most general and obvious ones. But no surprise there. The scientists did a little better.
WHERE ARE MY FLYING CARS?
Or my vacation on the moon?
Yeah, find a copy of Heinlein’s “Expanded Universe.” Great stuff, his predictions. Some, if bent a little out of their original intent, did come to pass.
Sir