# What are some of the passed Sci-Fi dates? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2004, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354 "2004-07-03T06:21:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/41 "2004-07-05T21:41:14Z")
1984? wasnt that just an approximation as noone was sure of the actual date due to the revising of any and all historical Documents? ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/42 "2004-07-06T01:30:59Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > 1997 seems to be a popular year for the end of the world. > > When did Akira destory toyko the first time? If I remember right (at work; no comic books here ☹ ) it was 1992. I think the rest of the story takes place in 2031 or so… ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/43 "2004-07-06T02:00:13Z")
As am amateur s-f writer, I never ever mention dates in my stories that take place in the future. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/44 "2004-07-06T02:29:56Z")
IIRC, the previews for the movie [_Timecop_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0111438/) (1994) included some line like “In the year 2004, time travel is a reality–and a crime.” Of course I guess you could argue they’ve still got about 178 days left. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/45 "2004-07-06T02:57:37Z")
From old DC Sci-Fi comics, global nuclear war took place in 1986, leading to the creation of the Atomic Knights. From VERY old SC Sci-Fi, the earliest appearances of Tommy Tomorrow give, IIRC, an early-1980’s date for the first human trips to the Moon and Mars, but I can’t seem to find the specific dates on line. In any case, later TT stories portray him as living a century in the future anyway. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/46 "2004-07-06T03:39:47Z")
The beginning of Arthur C. Clarke’s **Childhood’s End** was set in 1975! :eek: The Jetsons, IIRC, were set in 2002 (yeah, I know, I know). My original version of David Gerrold’s **The Man Who Folded Himself** began sometime in the 1970s. However, the new version on sale in stores now has the dates “pushed up” to the present. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/47 "2004-07-06T12:40:40Z")
Heck, if you sift through old SF stories you’ll come up with _lots_ of dates for the future that have passed, usually without the things predicted coming to pass. 2000 and 2001 was a big one, because of that change in the first digit. The book and movie 2001 is famous for it, but a lot of older srtories are set at the time, including Fredric Brown’s classic [BN]The Lights in the Sky are Stars\*\*. I was at the now-defunct Computer Museum in Boston on the date Hal was supposed to become active. Far from celebrating it, the people there didn’t even know it was that day until I told them! Maybe this has sometrhing to do with why they’re not in business anymore. One example that stands out in my mind is a film made for the 1939 World’s Fair that predicted the future. “Does that sound incredible?” asks the narrator at the end. “Remember, this is the world of …1960!” ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/48 "2004-07-06T12:48:37Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > IIRC, the previews for the movie [_Timecop_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0111438/) (1994) included some line like “In the year 2004, time travel is a reality–and a crime.” > > Of course I guess you could argue they’ve still got about 178 days left. Well, since the T.E.C. was supposed to be a secret agency, it’s possible they are active already. :dubious: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/49 "2004-07-06T15:32:27Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > 1997 seems to be a popular year for the end of the world. Bishop James Ussher calculated that the world was created on October 23rd, 4004 B.C. Exactly 6 millennia later would be Octover 23rd, 1997 A.D. (The apparent discrepancy is because there was no year 0 – 1 B.C. was the year before 1 A.D.) Six millennia would correspond with the six days that God took to create the world, so that would be a very good date to predict the end of the world occurring. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/50 "2004-07-06T15:39:07Z")
> [@sunfish](#): > > Speaking of which, HAL9000 became operational on Jan. 12, 1992. (I went to a screening of _2001_ at the American Museum of Natural History on that date; the crowd cheered when HAL mentioned it. 🆒 ) According to the _movie._ The book gives the date as Jan. 12, 1997. > [@Chronos](#): > > And “Robbie”, the first of Asimov’s robot stories, was set in 1999. Susan Calvin was born in 1982 and should be completing her graduate work at Columbia pretty soon now. Anyone a student there and know her? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/51 "2004-07-06T16:13:18Z")
MST3K: “In the not too distant future, Next Sunday, A.D.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/52 "2004-07-06T16:15:28Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > The movie _Just Imagine_, released in 1930, was set in the flying car, video phone, advanced civilization on Mars world of the year 1980. In a similar vein, as a kid in the mid-1960s, I owned a Scholastic Books novel that had Martian colonies by 1983. What’s more, in a schoolyard argument, one kid says he’s a native-born Martian, which means that they would have had to be there by, say, 1974. Even in the most optimistic, anything-was-possible days of the early space program, that was absurd. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/53 "2004-07-06T17:18:53Z")
Well, we can still look forward to 2101, when CATS takes over all our base. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/54 "2004-07-06T19:14:02Z")
> [@av8rmike](#): > > > [@sunfish](#): > > > > Speaking of which, HAL9000 became operational on Jan. 12, 1992. (I went to a screening of 2001 at the American Museum of Natural History on that date; the crowd cheered when HAL mentioned it.) > > According to the _movie._ The book gives the date as Jan. 12, 1997. Well, a special screening of the _movie_ on Jan. 12, 1997, wouldn’t have had quite the same effect, would it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/55 "2004-07-06T23:44:03Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Bishop James Ussher calculated that the world was created on October 23rd, 4004 B.C. Exactly 6 millennia later would be Octover 23rd, 1997 A.D. Would be November 3, actually, since Ussher made the calculation under the Julian calendar - the Gregorian calendar not being adopted in England or the Americas until about 100 years after he made this calculation. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/56 "2004-07-06T23:50:57Z")
> [@dotchan](#): > > Well, we can still look forward to 2101, when CATS takes over all our base. 😃 And soon after, someone will set us up the bomb. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/57 "2004-07-07T03:20:07Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > In the “Space Seed”, they said that from 1992 to 1996, there was a world war known as the Eugenics wars, where a bunch of Genetically engineered supermen tried to take over the world(but records were fragementary). In the interest of this obvious discrepancy current Trek canon is trying to kinda fudge things. Now they sort of merge ‘The Eugenics Wars’ into the start of WWIII which isn’t suppose to happen until around the 2050s. This was mentioned in a DS9 episode. > [@](#): > > According to the movie. The book gives the date as Jan. 12, 1997. This difference was kind of a sore spot between Clarke and Kubrick. Kubrick just changed the year to 1992 and never gave Clarke (or anybody else) a reason. Clarke thought it ridiculous that a nine year old computer would be used in such an important mission. Wired magazine ran a cover story about this event (HAL’s birthday) in their Jan 1997 issue featuring an interview with Arthur C. Clarke. There was a small celebration planned for the 1997 anniversary and when Kubrick was asked to attend he replied rather surly, “Well, it should have been five years ago…” and hung up! ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/58 "2004-07-13T19:45:06Z")
> [@sunfish](#): > > Oh, and let’s not forget [Buck Rogers](http://www.buck-rogers.com/): Feh – Upstart! Let’s pay homage to the original “Buck Rogers” story: [Armageddon 2419](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441029418/104-6799011-5903923?v=glance) ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/59 "2004-07-14T01:14:59Z")
> [@](#): > > As am amateur s-f writer, I never ever mention dates in my stories that take place in the future. … Or just set everything in the very far future, so that by that time, your works no longer exist. And any historical dates mentioned can hide behind “poor historical records” or somethin’. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354/60 "2004-07-14T05:52:19Z")
I don’t have much to contribute to this thread, but here goes: In the Bugs Bunny cartoon titled “Old Grey Hare” (mid 1940’s, I believe) Elmer Fudd falls asleep Rip-Van-Winkle-style and wakes up in the year 2000 as a very old man. In 2000 A.D. he’s toting a futuristic-looking laser blaster gun. In the background are several buildings with odd shapes to them. In “One Froggy Evening” towards the end a man is wearing a glass helmet and using a disintegration gun to obliterate the concrete of the “old” building in 2056 (built new in 1955 at the beginning of the cartoon). When he finds Michigan J. Frog in the box and carries him off the entire city around him is shown as super modern with flying cars, etc. While this won’t be for another 52 years I doubt we are going to see anything like this by then. I noticed when they did _Back to the Future II_ in 1989 they were a little more conservative and not quite so ambitious about making everything look so ultra futuristic. Still, I don’t think we’re going to see Hoverboards, 16 more _Jaws_ sequels to be released by then, or have the ability to control the weather in 2015 at the rate things are going now. For the most part things look to be about the same in 2015 in that movie as they do now. This left me to wondering if science fiction writers of today have shifted to not making such wild projections, or if they are, what year they are using now? Certainly we don’t want the people in the year 2100 to be laughing at us for making such absurd predictions like we’re doing now with the science fiction writers of the past. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-of-the-passed-sci-fi-dates/253354.md?page=4)