Either the labradoodle or the puggle.
The endless variety of foods available in the supermarkets and restaurants. Exotic fruits like chinese gooseberries (“kiwifruit”) and mangoes and papayas, mushrooms, frozen food that tastes good. Hundreds of cheeses. Yogurt…what’s yogurt? Ethnic restaurants everywhere, not just one Cantonese takeout and one Italian sit-down per city. Thai food. Who could have guessed 50 years ago that ordering takeout Phad Thai would be an everyday experience in 2007?
Oh, I forgot. The most NON-science-fictiony thing would be that there’s plenty of food, we’re awash in food. Most science fiction fans from 1957 would predict short rations in 2007. Read “Farmer in the Sky” by Robert Heinlein. He imagined a society with total conversion rockets transporting people to a terraformed Ganymede, while back on earth people tighten their belts and food is strictly rationed and people literally count every calorie. And most protein is yeast.
And predictions that we could get cheap food from the sea? What a laugh. Fish in 1957 was dirt cheap peasant food. Fish nowadays is a high priced luxury. The prediction of nearly limitless food from the oceans is totally falsified. And nobody is thinking of ranching whales.
Well, crossbreeds have always existed and that is how the BullMastiff was created.
I don’t find a Pug/Beagle cross or a Labrador/Poodle cross amazing. I find amazing is that people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on a crossbreed with a goofy name.
Which reminds me of my otherwise good sixth grade teacher:
“And on our overnight field trip, you should watch out for poison oak out there.”
“Is there mugwort?” (laughter of class)
(Sarcastically) “Yeah, there’s tons of mugwort”
I had just learned in the Baptist version of the Boy Scouts that you rub the underside of the mugwort leaf on your skin to set up a barrier against the poison oak oils. Being unreasonable and mocking to people creates resentments that can remain an awfully long time.
I’m surprised Ipods haven’t been mentioned here more often. I think about how futuristic mine is all the time. I think even fifteen years ago people would have been shocked to think this would exist in the near future. I’ll also vote for cameraphones, phone-internet capability and just the widespread use of cell phones in general.
What about bad futuristic science-fiction aspects of our society? For the first time we’re actually seeing the effects of global warming with huge ice sheets falling off the polar ice caps for the first time in thousands of years. Not exactly the “gadget” theme that the thread has followed so far but it would fit in a science fiction dystopian novel rather nicely.
That’s more the laser printer than the software - at least 25 years ago. When I did my dissertation 27 years ago I was careful not to include any Greek letters and not to have any diagrams that could not be produced on a line printer. One of our professors was finishing up his dissertation, and he had to run the entire thing twice through an IBM terminal with a printball to get the subscripts. Not for me! My first papers printed fine, but had to be cut and pasted onto camera ready paper because selectrics couldn’t do two columns well. I was using text editors about 40 years ago, but it is true they weren’t generally available.
By the same token, I think they would be disappointed that there is still poverty, ignorance and war. I know I am. Not that you would expect all of them to be eliminated, but maybe one? Also the existence of coal-fired power plants would probably be shocking, if he were inclined toward futurism.
Another thing that might surprise someone of 1957 is that even though we did go to the moon (just over a decade later), but that we haven’t pursued manned exploration of the moon and the rest of the solar system, even fifty years hence.
The whole instant food industry. Back in the 1950’s TV dinners were unheard of. Now every food is instant, pre-packaged and microwavable.
Swanson’s came out with the TV Brand Frozen Dinner in 1953.
Stranger
Experimental brain implants, for things like Parkinsons and epilepsy.
Growing skin in a lab.
Modern artificial limbs, as mentioned.
Limited artifical vision.
Modern weapons, both in precision and power.
Laser potato peelers ( they exist; I’ve no idea if anyone uses them )
“Lightning beams”; lasers used to conduct electricity.
The military’s new microwave “agony ray”.
Titanium artificial leg bones that can be implanted in children and made to lengthen as the kid grows ( they have an internal screw, and a spinning magnetic field lengthens the “bone” )
The ability to sense and manipulate single atoms.
Computer chips.
The ability to hold a single atom or electron indefinately and make it visible. A trick involving a Penning trap, a laser, a telescope lens, and a scientist who was irritated at a science teacher he had who said it was impossible.
Artificial olfactory sensors.
Social things that would surprise them :
Body piercing.
Women’s rights, and women taking their place all over the workplace ( and not in a war, either ).
Sexual harassment lawsuits.
Inter-racial marriage being no big deal for most people.
The relative acceptance of gays.
Holy crap. I need one right now. Any idea where I can get one?
No, sorry; I read an article about it years ago and have heard nothing else about it. As it was developed for the military it’s probably ridiculously overpriced anyway.
Another thing would be the printing of three dimensional objects, as mentioned in this thread.
Even more surprising, that some people seriously believe we didn’t go there at all.
Global terrorism.
The price of oil.
Itty-bitty cars that run on electricity or solar energy or something other than gas.
Do you mean the factr that it is so incredibly cheap, even though people thought we would run out in the 1980s or 1990s? Because that’s the only surprising thing there.
Which is true, but it took a while to perfect. And until the food industry started packaging food in microwave-friendly forms, you had to put them in the oven and wait for them to cook, a process that can take 30-45 minutes.
I think what Annie Xmas was talking about was the variety and cheapness of convenience foods that are available in any supermarket, and the fact that they are so commonplace now. As I’ve posted before, it’s much cheaper and easier to grab a frozen meal. In a few minutes, I’ve got a hot lunch. Thanks to Stouffer’s and Marie Callender’s and other convenience-food companies, I’ve got a tremendous variety to choose from; I don’t have to eat turkey or fried chicken when I can have tuna casserole or pot pie or meat loaf.
Robin
I’m still not buying. Swanson’s wasn’t the first prepackaged meal, but the first really popular one, to the point that prepackaged meals became known as “TV dinners” in the same sense that tissue is known generically as “kleenex”. It’s true that packaged meals prior to the late 'Seventies weren’t microwavable, but I don’t think it would be a particular suprise to denziens of the 'Fifites that you could pluck a meal off the shelf and heat it up in spare minutes; in fact, I think they’d be surprised that it took so long to catch on, given how automated household chores (including food preparation) was being so exhaulted in the 'Fifties.
The availability of cheap fresh produce, however, would be something of a revelation. But TV dinners? Nah, that was supposed to be old hat by 1980. We were all going to be sitting in underground bomb shelters watching Ed Sullivan awkwardly introduce the next capella group while eating our precooked turkey and mashed potato dinner.
Stranger
Non-invasive surgery.