# When near future goes obsolete **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075 "2015-10-09T20:54:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/1 "2015-10-09T20:54:40Z")
Just a thought to share with my fellow book worms. Movie enthusiasts also welcome. There are literally hundred of thousandths books written (and movies made) where everything happens in near future. But we are now well past that near future. Think classic dystopian style works like Lord of the flies or 1984. How would you percept and even compare some renown literary work or movie which was intended to be seen as short lived fiction in near future which we live in (and it is obviously not it) to otherwise alternate reality (Sci-fi) which was designed as is/was? Reason for this topic. Read bunch of “scifi classic” near future books from 60-90’s this year. They are all good, but they mostly don’t make sense, if I do not switch to AltHis mode. Do I make any sense? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/2 "2015-10-09T21:37:41Z")
Well, there’s Back to the Future 2. It’s 2015, where are my flying cars, hover boards, Pepsi Infinity, Nike Power Lace shoes? But there is some good news. The baseball caps are here!!! YEA!!! [http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ec45/](http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ec45/) ---
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/3 "2015-10-09T21:44:31Z")
Back to the Future … Yes It woud do as an Sample … ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/4 "2015-10-10T00:56:06Z")
One of the reasons I love watching 1980s/90s science fiction (stuff like Total Recall) - it’s obviously supposed to be the future (laser guns, cyborgs, cities on other planets, etc) but then they go over to a computer monitor and the best their graphics can do is something from the time of DOS. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/5 "2015-10-10T01:04:00Z")
Space : 1999. Great show. Fine actors. The Moon is still in orbit… ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/6 "2015-10-10T01:14:46Z")
2001 was a while back and Pan Am still doesn’t fly to the moon. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/7 "2015-10-10T02:01:53Z")
Science fiction set in the near future was rarely about the near future. It was generally the author’s way of commenting on the present by extrapolating current conditions. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/8 "2015-10-10T02:20:18Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > One of the reasons I love watching 1980s/90s science fiction (stuff like Total Recall) - it’s obviously supposed to be the future (laser guns, cyborgs, cities on other planets, etc) but then they go over to a computer monitor and the best their graphics can do is something from the time of DOS. Don’t forget about the monitors themselves being CRTs. Even **Babylon 5** couldn’t always hide that. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/9 "2015-10-10T03:14:06Z")
There is a book called Warday that at the time was science fiction but now reads as Alternate history if the US and the Soviets fought a limited nuclear war in the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/10 "2015-10-10T05:04:46Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Well, there’s Back to the Future 2. > > It’s 2015, where are my flying cars, hover boards, Pepsi Infinity, Nike Power Lace shoes? > > But there is some good news. The baseball caps are here!!! YEA!!! > > [http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ec45/](http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ec45/) Pepsi Perfect. And it’s [kind of real.](http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/6/9460511/pepsi-perfect-back-to-the-future-bottle) So are the [Power Laces.](http://www.businessinsider.com/back-to-the-future-nike-mag-with-power-laces-to-launch-in-2015-2015-1) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/11 "2015-10-10T18:46:31Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > 2001 was a while back and Pan Am still doesn’t fly to the moon. or anywhere else. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/12 "2015-10-10T20:18:24Z")
Any episode of _Doctor Who_ set in the near future. And we still aren’t all wearing those one-piece coverall things they always have in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/13 "2015-10-10T20:19:20Z")
2010 was the year I got contacts, is all. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/14 "2015-10-10T20:44:15Z")
Sometimes, it’s wrong from the start: Norman Spinrad’s **Russian Spring** has the Soviet Union as the big superpower in the future. Now, plenty of books have examples of that, except that **Russian Spring** came out a month or two _after_ the Soviet Union fell apart. Asimov also had a story postulating that we could never climb Mt. Everest that came out six months after Everest had been climbed. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/15 "2015-10-10T21:03:30Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > One of the reasons I love watching 1980s/90s science fiction (stuff like Total Recall) - it’s obviously supposed to be the future (laser guns, cyborgs, cities on other planets, etc) but then they go over to a computer monitor and the best their graphics can do is something from the time of DOS. It’s even better when you watch stuff made today that’s supposed to be set in those universes. Like the _Clone Wars_ cartoon, where they sometimes have to use their sophisticated, cutting edge computer animation to render something like [this](http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/06/XwingTargetingComp.png/revision/latest?cb=20130311051539). ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/16 "2015-10-10T21:36:36Z")
Never occurred to anyone that everyone would have a little gadget that accessed a worldwide data feed, told the time, took pictures AND videos, and made phone calls. And you still won’t see them in movies because people who stare at their phones are boring. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/17 "2015-10-10T21:46:45Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Don’t forget about the monitors themselves being CRTs. Even **Babylon 5** couldn’t always hide that. One of the saddest special effects of all time is the video screen on Regula One in _Wrath of Khan_ that just has a rectangular piece of opaque material covering up what it obviously a regular old CRT monitor, with a hole in it through which we see Uhura’s face trying to get someone on board to respond. Interestingly, this is one of the few things _2001_ got right, even if behind-the-scenes the flat screens were back-projected. Of course, _2010_ went right ahead and un-did getting it right. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/18 "2015-10-10T22:25:32Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > 2001 was a while back and Pan Am still doesn’t fly to the moon. And in _2012_, we did not send an international crew of astronauts to Jupiter in order to find out what happened to the _last_ crew of astronauts we sent to Jupiter. The U.S. didn’t go to war with Russia that year, and Jupiter did not turn into a second sun. Alternately, the Earth wasn’t racked by Armageddon level earthquakes and no giant ark was created to save the 1% richest folks in the world…and John Cusack and his family. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/19 "2015-10-12T00:37:25Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > 2001 was a while back and Pan Am still doesn’t fly to the moon. They do move freight around New England by rail, though. [http://www.panamrailways.com/](http://www.panamrailways.com/) ---
**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:** [October 13, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075/20 "2015-10-13T21:40:15Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Space : 1999. > Great show. > Fine actors. > The Moon is still in orbit… Even worse, **UFO** was set in a swinging, groovin’ alternate 1980s that Austin Powers would have felt at home in. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-near-future-goes-obsolete/734075.md?page=2)