# Would people in the 50s be disappointed in "the future"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588 "2009-12-01T15:23:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [December 11, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/121 "2009-12-11T13:08:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, certainly they weren’t much thinking about moon bases even here, considering that the US space program essentially did not exist until post-Sputnik. Certainly they were – Willy Ley’s book on space travel was very popular. There was a wel-illustrated and famous article in, I think, Colliers’ magazine on the future of space travel (with illustrations by Chesley Bonestell), and **Destination Moon** came out with a script by Robert Heinlein. This was all before 1955, and was pretty mainstream, not SF-fan stuff. On TV, Walt Disney’s TV show **Disneyland** devoted three episodes to the future of space flight, with models, animation, dramatizations, and lectures by Werner von Braun, Willy Ley, and others. This was all well before Sputnik. The point of the excitement over Sputnik wasn’t that Americans weren’t interested in space – it was that they thought space travel was so high-tech (and the Russians technologically so backward) that they were flabbergasted that the Russians got there _first_. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/122 "2009-12-13T00:01:34Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Darn that environmentalism! Who wants to breathe clean air or drink water that won’t turn your insides to glowing ooze, anyway? Environmentalism in the sense of conservation and clean air was well underway in the 1950s but not the absurd ultra animal rights movement and the anti-scientific opposition to nuclear power plants and offshore drilling. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/123 "2009-12-13T04:37:45Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Environmentalism in the sense of conservation and clean air was well underway in the 1950s but not the absurd ultra animal rights movement and the anti-scientific opposition to nuclear power plants and offshore drilling. What is anti-scientific about opposition to offshore drilling? Offshore drilling itself may be relatively safe, but marine transport of oil is certainly not. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/124 "2009-12-13T16:04:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Moving sidewalks wasn’t a 50s thing – it started out early on (the 20s?) and hit its stride with Heinlein’s “The Roads Must Roll” and Asimov’s _The Caves of Steel_. It always sounded to me like a grotesquely energy-intensive undertaking, and I never understood why it was thought to be such a great idea. (Especially after Heinlein so graphically pointed out its possible outcomes. The concept of using graduated speeds for parallel moving walkways was first built at the 1893 Exposition Universelle in Paris.[sup][1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_walkway#History)[/sup] Its first appearance in science fiction was in _A Story of the Days To Come_ (1897) and _When The Sleeper Wakes_ (1899) by H.G. Wells.[sup][2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_walkway#Science_fiction)[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/125 "2009-12-14T04:09:42Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What is anti-scientific about opposition to offshore drilling? Offshore drilling itself may be relatively safe, but marine transport of oil is certainly not. Well we have to take risks don’t we. And I think a few fishes and/or sea mammals killed are worth the price of energy independence and several thousands of more jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/126 "2009-12-14T04:23:07Z")
Repealing all offshore drilling bans would increase US production by about 7% over the next 20 years. That would account for approximately one third of the current gap between US production and consumption - though probably less than half of what the gap will be in 20 years. Hardly “energy independence”. In any case, it doesn’t matter what you think a few fishes and/or sea mammals are worth, does it? Gulf of Mexico drilling projects and shipping currently spill between 2,000 and 5,000 barrels of oil per year. That doesn’t include nearly 10 million gallons spilled as a result of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. If you think 2,000 barrels of oil kills “a few fishes”, I suggest you go and visit a drilling operation yourself. Thousands of new oil jobs won’t look much good when fisheries are laying off thousands, you know. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/127 "2009-12-14T05:37:31Z")
We all thought we would get to the moon, but nobody predicted we would have it on TV. I am sure we must have thought the Detroit Lions would win a championship. Wrong . I don’t think anybody would think sports would become so big. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/128 "2009-12-14T14:14:53Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > We all thought we would get to the moon, but nobody predicted we would have it on TV. Now _that_’s an insight. It would never have occurred to me to think of it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/129 "2009-12-14T14:17:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Would people in the 50s be disappointed in “the future”? I am, to some degree. I grew up in the 50s. Where’s my personal helicopter? Where’s my jetpack or my flying car? Where’s the functional moonbase that acts as a hub to the other planets? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/130 "2009-12-14T14:19:10Z")
Er… you can go buy a personal helicopter right now. I get you on the jetpack/moonbase part. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588/131 "2009-12-14T19:38:50Z")
Yes they would be disappointed [http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy220/russvig/tweeter-what2.jpg](http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy220/russvig/tweeter-what2.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-people-in-the-50s-be-disappointed-in-the-future/519588.md?page=6)