At the time, it seemed that 1999 could have very well looked the way it did in the series. But more than 30 years later and we’re still wearing jeans, still eating normal food and still living on Earth, trying in vain to imagine what life will be like in another 30 years’ time. My guess is that it will be pretty much the same as it’s always been.
Technology continues to move at an amazing pace though, so I could be proved entirely wrong. In the 1970s, computers were the size of small buildings and the very idea that within three decades, we would have miniscule mobile telephones that could double up as computers, able to display maps with driving directions as well as play our entire music collection, would have been ridiculous. Yet here we are today, entirely dependent on our smartphones, which can do all that and much more.
Recently, I attended the Goodwood Revival in the UK, a wondrous motor sport event that transports spectators back in time to the 1950s and 60s. Tens of thousands of people converged upon the venue, all of them wearing period perfect outfits. It was truly incredible to experience that time capsule for just a couple of days, transported, as I was, back to an era before I existed. A small motor show venue had been set up in the grounds. Along with immaculate cars of yesteryear, it also showcased some of today’s new models. I can only imagine what someone from the early 1950s would have made of the new Ford Focus ST that was sharing the stand with a hopelessly outdated Cortina.
The Focus, like most cars today, is packed with computer power. Modern cars not only direct you to your destination, they also reverse park, keep you in lane and prevent you from crashing into the driver in front. Some of them give you a massage on the move, many switch on the headlamps and wipers automatically and there are a number of cars out there that can move around without a driver behind the wheel.
When I was growing up, though, my vision of future transport was one of cars that had no need for roads. I thought that by the time I turned 40, we’d be commuting in pods that floated above the ground, whooshed around in near total silence and were able to transport passengers at speeds usually associated with jet aircraft. We’re nowhere near that stage.
The reasons are many and varied but one has to be the fact that as technology has advanced at breakneck speed, it has made what were once luxury items (like cars and overseas flights) available to the masses. This has resulted in congested roads the world over, as well as skies that are rammed to capacity, as more and more people become mobile.
Perhaps one day we will live like The Jetsons, on some planet light years away from Earth. Yet, as I have grown older, the prospect of living in outer space and bombing around in small, sleek passenger pods, having to exist on processed mush instead of a good steak and a glass of claret, has long since ceased to appeal. Rather than fly to the office in the future, I’d like technology to give me a solution to more basic things, like my ever-thinning hair or enable me to become buff without doing a minute’s worth of exercise.
Is that such a big thing to ask? It probably is.
