What happened to all the cool future stuff that we should have by now?

Question

We still have rail systems from the 1800's our cars still run on fossil fuels, we still have very few really good recyleing programs in place. Think of all the things that all the people from the 1800's, 1950's and so on had dreamed up for us and we still are living like we'er in the 1900's when it's 2007. Where's our cool monrails, our hanging gardens with bountiful food, our limitless sources of free energy. Gosh we still live on moeny and forced slavery. What is the problem here where's our flying cars, our animal translation devices that actually work. What's the deal people it's 2007 and we don't have sqaut, but cheep electronic devices made in China. Come on anyone else feel jipped? What's your thoughts on this? What do you think that we should have, but don't?

Answer 1

Where's my flying car?

There are many things that were sold as "pie in the sky" by futurists that did not understand or appreciate the magnitude of the problems associated with either the science or society for their ideas. For example Moller is still building the flying car but can you imagine all the idiots who are driving now (drunk and otherwise) going recklessly at 200 plus mph all over the place?

However a lot of what people were expecting has happened both in the marketplace and in the laboratory. Not everything that is marketable is available and not everything that is available technologically is marketable.

The biggest obstacle with change is the inertia of the status quo. While people want to be seen as first in fashion they are afraid of real change, especially change that alters the all too familiar paradigms they define their lives by. Most people are still motivated by crisis rather than opportunity to change. So long as they are comfortable with the present they avoid altering it or even exploring the possibility of changing it, that is why they are called fundamentalists or traditionalists.

But you know what?

Change is inevitable and those that cannot adapt to it perish. I guess I have lived long enough to have a more evolutionary rather than revolutionary perspective on the matter and I have not only seen a tremendous amount of change in my half century plus of life, I embrace it and see a lot more coming even faster on the way.

Even though I still see crisis as the greatest motivator for change I am nevertheless an optimistic futurist and I think that many of us will make the best of some very bad situations. I just wish we could change that paradigm of effort too but finding common cause to build habitats in the sea and off world are a really difficult sell.

Answer 2

Yep, I feel cheated sometimes....

I've always wondered *when* we were going to have the cool robots going on.....but it seems like things are *barely* getting off the ground now...in Japan. In the United States, it seems like engineers of all sorts just *hate on* the idea of a Person-shaped Computer. Nah, all we can come up with are bland, toaster-looking Roomba vacuum cleaners.

Hell, our new generation of *vending machines* have more personality than a Roomba. -_-

I think it's a plot really. I think your Big Companies, mainly Big Oil and Big Banking, have basically just said "Hell no" to any sort of change whatsoever, and are just busy hogging the whole damn thing to themselves--all the money, all the ideas, all the hope for the future, everything. They don't want the future to happen because it would dent their profits a *little tiny bit*, oh no, boo hoo....so they hire *wolfpacks* of paid-for skeptics and naysayers to run around saying things of this nature are "foolish" or "impossible" in the Media....

And the sad part is, so many people *buy it* it's not funny.

I wish I knew what to tell you, how to solve this problem.

^_^ But yeah, I know, the 21st century really *really* sucks so far, huh?

Thanks for your time....I hear ya! ^_^

Answer 3

April 14th 1775 – the 1st abolition society in North united states of america of america is everyday. The Society for the alleviation of loose Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is prepared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania through Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. 1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford's Theatre through John Wilkes sales area. 1912 – The British passenger liner RMS huge hits an iceberg interior the North Atlantic at 11:40pm. The deliver sinks here morning with the shortcoming of one million,517 lives. 1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, through American author John Steinbeck is first printed through the Viking Press. 1956 – In Chicago, Illinois, videotape is first everyday. 1958 – The Soviet satellite tv for pc Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a undertaking length of 162 days. each and every 365 days - Your tax return would desire to be postmarked through in the present day.

Answer 4

We don't Live on Forced Slavery. I don't know what they have been teaching you kids in Little Rock, Kansas, but we freed the slaves at the beginning of the Civil War, in the 1800s.

Ok, but seriously. I know its a bummer. You may see the stuff in movies, but remember, its only a movie. Just a dream, or a figmant of someone's imagination.

Free Energy Does Not Exist under Newton's Law of Conservation Matter. "Matter cannot be created or destroyed." You cannot have unlimited energy. It has to come from somewhere.

Cars were never meant to fly. They did fly in the Sci-Fi movie "Back to the Future" but thats only a movie. Cars are Land Vehicles. Planes Fly. They call cars than can float "amphibious". They don't just call them cars. Or to really think abstractly, Airplanes have wheels, so i guess they are cars.

We only have a rectangular box, 2x4 inches that is as thin as the eraser on your pencil. This only holds 4000 songs. Is that still too junky for you? I have a 2x4 device that is smaller than my wallet, has over 30 movies on it, and 7843 songs. But I guess having 20 pounds of CDs in your palm is not good enough for you.

Lighten up bud. Things are good. What do you want from the world?

You really should go to Best Buy or Circuit City. Ask them what that "Cheap Electronic Device" can do. Ask them what it is. Learn something. You will understand what advances have been made so far. It really is a good thing to learn stuff.

Answer 5

We have the internet. We have cell phones. We have needleless injections (yes, pretty cool stuff). The average life span has more than doubled in the past 100 yrs. AIDS is not a death sentence anymore, if you live in the US. Kidnapping has dropped to 30% of what it was in the 1970's.

I am quite happy with what we have. And these things weren't predicted. They have been unexpected surprises.

Answer 6

Don't worry guy, it's coming in this age. In the years coming it will be the year of Aquarius and this is where we bring to life all these technological advances we've been dreaming about. Look at the advances there's already been in 2000, think of the internet. Now if we don't kill ourselves first with the nuclear technology which comes along with it, we'll be very happy lol.

Answer 7

There is something that we do have in 2007....Metamucil Cinnamon Fiber Wafers....after two years in my kitchen cabinets they are still good....in fact, I believed they improved with age....who would have believed that the future had great tasting stale food!

Answer 8

Unfortunately the dreamers of the 50's and 60's didn't figure in what it would really take to achieve their dream inventions.

Answer 9

It sounds like you read a lot of science fiction. It costs money to put ideas and inventions through. Most people don't want their taxes raised.

Answer 10

I have a personal solar-powered jetpack, but that's it. Stupid thing doesn't even have a cup-holder.