Lifein the 90's, as predicted in the 60's [Archive]

Asta Kask

2011-05-30, 06:35 AM

What will the future be like? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC5sbdvnvQM)

More accurately, how will computers be in 1996? I think they were pretty good, all things considered. The most jarring thing for me was the casual assumption that the woman is homemaker and the man pays for all the stuff she purchases...

Serpentine

2011-05-30, 06:55 AM

My dad likes to say this about sci-fi in the first... 3/4? of last century and before: the predicted all sorts of things about the future, but there's two things they didn't see coming - the internet*, and the Pill. Thus all the visions of totalitarian governments and the like that rely on the restriction of information (could you see 1984 working with Wikileaks?), and problems of extreme overpopulation (Soylent Green, I think, for example, or just about anything that involves people leaving Earth for a far-off planet).

*although that video looks like it could involve something like it...

Orzel

2011-05-30, 07:08 AM

The idea of shopping at home via a screen seemed predictable.

What got me is the idea the the man has to approve all purchases before they were shipped. That would have prevented many thief related problems yet been extremely annoying.

Asta Kask

2011-05-30, 07:12 AM

Teddy

2011-05-30, 07:15 AM

I like how they portrayed the computers as command centers for the wife and husband. :smallamused:

Orzel

2011-05-30, 07:34 AM

You can't hand over control of the money to a woman. Why, it would be madness!

Shhhh. You might give them ideas. Wouldn't want the women to strom the Central Bank.

What is with all these knobs, screens, and buttons? Did people in the 60's think us future people would be too dumb to understand a keyboard?

Mina Kobold

2011-05-30, 08:00 AM

Presumably they just assumed the FUTUUURE! devices would function akin to what they had, which would be televisions and radios with those knobs and buttons.

Although they should really have predicted using one screen for more than one thing.

The sexism is what caught my eye as well, but what puzzles me is that they assume far less fantastical development than their counterpart predictions from the 1920es and '50es. They had flying cars with built-in televisions and everything!

Orzel

2011-05-30, 08:12 AM

Kislath

2011-05-30, 08:50 AM

email, online banking, debit payments, flatscreen monitors, wysiwyg shopping, child/baby monitoring, stylus input devices.... wow, these guys really did seem to have a clue.

Haruki-kun

2011-05-30, 09:57 AM

predicted all sorts of things about the future, but there's two things they didn't see coming - the internet*, and the Pill.
*although that video looks like it could involve something like it...

IIRC, Orscon Scott Card predicted the Internet in Ender's Game, so some Science fiction authors did see it coming. That aside, I actually agree with you: The main problem with older Sci-fi is that we've gotten ahead in one particular scenario, being the internet. Which means that when we do get to live in a The Jetsons-like future, we'll be a step ahead. Or several steps ahead.

grimbold

2011-05-30, 10:32 AM

The idea of shopping at home via a screen seemed predictable.

wasn't that seen in Fahrenheit 451?

KenderWizard

2011-05-30, 10:34 AM

Destro_Yersul

2011-05-30, 10:57 AM

Yeah, but Asimov predicted cell-phones in, like, the 50s.

He predicted a lot of stuff, actually.

Serpentine

2011-05-30, 11:02 AM

See also: Star Trek's thingies.
And I think Asimov is one of the people my dad had in mind with the internet/Pill thing.

Asta Kask

2011-05-30, 11:14 AM

They also missed predicting that gays would be out and about. True, there are still appalling violent crime statistics, but it's a lot safer than it would be fifty years ago.

Borgh

2011-05-30, 11:39 AM

They also missed predicting that gays would be out and about. True, there are still appalling violent crime statistics, but it's a lot safer than it would be fifty years ago.

they probably thought we would have gotten rid of that nasty disorder by now.

yes, that is horrible and no, it is not my personal belief. Don't flame pls.

Kobold-Bard

2011-05-30, 11:46 AM

Still waiting for those, emphasis word!

How many road accidents are there every day as things are now? Can you imagine how the ridiculously dangerous travel would be if regular people were allowed to go in 3 dimensions?

Anyone else think the hand-written email system they thought up was sweet? Online bankng they were cool with (something my mum still refuses to use to this day) but a keyboard rather than a pen is just crazy.

Trog

2011-05-30, 11:49 AM

I don't find the sexism in this surprising since sexism was the norm for all but the past few decades where it has been steadily waning but still exists. Though in the realms of household finance they were woefully wrong. I believe the last estimate I saw said something like 75% of households had the finances managed by the women in the house.

The video did seem to get a few ideas right. But I don't find this amazing. For every one video or article that got the future somewhat right there are reams full of Popular Mechanics magazines and the like that got it laughably wrong. Still fun to look through those kind of things though to see what people hope for the future and what they used to hope for back when too.

Zevox

2011-05-30, 11:49 AM

They also missed predicting that gays would be out and about. True, there are still appalling violent crime statistics, but it's a lot safer than it would be fifty years ago.
In addition to what Borgh said, that's a social development rather than a technological one, and I don't think folks back then were big on predicting those (see also: the casual sexism in that video vis-a-vis wife/husband roles).

Zevox

Moff Chumley

2011-05-30, 11:56 AM

IIRC, Orscon Scott Card predicted the Internet in Ender's Game, so some Science fiction authors did see it coming. That aside, I actually agree with you: The main problem with older Sci-fi is that we've gotten ahead in one particular scenario, being the internet. Which means that when we do get to live in a The Jetsons-like future, we'll be a step ahead. Or several steps ahead.

Neuromancer predates Ender's Game by a year, and not only predicted the internet, but might have heavily influenced it.

AtlanteanTroll

2011-05-30, 11:57 AM

The sexism is what caught my eye as well, but what puzzles me is that they assume far less fantastical development than their counterpart predictions from the 1920es and '50es. They had flying cars with built-in televisions and everything!

Heck, Back to the Future thought we'd have them in, *checks* 4 years? Not the 90's but still.

factotum

2011-05-30, 12:38 PM

Neuromancer predates Ender's Game by a year, and not only predicted the internet, but might have heavily influenced it.

The Internet existed in 1984--you'd need to go back to the 60s to get a true "prediction" of it.

Haruki-kun

2011-05-30, 12:51 PM

The Internet existed in 1984--you'd need to go back to the 60s to get a true "prediction" of it.

Yes, the Internet is ancient, but not as we know it.

In Ender's Game there were characters who posted things online, as articles and as forum posts, and then made fake accounts to agree with themselves.

From Laptops.

Raistlin1040

2011-05-30, 12:59 PM

Yes, the Internet is ancient, but not as we know it.

In Ender's Game there were characters who posted things online, as articles and as forum posts, and then made fake accounts to agree with themselves.

From Laptops.Orson Scott Card: Instrumental in the Development of the Art of Troling.

Mina Kobold

2011-05-30, 01:04 PM

Heck, Back to the Future thought we'd have them in, *checks* 4 years? Not the 90's but still.

That was parodying this kind of stuff, though. At least according to the creators.

Ravens_cry

2011-05-30, 01:09 PM

However, the influence they would have had is probably exaggerated. (http://xkcd.com/635/)

Scoot

2011-05-30, 01:11 PM

Ravens_cry

2011-05-30, 01:14 PM

That Barber-bot looks one short circuit short of a blood-bath. Seriously, I would not let that thing anywhere near me.:smalleek:

bibliophile

2011-05-30, 01:18 PM

For those who are interested in this kind of future prediction these sites might be interesting.

Tales of Future Past (http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm)

Modern Mechanix (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/)

Paleofuture (http://www.paleofuture.com/)

Kobold-Bard

2011-05-30, 01:19 PM

I think this is relevant, but these are pictures of what people from 1910 thought the year 2000 would be like. :smallamused:

...

Screw the internet, I want that future instead.

Haruki-kun

2011-05-30, 01:21 PM

The architecture one and the train one are sorta close, actually... Bullet Trains and heavy machinery.

Teddy

2011-05-30, 01:31 PM

The video did seem to get a few ideas right. But I don't find this amazing. For every one video or article that got the future somewhat right there are reams full of Popular Mechanics magazines and the like that got it laughably wrong. Still fun to look through those kind of things though to see what people hope for the future and what they used to hope for back when too.

Heck, those (today's) are riddiculous even today. :smallwink:

I think this is relevant, but these are pictures of what people from 1910 thought the year 2000 would be like. :smallamused:

[SPOILER]*snip*

I find the motorcycle tanks particularily amusing, but that's also because it reminds me of a Swedish slapstick program I saw once.

Also, the train baffles me. In what way would that design (of the wheels) be superior? :smallconfused:

Scoot

2011-05-30, 01:36 PM

Also, the train baffles me. In what way would that design (of the wheels) be superior? :smallconfused:

Oh wow, I never looked at the wheels before. :smalleek:

That's just silly.

Maybe someone more well-versed in physics can explain, but I think those wheels would actually hurt more than help.

EccentricCircle

2011-05-30, 01:38 PM

Borgh

2011-05-30, 01:40 PM

Oh wow, I never looked at the wheels before. :smalleek:

That's just silly.

Maybe someone more well-versed in physics can explain, but I think those wheels would actually hurt more than help.

my best guess would be stability in corners, modern trains have a similar thing but in those cases the entire track tilts.

Teddy

2011-05-30, 01:42 PM

Oh wow, I never looked at the wheels before. :smalleek:

That's just silly.

Maybe someone more well-versed in physics can explain, but I think those wheels would actually hurt more than help.

I can see 1 (singular) advantage, and that would be a reduced risk of being thrown off track by horisontal forces, but that's outweighted by the strain they would put on the tracks, and that's just mentioning one thing.

Scoot

2011-05-30, 01:44 PM

where do these images come from?

I don't actually know, someone on a different forum posted them in a similar topic but never gave a source. I'll ask him, but it's been awhile.

bibliophile

2011-05-30, 02:10 PM

my best guess would be stability in corners, modern trains have a similar thing but in those cases the entire track tilts.

In fact I think they'd do just the opposite.

Edit:If they're just a static framework.

Explanation:
They raise the center of mass of the train. When the train goes around corners, centrifugal force acts through the center of mass of the car, and creates a torque that would try to rotate the car (i.e. tipping it). The counter torque is provided by gravity. The train would tip over if the car were rotated so the center of gravity wasn't over the tracks.
The framework raising car raises the center of mass (which is here, for our purposes, the center of gravity). This means that the same centrifugal force now would exert a greater torque on the car, hence a car that's raised as shown would be closer to tipping over than an unraised car on the same curved track at the same speed.

Edit: Unless they're intended to tip the car into the turn, then they might help.

Maelstrom

2011-05-30, 02:13 PM

I don't actually know, someone on a different forum posted them in a similar topic but never gave a source. I'll ask him, but it's been awhile.

This site gives a look at a few more, plus credits them to Villemard (all in all, a very cool site)
http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2007/9/10/french-prints-show-the-year-2000-1910.html

Teddy

2011-05-30, 03:06 PM

This site gives a look at a few more, plus credits them to Villemard (all in all, a very cool site)
http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2007/9/10/french-prints-show-the-year-2000-1910.html

I like how they predict things to appear in 90 years, that were implemented less than 10 years afterwards (armored cars, for example).

factotum

2011-05-30, 03:47 PM

Why on earth are the wheels of that train on stalks? What benefit does that give in *any* era? :smallconfused:

Mewtarthio

2011-05-30, 04:03 PM

What will the future be like? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC5sbdvnvQM)

Social changes aside, surprisingly accurate.

I liked the related "Clothing of the Future (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eAiy0IGBI&feature=related) video, if only for its prediction of turn-of-the-century men's fashion:

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5993/man2k.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/695/man2k.png/)

*sigh* If only...

And, yes, that is a telephone attached to his chest. Who says nobody thought up mobile phones back then? :smalltongue:

Moff Chumley

2011-05-30, 07:58 PM

The Internet existed in 1984--you'd need to go back to the 60s to get a true "prediction" of it.

I'm aware. The World Wide Web, in its current form, though, is from around 1990.

Yanagi

2011-05-30, 08:46 PM

I'm glad there's no flying cars. People don't drive well enough to be trusted with a extra spatial dimension.

742

2011-05-30, 09:43 PM

that video got some specifics wrong, but got a whole lot more of the tech stuff right than not. even the way the internets redundancy would work if you substitute some words. that doesnt stop me from wanting to bite the heads off of everyone who made this, and myself for mixing up historical eras so badly, but it is impressive.

wasn't that seen in Fahrenheit 451?
if im not misremembering: also 3d video games and MP3 players. most impressively, it could be considered the first major anti-DRM rant.

Serpentine

2011-05-30, 10:53 PM

I think this is relevant, but these are pictures of what people from 1910 thought the year 2000 would be like. :smallamused:

http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_09-520x303.jpg
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_01-520x301.jpg
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_02-520x306.jpg
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_05-520x302.jpg
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_08-520x303.jpg
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_21-520x303.jpg
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_17-520x306.jpghttp://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_03-520x302.jpg
Y'know, a few of these (and others on the website) aren't too far off, really... Seaplane for an ocean rescue, helicopters, something like a telephone, drive-through take-away, news on the radio, nuclear power (wait, what? Radium in your loungeroom?! :smalleek:), uh... whatever that thing is. "Correspondence cinema". Could that be videochat or videocalling? Vehicle-mounted machine guns, talking books, airships (although, admittedly, they were being fiddled with before then)... 'spretty coo'.

H Birchgrove

2011-05-31, 02:14 PM

Lots of sci-fi completely failed to predict mobile phones, which seem so obvious now, to me at least. I find it easier to imagine no internet, or greatly reduced internet, than no portable communication devices.

Actually, the mobile communication devices that we do see in sci-fi (like the communicators in Star Trek) seems to be based on Walkie Talkies, which were developed in the 1930's and 1940's and first used in 1942 (according to Wikipedia).

See also: Star Trek's thingies.
And I think Asimov is one of the people my dad had in mind with the internet/Pill thing.

The Multivac in Asimov's short stories did evolve into some kind of network ("Internet") used by several persons at the same time around the galaxy.

While I can't re-call the foreseeing of the p-pill in any story I've read, there have been predictions of solving the issue of over-population, and of "free love".

Asta Kask

2011-05-31, 02:24 PM

Predicting technological change is easier than predicting social change. So, anyone hazard any guesses on social change?

Three predictions:

a) the women's movement and LGBTA will go from success to success. As society becomes more egalitarian wrt these phenomena, some other marginalized group will rise to occupy our spare time. There is a correlation between height and salary that holds for both sexes... heightism, anyone?

b) the future is trichromatic - we have Blue and Red in politics - now we will see Green take an equal share of the market.

c) the increased power of surveillance will be used, and people will gradually become more and more accustomed to being monitored 24/7.

Some good, some bad.

H Birchgrove

2011-05-31, 02:26 PM

Heck, those (today's) are riddiculous even today. :smallwink:

I find the motorcycle tanks particularily amusing, but that's also because it reminds me of a Swedish slapstick program I saw once.

Also, the train baffles me. In what way would that design (of the wheels) be superior? :smallconfused:

The French army (the paratroopers, IIRC) used scooters armed with recoilless rifles during the Algerian War.

Serpentine

2011-05-31, 10:44 PM

a) the women's movement and LGBTA will go from success to success. As society becomes more egalitarian wrt these phenomena, some other marginalized group will rise to occupy our spare time. There is a correlation between height and salary that holds for both sexes... heightism, anyone?I agree - I think it's pretty much inevitable at this point, with the loud protests being the last gasps of a quickly dwindling minority - although I'm not sure about the heightism. Things like that might be the next issues to come under fire, though.

b) the future is trichromatic - we have Blue and Red in politics - now we will see Green take an equal share of the market.Think you might be right there - there's been hints of it happening here already.

c) the increased power of surveillance will be used, and people will gradually become more and more accustomed to being monitored 24/7.This I'm not sure of. At least, I think it'll stop before it hits the private sphere - so no 1984s or All the Troubles of the Worlds.
I predict a worldwide panicky tip over into environmentalism at some point in the not too distant future...

Ravens_cry

2011-06-01, 01:33 AM

Let's not get into politics, even potential future politics. After all, predictions tell more about the people making them then they are likely to tell about the future. So any discussion about such is likely to devolve into an infraction inducing political discussion and this thread is far too fun to have it closed so soon.

Feytalist

2011-06-01, 04:03 AM

Being the audiophile that I am, I keep thinking about changes in music in future. Cyberpunk would have us believe that The Future Is Techno, but I see it becoming more and more avant-garde, and what we would see as noise nowadays. And electronic, of course.

As to science, there has been a trend these past few years where it seems researchers are following the ideas started by science fiction writers. Neuromancer has been mentioned, a book which coined the phrase "cyberspace" in 1984. The Star Trek lifts with the automatic doors, we have those.

And the research these days? Rail guns. Teleportation (granted, they've only managed quantum teleportation thus far, but it's a start). Antigravity. Cloaks of Invisibility (I just love the guy who actually gave a grant for that idea).

Oh and here's another theory. Singularity.

It Just Might Happen.

Eldan

2011-06-01, 04:29 AM

Social changes aside, surprisingly accurate.

I liked the related "Clothing of the Future (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eAiy0IGBI&feature=related) video, if only for its prediction of turn-of-the-century men's fashion:

*snip*

Man. I want a waste paper basket hat.

As for really cool new inventions: a while back, someone on these fora linked an article that described what was basically spray-on replacement skin for burn victims. I don't think you can out-cool that any time soon.

Zeb The Troll

2011-06-01, 05:01 AM

Maybe someone more well-versed in physics can explain, but I think those wheels would actually hurt more than help.My guess here, and it's just a guess, is that that train is predicted to run on magnets instead of wheels while in motion and that picture shows the train at rest, with the electromagnets turned off, so that the passengers can board.

Also, the magnetic track is for comfort, not speed.

Feytalist

2011-06-01, 05:10 AM

My guess here, and it's just a guess, is that that train is predicted to run on magnets instead of wheels while in motion and that picture shows the train at rest, with the electromagnets turned off, so that the passengers can board.

Also, the magnetic track is for comfort, not speed.

Would they even have thought of mag-lift in those days? Seeing that their idea of personal transport was simply roller-scates with engines strapped to the sides? (which we totally have these days, by the way.)

The Big Dice

2011-06-01, 05:15 AM

This I'm not sure of. At least, I think it'll stop before it hits the private sphere - so no 1984s or All the Troubles of the Worlds.
Come to Britain. 1 % of the world population of people, 75% of the world population of CCTV cameras.

Zeb The Troll

2011-06-01, 05:24 AM

Would they even have thought of mag-lift in those days? Seeing that their idea of personal transport was simply roller-scates with engines strapped to the sides? (which we totally have these days, by the way.)Maybe it wasn't mag-lift, per se. Maybe it was "floating trains". Would they have thought of it? Why not? They dreamed that one guy drawing in a wooden shack would automate large machinery to build a building. Or maybe the artist read too much Dr. Seuss. :smallcool:

Eldan

2011-06-01, 05:32 AM

As for the motorcycle dragoons, or whatever they are supposed to be:

There's the French cannon scooter:

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/randall/MilitaryVehicles/MVScooter1.jpg

Feytalist

2011-06-01, 06:04 AM

Maybe it wasn't mag-lift, per se. Maybe it was "floating trains". Would they have thought of it? Why not? They dreamed that one guy drawing in a wooden shack would automate large machinery to build a building. Or maybe the artist read too much Dr. Seuss. :smallcool:

Fair enough. To be honest, they had a flying policeman with wings strapped to his back, so who are we to say what crazy thoughts went through their heads, those wacky old-timers.

Asta Kask

2011-06-01, 06:10 AM

I agree - I think it's pretty much inevitable at this point, with the loud protests being the last gasps of a quickly dwindling minority - although I'm not sure about the heightism. Things like that might be the next issues to come under fire, though.

Think you might be right there - there's been hints of it happening here already.

This I'm not sure of. At least, I think it'll stop before it hits the private sphere - so no 1984s or All the Troubles of the Worlds.
I predict a worldwide panicky tip over into environmentalism at some point in the not too distant future...

I extrapolated shamelessly from today's trends. Trying to anticipate new trends is, I think, an invitation to look foolish.

DwarvenExodus

2011-06-01, 06:52 AM

As the miserly misanthrope that I am, I believe that humans are going to bring on some major calamity, probably involving either a nuclear disaster, World War III, or Chuck Norris :smalltongue:.

However, The FourCast (http://www.fourcastpodcast.com/) is a hilarious podcast dealing with predictions for the future, which occasionally manages to make a thought-provoking point. /BlatantAdvertising

Zen Monkey

2011-06-01, 11:28 AM

Maybe I'm dating myself, but I remember reading as a child about how much we would weigh on other planets and what it will be like to live there. The claim was that by the year 2000 we would have dome cities on the moon, and by 2050 be looking towards Mars (I guess the moon was going to fill up quickly). You wouldn't have to live on the moon though, your Jetson-style flying bubble car would let you commute there from Earth.

H Birchgrove

2011-06-01, 12:26 PM

As for the motorcycle dragoons, or whatever they are supposed to be:

There's the French cannon scooter:

That is the one. :smallbiggrin:

Zeb The Troll

2011-06-01, 03:15 PM

It occurs to me, going back to a previous mention about predicting mobile phones, that predicting that in the 60's wouldn't actually have been much of a prediction. I remember watching an episode of The Andy Griffith Show where there was a car phone. Predicting miniaturization to the point of it being completely hand held isn't much of a stretch.

Dvandemon

2011-06-01, 03:35 PM

I remember seeing a History channel documentary on technology advancements. It said that the more advanced technology is, the faster it will advance (which seems like a layman explanation for The Singularity). When you think about it, predicting technology innovations should get a jumpstart from observing necessities today, about current tech. I also read an article in a science magazine about technologies that'll never happen, simply because they can't work practically(or cost-effectively), like food pills, sexbots, flying cars and jetpacks (unfortunately).

JoseB

2011-06-01, 04:01 PM

Now, this is something I haven't seen mentioned before, but in the illustration from 1910 about trains in the year 2000... There was something that is (in my opinion) rather advanced for its time: In that station, which is very clearly in some western country (most likely supposed to be France, given that the author of the drawings was French), one of the passengers going towards the train is very obviously Chinese ("Mandarin"-style clothes, long pigtail), going together with someone who doesn't look Chinese at all to me. And they are going to board the train together, as equals.

That... I don't know, I find that heartwarming :)

Zeb The Troll

2011-06-01, 04:16 PM

I also read an article in a science magazine about technologies that'll never happen, simply because they cannot work, like food pills, sexbots, flying cars and jetpacks (unfortunately).I don't know, it was once accepted that a rotary aircraft "simply cannot work". :smallcool:

factotum

2011-06-01, 04:53 PM

I don't know, it was once accepted that a rotary aircraft "simply cannot work". :smallcool:

And I read an article about fifteen years ago which said that 33MHz was getting to the limit of how fast they could make CPUs go... :smalltongue:

Eldan

2011-06-01, 05:00 PM

I remember seeing a History channel documentary on technology advancements. It said that the more advanced technology is, the faster it will advance (which seems like a layman explanation for The Singularity). When you think about it, predicting technology innovations should get a jumpstart from observing necessities today, about current tech. I also read an article in a science magazine about technologies that'll never happen, simply because they cannot work, like food pills, sexbots, flying cars and jetpacks (unfortunately).

Well, it might not really be a movie jetpack, but there's the jetman:

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSAd8mdRQy0NF3jVSI6Mp24ohJpNfWm8 YlC-5baCyRew6gSlodfQw&t=1

Serpentine

2011-06-01, 09:48 PM

We have jetpacks, they're just really ridiculously expensive, and extremely dangerous.

JoseB

2011-06-02, 06:23 AM

We have jetpacks, they're just really ridiculously expensive, and extremely dangerous.

Also, the endurance is absolutely minimal. Even Jetman can only manage about 10 minutes of powered flight, and his rig is way bigger than a jetpack.

The amount of fuel that one person can carry on himself is extremely limiting: Jet engines *are* thirsty.

Feytalist

2011-06-02, 08:58 AM

Also, the endurance is absolutely minimal. Even Jetman can only manage about 10 minutes of powered flight, and his rig is way bigger than a jetpack.

The amount of fuel that one person can carry on himself is extremely limiting: Jet engines *are* thirsty.

Also, don't forget the parachute. For when things inevitably go wrong.

Quietus

2011-06-02, 10:24 AM

I think this is relevant, but these are pictures of what people from 1910 thought the year 2000 would be like. :smallamused:

(Clipped)
http://smilepanic.com/wp-content/uploads/future_09-520x303.jpg

I love how apparently we were going to be able to feed information straight into children's skulls... but were going to have to use a hand-cranked wood chipper to do it. :smallbiggrin:

Also, I really want one of those blimp-boats. Seriously.

Douglas

2011-06-02, 02:07 PM

I love how apparently we were going to be able to feed information straight into children's skulls... but were going to have to use a hand-cranked wood chipper to do it. :smallbiggrin:
Fed with printed paper books, no less.