Futurist from the past

I was thinking the other day about how, back a long time ago, a lot of people were excited about the future. They looked forward to a time when we had hovering cars, automated homes and cleaner ways of living.

Prime example: I loved those Looney Tunes cartoons about the "house of the future." They were my favorites because they seemed relevant to me at the time. It was, "Wouldn't it be great if I could just press a single button and all of my laundry could be done?" They interested me because, well, how realistic were those Bugs Bunny bits? They're just grim.

Anyways, people looked forward to an easier way of living. The microwave was fucking exciting - full meals done in 3 minutes? You've got to be kidding me. Television was new, and the programs were so few that everyone watched pretty much all of them.


Here's my point. According to all that, we live in the future. And you know what? Where's my goddamn hovering car? We don't really live all that cleaner. We should have had them by now, but for various reasons (oil companies!), we don't have them. In fact, we haven't got a whole lot to look forward to in the future. Sure, there are vast advancements in technology occurring everyday, but mostly all that means to the everyday schmoe is, "Well, in a few years, this brand-new laptop will be outdated and slow, so I'll have to buy a new one..."

And while I have techno-joy - I love newfangled gizmos and computers and so on - I have future-dread because I know I'll have to buy new shit every few years. Not only that, but, everything's been invented by now. A long time ago, people looked forward to new things they haven't even thought of yet, or as a certain bounty hunter would say, "the coming thing" (Name that reference!). As best as I can figure, we've thought of everything, from plasma televisions to little platters that let you cook bacon in the microwave.

So where does that leave us? The only thing I can figure, the only link to our future, lies in transportation. Advance that and advance our society. Get us off oil and we won't have to depend on warring nations. We won't have to stick our noses in other peoples' businesses under the guise of democracy.

I guess what I'm saying is, I am futurist that belongs in 1965.