Where's my jetpack?
May 17, 2007 9:07 PM   Subscribe

Where's my jetpack?
posted by Kattullus (30 comments total)
 
From The West Wing:
Leo: My generation never got the future it was promised... Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped.
Josh: The personal computer...
Leo: A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?
posted by Kattullus at 9:08 PM on May 17, 2007


(Salon link /cookie)
posted by acro at 9:15 PM on May 17, 2007


Cf.
posted by grobstein at 9:16 PM on May 17, 2007


Well, I have to say I'm pretty damn happy with the Internet... having grown up with my nose in books, it's not just just porn and gossip. It's just an endless feeding trough for my brain. The Internet's always there, even if it's Sunday and 3 a.m. The jet pack would wake the neighbors at that hour, and the moon base would probably involve a cost-prohibitive vacation.

On another note, this artwork suggests the future is here, and it's called Taco Bell 7-Layer Burrito.
posted by rolypolyman at 9:17 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


I'm not disappointed. What's possible may even be better than what was imagined, overall. But it's neat to see what the future looked like, and a kind of nostalgia is justified in some cases.
posted by grobstein at 9:21 PM on May 17, 2007


I caught Wilson on Coast To Coast a week or two ago. Easily the best guest in...ever, I think.
posted by Roman Graves at 9:28 PM on May 17, 2007




What I want to know is where's my massive leaps in medical technology, knowledge, research, specialization and availability that will increase the chance of survival from even the most dramatic health crisis by exponential odds from even five years ago. WHERE?!
posted by stavrogin at 9:39 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


I loved Tom Swift when I was a kid. That and Bob Morane were more than anything responsible for my indoctrination into science fiction obsession.

Also, why can't I download my consciousness into a computer yet?
posted by Kattullus at 9:43 PM on May 17, 2007


Also, why can't I download my consciousness into a computer yet?

Isn't that what we're doing here, in our own roundabout ramshackle way?
posted by muckster at 10:01 PM on May 17, 2007 [5 favorites]


Where's my jetpack?

Exactly! I've been wondering this for years now. The Government was supposed to hand jetpacks out free to everybody when the Millennium came. I've waited & waited & waited and now I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it ANYMORE!!!!
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:08 PM on May 17, 2007


Food pills, how about a pill that suppresses the appetite.

Cars that run on air but cant be used in america due to being "glued" together. Lame! Good technology is either patented or banned by policy.
posted by IronWolve at 10:08 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


moribund said in a previous thread that "Prognostication has always been prescriptive (either directly or in the form of a cautionary tale) instead of descriptive, regardless of the source's stated intent." I thought that was a good descriptor of most futurism.

Our stories of the future tell us of our hopes and fears, more than what will happen in the next 5 or 50 years.
posted by zabuni at 10:11 PM on May 17, 2007


Jetpacks? Marijuana is still illegal. Baby steps.
posted by acro at 10:15 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]


The Japanese seem unwilling to resign themselves to a jetpack-less present. Now that the polar icecaps are melting we should have enough water for everybody and their jetpack.
posted by Iosephus at 10:21 PM on May 17, 2007


I am terrified of a world with flying cars. But then again, I do human factors engineering.
posted by anthill at 10:22 PM on May 17, 2007


Paleo-Future!
posted by sebas at 11:16 PM on May 17, 2007


What's possible may even be better than what was imagined, overall.

Huh? Did they not show The Jetsons where you lived then?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:08 AM on May 18, 2007


I'm more interested in the robot maid. One who vacuums and dusts.

I just flashed back to that scene in Arrested Development with the jet pack.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:38 AM on May 18, 2007


Ok, a Jetsons world is... interesting. But did you seriously ever watch that and think I want this?
posted by dreamsign at 3:31 AM on May 18, 2007


I'm trapped in a world before later on,
I'm trapped in a world before later on,

Where's my hovercraft?
Where's my jet pack?
Where's the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now?

We're trapped in a world before later on,
We're trapped in a world before later on,

Where's our telray?
Where's our space face?
Where are all the complications we won't see around?


--They Might Be Giants
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:19 AM on May 18, 2007 [2 favorites]




Well, actually, I've been using your jet pack as a leaf blower for some years now.
Sorry, want it back?
posted by nofundy at 6:50 AM on May 18, 2007


I'm kind of relieved. The House of the Future always scared me. Especially that red button.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:21 AM on May 18, 2007


Don't touch that button!!
posted by nofundy at 7:35 AM on May 18, 2007


I am terrified of a world with flying cars. But then again, I do human factors engineering.


Indeed
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:52 AM on May 18, 2007


Ask yourself, would someone from 50 years ago really have that much trouble adapting the real future? Sure, they might get excited when they strap themselves into a modern car, because the only reason you'd have to do that is because it travels faster than the speed of sound. Right?

Now someone from 100 years ago might be in for a few surprises.
posted by tommasz at 8:56 AM on May 18, 2007


would someone from 50 years ago really have that much trouble adapting the real future?

Television, primitive computers, nuclear energy and the automatic transmission were all public knowledge by 1947 so technologically speaking no.... but unless they were an actor in Hollywood or a poet in Soho they might do a triple-spit-take if they saw two confetti-sprinkled grooms kissing on the steps of a church.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:10 AM on May 18, 2007


I'm with CynicalKnight. The biggest shocks would be political and social, not technological. I think they be very surprised to find that the USSR collapsed with a whimper, not a bang, for one thing.
posted by Sangermaine at 5:50 PM on May 18, 2007


they lied to us
t h i s   w a s
s u p p o s e d   t o   b e
t h e   f u t u r e


where is my jetpack,

where is my robotic companion,
where is my dinner in pill form,
where is my hydrogen fueled automobile,
where is my nuclear powered levitating house,
where is my cure for this disease

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:32 AM on May 19, 2007


« Older Dr. Seuss meets Final Fantasy plots   |   Gene2Music Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments