Posted on 06/17/2019 9:23:11 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
For a while, Tesla was valued as if every new car would soon be electric. The 2020s are still blurry, but apparently that doesn’t cloud the pundit class’s clear vision on climate change, drones, autonomous vehicles and the effect of artificial intelligence. We’ll all share cars, bikes, scooters and even pogo sticks. WeWork is valued as if we’ll all share offices. What’s next, communes?
Don’t be fooled by prevailing opinion, and don’t extend trend lines into the future. Mr. Schnaars chronicles how 1950s jet-age thinking morphed into ’60s dreams of a space-age utopia. A 1966 study by conglomerate TRW forecast manned lunar bases by 1977, autonomous vehicles by 1979 and intelligent robot soldiers by the ’90s. AT&T ’s Picturephone service, ultrasonically cleaned dishes, cheap energy forever, future shock everywhere—all wrong.
The tempests of change blow hard. Reading the prevailing winds, we’re all about to become robot-replaced, drone-delivered-synthetic-meat-eating, augmented-reality-helmet-wearing, bitcoin-spending, fruit-flavored-vaping, neutered democratic socialists chirping “Comrade” and streaming “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 10, “Dystopia’s Discontents,” on our watches while collecting universal basic income. You don’t need a slide rule to calculate the megamistakes.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
And saving trees and not using paper becomes plastic (a waste byproduct of petroleum distillation) becomes evil and replace by paper!
And now, socialism is good because 30 years of public school indoctrination by Democrat controlled teacher unions - dominated by 80% females operating on "feelings" instead of common sense is now trying to undo all that the "male dominated" past of our country built.
It's all tied together, and ALL at the Democrats' feet.
“The future ain't what it used to be.”
“What is? is. What was? will be. What will be *was*, but will be again.”
And where the heck is my flying car, and moonbase?
Save that thought!
moonbase?
I don’t even know anybody from the moon?
I want the electric so cheap it is not worth the expense to meter!
But we do get to see entertainment news when we’re pumping our gas. There’s that...
Well, we've had video conferencing and cell video for a while now, just later than the pundits initially predicted.
I’m sure we all look forward to the day when everything is free and nobody has to work and the government runs everything, and we all lead very happy and healthy lives and live to 200-400 years and perhaps more.
I.G.Y - Donald Fagen
Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream’s in sight
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we’ll be a.o.k
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there’s time
The fix is in
You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we’ve got to win
Here at home we’ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There’ll be spandex jackets one for everyone
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from new york to paris
(more leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free yes and eternally young
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
and we all lead very happy and healthy lives and live to 200-400 years and perhaps more.
BUT, BUT, BUT...
Where will everybody live?
Between newborns and ever-increasing illegals...
And I doubt that I’d like soylent green for breakfast?
Video ads at the gas pump are about as annoying as the prices.
Oh well, it’s not like being forced to endure a lecture about LGBTQWERTY while you clutch the pump nozzle in a death grip.
I like the video ads at the gas pumps. I think they are very entertaining. In fact, if I see a gas station that has not yet installed these screens, I move on down to the next one that has.
The future is determined by scientists and inventors working to solve problems and satisfy needs in the free market.
Not by government policy wonks decreeing what the future shall be from on high.
video conferencing and cell video
Video? Not for me.
When things get boring, I can attempt to sound engaged, while playing solitaire.
Remember the old car phones with the corded handset?
I used to hold mine out the window in the wind to simulate a bad cell, until one day I dropped the handset.
I don’t think it hit the road, but it sure banged on the car at 70 MPH!
Texting is OK, gives me time to think!
Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future.
Who can argue with that?
Yeah, but the past is prologue.
But it used to be the future.
So the future is going to be prologue.
Multi-kilometer skyscrapers
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