5 Ways That the Future Failed Us

by @adamskikne

Do you remember when you were a kid and people spoke to you about “the future”? The future was filled with things from science fiction like space travel, flying cars and robots. The future was a time when anything would be possible.

But after you grow up, the future quickly becomes something different. It’s the thing you start saving for; hoping that you’ll have enough money to live relatively comfortably in between the time you retire and the time you drop dead.

Personally, I think the flying cars and space travel version is much better.

And while I’m amazed that we have things like GPS, smartphones and Wikipedia; I still feel that there are some things from when I was growing up that “the future” promised us…and never quite delivered:

1. Lightsabers

I remember watching The Empire Strikes Back and realising that lightsabers were the coolest things that I have ever seen. What could be cooler than a glow in the dark laser sword with awesome sound effects? On a side note, my childhood mainly consisted of watching The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I didn’t see the original Star Wars until much later. I don’t know why but I blame our local video shop for this.

2. Hoverboards

Hoverboards were the second coolest thing I saw when I was a kid. I still can’t believe we don’t have these. There is something wrong with the world when Elon Musk can get the world to buy into things like the Hyperloop and living on Mars but no one can make a commercially feasible hoverboard.

3. Aliens

Space was also another cool thing when I was a kid. NASA used to launch rockets into space. Astronauts used to go to the moon. Everyone got together and built a space station. And then things got expensive and everyone lost interest. But when I was a kid, the space of the future was also filled with…ALIENS! And for some reason they could all speak (or at least understand) English. The aliens could still be coming…but the English thing might be asking for too much.

4. Robots

As I mentioned earlier, the future was also supposed to be filled with robots. Robots were the things that were supposed to do all the crap that’s just too much effort. Think I’m being stupid? 96.4% of all the reasons that your life sucks can be traced back to a lack of robots. Fact.

5. Self-Driving Cars with Condescending British Accents

Ok. I’ll admit it. Out of everything on this list, self-driving cars are the closest things to actually becoming a reality. We should be eternally grateful to companies like Google who have made enormous strides in helping perfect this technology that is going to fundamentally change the way we live in the next decade. BUT…where is the snarky AI thing that makes you feel like there is a tiny British butler hiding in your dashboard or smartphone that makes you hate yourself by openly judging every decision you ever make? Sure Siri has a bit of sass but is she sufficiently advanced enough to make you feel you’re speaking to a robotic version of a Jewish mother? I’m on Android so I honestly don’t know.

If there have been any other ways that you feel the future has failed you, please feel free to comment below.

 

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