Is 2004 what you thought it would be?

[Flaxbee]

Here we are in the 21st century, and I honestly thought we as humans would be much more advanced, not going backwards as we seem to be doing with increasing poverty in the world, disease, war, Hummers for cars, etc...

This thread isn't meant to be negative, but I'm just curious what you thought 2004 would look like:

- Arthur C. Clarke-esque space travel?
- Maglev trains throughout the US?
- Much more efficient and safe personal travel (safer cars/flying cars/hydrogen cars)?
- Cures for cancer and AIDS and other horrible diseases?
- Free energy?

What else? And why do you think we haven't gotten there?

[aden_nak]

1. Honestly?

Well, I was born in 1978, so maybe that colors my expectations. But what I expected was that it would be just like the 80's, but everything would be smaller and rounder. Not a bad prediction if I do say so myself!

[taxidriver]

2. i thought the good lord would have come back by now.

O8)

[johnnie]

3. I thought...

That I would have a robot maid named Rosie by now.

[Fenris]

4. I honestly didn't think I'd live to 20.

[Nay]

5. I thought that by now the leisure society would be the thing.

You know, the 20-hour work weeks, lots of time for family and interests. Goes to show what I know. I hadn't figured out that everything was based on dangling the carrot in front of the donkey (but never letting him get it).

[Flaxbee]

8. Yes, that we'd have gotten WAY beyond having to

scrape by on two incomes just to make a house payment... I think people are MUCH worse off, financially, than anyone ever contemplated. There's more wealth in the world but it's becoming much more concentrated, too, in the hands of a very few.

So, why is it this way?

[asjr]

6. 2004 has surpassed anything I contemplated. I knew when

Bush was appointed things would be bad. I just did not realize it would be this bad.

[carolinayellowdog]

7. Colonies on the moon

Recently found a paper I wrote in 4th grade which included predictions of life in the 21st century, none of which came to pass. Colonies on the moon was one of them.

[Flaxbee]

10. I know --- cool stuff like that

It seems that there were so many dreams - colonies on the moon, colonies on the ocean floor (all non-polluting, of course), easy transatlantic travel, trains everywhere, etc... and NOTHING has happened. Our gov't says "no problem" to a Star Wars boondoggle yet chokes at the idea of spending several billion on a Maglev train that could get you from NYC to LA in 7-8 hours. It's ridiculous! I think corporate influence is a HUGE part of why we haven't advanced; everyone's so interested in protecting their market share that true innovations that might render a particular industry obsolete (or greatly reduce its use) are stifled.

[Squeech]

9. No more racism

Instead our uniters-not-dividers have rolled out a battalion of new isms to bash each other with.

My best guess is that they're all red herrings to distract us all from the ongoing class war.

Other disappointments include the huge increase in autoimmune diseases, the worldwide backsliding on environmental issues, and the ever-escalating war on (some) drugs.

And popular music has never been worse.

I miss the 20th century.

[Flaxbee]

11. I suspect that the increase in autoimmune diseases probably

comes from the above-ground nuclear testing in this country in the 40s, 50s and even 60s, I think. Used to be MUCH lower rates of childhood leukemia, breast cancer, etc... until all that nice radioactive dust settled across the country. And the geniuses of course did it in the west so the gulf stream could pick up the radioactive crap and deliver it quite nicely across the entire country.

[Squeech]

12. All sorts of pollution contributed

We know that urban asthma incidences are multiples higher than rural rates, and it seems like people are more allergic to more stuff, and I suspect there are autoimmune aspects to cancer, etc. etc. etc.

There's a certain regard in which it had to happen anyway: we're still gonna die sometime, and the fact that medical science has made all that progress in dealing with bacterial and viral pathogens only means that we now have to die of something subtler, which probably takes longer and hurts worse :shrug:

Then there's the tinfoil-hat theory that AIDS came from some black budget biological warfare program...