The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be

When I was growing up, I was under the impression that come 2000, we’d have flying cars, jetpacks and entire cities floating above the ground. The visionary authors of Buck Rogers and the Jetsons told us we could look forward to a world of food capsules and clothing that was either something resembling the Roman toga or silver jumpsuits. Whatever happened to that future? Did some scientist trip and fall and lose his memory? How come people still drive their piece of shit Subarus and why haven’t they built an interplanetary highway between the Earth and Mars? I was looking forward to that.

What we were expecting.

What we get.

My sentiment is shared by countless others, I found, as I scoured the far-reaches of the internet in my quest for this vision. Lot of pissed-off kids out there.

I work on a telecom account and we were recently briefed by our client to launch his new offering as ‘next wave’. Startlingly original thought for a telecom company, that. This guy’s fixed on creating the world of the future (at least that’s what he wants to do on television). In previous decades, creatives had no problem visualizing that. Bring on the hovercrafts, the jumpsuits and ray-guns. Now we can’t paint that picture. It’s the retro-future. The future that never was. A kitschy utopia created by the minds of artists brought up on Carl Sagan and the Space Race. What’s it going to be like, I wonder? Judging from the present, we seem to be headed for an Eighties revival in culture. Tommy Hilfiger’s selling bomber jackets. Miami Vice is back.

The futuristic world of 2010

I have a 6 pm deadline and I’m still not even halfway close to nailing the future.
An added twist: Nothing apolcaplyptic, please. The ______brand is founded on love and family values. Great, I have to visualize a future without global warming, a catastrophic war or hordes of screaming jihadis. Not to mention fuel and water shortages and mass poverty. I have to create a visionary Prozac world where the hills are alive with the sound of music and butterflies flit over holograms of flowers. I have a back-up plan, however. Here’s how the presentation will go if all else fails. “Have any of you seen a movie called the Minority Report……..?”