[PenultimateManStanding]

I'm watching old b/w Outer Limits episodes. They're supposed to be way out in the future, like in the 1990s or something and they've got telephones with two-way viewer screens in this brave new world! So this guy of the future makes a call and dials the number with a rotary dialer. heh heh. Makes me think of that movie Brasil with the deliberately goofy futuristic anachronisms. The Outer Limits episodes are a gold mine of these things. They take a car of 1963 and put a weird grill on the front and it looks like a car from 1963 with a weird grill on the front. Sort of reminds you, if they had no frigging idea what the future would be like then, we're probably in the same boat now. Man oh man, are folks gonna be surprised!

[Atlantean_Relic]

You don't believe that in the future we will be fighting Rebellious Robotic slaves in our flying Hummers 25's?

[Daculling]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Atlantean_Relic', 'Y')ou don't believe that in the future we will be fighting Rebellious Robotic slaves in our flying Hummers 25's?

[dinopello]

Go to YouTube and search Roomba and either cat or dog. Once the dogs take over there will be no more Roomba.

Dog about to kill Roomba - video gets cut off because guy realizes he's about to lose his little Roomba toy.

[Kfish]

This kind of quirk has always fascinated me - the way science fiction depicts the future as the same as the present in which it was written, only different.

H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" features a shining, whirring metal machine with silicon rods. In George Orwell's 1984 there's a sophisticated torture device used on Winston Smith that totally immerses him in pain, but it's a box with a knob on it.

Similarly, have you noticed that the science fiction staple of a massive, all-powerful supercomputer is used a lot less now? Hal from "2001: A Space Odyssey", Skynet from "Terminator", Holly from "Red Dwarf", even Mama from "Alien": now that everyone has a personal computer, the idea of a huge one dictating our every action seems a lot less believable. The graphic novel "V for Vendetta" originally featured a supercomputer called Fate: it was cut from the plot for the movie. (One exception is the supercomputer from "I, Robot", but even this was based on Isaac Asimov's short stories, which were written decades ago.)

[johnmarkos]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'I')'m watching old b/w Outer Limits episodes. They're supposed to be way out in the future, like in the 1990s or something and they've got telephones with two-way viewer screens in this brave new world! So this guy of the future makes a call and dials the number with a rotary dialer. heh heh. Makes me think of that movie Brasil with the deliberately goofy futuristic anachronisms. The Outer Limits episodes are a gold mine of these things. They take a car of 1963 and put a weird grill on the front and it looks like a car from 1963 with a weird grill on the front. Sort of reminds you, if they had no frigging idea what the future would be like then, we're probably in the same boat now. Man oh man, are folks gonna be surprised!

[Laughs_Last]

two-way viewer screens?

Take a look at the 1936 "Modern Times", with Charlie Chaplin. They're huge.

[MD]

Sometimes they were scary-accurate. Like when Heinlein described a thumb-sized sony memory stick that held library-sized volumes of text. This he described back in the late sixties or early seventies.

[pup55]

The other day I found a tape of the old Disney movie "The Monkey's Uncle", sequel to "The Incredible Merlin Jones" with Tommy Kirk and Annette. Annette was about 22 at the time (1965).

I just had to laugh at the following:

a. No flak from the religious right about the possibility of being able to teach a chimp how to act like a human.

b. They had a bathroom scene, but the bathroom had no toilet. Apparently showing a toilet in a movie was considered taboo in those days.

c. Cars with no seat belts.

d. No minorities in the entire movie. The the jocks were blond.

e. The main project was to try to achieve "man powered flight", that is, a pedal-operated plane, which at the time was considered impossible. This feat was actually accomplished in the 80's through use of Kevlar and other modern materials (the "Gossamer Albatross").

f. To solve the problem of lack of thrust, Merlin invents a performance-enhancing drug, which he uses to increase his pedaling speed. Nowadays, of course, there would be an outcry.

g. Frat boys and football players were admired and respected. The administration was feared. Alums and other adults were also treated with respect. Despite being enrolled in college, the main project of the females (Annette) was to look good, encourage the men, get invited to the right parties, and avoid being too intellectual. Scientists were also treated with some measure of awe and respect.

h. Sadly, some of the outdoor stuff was filmed in a rural area in Southern California, which at the time was rolling hills, meadows, some livestock, etc. with blue skies and gentle breezes. Gotta wonder what happened to all of that land, but suffice it to say it's probably already been either paved over or turned into subdivisions.

g. The opening tune was sung by The Beach Boys, two of which are now no longer alive, and one (Brian Wilson) by all reports seriously medicated into a stupor to keep from flipping out. Also a pity to think about Annette who now suffers from Parkinson's.

Sorry, you young viewers of PO.com, for not being able to relate to this. Just try to imagine Will Smith and Jessica Simpson and/or the kids from "Saved by the Bell" at age 65, if they make it that far.

[oowolf]

Hey! When I wuz a kid we had phones you didn't have to dial or buttons to push. You just told who you wanted to talk to and "someone else" did all the work, i,e, "Central, give me the A&P at Bedford 025."

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oowolf', 'H')ey! When I wuz a kid we had phones you didn't have to dial or buttons to push. You just told who you wanted to talk to and "someone else" did all the work, i,e, "Central, give me the A&P at Bedford 025."

[PrairieMule]

This Thread reminded me of the Woody Allen movie "Sleeper"

Dr. Melik: [puzzling over list of items sold at Miles' old health-food store] ... wheat germ, organic honey and... tiger's milk.
Dr. Aragon: Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or cigarettes or... hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible!