One thing people have always loved doing is thinking about what the future might look like, years down the line. That always comes with some wild and wacky predictions. Somethings actually have come true, but others are just funny to look back on with the thought that technology would have changed so much in such a short period of time.
Let’s take a look at how different generations viewed the future.
Boomer Generation (1946-1964)
In the 1950s, one big part of the future was, obviously, space travel. I feel like The Jetsons are a good example of this. All the cars looked like small UFOs, they had space themed school, it was all space age tech because we were discovering space and we loved that.
Another thing that people in the 1950s—and 60s—were predicting in the future were computers making our meals choices, coming up with menus and healthy food plans. I mean, I guess we kind of can do that these days. If you ask an AI to come up with a meal plan, it probably could. Would it be as good as we were hoping for more than 50 years on?
Generation X (1965-1980)
In the 60s, we were getting used to having automobiles. So it makes sense that people were thinking about self-driving cars. Now this isn’t technology that is COMMON these days, but it is something that people are starting to see. I just saw videos about TESLAs self-driving cars and it’s kinda wild.
Another thing that’s more common these days: smart watches. Looking back at movies like James Bond, he would get a text on his watch that would print off a bit of printed metal. These days it’s a bit less physical, more text on a screen. But kinda interesting to think how a watch could get texts back in the 1970s.
Millenials (1981-1996)
When it comes to predicting the future, Disney was doing that a lot in the 80s, but one movie sticks out: Tron. Tron Legacy was made in the 1980s and set in the far off year of 2010, with a whole digital world, a bit different to the Virtual Reality worlds we have now, but it was still a bit out there in 2010.
When you think “the future according to the 80s”, one film series might come to mind: terminator. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Evil AI robots taking over the world. Thankfully we don’t have an army of metal robots trying for world domination these days.
Generation Z (1997-2012)
For kids of Gen Z, there might be one “date of the future” that’s coming up quick. During a rewatch of the action series “Totally Spies”, I found the far-off date of June 15, 2025. These crime-fighting spy girls were shocked to see space helmets, and metal dresses.
An early 2000s film did predict tech that we see trying to become popular today: using gestures for tech. From Apple Vision Goggles to VR headsets, people aren’t walking around with this tech, making pinching gestures as they walk down the street, but technically it is something we CAN do just over 20 years out from the futuristic Tom Cruise film.
The Future… in General
One thing we have always had predictions of are flying cars. From The Jetsons in 1960s to Back to the Future in the 90s, we’ve always wanted to have a bit more room on the road.
Another common idea for the future is robots. Now, we do have some robots in our homes at this point, Amazon Alexa’s and Roomba vacuums. But a lot of visions of the future were more human like robots.
What wild predictions do you think we’ll look back on ten, even twenty years from now?
- Tie-Dye Tam
