the future is now

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so when you were a little kid growing up in the 70's (or 60's or 80's..whatever) how did you see the future? Did you think of what your life would be like in the year 2000, what the world would be like? Did the year 2000 meet or surpase those expectations? Or fall miserably short....

I ain't married and I don't have 3 kids...as a little girl in purple polyester pants, that is what I saw for myself in 2000. I expected some Jetsons future with flying cars and shit....didn't happen.

So what do you see for 2001?

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2000

Answers

In grade 4 or 5 I did a speech on the year 2000. All I remember from the speech was that we would have wheel-shaped space stations (2001: Space Oddessy) and that I would be 27 years old. So far the only thing that came true is that I am indeed 27 years old.

I always thought I'd be a Marine Biologist who did art on the side for fun. Now I'm essentially an artist who studies science on the side for fun. And terrestrial plants, not marine animals. Go figure.

I did want to be a D.I.N.K (double income no kids) though ever since we learned about that in social studies class. That did come true.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2000


I thought we'd all go to space for vacations. I saw myself as a tall woman in a skirt, boots, a shawl, lots of rouge, and long feathered hair. (Hey, it was the '70s.) Yesterday I wore boots to work, but that's about the only thing that's come true.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2000

I thought I'd live somewhere other than Ohio -- either New York or London -- and have a boyfriend and be a writer and have cool friends. I have a husband, but otherwise that's all true, even if the writing I'm doing isn't fiction, but features for websites and copy and editing of a 1200+ page company website in three languages.

Oh, and I thought I'd have a silver car, which I did, but I gave it away yesterday. I didn't think I'd be living in a time or place where driving is so expensive.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2000


I grew up in the 60's when we would crowd around the black and white T.V. for several days to follow Gemini and Apollo missions. So, when I entered college in 1976, I did a big paper about the colonization of space, which I still have somewhere. I recall from my paper that even back then, we had the resources and technology to make it happen. I don't know if I'd like space travel. I think I feel most comfortable beneath our atmosphere. Somewhere along the line space missions became a routine, boring part of our culture's everyday life. I hang out at NASA's site though.

I was sure that by now, we'd all be environmentally savvy and the Earth would be in great shape. I thought we'd produce electricity in a ecologically safe manner and that all homes would have solar panels.

When I was very young, my father showed me the computer for the railroad he worked for. I remember a noisy big room that was filled with big white machines and watching reels of tape turn. Now, the server we have at work that connects an international system is run by simple looking black monolith. And, a child's furby has more computing power than the first lunar module.

As for my personal life, I never expected to be where I am at. Where I am is at extremes of a dicotomy. The parts of my life are either very satisfying and fulfilling or very hopeless and depressing. No, I'm not manic depressive. I thought life would be easier at my age.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2000


As a child, the only big prediction I made for my future was that I would eat tuna fish sandwiches made with relish every single day for lunch.

I also thought I would watch Saturday Night Live every Saturday night, and that I would be able to stay up reading books as late as I wanted, without having to hide a flashlight under the covers.

Guess I was pretty self-centered, and not terribly visionary. Now that I can live out my weird little childhood "fantasies", I wouldn't want to.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2000



I thought I'd have three or four kids and be living in a house much like the ones I grew up in. Basically, I thought I'd be my mother. Glad that didn't work out. :) I still feel too not-grown-up-enough to consider having children.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000

I thought I would grow up in my hometown and own a surf shop, have two kids, have a beautiful blond surfer girl of a wife, a van for extended trips to Baja to surf, have a house on the beach, and live the surf life. Well a lot of it has come true. Though no little blond surf bunny wife and only one kid(God how I love my kid) and I'm 4 blocks from the beach. But no surf shop(thankyou vietnam), and no extensive trips to Baja to surf. And I stay covered up when I go to the beach lest I have to get more shit burned off me than I already do each year. But I have such a good life I can't complain. I know someone in Canada that would slit my throat to trade plasces with me. Not! The Old Surf Dog.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000

In a lot of ways, things are better than I ever imagined they would be. I guess, not being aware of all other options, I really thought I would get married and have kids - have done neither and am grateful for that. However, I really thought as I "got older" I would be so much wiser, stronger, etc.... you know, choose steamed vegetables over cold cereal for dinner; men would have no power to hurt me/break my heart because I would be just to strong and smart to put up with any of their bullshit; I would have a hefty retirement account instead of endless stacks of books; I'd get up early enough to read the paper before work; floss more... I am grateful for my independence, the courage I have had to switch careers, locations, states, make new friends... I guess I thought we might be further along in terms of medical breakthroughs - I am still staggered by cancer and wish wish wish we could find some fast alternative to the always iffy slash and burn (surgery, chemo/radiation) ... As for the Jetsonesque quality - in my lifetime alone there has been civil rights, color TV, microwaves, computers (personal), videos, moon walks, Mars exploration, answering machines/voice mail, email, Internet everything... kinda stupendous when you think about it..

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000

Okay, I just wanted to wish everybody a Happy New Year, everybodytake care! :)

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2000

I never could have predicted anything that's happened in the last 20 years (other than continued fighting in the Middle East, but that's too easy). When I was a kid I didn't think so much about how the rest of the world would be, I thought more about the stuff I would own. :-) I made a list once, and tops on the list were all the expensive electric guitars and amps I would have (because I lived and breathed that stuff for 10 years) and the Porsche 935 with all the gold-trim. It's funny to me now, because I expected to have that stuff by the time I turned 35 in the year 2000, and I could have easily gotten it all if I had started working on it way back then, but within 5-10 years none of that seemed very important anymore.

As for the world, I liked all the gee-whiz sci-fi stuff from The Jetsons and Star Trek, etc. I suppose we could have all those gizmos, but would we really want them? :-)

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2001



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