Saturday, February 2

“Making predictions is hard…”

“Making predictions is hard, especially about the future.” I tried to find out who first said that, but couldn’t. I’m pretty sure it was a sports figure, a group of people who have made some memorable statements such as this one about a restaurant: “Nobody goes there any more; it’s too crowded.”

Anyway, back to the future, this is a nine-minute video about just that, from the viewpoint of the 1950s.

They got several things right, with minor adjustments (such as entering data using punch cards). Autos with navigation systems, radar (Lexus has it for collision control; Cadillac experimented with infrared night vision), teleconferencing, interstate highways, container ships, motorhomes and railroad traffic control centers are shown. They totally missed the density of traffic on the highways. And we don't have road building machines quite as impressive as they depict, but close.

Also, if we had it as easy as depicted in this film, we’d all be fat and lazy. Oh, wait a minute…

1 comment:

Susan Hurley-Luke said...

How intriguing. I thought of the tunnel linking England and France as well while viewing this.

Am going away for a week now as we sold our house and I have to go to The Big Smoke (by plane, not rocket car) to buy a new home. See ya when I get back.