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Yes, But Where Is My Flying Car?
from the ah,-to-be-a-futurist dept
You have to love the futurists. When they're not thinking about putting iPods into womens' breasts they're complaining about how there are too many futurists competing with them, and how they need to set up some sort of certification system to make sure the futurists you rely on are certifiably futuristic. So, when these brilliant futurists finally get around to making their predictions, why do they all seem so pointless? The same futurist who came up with the musical breasts idea is now touting "simplicity" as a futuristic concept, claiming that the age of adding functionality is now over and it's time to simplify. Then we've got fairly obvious ones like better speech recognition (as if that hasn't been named every year for the last thirty years) and better mobile tools for communications (as if that hasn't been obvious for the past five years). All in all, it basically sounds like the same set of predictions you hear from these guys every year, but which are either about as likely to come true as what you used to see at Tomorrowland or are so obvious that it doesn't take a futurist (certified or not) to point them out. At least they're not trotting out the tried and true flying car issue... oh wait, maybe that's because it's actually for sale (though, actually getting it to fly is another story).
Reader Comments
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Flying Cars
Forget flying cars. Observe any given highway interchange system in America, like the PA Turnpike.
On any given day, at any hour, you'll like find some a-hole backing up because he missed the exit.
With folks like that, I am thankful for not yet having flying cars....
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No Subject Given
My Mother is still waiting for her personal jet-pack they promised her in elementary school.
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The Future, the only game in town.
Sometimes the futurists can be so convincing. Im taking a 'study of the future class' at my college and at times it seems very very cultish. and its good if you can keep a level head... But its still interesting, and the amount of thought put into it sometimes is staggering. You probably shouldnt lump all futurists into the same group, especially if they are the ones that complain why isnt the future here already. because thats not really the point of futurist thought. I dont know... heres a website: http://www.odysseyofthefuture.net/
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Re: The Future, the only game in town.
I thought futurism was so cool when I first started reading about tech...after reading a few books I'm vehemently against it.
Dyson's Version 2.0 (I think that's what it was called), Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines, and Gates' The Road Ahead were three that I read. The first two are very big names in futurism, and Gates is big period. All of these books were total trash--every bet is hedged with a bunch of "perhaps"es and "maybe"s and "could"s.
Of course they have to do this to avoid looking like morons later on, but then what's the point? It's just a whole lot of "I personally think it would be cool if suchandsuch, now somebody might maybe invent the tools to make it possible..." So what? No wonder they want a certification standard. Legitimacy is easy when it's for sale.
Predicitons are impossible, but your little ramblings are just as worthless as anyone else's.
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3.5 Million
I just *happen* to have 3.5M in my pocket.
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Re: Re: The Future-the only game in town
in cluding my own, of course.
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The Future Reprised
Science Fiction writers have been giving these guys ideas.. They are just rotters and looters looking to feed on hot air. Just imagine how bad it will be when the day comes that the courts uphold someones legal intellectual rights to an idea.. oh, I'm sorry, that's been happening for years.
I'm all for patterning brain tumors, the circulatory system (blood vessels) and filtered combustible tubes which emit smoke intended to be inhaled for the smooth rich flavor of 16 carcinogens (cigarettes and the like).
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