Future Shock

One of my favorite sites to visit is Paleofuture which covers the wild and whacky and sometimes eerie predictions of the future from days gone by. Here are some of my favorite visions of the future from the past.

1999 AD (1967) has gotten a great deal of attention in the press lately because of the uncanny predictions that were made in the movie. Some of the innovations they covered were things like the internet, online shopping, online bill paying, live video chat, automated kitchen, microwave meals, maximized health and more. It’s incredible how something from over 40 years ago could describe many of the technologies that we use today such as the Internet.

Here’s some news coverage of the movie: (You will recognize one of the actors from the movie)

Here’s the intro to 1999 AD:

Here’s a another video clip of 1999 AD which will surely impress you. Remember, this was made over 40 years ago!

Here’s a clip of home shopping, online bill pay, email and even twitter (OK maybe not that one) and more:

Both 1999 AD and Future Shock are part of the Yesterday’s Tomorrow Today DVD from A/V Geeks.

The legendary Orson Welles starred in Future Shock (1972) which made some bold statements about the dangers of a technological future overloaded with information! Sound familiar? It’s based on a book by Alvin Toffler.
Here’s a video clip of the Orson Welles introduction to Future Shock:
[dailymotion id=x1t4ci&v3]

Here’s part 1 of 5 of the entire film:

Here’s part 2 of 5:

Here’s part 3 of 5:

Here’s part 4 of 5:

Here’s part 5 of 5:

Here’s the author of Future Shock:

Things to Come (1936) is a movie from 1936 based on the H.G. Wells’ classic. It peers into 100 years into the future of 2036 and while most of the wild predictions were way off (we landed on the moon 50 years sooner than Wells surmised), the anti-war theme and the perils of a new plague were powerful elements of the story.

Summation:

Maybe it’s part of my uber-geekiness but I just LOVE this stuff. There are tons of amazing predictions of the future from our past. Sure, there are many silly and ridiculous predictions (like flying cars), but there are also plenty of fascinating ones as well. I think it’s just as much fun to predict our technological future today.