What's Always Next?

bettiwettiwoo writes "In its 'What's Next' issue, Time has a charmingly silly piece called What's Always Next? , in which is provided '[a] sampling of the future that wasn't': things that have been predicted since day dot, but have somehow never materialized. The examples they give are: videophones; moon colonies; food in pills; cars that drive themselves; jet packs; and moving sidewalks. ... There are, after all, so many and varied things -- ranging from the very serious to the down-right silly -- that are predicted time and again, yet seem curiously absent in our daily lives. Examples: global catastrophies of the Armageddon kind (be they population overload, total environmental disasters, plagues, asteroids, or nuclear wars); a secure and bug-free Windows; the end of Madonna's singing career (her 'acting' career was, I believe, still-born)." So what are you waiting for?

Comments

video phones?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a 3G mobile video phone on my desk and it works, so that one can be struck off the list.

Re:video phones?

[Troed]

See the US vs half of South America - or why not the US vs Iraq -91. No country has bombed anywhere near the amount the US has since the 1940's.

The US also holds an unprecedented amount of support for terrorists in favour of removing the people's elected governments and replacing them with dictators.

Troll? Only in the eyes of ill-educated americans.

Videophones

[GothChip]

So videophones never materialised? So what's this in my pocket?

Video mobile phones are around and on sale in at least the UK and Australia. I've got the NEC e808 which is a bit big but does have a Qwerty keyboard. See www.three.co.uk for more info.

Most of them have appeared

[BuilderBob]

videophones have been around for a while in the UK and in other countries(seems to be broken?). The quality still isn't brilliant but Orange(I think) have started to offer Soccer highlights over the latest phones.

moon colonies, ok, we chose to put a space station up there first, and then realised it costs a lot of money for little (commercial or military) value. Moon colonies are sadly not as sexy as say a Mars colony, or even a Mars mission, which ESA has planned in 25 years, NASA tried and continues to test methods of producing enough food,air and water, other countries,notably India and China have planned Moon landings so we are going back. Space is unfortunately used as a pissing contest between nuclear neighbours, when this stops then some more science can get done(e.g. Hubble, Galileo, Beagle 2)

food in pills. You can get food in pills, just not the calories, vitamins will give you nearly all of the trace elements you need to live. Calories are a lot harder, to get 500 Calories into a pill means eating something with 40 times the energy concentration of sugar or twenty times the concentration of fats, I doubt the human body would have much success digesting such complicated food. You can however get protein and creatine supplements which are in tablet/powder form, and sugar sweets( those silly energy sweets which taste of really sour orange) have more calories than their equivalent weight in sugar. (The protein supplements also tend to taste bad and are fed to animals instead. )

cars that drive themselves; power steering has been around for a while, as has ABS and cruise control, that is about as much as the current laws will allow on the public roads. intelligent cars have been developed, which, when combined with other intelligent cars, are actually safe. It's the human drivers who freak out at the sight of a driverless car that's the problem :-)

jet packs; Jet packs appeared in Thunderball (James Bond). You can buy them if you have enough money, or you can build them if you want. They're not used much because, much like the Segway, there are easier and cheaper way of getting around.

moving sidewalk's are in most airports now, as well as some metro stations. There have also been "moving stairs" around for just as long.

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Re:where's my flying car?

[ptomblin]

Private aircraft have to submit flight plans so the FAA will know where they are at any given moment

Sorry, but that's utter bullshit. I can get in my plane here in Rochester NY, and besides talking to the control tower and departure controller until I'm 10 miles away from the airport, I could fly all the way to the Pacific Ocean without telling anybody where I am going or even turning on my radio.

The difference between flying and driving is that pilots actually have to demonstrate some skill and judgement in order to get and keep their licenses. There are bad pilots, but nowhere near as high a percentage as there are bad drivers.