On Amazon Prime they’ve got a ton of old films from the 50’s and 60’s predicting what the future would look like. It was big part of the culture to picture jet packs and flying cars. Some things that were predicted have happened, but of course some have not. But the future was something everyone looked forward to. They made pretty bold predictions about what future cars, houses, buildings, and communication would look like.
Has anyone noticed that we no longer do that?
Oh, I don’t mean that no one is dreaming up new ideas. I mean that our current culture doesn’t seem to spend a ton of time talking and dreaming about what cars will look like in the future (to use one example.) Why is that?
In the 50’s, they were dreaming up tailfins and trying to make cars look “futuristic,” which at that point probably meant making cars look like fighter planes. But honestly, don’t those 50’s cars look badass? I think they do. And some of the colors were wonderful.
So now it’s 2020 and I’m wondering whether today’s youngsters ever think about what cars, phones, houses, and buildings will look like in the future. My kids are 19 and 21. I asked them. They said “No, we don’t think about those things.” I think it’s because we’ve all seen the jokes about how we don’t have jet packs or flying cars and we’ve learned that it’s probably not a great idea to be predicting future tech. Or at least making bold predictions. We do have what the past would have called “television phones” but before the virus most people barely used them.
I wonder what the future holds, but I don’t wonder about it much. I do believe that we’re going to be able to buy flawless digital amp modeling for $100 in the future. Hell, you can get damn close now for $450 (Line 6 Pod Go.)
I have no point for this post, other than to just wonder out loud. The 50’s was such an optimistic time for so many people. And as clumsy as some of their predictions were, I still have a little bit of admiration for that time period. I was born in 65, so I was really a child of the 70’s. The 70’s sucked in many, many ways, but we did have some pretty cool toys. I feel like we are living in a wonderful time for hobbyist home musicians now – with the Internet and things like Logic Pro and the HX Stomp, we’ve got the tools to do almost anything we can dream up. I freaking love it.
Oh well. It’s Friday, my new video goes up at 5 pm tonight over at the YouTube channel. Join me there if you’re utterly bored. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6bQTg-LgMngKlj-QDPRviQ
