Remember all of those science fiction movies that took place in the distant future and featured flying cars, post-apocalyptic leather chaps (Mad Max), robotic butlers, and ray guns, yet still maintained the mulleted and feathered hairstyles of the 70’s and 80’s? I thought it would be interesting to check out when these events in the distant future were to take place… no really; I did think that would be interesting. Here are a few popular Sci-Fi movies/television shows and the date in which they were set:
· Escape from New York – 1997
· 2001: A Space Odyssey – I think you can guess that one
· Blade Runner & The Running Man – 2019 (only 10 years away… seems like the Y2K scare was just yesterday)
· Lost in Space – 1997
· Star Wars – A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
· 1984 – I know it’s a satire, not sci-fi… but it has talking animals. Oh, and it took place in 1984.
· Strange Days – 1999
· Terminator 2 – 1997
· Transformers the Movie (Animated) – 2005
· Project Moonbase – 1970
· Timecop – 2004
· Death Race 2000 – Take a guess
Where’s my jetpack? Here we are in 2009, twelve years after Will Robinson and his family took a wrong turn in their Jupiter II, and I still don’t have a personal spacecraft, a metallic flight suit, or a robot that dispenses a nutritious meal replacement supplement.
The point here is that time has a way of going by faster than we anticipate. Back in 1965, when Lost in Space came out, the year 1997 seemed like the unimaginable future (it would be equivalent to 2041 to us now). All of those spaceships and robots seemed perfectly plausible 32 years in the future.
What did we actually get in 1997? Vanna White got new touch letters so that she wouldn’t have to turn them, IBM’s Deep Blue became the first computer to defeat a human world champion in chess, the Dow topped 7,000 for the first time ever (a remarkable sign of growth that would be repeated… last week), and the Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill. Somehow this falls short of the anticipated advances.
The point I am trying to make is that the future keeps becoming today. If there is something important you want to do with your time, talent, and passions, you’d better get started soon. Don’t wait until you retire, the kids are off to school, or you get that anticipated promotion. By then, who knows where the world will be? Vanna may have a remote control that allows her to light up the letters from her Hoveround and the Dow may reach some crazy number like 10,000. Hey we can dream, can’t we?
