This day in history (and my resulting train of thought)

"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo) 09/23/2013 at 15:32 • Filed to: History, Jetsons

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An interesting "This day in history" post for my whiteboard today:

1962: "The Jetsons" premiered on ABC-TV. It was the first program on the network to be carried in color.

What does this have to do with cars? Well, when I think of The Jetsons I immediately think of the flying cars. Reading up on the series a bit revealed the fact that the show's writers made the setting for the show the year 2062 (100 years into the future for them). We are 49 years away from a super efficient lifestyle of flying cars! Or are we?

George Jetson still faced traffic jams as part of his daily commute. That's right...traffic, suspended miles above the earth with seemingly infinite pathways to our destinations. It made me think a bit about travel. Our current system is basically a two dimensional slew of paths that seem simple at times and downright impossible at others. How would this translate to THREE DIMENSIONS? Air traffic control exists for a reason but what governing body could regulate flying cars going wherever they please? None. Which means regulated pathways and mile high traffic jams.

And let us not forget the levitating cars that and 5500 mph speed limits. Technology may get to that point, "you should never ever doubt what you are not sure about." But it seems quite unlikely. Even with levitating vehicles, a 5500mph speed limit would never happen because let's be real, we don't trust drivers with low 55 mph speed limits in the best of scenarios.

But The Jetsons had some interesting thoughts on the future. Push button appliances and starters. We are absolutely seeing that now. The video call feature that so often sprung up on 1960's style televisions that still existed in 2062...we have Facetime and Skype, Google Hangouts and other lesser used chat mediums. It's been a dream of the century, so it seems, to be able to call someone and have a face to face conversation from miles away. I am sure we could go through more shows of the period and find technological foreshadowing/dreams of the mid-century. We would surely find interesting vehicles and innovations as well.

It is interesting to think about what we are seeing on screen now and what we expect to see in 50 years. Will we see flying cars? Who knows. But what do you think will happen in 50 years?

ncasolowork2 > cazzyodo 09/23/2013 at 15:41

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I rather hate the idea of long distance face to face conversations or even short distance face to face conversations. If I wanted to have a face to face conversation I would do just that.

leicester > cazzyodo 09/23/2013 at 16:42

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cazzyodo > leicester 09/23/2013 at 16:49

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The way to my heart is through XKCD comics. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think of this one as I wrote the post.

RMudkips > cazzyodo 09/23/2013 at 17:01

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...and I was born! (well, not in 1962).

cazzyodo > RMudkips 09/23/2013 at 17:03

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RMudkips > cazzyodo 09/23/2013 at 19:48

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