As entertaining as the sci-fi from these decades often was, it never fails to amaze me how inaccurate and often bizarre their vision of a future society was. I watched Logan's Run again the other night, and couldn't help but wonder why the makers imagined people would be wearing such ridiculous and impractical clothing; short dresses made from wisps of gaudy-coloured material, jumpsuits and extravagant suits of authority. Of course Logan's Run wasn't the only culprit. It seems, then, that futurism in the eyes of these people had a duty to be as outrageous and different from their own time as possible, merely to stand out as so. Practicality, reason, natural progression and logic seemed very much to take a back seat, in favour of fantastical ideas and strange clothing. But what about current visions of the future? Are they really any better, or do we just imagine/hope they are? Will people 40/50/60 years from now be watching/reading today's sci-fi and be asking the same question?
Have you not seen some of the ridiculous, impractical clothing people wear on a regular basis in the real world? I mean, I don't know if you're old enough to remember the '80s, but damn! I don't think it'll be as bad as it was back in the say, if only because both sci-fi and film making has matured a lot since then, but yeah, people will probably still laugh at it. I mean, people look at Back to the Future and make fun of the costumes, but it was a pretty accurate depiction of what the 1985 would have looked like had it lasted until 2015. Same as Minority Report looking like how everyone wanted the future to look like Steve Job's wet dream in 2002. I don't think we're any better at the whole futurism thing, we're just being grittier about it.
How dare you insult such cinematic masterpieces like Zardoz, Rollerball, DeathRace, and Invasion From Inner Earth!
I do remember the 80s and funnily enough asked myself if the costumes in Logan's Run were really any more ridiculous than the 80s dress sense. I don't suppose they were in truth, but I think I'm talking generally - the way much sci-fi from these times imagined clothes that looked like they were made from Bacofoil. I don't even know what this means.
wow, this is a very philosophical point of view of life, it makes me even question its existence. Honestly, this is tough to answer, give me a few days, i'll give you a proper answer.
Not sure why you consider the question so deep. I'm simply asking if we're better at predicting the future now, than we were 30/40/50 years ago.
Probably not, but how can you really predict something that hasn't come to pass yet? You can't. Unless you are Jules Verne, and have traveled through time. (How else would he know about nuclear power and that it could be used on submarines?) Well one thing will be a constant in Sci-fi: Lasers
I think some of the contemporary visions are/might be pretty accurate. Of course, the real status quo in the future may very well be a hotch-potch blend and cocktail of many a reasonable future envisioning. I like The Children of Men in its portrayal of barenness of human race. I also think Gibson's futuristic visions of electronic body modifications, virtual reality etc. are pretty much coming full circle. You know, with pohotorealism graphics and retina projections...I mean one can hardly guess what virtual reality is going to be like ten years from now. In this regard, The Ghost In The Shell (the anime) is pretty much timeless and will always be. And not only in the portrayal of scientific advancement/enhancement, but also in social terms. It's hauntingly real, tangible and down to earth, if you watch it and think about it. The identity issue. I mean, K.Dick is going to be viewed more and more as a prophet.
The Nautilus was actually powered by electricity generated by sodium-mercury batteries that drew the sodium from the seawater. This was an entirely theoretical possibility in Verne's day, though they could never get it to work on a large scale.
