Favorite Visions of the Future in Literature, Movies and Television that Have Been Rendered Obsolete

[MikeAnderson]

Skynet is alive and well in our heads, but that's about it.

Wrong! It just legally changed its name...

 

[svalbard]

San Francisco 2020

 

[BAYLOR]

Wrong! It just legally changed its name...

Oh not, The Gamesters of Triskelion have come for us all !

 

[BAYLOR]

I noticed SF ignores Global Warming.A lot of Aliens (Visitors) and Zombies instead.

In the movie Soylent Green there is mention of Global Warming.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Split Second to.

 

[BAYLOR]

Split Second to.

Ive never seen that one . Is it a good film?

 

[Dave Vicks]

Yes good B film.

 

[reiver33]

Split Second - we're going to need bigger guns...

 

[BAYLOR]

Star Trek the next Generation episode The Royal The subject , Fermat's last Theorem . Apparently Picard was unaware that it had been solved in 1994.

 

[CupofJoe]

Any wall/desk mounted videophone in just about any film. It looks so strange now that people would go to the a phone and not bring the phone to them. At least the one in the bar in Blade Runner [when Deckard calls Rachel] is covered in graffiti and scratches. This is realistic...

 

[Vince W]

Johnny Mnemonic is set to take place on 17 January 2021. Time's running out to make this future a reality.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Double obsoletion:

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, then the (second) film of the book.

First the book (published 1981) has....

Spoiler: Book Spoiler

...the killer observing the families he stalks by watching their home movies - i.e. actual film. Yes, the stuff used in ye olde times for cinema. Long spools of images that need to spin around a light source to project...

So then the 2002 film updated this (there was the older Manhunter that stuck to the original story wrt to this!) to...

Spoiler: Film Spoiler

the families using VHS recorders. Another tech that has for the home died.

Nowadays....

Spoiler: It wouldn't work now

...because everyone would use their phones and probably augment, edit and publish it themselves. No more victims for the tooth fairy.

 

[TomMazanec]

Reading Stranger Suns (1990) by George Zebrowski.
Set in Spring 2022.
Not much time to build that orbiting tachyon telescope.

 

[BAYLOR]

Nevermind

 

[BAYLOR]

Johnny Mnemonic is set to take place on 17 January 2021. Time's running out to make this future a reality.

Reading Stranger Suns (1990) by George Zebrowski.
Set in Spring 2022.
Not much time to build that orbiting tachyon telescope.

Then, try rethinking them as alternate history. It's what I do with obsolete science fiction.

 

[Danny McG]

Johnny Mnemonic is set to take place on 17 January 2021. Time's running out to make this future a reality.

Only 4 days left, the clock is ticking remorselessly!

 

[BAYLOR]

Only 4 days left, the clock is ticking remorselessly!

And then , it becomes an alternate timeline.

 

[Vince W]

And then , it becomes an alternate timeline.

This is Gibson. It becomes an alternate Stub.

 

[BAYLOR]

This is Gibson. It becomes an alternate Stub.

He did make some interesting projections .

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Corona-shaped elephant in this chatroom?