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"Modern"
Then and Now
Our interstate highways would soon have 100 mile-per-hour
speed limits!
That prediction seemed ready to become reality
in the 1950's.
In 1958, the transistor had its tenth birthday. We were 13 years into the atomic age,
12
years into the computer age, and five years into "compatible color television."
In 1953, RCA had even demonstrated a projection TV that put
12-foot-wide, live color TV pictures onto a theater screen!
The Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite. Congress created NASA. Pan Am flew
commercial jet service. Theaters had CinemaScope, Technicolor and stereo-surround. Yes,
all this in the 1950's!
The world had rock and roll music,
UFO's, Modern Art, and Modern Furniture. Doctors could give shots to halt the polio epidemic. It was
a
whirlwind of miraculous change!
Predictions like these were common:
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By the year 2000
we would colonize the moon and Mars
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By the year 1975
we would be entirely converted to the metric system
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By the year 2000
we would have brought modern agricultural technology to the starving nations
and eliminated hunger
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By the year 2000
we would have cures for the common cold and all the major infectious diseases
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By the year 2000
atomic power would be so abundant and cheap that we would not even need electric
meters
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By the year 2000
we would commonly travel by flying automobile or personal helicopter
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By the year 2000
we would have a world consensus on how to avoid and prevent violent conflicts, thereby
eliminating war
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By the year 2000
we would have superb schools and teachers using "teaching
machines," making education incredibly fun, efficient and effective
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By the year 2000
society would have taught itself, and its children, to rise above ignorance,
prejudice and bigotry
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By the year 2000
we would own human-like robot servants who would do our household chores
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By the year 2000
technology and enlightened management would make our cities crime-free zones of clean, gracious beauty
Back then, with transcontinental travel just
as fast as today, with global telecommunications and revolutionary advances in
science and medicine, the decade felt "modern." No wonder!
We were on the brink of endless progress. It made for a
great modern feeling!
Will some of our "year 2003"
predictions come true by 2025? Or by 2050? 2075? 2100?
Send us an e-mail with your opinion!
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