Small Fish, Big Pond

Treehugger.com is badmouthing this video but I love these things. I must have been the last generation where they whipped out the reel to reel in elementary school and played these kind of movies while the teachers had a smoke break. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw this very movie.

It’s funny how people thought the world would look in the future. I love the constant references to “The Power of the Atom!” in the 50’s.

What’s cool is watching to see how many prediction actually came true:

Colored lanes didn’t happen but but simple signs telling you which lane to take are commonplace.
Google Maps tells me when traffic is bad ahead.
My GPS shows me exactly where I am and routes me to my destination and finds detours when traffic is bad.
Prefab bridges can be moved into place overnight, cutting down on road work delays.
Suburban growth was massive in the 60’s and 70’s. Cities grew out, not up.
America IS crisscrossed by high-speed interstate roads .
Electric cars are “refueled” overnight in the garage.
I saw Cisco Telepresence, but its not in the car yet. (skype via laptop or smartphone is).
Car elevators in buildings.
Rotating car parks are surprisingly common in Japan.
Mobile homes for traveling vacations.
Car/Boats
Cargo containers going straight from truck, to boat and back are common now.

Crazy predictions that will never happen:
Roads that light up at night.
Radiant heat to warm the roads in winter.
Radar windshields in fog.
Atom Powered Tunnel melter.
Cars split up to take each person to their destination.
Highway escalators?!
Cargo rockets for when your cargo needs the 10 minute travel time only an ICBM can provide.
Miles of tubular, air-conditioned and heated highways?

Again I say, why did we give up on striving to build a futuristic techno world and settle on a life of sitting in a dull gray cubicles, rotting out brains infront of cathode ray tubes, or in bumper to bumper pollution clogged roads?

BTW: I love the integrated “teletype panel” in the car, or the punch card entry for setting directions!
Source: Infrastructurist

Now Gizmodo is looking back at the fantastic technologies that never were.