The future that wasn’t: all the predictions of how we would be living in the new millennium that were wrong.

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MONDAY’S TOPIC: The future that wasn’t: all the predictions of how we would be living in the new millennium that were wrong.
We still get angry e-mails and calls berating us in the strongest terms for having reported that last New Year’s was the beginning of the new millennium. All of these people pointed out, and correctly I think, that the last year of the 20th century should be 2000, not 1999. OK, so we, along with almost everyone else, were wrong. Technically. But the change from 1999 to 2000 is so much catchier than 2000 to 2001. I get it, but I never understood why those folks were so angry.
Nevertheless, we are moving into the future. 2001, thanks to the movie of course, always seemed like the beginning of a brave new era. Well, here we are, and it looks a lot like the last one. But predicting the future is a time-honored tradition. So on Monday we’re going to air a show that first aired last year on the eve of the not-really-the-millennium New Millennium. With the help of people like Martin Landau (who starred in Space:1999), Whoopi Goldberg, Harry Shearer, Majel Barrett (wife of Gene Roddenberry and Nurse Chapel on the original Star Trek), Gail Collins of the New York Times and others, we look back at all of the predictions of the future from the past.
Flying cars, vacations on Mars, really bad clothes, predigested food and all sorts of things that those making the predictions got wrong. It’s a lot of fun, and we hope you enjoy it.
That will be Monday’s show. From all of us here at Nightline, Happy New Year, thank you for your support of our broadcast and all the best for the coming year.

Friday, December 29, 2000

Leroy Sievers
Executive Producer
Nightline Office
Washington, D.C.
http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/Nightline/

-- Sammee (sammee@bree.com), December 30, 2000

Answers

Response to The future that wasnÂ’t: all the predictions of how we would be living in the new millennium that were wrong.

In the 1960s, my idea of 2000 was that when using the telephone, it would be a picture phone letting you see the other person over the phone line.

The reality? No picture, but I can talk to anyone anywhere with my cell phone. I also thought we'd probably send astronauts to Mars sometime during the 1980s, but a stagnant economy and budget deficits in the '70s led to major cuts in NASA's budget.

-- The future isn't what it (used@to.be), December 30, 2000.


Response to The future that wasnÂ’t: all the predictions of how we would be living in the new millennium that were wrong.

At any given time, there are things to come, often very soon, that are completely unpredictable. That is one reason why planned economies can't compete with free economies. Who was predicting desktop PCs, the Internet, biochem, cell-phones, etc, etc, more than a few years in advance.

FS, what did Toffler predict in Future Shock that was right-on? What did he miss entirely? (I never read the book)

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), December 30, 2000.


Response to The future that wasnÂ’t: all the predictions of how we would be living in the new millennium that were wrong.

Lars, if I remember right, Future Shock predicted a post- industrial society--what we now sometimes refer to as the Information Age.

-- The future isn't what it (used@to.be), December 30, 2000.

Response to The future that wasnÂ’t: all the predictions of how we would be living in the new millennium that were wrong.

"2001 then and now"

http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/movies/flick003.htm

-- (H@L.9000), December 30, 2000.


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