Things you could have never imagined 40 years ago

[MultiVerse]

that our food industry, big pharma, and FDA turned out to be as evil as they are - they all want us sick and to be on meds - billion-dollar industry. in that respect, our country blows.

Something I'm looking forward to seeing in the future is robotic mechanical weed and pest control instead of chemical herbicides and pesticides. A few years ago there was a big controversy about Roundup. Followed by push back from the industry and the story kind of went away. But research continued. And the evidence shows these chemicals travel from the food we eat into our bodies causing long term damage . A good speech by dr. Marty Makary:

https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1838665564648280274

Today's science fiction, tomorrow's reality:

https://x.com/ai_for_success/status/1837472679906947324


Unrelated, did anyone imagine the Concorde would be peak fast air travel? There was a time when a person could travel from New York to London in 2 hours 52 minutes.

[PB]

Sooooo ...

40 years from now ........?

Computer chip implants sold retail?
Colony on Mars?
Population reduced to 500 million due to multiple pandemics and drug resistant superbugs?
Or just voice controlled dishwashers?

[old goat]

A car that runs for 16 years! With no problems or maintenance besides oil and filters. And then when it has problems, there's reams of OBD data I can download to my mini-pocket computer. And thousands of free websites and videos to help educate myself, troubleshoot, and repair.

Tell that to my next door neighbor who's been trying all day to get to the socket he dropped into the engine compartment of his old 4Runner.

[Ted Striker]

10mm strikes again!

[rideit]

I could never, ever have imagined that there were so many deposed Nigerian royal families that couldn’t repatriate their inheretences. Or blonde Russian women that really, really wanted to meet me.

[BCMtnHound]

Heh. My ‘85 22RE lasted 20yrs, my ‘03 going on 22. Worth buying 10mm sockets and wrenches in bulk.

[Meadow Skipper]

…my ‘03 going on 22. Worth buying 10mm sockets and wrenches in bulk.

Double heh. I’ve got an 03 4Runner, and got this.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LH7DM14/

This reminds me that 40 years ago I would never have thought I’d have a vehicle that didn’t have an oil dipstick - ‘21 Audi.

Then there’s Elon - didn’t see that coming.

[rideit]

I honestly am dumbfounded that anyone still manufactures ANYTHING with Imperial measurement besides vintage or repair stuff. It’s insane.

[old goat]

Double heh. I’ve got an 03 4Runner, and got this.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LH7DM14/

This reminds me that 40 years ago I would never have thought I’d have a vehicle that didn’t have an oil dipstick - ‘21 Audi.

Then there’s Elon - didn’t see that coming.

If you're saying Elon is a dipstick, I can't argue with you.

[KQ]

That I would enter a grocery store and hear Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein playing as background music. It happened to me twice this week!

I heard Rick James Super Freak the other day WTF?

[KQ]

As did Gene Roddenberry - though like many things on the OG Star Trek, it was a workaround for not having the budget.

From one of the writers: "We were originally going to have [each crew member] carry a language translator, which would fit on the wrist like a beeper, and no matter what area of the universe they were in, the thoughts that the people were thinking would automatically be translated into English as they spoke."

But they had already blown the budget with communicators, tricorders, and phasers, so they just said everyone speaks English in the future, and when we get called out on it we'll make something up then.

I'm still waiting for the food replicator to become a reality

[mcski]

Don’t forget hoverboards. Where the fuck are the hoverboards!

[mcski]

I heard Rick James Super Freak the other day WTF?

For real, they used to only play geezer music in the supermarkets! When did that change?!?!

[old goat]

For real, they used to only play geezer music in the supermarkets! When did that change?!?!

When we became geezers.

[Buster Highmen]

I could see legal weed, even the innert00bs, given a little exposure to telnet back in the 70s.

But what I never imagined are the new Rethuglicans aversion to Democracy and the unbridled, unabashed, unashamed conduct of modern American fascists.

I am thankful for the demise of MTV.

(Plus I always thought EW's Frankenstein was an unrecognized masterpiece...)

[riser4]

Tell that to my next door neighbor who's been trying all day to get to the socket he dropped into the engine compartment of his old 4Runner.

That socket, it's gone. Forget about it.

[pfluffenmeister]

Mmmmm, Superfreaks on hoverboards ...

Where is my Future?!?!

[FrankZappa]

That so many can't figure out how to get from "a" to "b" without a nav device to tell them.
I see my new mail delivery people at 10 at night trying to deliver the mail.. maybe one envelope at a time.. using nav bs.. ..how hard is: a,b,c..1,2,3???

People can't read, let alone write cursive??!?

[fomofo]

Robotics combined with Artificial Intelligence. Some people have been thinking of that for a long time now, but we're very close to real weaponized versions being unleashed on the world in a variety of ways.



Drones are maybe even scarier in that regard, although there is some pretty amazing stuff you can do with a swarm of mobile pixels...

[Cono Este]

Growing up overseas, chile etc. I never thought I’d see people in the USA rushing the airplane aisle right after we land and fucking up everything.

[MultiVerse]

I can't imagine how only 48% of Americans approved of interracial marriage back in 1991!?!? Today, U.S. approval of interracial marriage is at a new high of 94%. 'merica!

https://news.gallup.com/poll/354638/...-new-high.aspx

[halliday]

Sooooo ...

40 years from now ........?

Computer chip implants sold retail?
Colony on Mars?
Population reduced to 500 million due to multiple pandemics and drug resistant superbugs?
Or just voice controlled dishwashers?

Id actually like to see mag-lev trains running coast to coast and people who have no idea what single use plastic was. Fuck Mars and talking dishwashers.

[Dantheman]

I can't imagine how only 48% of Americans approved of interracial marriage back in 1991!?!? Today, U.S. approval of interracial marriage is at a new high of 94%. 'merica!

https://news.gallup.com/poll/354638/...-new-high.aspx

Think about it this way, 1991 is less than 30 years out from the end of segregation.

[yeahman]

I was born in 1965. Just one hundred years before I was born, Native Americans were still living free in the West. That blows my mind. One hundred years is not that long.

If you've never read Fools Crow by James Welch I highly recommend it.

Also Black Elk Speaks.

[Meadow Skipper]

If you've never read Fools Crow by James Welch I highly recommend it.

Great book. I highly recommend reading anything/everything James Welch wrote.