A Futurama for 2029 anyone?

As I said before, sometimes, in order to get a sense of direction forward we have to look back.  Not, "go" back, but go back to a time and place and observe a perspective of opportunity, hope, vision & direction and wonder where it all wandered off to.  Then sit back & ponder, there were some good concepts & idea's that got passed over or totally missed that could be introduced into the modern world to help make things a little better.

Anyway, enough rambling, and yes, there are some "car" related items in here, but bare with it, enjoy the next hour or so....for a little look at the future from a 1939 perspective:

So, it is quite well known (in the work environment) that I don't get along with the "younger" generation (currently in their 20-30s) and that I'm pigeon holed as "the grumpy old man" and I've become that stereotype... I guess my frustration with that age-range of people is that they have become so....."bland".

There is very limited creative thought going on, there is no sense of wonder or excitement about creating something new that will help themselves or to better humankind as a whole.  They are too obsessed with looking at themselves, using modern electronic devices 24/7, but for what? it's all indulgent, self-indulgence... who's to blame?  I guess the generation that I came from (and the one before), as this video shows we thought we were helping to build a future where computers & electronics would free up peoples time allowing them to do more recreational things, reduce the burden on menial tasks so that they could have more "thinking time"... instead, we gave them TikTok, YouTube (there's irony right there), social media in all its forms and a 1001 other thing to consume their time and not actually give them any more "free time", quite the opposite in fact.

I love the kids at the end of the video....that is a real eye-opener and sadly it matches the viewpoint that I was given at school as a child (mid-80s).  I'm slightly shocked about the predictions some of them made, even back in the 1950s....

I'm also going to be a little anti-American for a bit now (brace yourself), but as the above videos blatantly show, all the new highways, all the new advances, all the new ways of living and working were perceived to be born from America.  Owned by America and the profits returned back to America, in order to keep America great and at the center of the world.  Hmmmm.....okay, I'm no pro-Russian activist (in fact, I'm only just about pro-human, to be honest), as they are just as bad, but I'd like to see another "World Expo", maybe in 2029 or 2039, something that most likely will be hosted in Dubai (as they have the available space, infrastructure and capability), where the true Worlds best minds can get together and demonstrate a vision for the next 100 years.  It would have to be advertisement free, not driven by certain corporations view of the future.  I appreciate that America is something like $1.5Trillion in debt. and they've got to keep the $$$$ beast moving and the octopus of commercialism has it's tentacles in every country now, in everybody's lives, everybody's waking moments & thoughts....but wouldn't it just be nice if they were not at the center for once?  (Shock!Horror! moment, pssssst! you're not the "best minds in the world"... you've just got good designers & sales people, the makers have been outsourced.  I could find a citation, but y'know, Google it yourself....oh, another irony dropped right there!)

I like the vision of some of the ideas (maybe not the one where we concrete the world with highways, owned and managed by GM, ensuring that the $$$$ trickles back to a US economy), but it does spark a vision for Mars, or another planet where we can start again from fresh,

In the expo of 2029, I'd like to see in Augmented Reality what visions the likes of Elon Musk have in mind for Mars.  Yes, great, we can get people there, but what would be the lessons learnt from Earth that enable us to build a better society and how would we connect it all together?  For instance, why should we still go with the format of having large cities, where the big "commerce" work is performed, connected to outlying smaller towns where the "workers" live, all connected by roads using autonomous vehicles - you can put a $$$ value on every part of that equation, which is great for the (what is higher than Billionaires?) people who already have far too much money they don't know what to do with, but they love a bit of power & control... well, if you genuinely removed the mindset that we do not adopt the model that has been forced on us on Earth, ie. we exist to keep the money machine moving on, we live in towns/villages, we commute to cities, we work in small confined spaces to keep the wheels moving of some company or other that is part of a bigger machine of companies that keep other wheels moving that loop back to keep all the wheel moving, we spend 10-16hours a day doing this, we use technology that was meant to reduce our burden to assist with this work, we have less and less time for ourselves, we think less, we connect less, we invent less, we become less. This model has no future.  Maybe Covid-19 is a little nudge and a little helper for the masses to start to realise that the above model that we have blindly sleep walked into is not the world that our past wanted us to become.  I personally don't think we can change the setup on Earth, even by dropping a few strategic A-bombs in the right places, it won't change things, they'll go corrupt for a while but will eventually settle back to where they were, maybe even worse, but Mars, that has some inspiration, some hope, some vision, something to get excited about, something that has the opportunity to be creative and genuinely "free".  The absolute worst thing that could happen to Mars is if American/Russian/Chinese culture mindset and bolt on all the fanatic religions were to go to Mars, that would f&*k it up before it had the opportunity to define itself, a fresh start, a new beginning.

That is partly why I dislike the youngsters I mentioned above, they have the opportunity to create, to invent, to do all these things of wonder, they have technological advances that can help them (I mean their "smart"phone that they obsess over for taking selfies is more powerful than the friggin' PCs that sent humans into space!) - we have created a generation of "users", not creators.  Okay, I'm being a little unfair, there are "some" that can create & innovate, but again, they fall into the $$$ trap, they do it for the wrong reasons, fame, glory and ultimately the $$$.  I hope that 2021 will still be a sh&t-show for Covid-19 and the new variant(s) that are going to make life a misery, I feel awful for the people who have died and will continue to die from this awful disease & I hope that I actually make it to 2022 and beyond, if I don't at least I know I've helped to make a difference in so many peoples everyday lives, via the work that I've done over the past 25+years in the I.T. industry, always behind the scenes, doing a bit here & a bit there to help make your life that bit safer & better.  The reason for secretly hoping that the lockdowns will continue is to get the younger generation(s) to think a bit more, to ponder, to not obsess over "what I've lost, it's so unfair"...but to use it to their advantage.  Okay, so now you can appreciate what it is like to spend a month or so being in a confined space with your only contact with the outside world being through video calls...hmmm... how long will it take to fly to Mars?  What are the essentials that you need to exist in that confined space?  How would you lay out the design and structure of compartments for 1000's of people making that journey without them "loosing their sh!t" and attacking everyone else?  How can you design & build a different way of living that does not rely on you having to travel outside your "home" once you've settled on Mars?  How is food grown, monitored and harvested and transported to everyone in the most efficient and effective manner?  Can we make it smarter?  Let's ignore the Amazon drones delivering "really import packages of stuff" to Prime customers, but can we take that concept and run with it for some way of living that you've been inspired by during the Covid-19 lockdown?.....

Anyway, I was only going to post the 2 videos as a mental reminder to show to a few other people next week - I somewhat seem to have go off on an "old man ramble" again....  I suppose it's time for me to get back to my Raspberry Pi 4 and do some funky stuff with it, who knows where this little bit of tinkering will end up?.....