The original post: /r/television by /u/AporiaParadox on 2024-04-23 12:21:54.
Sci-fi shows of the past often made predictions about the future, usually related to technology. Some came to pass and some didn’t, and we all like to marvel at what things they got right or laugh at flying cars. But there’s also things they failed to even consider might happen, like cell phones, the internet and social media. Star Trek came sort of close, but their communication devices were treated more like walkie talkies or two-way radios people used in the army, and datapads were treated more like disposable pieces of paper.
But it’s not just technology, old shows also made predictions about society’s future, and often they missed the mark by quite a bit. They often assumed that social mores and gender roles would remain the same in the future. They assumed that the political status quo of the time would endure, portraying futures where the Soviet Union still existed in the 21st century, or where Japan overtook America as the world’s economic superpower. They also assumed that overpopulation would be more of a problem than it actually ended up being, failing to consider that birth rates would atually decrease quite a lot in richer countries and that advancements in agriculture means that people starve not due to there not being enough food, but because of bad distribution. And amusingly, they often assumed that the fashions and hairstyles of the time would remain fashionable in the future.
It’s not their fault thought, I’m sure sci-fi shows being made now will also miss the mark and people in the future will also laugh at all the things we got wrong and never saw coming.
So what other things did sci-fi writers of yesteryear fail to predict?