Flying cars, jetpacks and robot kitchens

Not bloody likely.

“The robot future imagined by our overlords is nothing like that glorious future sold to my grandmother in newsreels. Her glorious future was a great time to be alive. American would be free from the mundane to conquer the world. The robot future sold today is sterile and joyless, a great time to take advantage of the suicide kiosk at the mall. The great minds of our age say the future is pointless. Instead of a singularity, it will be a nullity.” – ‘The Automat of the Future’

http://thezman.com/wordpress/

In the days of B&W only TV, NBC’s Dave Garroway hosted a 90-minute Sunday afternoon program called Wide, Wide World. One episode had a segment on the future semi-driverless car, in which the family (Dad, Mom, Sis and Brother) got into their comfortable, transparent-roofed automobile for a cross-country trip. Dad droveto the four-lane highway, and then automation took over, and the family members were free to discuss events of the day, as well as literature and classical music, with no fear of road rage drivers, since all other vehicles also were on automatic pilot. I don’t recall any 18-wheelers or smoke belching cars on the road. No. It was the future, where such did not exist.