Social Question

Yellowdog's avatar

As a corollary to the question about what we once thought the future would be like -- what are some technologies and products we have now that we would have NEVER imagined 20-50 years ago?

Asked by Yellowdog (12216points) February 17th, 2019

We finally DO have video telephones—on our SMART Phones.
What about the fact that we even have apps that tie our shoes and adjust sleeping temperatures and mattress forms on our beds?

Kids today aren’t programmers using computer lingo as they might have been aiming for in the 1980s when many of us were kids Not sure many young people today know how the devices work. Or know the lingo we once used with computer programming in the early days. But they can operate multifarous devices effortlessly

Computers don’t talk back to us—or maybe some services like Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Google Assistant actually do.
Who could have imagined ALL the information—research libraries to old television commercials—available at our fingertips?

Talking to people around the world and even in remote places was the stuff of science fiction and conspiracies in the 1980s.

Even super heroes were limited on the old T.V. shows when nobody knew where someone was (no cell phones or global communication, news, etc etc).

What are some things which, when we were kids or even young adults, we could have never imagined would be normative ways of life in the present?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

8 Answers

ragingloli's avatar

VR enabled and synchronised penis masturbators.

SQUEEKY2's avatar

That people would become addicted to texting?

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@Yellowdog You might enjoy reading this Wikipedia article Predictions made by Ray Kurzweil

ucme's avatar

Poovers…vacuum cleaners for dog turds.

JLeslie's avatar

I didn’t predict GPS mapping, and that my phone would give away my location to the government and companies that want to advertise to me. That I would have to worry about the settings for privacy, camera, and microphone, on my phone and apps in my phone.

Patty_Melt's avatar

I buy things from China (I love how the president says China), India, South Korea, and Afghanistan. It still blows me away when I shop the world without leaving my house.
By the way, if you buy the genie pants from India, they arrive smelling like incense. So, I can talk to, buy from, and smell other countries, WITH MY PHONE!

Actually, as a child, the twenty first century seemed to me so far in the future, I didn’t think I would be living long enough to see it.

Legalized marijuana is something I never thought would happen in my lifetime.

Temperature changing fabric was a surprise to me.

Oh, and Happy Meals with healthy choices.

elbanditoroso's avatar

Vibrators and internet-controlled sex toys.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.
Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther