Things you never could have predicted

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

As a bookdealer I would have never imagined that the bottom would ever drop out of the print book market, after all, they had been around for centuries. Much of it because of the competition from technology such iPads, Amazon Kindle, etc. Personally, I can't abide the things. I still prefer real books over ebooks.

Me too rather keep libraries and book shops open rather than closing them because of kindle etc.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

That commercial supersonic flight would disappear.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

another is how technology keeps changing at such a rapid pace its so much to get used too.

As a bookdealer I would have never imagined that the bottom would ever drop out of the print book market, after all, they had been around for centuries. Much of it because of the competition from technology such iPads, Amazon Kindle, etc. Personally, I can't abide the things. I still prefer real books over ebooks.

[darren]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

indeed just no privacy at all.

another is how technology keeps changing at such a rapid pace its so much to get used too.

all these reality shows just too many of them.

also the chernobyl disaster such a tragedy.

Health and safety conscious,suing for trips and falls

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Health and safety conscious,suing for trips and falls

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

George Orwell predicted it along with Newspeak which can be seen as political correctness and being told what is acceptable to say and what's not and all the ism's and ist's that exist these days.

This comedy bit from 1957 also comes to mind. And if Mr Tweedley's voice sounds familiar it's the voice of Daws Butler who did many of the voices in the Hanna Barbera cartoons.

[HG]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

CCTV cameras everywhere big brother watching on us

George Orwell predicted it along with Newspeak which can be seen as political correctness and being told what is acceptable to say and what's not and all the ism's and ist's that exist these days.

[darren]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

the way the country is so P.C. <BR>for instance if a child gets hurt in thwe playground the teacher cant patch them up for the fear of being sued.<BR><BR><BR>The way technology has exploded over the last 10 yrs.

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

CCTV cameras everywhere big brother watching on us

[the fox]

I was watching back to the Future again the other day. One scene got me thinking - the scene where Marty is trying to prove to the Doc that he is from the future. When he tells doc brown that Ronald Reagan is president, the Doc finds it utterly incredulous.

Thinking back to the 70's, 80's or 90's, if you had thought back then about what might happen or be invented in the future, what would you never have predicted happening in your wildest imagination ?

If you were to travel back in time and tell your younger self all about the inventions and events you have seen, what is the one thing that your younger self would find truly impossible to believe ?

For example, two things that stand out for me are :

1. The smartphone. Star trek had foreseen the mobile phone, which was not beyond imagination. But in the days of the sinclair spectrum, i would never have imagined a computer with a touch screen that serves as hundreds of daily tools, can navigate the way for you, has immediate access to info from around the whole world, and doubles up as a stills and video camera. And it makes phone calls, too. Even into the mid-nineties, there was no sign of that one on the horizon. And in the early nineties, if someone had told me that Apple, that almost-defunct 'alternative' computer firm, would be one of the biggest sellers, I would have laughed my head off.

If you look at old sci-fi movies, the one futuristic gadget they never seem to have is a smartphone, because no-one saw it coming.

2. On a very different note, 9/11 - The Russians were going to drop the bomb. Or if not, at least our enemies wore uniforms and painted their weaponry a different colour to us, so we knew roughly who and where they were. And surely no-one, apart from aliens in movies, were ever going to attack and destroy something like that on American soil ? I think for many of us, 9/11 was surely the pivotal moment of our generation, when the world seemed a very different place before and after. The new millenium held promise of a civilised and peaceful new future. Then horror beyond imagination happened right afterwards.