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As a child growing up in the 1970s, I envisioned a future much different than the one in which I am currently living. Perhaps it was all the gloom and doom of movies that showed that man simply couldn’t last on his current path.

From “Planet of the Apes,” which showed man’s future being surpassed by primates, to “Soylent Green,” which saw man become part of the food supply, I guess I am just happy that I am living in a future as good as the one I am in.

Make no mistake: the '70s fed the public a steady stream of movies that had us living in fear. In addition to the aforementioned films, we had films like the Mad Max series, “The Omega Man” and “Logan’s Run” as constant reminders that the future was not likely to be all that bright. We were destined to run out of fuel, food and space.

In fairness, these are just a smattering of hit movies, and they don’t represent the entire spectrum of 1970s science-fiction. In fact, television series adaptations of “Planet of the Apes” and “Logan’s Run” failed to take hold. Apparently, there was only so much gloom people were willing to accept. Apparently, seeing man’s dire future on a weekly basis proved to be too much for the average viewer.

I wonder, though, how did the future turn out so differently than what we imagined back then? That is not to say that some science-fiction futurists weren’t at least partially right. Ray Bradbury included wall size interactive television in his classic novel "Fahrenheit 451," and one could argue that the lack of privacy in George Orwell’s “1984” pales in comparison to how much information people readily share on a daily basis.

In fact, I can’t believe that, aside from some technological conveniences, the world looks a lot like it did back then. We are still reliant on oil and coal, nuclear power has not become our primary source of energy, and we still have yet to send a man (or woman) to Mars.

I always thought that by the year 2000, trips to space would have become much more frequent. Instead, the space program seems to have stalled, at least in the public consciousness. The space shuttles are now nearly as old as I am, and they are in the process of being retired. Space is still as remote to the average person as it was back in the 1970s. We still experience space primarily through photographs and science-fiction.

Also, I had assumed that, by now, we would have found better ways to communicate than the telephone. Certainly, if video wall phones could be used on “The Jetsons,” it was only a matter of time before they became a reality. Oddly enough, though, people still like the privacy of a telephone. We can ignore people if we choose, and we don’t have to worry about our appearance when we answer it. In fact, telephones have become a much more integral part of our lives. They have been improved through wireless, cellular and satellite technology, and have nearly destroyed what remained of American manners and etiquette.

As for transportation, I was certain that the the old combustion-based automobile would be replaced by something better. Improvements to the automobile have been steady, but cars are still pretty much cars. I wasn’t expecting anything as futuristic as the flying automobiles in “Back to the Future II,” or something as theoretical as teleportation, but I did think we would have taken some larger evolutionary steps in transportation technology.

Undoubtedly, the biggest change has been the emergence of the personal computer and the Internet. Who would have ever thought, back in the 1970s, that access to an incredible wealth of information would be available to everyone? Who would have thought that anyone with a keyboard could fancy himself a publisher, personal videos would be uploaded to the Web for millions to see, and that Tweeting someone would not be considered a crime?

Oddly enough, personal computers really didn’t make a prominent pop culture impact until the 1980s with "Tron" in 1982, and, a little later, "Wargames" in 1983.

All of this makes me wonder where we will be in 50 years. If we learned anything from the science-fiction television and movies of the 1970s, it’s that we probably should not look too closely at current popular media for any meaningful clues as to what the future holds.

Homework
“1984” by George Orwell