Asimov on 2014, from 1964

[Gardenarian]

In this article (http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/23/lifetimes/asi-v-fair.html), Isaac Asimov writes his predictions for the year 2014, from a 1964 perspective. Here is an excerpt:

"Gadgetry will continue to relieve mankind of tedious jobs. Kitchen units will be devised that will prepare "automeals," heating water and converting it to coffee; toasting bread; frying, poaching or scrambling eggs, grilling bacon, and so on. Breakfasts will be "ordered" the night before to be ready by a specified hour the next morning. Complete lunches and dinners, with the food semiprepared, will be stored in the freezer until ready for processing. I suspect, though, that even in 2014 it will still be advisable to have a small corner in the kitchen unit where the more individual meals can be prepared by hand, especially when company is coming."

Interesting reading!

[Float On]

In this article (http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/23/lifetimes/asi-v-fair.html), Complete lunches and dinners, with the food semiprepared, will be stored in the freezer until ready for processing.

I guess after frozen egg sandwiches and lunchables......our 'inventors' got a little lazy (or sodium overload) and never got around to the 'gadgetry' stuff.

[catherine]

Hits:

One thought that occurs to me is that men will continue to withdraw from nature in order to create an environment that will suit them better.
As for television, wall screens will have replaced the ordinary set;
Ordinary agriculture will keep up with great difficulty
worldwide propaganda drive in favor of birth control by rational and humane methods and, by 2014, it will undoubtedly have taken serious effect.
The world of A.D. 2014 will have few routine jobs that cannot be done better by some machine than by any human being. Mankind will therefore have become largely a race of machine tenders.
Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone. The screen can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books.
the population of the United States will be 350,000,000 (not far off)
the increasing use of mechanical devices to replace failing hearts and kidneys, and repair stiffening arteries and breaking nerves will have cut the death rate still further and have lifted the life expectancy in some parts of the world to age 85.
There will, therefore, be a worldwide propaganda drive in favor of birth control by rational and humane methods and, by 2014, it will undoubtedly have taken serious effect. The rate of increase of population will have slackened*but, I suspect, not sufficiently.
All the high-school students will be taught the fundamentals of computer technology will become proficient in binary arithmetic and will be trained to perfection in the use of the computer languages that will have developed out of those like the contemporary "Fortran" (from "formula translation") (Kind of--we sure advanced beyond Fortran!)


Misses:
Windows need be no more than an archaic touch,
Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence.
The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long- lived batteries running on radioisotopes.
even ground travel will increasingly take to the air*a foot or two off the ground.
For that matter, you will be able to reach someone at the moon colonies,
the model of an underwater hotel of what might be called mouth-watering luxury.



His final word: Even so, mankind will suffer badly from the disease of boredom, a disease spreading more widely each year and growing in intensity. This will have serious mental, emotional and sociological consequences, and I dare say that psychiatry will be far and away the most important medical specialty in 2014.

Did he get it right or wrong?

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[razz]

I tried twice and could not get the link to work. It kept saying to try another link which looked the similar but didn't work either.
Maybe not free access after a certain time period?

[Gardenarian]

If the link doesn't work for you, Google < Visit to the World's Fair of 2014 >

It should be at the top of the list.

[JaneV2.0]

Industrial robots are common, and there are several underwater hotels, so you can move those to the hits.

http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/underwater-hotels

[reader99]

Household robots too, roomba and its swimming pool cleaning cousins.

[catherine]

I stand corrected, Jane and reader! I was just imagining the Jetson's "Rosie" and that never transpired. i think personal computer technology, wifi and content (apps) have become the ubiquitous everyday "robots" of 2014, so that's where Asimov didn't get it quite right. But I remember as a kid thinking robots were going to be the everyday technology of the future, too. That and video telephones, which still aren't quite as "everyday" as people thought they would be. Who wants to expose bad hair day? And who would have guessed that texting would replace a large percentage of telecommunications?

[SteveinMN]

Agreed. Robots for defined tasks can do a better job of it than humans. Humanoids, not so much.


Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone.
People have been saying this for decades and I just don't believe it will ever happen. Sure, there's skype and such. But it won't happen universally because people don't want it to. "Oh, did I wake you [with my call]?" A videophone easily could put the lie to the answer 'no'. It becomes much less plausible to be vague about where you happen to be when you place or take a call: "Yeah, sorry, I had to work late." (sounds of people laughing and glass clinking in the background). Calling for that first date? Heh. One more reason to reject the offer.

The technology has been around for 50 years; the idea longer than that. It's not going to happen.

[JaneV2.0]

I figure whomever I call knows what I look like; no reason to inflict my jowls and eye-bags on them...

[ToomuchStuff]

I think your mixing up Robots, with artificial intelligence.

I don't really think the kids are taught fundamental (programming/why a computer works) skills, as much as how to use typical software. I certainly do not meet many kids that do binary arithmetic. There are some pushes to get this back, such as Raspberry PI and Computing principles from Tetris to Nand.
A comparison I would make, is the kids learning how to drive, verses, how does their car work and what can they do to improve it.