5 May 2013

Birthdays
Vincent Kartheiser b. 1979
John Rhys-Davies b. 1944
Marc Alaimo, b. 1942

Nice birthday choices! Kartheiser is better known now from his work on Mad Men, but he was a regular on Angel as well. Alaimo is best known as the Cardassian Gul Dukat on Deep Space Nine.

And then we have the picture slot. Mr. Rhys-Davies did regular work on TV in Britain all throughout the 1970s, then became known to American audiences in Raiders of the Lost Ark. His best known work in genre would be on Sliders and under a lot of make-up in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The picture I used is from the show where I first noticed him, I, Claudius, playing the centurion Macro.

Predictor: L.A. 2013, article by Nicole Yorkin, published 3 April 1988 in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

Predictions (reality): In 2013, we will enjoy all these advancements in information technology.

Holographic meetings and special 3D glasses. (Oh, God, no. It's bad enough to be forced to wear 3D glasses at the movies, but at work? I was in the videogame business when virtual reality was the big buzz idea. Those 3D helmets gave you a headache within minutes.)

In the evening, you can pick from ten films showing on cable. 
(Ten?!? OMG, how will I ever make a decision when there are ten whole films I might be watching at this very moment? Ten is more than my dizzy little mind can process. Quick, get me to the fainting couch!)

Students have smart cards that contain their educational record.
(They could. They don't. School still want to keep kids as far removed from their "permanent record" as is physically possible.)

A personalized newspaper is being printed on the home computer.
(Well, the only mistake here is printed. Why waste paper? Read it on an enormous full color screen that sits about two feet in front of you.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Tomorrow, it's another visit to the smooth and shiny future predicted on the pages of Popular Mechanics from the middle of the 20th Century. I can't say if the prediction will be accurate or not, but it's a good bet that you will like the way it looks.

 
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

28 April 2013

Birthdays
Jessica Alba, b. 1981
Penélope Cruz b. 1974
Elisabeth Röhm b. 1973
Jorge Garcia b. 1973
Bridget Moynahan b. 1971
Mary McDonnell b. 1952
Mike Newell b. 1942

Wow, there's a whole lot of pretty to choose from on this list. This year, I'm giving the picture slot to Ms. Alba, not for being the youngest (definitely) or the prettiest (many strong candidates here), but for have the career filled with the most roles in genre TV and movies, including Sin City, Fantastic Four, Spy Kids and Dark Angel, her first big starring role on TV back at the beginning of this century.

As for Mr. Garcia, best known for his role on Lost, and Mr. Newell, who directed a Harry Potter film... No matter how long I run this blog, you aren't getting a picture on your birthday. Sorry, guys.
 
 

Predictor: L.A. 2013, published April 3, 1988 in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

Predictions (and reality): Transportation and commuting

Los Angeles County has a mandatory staggered work plan. One third of the workforce from Granada Hills is already on the road at 5:45 AM. Even so, the commute takes three times as long.
(No and no. According to statistics, the average commute time is the most congested parts of Los Angeles is around 37 minutes. No staggered work plan has been forced on the residents.)

Telecommuting is common. (More common than it was back in the late 1980s to be sure, but according to statistics, stuck at about 2.5% of the workforce.)

Special lane for electric cars. (Full marks for this one.)

Supersonic jets. (Still a luxury and not often used.)

Some "predictions" are really just for entertainment purposes only, but this article really wanted to get stuff right and it's very hit and miss and was only looking ahead twenty five years. For me, it makes me admire the people aiming fifty to one hundred years in the future and being accurate even more, though of course they have their strikeouts as well.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
Tomorrow, we check in with the OMNI Future Almanac, another source of predictions from the 1980s (1982 to be exact) that may not always be accurate but is certainly bold. 
 

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

21 April 2013

Birthdays
James McAvoy b. 1979
Kate Vernon b. 1961

Mr. McAvoy was in the first Narnia film and played a young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class. Ms. Vernon was on Lost and Battlestar Galactica.

Many happy returns to them both.

Predictor: Los Angeles Times Magazine, published 3 April 1988

Predictions (reality): Here is what they thought would happen concerning the international financial situation.

Automatic language translation with our Japanese bosses. (See yesterday's post about the AT&T ads. This hasn't happened yet, but it could.)

Students learn Japanese in school. (They can at some schools. Few do. Fear of Japanese domination of our economy was at its peak about 25 years ago. Now we fear China, a country that wasn't even on the financial radar when this article was written.)

Los Angeles – along with New York and Tokyo – is one of the three major financial cities in the world. (According to the Telegraph, this isn't even close to right. They list San Francisco and Chicago in the worldwide top ten, but do not mention L.A.)

It costs $25 extra to talk to a personal teller. (How can this possibly make financial sense? Who would pay such a ridiculous premium?)

Money has bar codes that show to whom they have been issued. (Somewhere, Alex Jones is having a conniption fit just because he senses someone is even typing these words. The "mark of the Beast" freaks would explode.)

India surpasses the United States in cigarette production. (True, but the U.S. is fourth behind China, India and Brazil.)

Large companies have moved smaller scale offices to the suburbs to be closer to their employees. (Making life easier for employees? That's commie talk, my friend. People should think they are lucky to have jobs. If large groups of people start thinking companies are lucky people are willing to sell their time so cheaply, well... then the revolution comes.)

(Audible shudder.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

This Monday we get a prediction from Popular Mechanics, so no matter how far off base it is, the illustration will be cool.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

14 April 2013

Birthdays
Abigail Breslin b. 1996
Sarah Michelle Gellar b. 1977
Adrien Brody b. 1973
Anthony Michael Hall b. 1968
Tim Roth b. 1961

A good group of actors here from genre film and TV, but as a fan of Joss Whedon, the choice for the picture slot was not difficult. Many happy returns to all the birthday boys and girls.
 

Prediction: In 2013, there will be all sizes of cars available, including extremely small commuter cars.

Predictor: David Turner, Ford Motor Company in the article L.A. 2013 published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, published 3 April1988

Reality: This one was right on the money. People are opting for smaller and more fuel efficient cars, the best known of the truly tiny being the Smart Car. Our predictor is from Ford, and the smallest of the Ford models I can find information about is the Ford Fiesta, which has a model that is lighter than either the Toyota Yaris or the Fiat 500, though still several hundred pounds heavier that this little baby.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


We return to one of my favorite sources, The OMNI Future Almanac published in 1982, who tells us what jobs will be obsolete by 2010 or earlier.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

31 March 2013

Birthdays
Ewan McGregor b. 1971
Lucille Bliss b. 1916 died 8 November 2012

Lucille Bliss, who died last November, is probably the second most famous female voice actress ever, slightly behind the wonderful June Foray. Ms. Bliss is best known as the voice of Smurfette and Crusader Rabbit way back in the day, though my favorite work of hers is as Ms. Bitters on Invader ZIM, one of the best children's TV cartoons of this century.

Movies released
Ice Age: The Meltdown released, 2006

Life in Los Angeles... in 2013!

Prediction: Most of the housework will be done by robots and robotic pets will be commonplace.

Predictor: L.A. 2013, an article written by Nicole Yorkin in The Los Angeles Times Magazine, published 3 April 1988

Reality: Except for the Roomba, robot help really hasn't materialized. In the article, a country and western singing robot named Billy Rae is constantly screwing things up and annoying Alma, the woman of the house in Yorkin's story. And as for robotic pets, the Tamagotchi craze is really the closest we got to this and it didn't last.

The whole idea that we are rational actors economically doesn't always work, but eventually the concept of cost effectiveness does sink in.  Robots are good at some stuff, but the expense is high so that the cost only makes sense if they are going to do a LOT of work, which means they are still primarily on assembly lines.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

We get another glimpse into the wonderful technological future as predicted by Popular Mechanics in the middle of last century.
 
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE! 

24 March 2013

Birthdays
Keisha Castle-Hughes b. 1990
Alyson Hannigan b. 1974

Ms. Castle-Hughes, so good in Whale Rider (and so adorable at the Oscars that year) was also the Queen of Naboo in Star Wars: Episode III. But when it comes to the genre, she is not and never will be Willow Rosenberg.

So it is written and so it shall be.

Prediction:The demographics of Los Angeles 2013


Predictor: Southern California Association of Governments in 1988

Source: L.A. 2013, printed in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, 3 April 1988

Prediction (reality)
18.3 million (18.1 million)
1/15 of U.S. pop. (1/17 of U.S. pop.)


This is a pretty good guess.

Ethnicity:
41% White (actual 29.4%)
39.5% Latino (48.5%)
10.2% Black (9.8%)
9.3% Asian (10.7%) 


This is a pretty bad guess. Not understanding birth rate differentials is the cause.

Median Age
36.3 (33.8)


Another pretty bad guess. When the guess was made, the median was around 29. If you have the birth rate fairly close and the death rate as well, a competent mathematician would not miss by this much.

What they really got right: Using Syd Mead as the illustrator. If you like your future smooth and shiny, Syd Mead is the go-to guy and he has been for decades.

If you don't like your future smooth and shiny... why are you reading this blog in the first place?

Sorry. Don't want to chase away readers, but the question had to be asked.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 


My favorite three words to type on a Monday... OMNI Future Almanac!
 
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!