8 February 2015

Birthdays
Anna Hutchinson b. 1986 (The Cabin in the Woods, Legend of the Seeker, Power Rangers Jungle Fury)
Ashley Mulheron b. 1983 (The Task, Vampire Killers, Primeval)
Liam McIntyre b. 1982 (The Flash, The Legend of Hercules)
Dawn Olivieri b. 1981 (The Last Witch Hunter, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Heroes, Knight Rider [2009], Stargate: Atlantis)
Jim Parrack b. 1981 (Resurrection, True Blood, Battle Los Angeles, Supernatural)
Marc Wooton b. 1975 (Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel)
Seth Green b. 1974 (Buffy, The Venture Brothers, Greg the Bunny, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Delete, Iron Man 2, Heroes, Angel, Idle Hands, Weird Science [TV], Seaquest 2032, The X Files, Free Spirit, My Stepmother Is an Alien, Amazing Stories, Tales from the Darkside)
Brendan Wayne b. 1972 (Cowboys and Aliens, Angel)
Susan Misner b. 1971 (Gotham, Fringe, Night Stalker)
Stephanie Courtney b. 1970 (Angel)
Mary McCormack b. 1969 (K-PAX, Deep Impact)
Gary Coleman b. 1968 died 28 May 2010 (Homeboys in Outer Space, Amazing Stories, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)
Ladislav Beran b. 1967 (Hellboy, Blade II)
Larry Clarke b. 1964 (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Lost, Buffy)
Ethan Phillips b. 1955 (True Blood, The Island, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Werewolf [TV], The Twilight Zone [1986], Critters)
Mary Steenburgen b. 1953 (Elf, Gulliver’s Travels, Back to the Future Part III, Time After Time)
Carolyn Pickles b. 1952 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Through the Dragon’s Eye)
Brooke Adams b. 1949 (The Dead Zone, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Song of the Succubus)
Alex Diakun b. 1946 (Intruders, Supernatural, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, Reaper, The X Files, Eureka, Andromeda, EarthSea, Stargate SG-1, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, MythQuest, NightMan, Millennium, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Deadly Nightmares, Firebird 2015 AD)
Roger Lloyd Pack b. 1944 died 15 January 2014 (Doctor Who, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Interview with the Vampire, U.F.O., The Magus)
Nick Nolte b. 1941 (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Neverwas, Hulk, Breakfast of Champions)
John Williams b. 1932 (composer, Star Wars, Minority Report, Harry Potter, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, E.T., Dracula [1979], Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space)
Jack Larson b. 1928 (Superman Returns, Lois & Clark, Superboy, Adventures of Superman)
Jack Lemmon b. 1925 died 27 June 2001 (Bell Book and Candle)
Lana Turner b. 1921 died 29 June 1995 (Witches Brew, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1941], Topper [1937])
Bengt Ekerot b. 1920 died 26 November 1971 (The Seventh Seal)
Bill Finger b. 1914 died 18 January 1974 (writer, Batman, Green Lantern)
Myron McCormick b. 1908 died 30 July 1962 (Way Out)
Ray Middleton b. 1907 died 10 April 1984 (Damn Yankees [1967 TV], A Christmas Carol [1954 TV])
Lyle Talbot b. 1902 died 2 March 1996 (Plan 9 From Outer Space, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, Tobor the Great)
King Vidor b. 1894 died 1 November 1982 (director, The Wizard of Oz [Kansas scenes, uncredited])
Jules Verne b. 1828 died 24 March 1905 (author, From the Earth to the Moon, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, In the Year 2889)


Notes on the birthday list
1. The Picture Slot. Previous awards of the Picture Slot have gone to Jules Verne and Seth Green. Today's list has some major movie stars and iconic actors, mainly from American TV, I decided to go with Bengt Ekerot in his most famous role in international cinema as Death in The Seventh Seal. If there actually is a personification of death, he (or she) does not seem to have been pleased with Mr. Ekerot's portrayal, since he died at the age of 51. That's not the youngest person to die on today's birthday list, since Gary Coleman was only 42.

2. Things I learned this morning. When I go to imdb.com, I don't click on every actor in the top 100. I do click on all the names in the top 10, though some of them come up empty. Today I found out that Gary Coleman and Lana Turner both had roles in genre, though I knew nothing of those parts until I saw them this morning.

I also didn't know King Vidor directed the Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz. I knew George Cukor had been given the director's gig, but was replaced. The movie has five directors listed on imdb.com, the guy who gets full credit Victor Fleming and also Cukor, Vidor, Norman Taurog and Mervyn LeRoy. Usually a movie with that many directors signals a production in serious trouble, not one of the greatest films ever made.

I also didn't know the name of Stephanie Courtney, the actress who plays Flo on those annoying insurance ads. I'm sure the job pays well, but that sort of type casting has to be the worst of all.

3. Spot the Canadian! Our lone Canuck is older than our usual suspects, but his credit list makes him an obvious candidate. Those are all the clues I will give.

4. MST3K. The movie is not one of his genre credits, but John Williams did the score for Daddy-O. One of the bots commented when his name was in the credits, "Johnny Williams! That's John Williams before he heard Stravinsky." 

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.


Movies released
Gertie the Dinosaur released, 1914  
 

Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in his 1956 book The Door Into Summer

Prediction: Here is where the Thorsen memory tubes came in… No need to go into theory of an electronic tube that even Bell Labs doesn’t understand too well, the point is that you can hook a Thorsen tube into a control circuit, direct the machine through an operation by manual control, and the tube will “remember” what was done and can direct the operation without a human supervisor a second time, or any number of times. For an automated machine tool this is enough. For a guided missile or Flexible Frank you add side circuits that give the machine “judgment”. Actually it isn’t judgment (in my opinion a machine can never have judgment); the side circuit is a hunting circuit, the programming of which says “look for so-and-so within such-and-such limits; when you find it, carry out your basic instruction.”

Reality: Heinlein predicts a type of programming that would be relatively simple compared to the real ones and zeros method used by the people in charge of making modern robotics work. I'd also like to comment on his parenthetical aside about machines and "judgment". The most famous definition of "Is a machine thinking?" is the Turing Test, where a machine that can fool a human into thinking it's human must be counted as intelligent. I prefer the less subjective definition of Frank Harary, a mathematician who worked at Los Alamos after the Manhattan Project. His definition of when a machine can be said to be thinking is when it solves a problem without checking a list of every possible answer.

Looking one day ahead...  INTO THE FUTURE!

Is tomorrow Monday again already? Time for more fun with the OMNI Future Almanac! Yay!

Join us then...  IN THE FUTURE!

2 July 2014

 Birthdays
Margot Robbie b. 1990 (Z for Zachariah, About Time)
Ashley Tisdale b. 1985 (Charmed, Donnie Darko)
Vanessa Lee Chester b. 1984 (The Lost World: Jurassic Park)
Owain Yeoman b. 1978 (The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Yancy Butler b. 1970 (Kick-Ass, Lake Placid, Wolvesbayne, Basilisk: The Serpent King, Witchblade, Ravager, Perversions of Science, Mann & Machine)
Terry Rossio b. 1960 (writer, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, Small Soldiers, Godzilla, The Puppet Masters)
Jerry Hall b. 1956 (Vampire in Brooklyn, Freejack, Batman [1989])
Andrew Divoff b. 1955 (Lost, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Rage, Dr. Rage, Wishmaster, Conan [1997 TV], Highlander [TV], Xtro 3, Mac and Me, The Twilight Zone [1986], Misfits of Science)
Wendy Schaal b. 1954 (The X-Files, Small Soldiers, Star Trek: Voyager, *batteries not included, Innerspace, Amazing Stories, Knight Rider)
Elisabeth Brooks b. 1951 died 7 September 1997 (Deep Space, The Howling, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kolchak: The Night Stalker)
Nancy Stephens b. 1949 (Dark Skies, Halloween I and II, Escape form New York)
Saul Rubinek b. 1948 (Warehouse 13, Eureka, Lost, Stargate SG-1, The Android Affair, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Ron Silver b. 1946 died 15 March 2009 (Xenophobia, Timecop, Lifepod)
Kenneth McMillan b. 1932 died 8 January 1989 (Cat’s Eye, Dune, Heartbeeps, Salem’s Lot, The Stepford Wives, Dark Shadows [TV])
Robert Ito b. 1931 (MythQuest, Star Trek: Voyager, The Omega Code, The X-Files, Highlander [TV], Star Trek: The Next Generation, Buckaroo Banzai, Rollerball, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Terminal Man, Soylent Green, Dimension 5, Women of the Prehistoric Planet)
Brock Peters b. 1927 died 23 August 2005 (Deep Space Nine, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Alligator II: The Mutation, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Battlestar Galactica [1979], The Bionic Woman)
Hannes Bok b. 1914 died 11 April 1964 (artist)
Hermann Hesse b. 1877 died 9 August 1962 (author, Steppenwolf, The Glass Bead Game)

A lot of great Oh That Guy actors and several fabulous babes on the list today and Yancy Butler counts as both, but for the Picture Slot I chose a pulp cover by the prolific sci-fi illustrator Hannes Bok. Here we get an example of the famous meme in sci-fi of the Universal Attractiveness of Human Females. I'm guessing the giant frog is more interested in her as a protein source and not a potential mating partner, though you can never be sure.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Movies released
Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines released 2003
Hancock released, 2008

 Predictor: Pacific Rim, released 12 July 2013

Prediction: In 2013, giant monsters known as Kaiju invade the earth and the governments of the world create giant robots called Jaegers to combat them.

Reality: Of course, we have neither giant monsters or giant robots. The question is whether the governments of the world would build these things and my best guess is the funding would be there, though the technology is iffy. Even deficit hawks like to build things that blow big shit up.

Never to be forgotten: Bob Hastings 1925-2014

If you remember Bob Hastings, it is very likely for his role as Lt. Carpenter, the toady to Captain Binghamton on McHale's Navy or possibly as Archie Bunker's friend Tommy Kelsey on All in the Family. Hastings has well over 100 credits on imdb.com, many of them voice work. For live action genre roles, he was in The Greatest American Hero, The Munsters’ Revenge, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Amazing Spider-Man [TV], Kolchak: The Night Stalker, I Dream of Jeannie, The Bamboo Saucer, Batman [TV], The Munsters, Twilight Zone, Moon Pilot, Atom Squad and Captain Video and his Video Rangers, which stretches back to the very beginning of the TV era. In voice work, he was the voice of Commissioner Gordon during the 1990s on the various Batman cartoons, and did the voice of Clark Kent back in the 1960s and was the voice of the raven on The Munsters.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Bob Hastings, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to the regular weekly schedule and another prediction made by Lee de Forest in 1960 about the year 2000.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

25 May 2014

Birthdays
Esme Bianco b. 1982 (Game of Thrones, Chemical Wedding)
Brandy Kopp b. 1982 (Goblin, Smallville, Supernatural, Stargate: Atlantis, The 4400, The Butterfly Effect, Strange Frequency)
Cillian Murphy b. 1976 (Transcendence, Batman [Christopher Nolan series], In Time, TRON: Legacy, Inception, 28 Days Later...)
Eli Craig b. 1972 (director, Zombieland [TV], Tucker & Dale vs. Evil)
Olivia Spencer b. 1970 (Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Halloween II, Dollhouse, Big Bang Theory, Wizards of Waverly Place, Spider-Man, The Chronicle, What Planet Are You From?, Being John Malcovich, The X-Files)
Neil Marshall b. 1970 (director, Game of Thrones, Constantine, Doomsday)
Anne Heche b. 1969 (Toxic Skies, Volcano)
Poppy Z. Brite b. 1967 (writer, The Crow, Lost Souls)
Ray Stevenson b. 1964 (Divergent, Thor, The Book of Eli, Punisher: War Zone, G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
Bob Gale b. 1951 (writer, Back to the Future, Kolchak: The Night Stalker)
Barry Windsor-Smith b. 1949 (artist, Dr. Strange, Conan the Barbarian)
Frank Oz b. 1944 (Star Wars, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Muppets from Space, Labyrinth, director, The Dark Crystal, Little Shop of Horrors, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Stepford Wives [2004])
Sir Ian McKellen b. 1939 (The Hobbit, X-Men, Lord of the Rings, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, Doctor Who, The Prisoner (reboot), The Golden Compass, Stardust, Neverwas, The Shadow, Last Action Hero, The Keep)
Ann Robinson b. 1935 (War of the Worlds [2005], War of the Worlds (TV), Rocky Jones: Space Ranger, The War of the Worlds [1953])
Sarah Marshall b. 1933 died 18 January 2014 (Twilight Zone, Star Trek)
Claude Akins b. 1926 died 27 January 1994 (Eerie, Indiana, Monster in the Closet, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo, Tentacles, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Twilight Zone, Adventures of Superman)

For the past few weeks, I've given the Picture Slot to actors from Game of Thrones, but the lovely Esme Bianco had the slot last year and I understand Sir Ian has a new movie coming out. My other top choices that might get a chance next year are Barry Windsor-Smith, my favorite comic book artist when I was a teen, and Yoda, who is voiced by Frank Oz.

Many happy returns to the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Movies released
MIB 3 released, 2012
Back to the Future: Part III released, 1990
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi released, 1983
Star Wars released, 1977 (before we knew it was Episode IV)

Can you imagine what it would have been like if Star Wars had been released as Episode IV? We would have been so excited to see the first three. At least we avoided that future disappointment for a short while.

TOWEL DAY! Have you considered recently how useful a towel can be? Today is officially the day to do so.

Predictor: Philip K Dick in To Serve the Master, published in 1956

Prediction: The first robot is built in 1979. By 2000, all routine work was done by robots.

Reality: Well, with PKD, reality is always a little trickier than it looks. We've had things we've called robots for a while now, but they don't do all routine work. In the story, these dates and fact are spoken by an android in the far future who might not be the most reliable witness. Damn sneaky androids!

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

OMNI Future Almanac.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

28 November 2013

Birthdays
Alan Ritchson b. 1984 (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)
Mary Elizabeth Winstead b. 1984 (The Thing [2011], Grindhouse, Sky High, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)
Emun Elliott b. 1983 (Prometheus, Game of Thrones)
Daniel Henney b. 1979 (X-Men Origins Wolverine)
Ryan Kwanten b. 1975 (True Blood)
Maurissa Tancharoen b. 1975 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog)
Alfonso Cuarón b. 1961 (director, Gravity, Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
S. Epatha Merkerson b. 1952 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
Ed Harris b. 1950 (Gravity, The Truman Show, Apollo 13, The Right Stuff)
Joe Dante b. 1946 (director, The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Gremlins, Innerspace, Small Soldiers)

The biggest movie star on the list is Ed Harris, but because I'm a Whedonverse fanboy, the Picture Slot goes to Maurissa Tancharoen, who is one of the show runners on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the bride of Jed Whedon, as well as having roles onscreen in Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible. I watched True Blood for a few seasons, but it bothered me how many of the characters in this very dangerous universe were just too damned stupid to live, and Ryan Kwanten's character had to be near the top of that list, which is not the actor's fault.

Many happy returns to everyone, and of course happy Thanksgiving to all the Yanks, both on the birthday list and reading the blog.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov, asked to predict 2014 in honor of the 1964 World's Fair

Prediction: Much effort will be put into the designing of vehicles with "Robot-brains", vehicles that can be set for particular destinations and that will then proceed there without interference by the slow reflexes of a human driver. I suspect one of the major attractions of the 2014 fair will be rides on small roboticized cars which will maneuver in crowds at the two-foot level, neatly and automatically avoiding each other.

Reality: Okay! Isaac gets an A for this one, a solid 9.5 of 10. He loses the half point for "at the two foot level", which implies a very high-riding hovercraft, which would have to make noise and send around clouds of dust like a super-sized leaf blower. Getting machines to drive is in its infancy - parallel parking and avoiding accidents - but the "get you to your destination" is used very regularly.

Nice work, Ike, if I can call you Ike. Oh, I can't. Oops, sorry, won't happen again.

Looking on day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Friday means TED talks, and we get a bold prediction from 1998 by Billy Graham.

Billy Graham? The preacher or the wrestler?

All will be revealed one day... IN THE FUTURE!
  

17 October 2013

Birthdays
Mark Gatiss b. 1966 (Game of Thrones, Doctor Who)
Mike Judge b. 1962 (Spy Kids, Idiocracy)
Rob Marshall b. 1960 (director, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides)
Guy Henry b. 1960 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, V for Vendetta)
Margot Kidder b. 1948 (Superman, The Amityville Horror)
Julie Adams b. 1926 (Creature From the Black Lagoon)
Beverly Garland b. 1926 died 5 December 2008 (Twilight Zone, It Conquered the World)
Jerry Siegel b. 1914 died 28 January 1996 (writer, Superman)
John Marley b. 1907 died 22 May 1984 (Twilight Zone, Land of the Giants)

Interesting list of birthdays today. My first thought was to go with a picture of Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, both to honor her and as a nod to Superman's creator Jerry Siegel, but searching on imdb.com I found Julie Adams' name and I had to have a picture of her with her best known leading man. More than that, Ms. Adams and Beverly Garland were born on the exact same day, and both of them had long careers after appearing in low budget 1950s monster movies.

Many happy returns of the day to living.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov, asked to predict life in 2014 on the occasion of the 1964 World's Fair

Prediction: Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence. The I.B.M. exhibit at the present fair has no robots but it is dedicated to computers, which are shown in all their amazing complexity, notably in the task of translating Russian into English. If machines are that smart today, what may not be in the works 50 years hence? It will be such computers, much miniaturized, that will serve as the "brains" of robots. In fact, the I.B.M. building at the 2014 World's Fair may have, as one of its prime exhibits, a robot housemaid* large, clumsy, slow- moving but capable of general picking-up, arranging, cleaning and manipulation of various appliances. It will undoubtedly amuse the fairgoers to scatter debris over the floor in order to see the robot lumberingly remove it and classify it into "throw away" and "set aside." (Robots for gardening work will also have made their appearance.)

General Electric at the 2014 World's Fair will be showing 3-D movies of its "Robot of the Future," neat and streamlined, its cleaning appliances built in and performing all tasks briskly. (There will be a three-hour wait in line to see the film, for some things never change.)

Reality: This is Asimov's best prediction so far. Computers did get a lot smaller and they are the brains of all our modern gadgetry. We don't have robot housemaids, but there is the Roomba. For the father of the Three Laws, he was actually a little too pessimistic about what robots would look like in fifty years. They may not be making our coffee or fluffing the pillows, but on assembly lines they do some pretty remarkable stuff.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another Song of the Future predicts a violent revolution in 1975.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

19 July 2013

Birthdays
Campbell Scott b. 1961 (The Amazing Spider-Man)
Benedict Cumberbatch b. 1976 (Star Trek Into Darkness)

No cute girls on the list of birthdays this year, so it only fair that the Picture Slot goes to Mr C. as a little present "for the ladies" as the dated cliche goes.

Many happy returns to both gentlemen.

Prediction: "... I expect robots in Japanese nursing homes by 2020, and in widespread use by 2025."

Predictor: Jaron Lanier in Who Owns the Future?, published 2013

Reality: I've taken this book out from the library and so far I'm enjoying reading it. It has very few predictions with dates on them. Instead, most of the advances in technology he posits are for "this century", which is too vague and too far in the future to be useful by this blog's criteria. Still, it does include a few dates and anything before 2020 is certainly fair game here, and I'll stretch things to 2025 if I think they are interesting enough.

For those unaware of the name, Mr. Lanier has been in the computer industry for a very long time and to this day is often involved in leading edge projects. He is given credit for popularizing the phrase "virtual reality" back in the 1980s. His more recent work includes advising on the design the virtual world game/product Second Life and consulting on the look of gadgets in the Steven Speilberg film Minority Report.

As for whether this his prediction about robots will actually take place, it's still anybody's guess. He specified Japan because "trustworthy fictional robots have been a Japanese cultural export for decades."

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
Saturday is song day and one we get our first lyrics from David Bowie, who wrote a lot of songs about the future.
 

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

29 April 2013

 Birthdays
Robert J. Sawyer b. 1960
(won 1996 Nebula for The Terminal Experiment)
(won the 2003 Hugo for Homonids)
Kate Mulgrew b. 1955
Irvin Kershner b. 1923 died 11/27/2010

Many happy returns to the writer Mr. Sawyer and the actress Ms. Mulgrew. Mr. Kershner is gone, but he gets full marks as the director of The Empire Strikes Back. I wouldn't give him as high a grade for Robo-Cop 2, but they can't all be gems.

In the year 2000!

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published 1982

Prediction: the robot population in the top ten countries.
Japan 11,000,000
U.S. 7,500,000
U.S.S.R 5,600,000
West Germany 3,600,000
France 1,620,000
Italy 1,600,000
East Germany 1,000,000
United Kingdom 820,000
Sweden 650,000
Brazil 550,000

Reality: According to a report from the International Federation of Robotics, the world robot population in 2000 was about one million worldwide. Adding up the predictions in the top ten list, we get just a little under 34,000,000, which is nearly double the number reported in 2011 after a decade of remarkable growth.

Oopsie!

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
I did some more research and you won't guess what I found. More stuff from Sensible Bob Heinlein! I know, I was shocked, too!

Of course, if I give the full prediction, there's some Ridiculous Bob mixed in as well, but that sort of thing is just to be expected.

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!