In 47 Years

As you can imagine, I think AMC's Mad Men is fantastic. I like it not only because it's about advertising, but it's also about flawed characters. I mean, let's face it, that's the draw of Tony Soprano, Larry David and almost everyone who captures our attention these days. Because that's life... we're all flawed.

The other part of this show that I find so fascinating is that, on the surface, life in 2007 and life in 1960 don't "look" incredibly different. What is different is the way that we think today, versus the way we did back then. The New York Times put it best by describing all the politically incorrect things going on in the show as the seven deadly sins practiced in the dawn of the 60s. 

Apart from those things, the show is chalked full of bad judgment moments. For instance, I remember in one of the first episodes the daughter walked into a family living room and everything looked normal, except for the fact that she was wearing a plastic dry cleaning bag over her head... and no one cared. So, while life looked similar in 1960, the things we thought about (or didn't think about) were very, very different.

This all led me to an interesting train of thought:

What are some of the things that Americans think and do now, that in 47 years are going to cause people to look back on us and say, "wow, I can't believe we were like that in 2007."

I'm by no means a futurist, just some guy wandering around trying to find the nearest Starbucks, making credit card payments like everyone else. But it's an interesting thing to think about. So below, for collective debate, are some things that I predict will be different in 47 years. I'll admit, this is an exercise in pointlessness, but fun nonetheless.

 

1. First off, an easy one... No more driving around using oil. We will still have SUVs, but nearly no one will run their cars off oil unless you've managed to keep a 1967 Ford Mustang convertible alive. Then by all means, drive to Vegas. (Which will be the third largest city behind NY and LA.)

2. Bye bye newspapers. Receiving a bundle of gray newsprint every morning will not be efficient in any way; the news will be old, the format cumbersome beyond tolerance and the value very limited. News organizations will still be around, but the product of the news"paper" will be long gone. (I'm still not fully understanding why everyone's buying the newspaper companies these days.)

3. We will not "go to work." Work and life will truly merge. Being "in" the office on Monday's at 8:30am and starting the weekends on Friday at 6:00pm as we do today will end up looking silly and horrible to everyone in 2054. Work will be something you do, not a place that you go. You will do it on Saturdays and not necessarily on Tuesdays. Whenever you need to work, you will. Whenever you need to be reached, you can be. Obviously, this is mainly for office gigs, but I think other industries will see it too.

4. "Please Come Again" will not exist. It will be an on-demand world in every area. Much like #3, any store or organization that only keeps "official" hours (Mon - Sat, 9am - 5pm) will be beat by a more organized company that doesn't work that way.

5. Supersizing Will Be Niche. I think the frequency of cigarette use in Mad Men compared to cigarette use today, is the exact same analogy that's going to happen to fast food in 47 years. Fast food and hamburgers will still be around, but they won't be common.

6. What's a Battery? Energizer and Duracell may be in trouble. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm charging almost everything in 2007.

7. Currency Will Only Refer to Something Social. Carrying around cash and coins will not happen. I'm going out on a limb here because people enjoy cash... but I think carrying around a bulky wallet in your back pocket will seem silly and inefficient by then.

8. We Will Always Think About Ideas In a Global Context.

9. Sodium Caseinate and Disodium Inosinate Will Be Gone. Science will prove that so much of the food we eat today will lead to serious problems. This is unfortunate since it's so tasty. But, when we look back on what was actually in our food 47 years from now, I think we'll say, "I can't believe we ate that."

10. The Extreme Use of Plastic Water Bottles Will Look Extremely Foolish. This might happen within the next 10 years, actually.

But despite these things, people will still drive pick ups. They will still wear Levi's. J.T. and Aguilera will both still have music careers and Target will still be a place we go. Life will basically "look" the same way it does today.

But I dunno... what does everyone else think??

Comments

[jenka]

this reminds me of the introduction in "the rise of the creative class." it starts off by saying that if you took an average person from 100 years ago and one from 50 years ago and time machined into the present, things would seem stranger to the person from the 50's. looking at a 100 year's difference it wouldn't seem like things are as radically different as you'd expect. people still drive cars, people still talk on telephones (wireless though they may be), and fly in airplanes, and watch movies, etc. but if you consider the differences between the way people work and live now vs. 50 years ago, that's the really startling part. the whole fundamental 9-5, working/not-working life arrangement is becoming eroded, and the greater openmindedness towards and acceptance of all sorts of different lifestyles and hybridity would seem completely foreign. the author says that while after a 100 years jump in time life would still "look" familiar enough that you'd be able to figure out how to function amid all the upgraded technology, even after just 50 you'd be completely lost in terms of how to navigate all the differences in social norms. in our 50 the biggest social norm change will undoubtedly be about environmental sustainability. and not taking it seriously will seem as antiquated as race jokes.