

Fifty Years of the Jetsons - gruseom
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/2012/09/50-years-of-the-jetsons-why-the-show-still-matters

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hooande
What would the 2012 equivalent of The Jetsons be? How do we see "future
people"?

The Jetsons was more cliche than prediction, playing up the average person's
view of the future. Our version of that might be ultrathin (credit card)
phones, fancy clothes, and pocket AI. You don't see nearly as many "world of
tomorrow" concepts anymore, which might be telling by itself.

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keeperofdakeys
When I look at science fiction of the 60's, 80's/90's and 00's, I can usually
identify three loose categories.

First you have the "techo-utopianism", as mentioned by the author. The
structure of society is fundamentally different, a utopia that removes all
traces of internal politics and war. The technology is dreams at best compared
to anything they had in the day. Humans, and possibly earth, are the only real
links back to the present day. Or you might have the alien race, often
paralleling the future humans of other stories.

In the 80's and 90's you get a lot more cyberpunk. The utopia themes have
disappeared, leaving more of a more realistic world of corporate greed and
capitalism; often a dystopia instead of a utopia. Technology is usually more
'personal', effecting the everyday life of people. The story itself is often
more personal, related to a person, and their experience of the world. People
are much more 'human' then before. In other forms of science fiction, the
aliens might be more human in their actions and technology.

The science fiction of late is more personal again. Technology is no longer
the driving point of the story, but it is the interactions between people
themselves that makes the story. In fact, the technology itself often has no
form of scientific theory behind it. It's also much closer to reality,
technology of the current day stretched to its limits by designers. If aliens
are involved, they are usually used as the token bad guy, or simply another
background plot piece like the technology; the stories are rarely about the
aliens themselves.

So, I guess the answer to "How do we see future people" is "ourselves", for
the most part. I must admit I'm not that versed in science fiction though, but
this is what I have seen though my experiences.

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ericcholis
I'd agree with the "How do we see future people" is "ourselves" statement.
Look at the popular SciFi shows of the last few years. Namely Firefly and
Battlestar Galactica. Both presented a future that was lived in, almost dirty.
The content was about the characters and how they lived, not the shiny buttons
they got to push.

This, I think, mirrors our own expectations of the future. We have more
immediate access to amazing technology every day. We also realistically manage
our expectations of future technology, making it harder to present the
"future" with insanely advanced tech.

The creative content that does show "future" tech usually uses it as a
MacGuffin. Namely, Terra Nova, Stargate, even Quantum Leap.

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bane
"Look at the popular SciFi shows of the last few years. Namely Firefly and
Battlestar Galactica. Both presented a future that was lived in, almost
dirty."

Good point. One reason the first three Star Wars movies were so popular is
that the places they showed looked "real". They looked reasonably lived in,
solid places with actual inhabitants. The Falcon looked like my parents used
station wagon.

It can go wrong, the Aliens movies always end up in a future that's positively
filthy. Blade Runner, I think, sits just on the fithy side of the line. But
future LA feels like a real "place".

My personal favorite vision of the future is the one presented in the Fifth
Element loosely based on _Valérian and Laureline_. It's lived in, bustling,
stylish (at various levels of fashion), shiny and bright where it counts,
unfashionable where it should be and just dirty enough in the places that
should be dirty. Small details, like the dirt Leeloo picks up when escaping
the lab, add to this feeling of solidity. Popular culture is magnified to
stand out amongst the crushing masses, and it seems like a place with endless
nooks and crannies to explore. It's not utopian, but it's not dystopian. It
feels like what the future would be like if it were the present...and somebody
made a modern day adventure movie. It has an amazing tone.

It's amazing to me that more works haven't been created in that universe.

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alid
Fascinating! 1961-2 was such a formative time, I look forward to following his
Jetsons analysis. To put it in context of the times: The first human was sent
into space, Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon before the end of the
decade, the first quasar was discovered at Mt Palomar California, people were
building backyard fallout shelters in case of nuclear war, the first US rocket
landed on the moon, the first American orbited the earth, the oral polio
vaccine came into use, the first trans-Atlantic television signal was relayed,
the US Airforce began investigating using lasers to intercept missiles...

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plaes
I'm probably going to HN hell over this, but there's one aspect that isn't
clear about Jetsons: [http://anongallery.org/img/9/1/what-was-on-the-ground-
in-the...](http://anongallery.org/img/9/1/what-was-on-the-ground-in-the-
jetsons-flintstones.jpg)

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moreati
Every so often I try to discover how the flying car noise was made, or learn
enough sound synthesis technique to recreate. No success so far, pointers and
suggestions much welcomed.

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bdunbar
I had a room mate who could reproduce the flying car noise with his mouth.

Always assumed the noise came from a person, recorded and looped.

~~~
moreati
I hadn't considered vocal origins, seems obvous in retrospect. Thank you

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Grovara123
This should have more love on HackerNews - fascinating article.

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duck
Oddly enough, I let my kids watch this for the first time (on demand on TW)
this morning. The only thing they really thought was interesting was how the
kids dropped out of the car to go to school. My oldest said it looked really
old, but I guess he was talking about the animation more than anything. For
me, it was great to hear that theme song again and the cars bubbling around.

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alan57
It's interesting to me to see things once deemed futuristic (in, say, movies,
books, cartoons etc.) become reality years or decades later. I guess if you
can think it, eventually someone can and will actually make it.

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willrobinson
Judy. Hot.

Cogswell Cogs. Not.

