We might not have a flying car yet. But think of the following true to life items - some you have now, and some you'll have soon:
1) Most arcade games of the 80's can be played on a cell phone. Now put that into your 1980's head, and say out loud "I play Pac Man on my telephone and it is arcade perfect."
2) Donkey Kong is not a villain. What?
3) You can play every game you lusted after on one machine in your home for less than $500. (MAME - sure, not perfect - but in 1982, would you have known the difference?)
4) You can buy most game systems and computers that play arcade conversions at Goodwill - usually for about $10.
5) You can watch almost every movie you want to - legally - on your computer without buying it.
6) You not only never get up to change the channel, you never sweat missing a TV show because there are 500 channels and all of them can be time shifted so you can watch what you want whenever you want.
7) Not only might you have more than one computer in your house - but said computer is more powerful than the mightiest supercomputer from 1985 - and it can wirelessly communicate with every other computer worth communicating with in the world. "Lawnmower Man" the movie didn't even come close to this prediction. And yet no malicious AI has taken over the world. Yet.
8) In a nod to #6 - you can't get TV on a regular analog antenna any more. When only 15 years ago we were still getting used to the idea our movies and music were becoming digital, now you can ONLY see TV if it's digital. Unless you have cable, which downconverts digital to analog.
9) In a move sure to frighten most audiophiles from 1985 - digital music has resolved in most (younger) listeners into PREFERRING terrible quality compressed lossy (crappy) MP3/iTunes music over uncompressed music on super large stereo systems with giant speakers and equalizers. But while most listeners will accept a 128K compressed static-y MP3 as the preferred medium, some of their peers are embracing vinyl!! as a "new" old cool thing.
10) Last, but not least - I saw "The Last Starfighter" on Blu-Ray in Wal-Mart today for $19. My local theater showed this movie on a 21 inch screen in a cineplex with 4000 screens and the copy I saw was scratchy. I can't wait to see this more perfect than I have ever seen it before. I don't even have a BR player but I'm buying this movie. To think of the first movie to extensively use CG (admittedly bad CG) that had to be rendered to film then reviewed later weeks after it was printed to film to see if it was acceptable - is now transferred to a digital medium that surpasses the raw footage the movie was first shot in seems paradoxical.
1) Most arcade games of the 80's can be played on a cell phone. Now put that into your 1980's head, and say out loud "I play Pac Man on my telephone and it is arcade perfect."
2) Donkey Kong is not a villain. What?
3) You can play every game you lusted after on one machine in your home for less than $500. (MAME - sure, not perfect - but in 1982, would you have known the difference?)
4) You can buy most game systems and computers that play arcade conversions at Goodwill - usually for about $10.
5) You can watch almost every movie you want to - legally - on your computer without buying it.
6) You not only never get up to change the channel, you never sweat missing a TV show because there are 500 channels and all of them can be time shifted so you can watch what you want whenever you want.
7) Not only might you have more than one computer in your house - but said computer is more powerful than the mightiest supercomputer from 1985 - and it can wirelessly communicate with every other computer worth communicating with in the world. "Lawnmower Man" the movie didn't even come close to this prediction. And yet no malicious AI has taken over the world. Yet.
8) In a nod to #6 - you can't get TV on a regular analog antenna any more. When only 15 years ago we were still getting used to the idea our movies and music were becoming digital, now you can ONLY see TV if it's digital. Unless you have cable, which downconverts digital to analog.
9) In a move sure to frighten most audiophiles from 1985 - digital music has resolved in most (younger) listeners into PREFERRING terrible quality compressed lossy (crappy) MP3/iTunes music over uncompressed music on super large stereo systems with giant speakers and equalizers. But while most listeners will accept a 128K compressed static-y MP3 as the preferred medium, some of their peers are embracing vinyl!! as a "new" old cool thing.
10) Last, but not least - I saw "The Last Starfighter" on Blu-Ray in Wal-Mart today for $19. My local theater showed this movie on a 21 inch screen in a cineplex with 4000 screens and the copy I saw was scratchy. I can't wait to see this more perfect than I have ever seen it before. I don't even have a BR player but I'm buying this movie. To think of the first movie to extensively use CG (admittedly bad CG) that had to be rendered to film then reviewed later weeks after it was printed to film to see if it was acceptable - is now transferred to a digital medium that surpasses the raw footage the movie was first shot in seems paradoxical.

