Hot take: that "Flying car by 2000" prediction still makes me laugh every time I sit in traffic

I was digging through my dad's old Popular Mechanics from 1987 last weekend and found a full spread promising personal aircraft by the millennium. Meanwhile I spend 45 minutes every morning stuck on I-95 just trying to merge onto the highway. Has anyone else found old predictions that are way funnier now than they were back then?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan_patel18d ago

@the_val I had the exact same reaction when I found that issue! Seeing it in print makes you realize how confident they were about technology back then. Did they really think the biggest hurdle was how to fold the wings, not the fact that nobody wants to trust 10,000 other drivers with a flying machine? Reminds me of those old promises about robot butlers and meal pills being the future of food too.

cole_bailey853d ago

Man, I saw a documentary that said people in the 50s thought we'd have flying cars by 2000.

the_val18d ago

You know what, I used to roll my eyes at people who brought up old predictions like that. But seeing it in print from 1987 kinda hits different. Definitely changed my mind about how much we actually overestimate technology.