Tomorrow's World - did anything come true?

Doodoo

Just remembering the bbc programme Tomorrows World and all the different things they predicted for the future. As this was broadcast in the 70's and 80's alot of their predictions are probably laughable now and maybe some came true. Anyone remember any?

MadsL

You can eat jam with a CD...about all they are used for now.

123 LC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/8018.shtml

"Michael Rodd makes a call with an experimental cordless mobile phone."

well there's one thing.

Grayson

They were right about floppy disks. they were the next big thing.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Didn't they predict Jedward?

Adyx

That people would be building houses with polystyrene lego blocks and then filling the walls with concrete. :eek: Apparently there's only about 200 such houses in the UK but still...










I've never seen Tomorrow's World. I was watching Grand Designs earlier.

MadsL

Maggie Philbin...they were right about her!

Thinking man's totty in my day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOsHo-bjbIM

On the 8th of January 1981 they predicted a slow stiff emotionless robot would play Snooker, and low and behold, Peter Ebdon.

YFlyer

Clothes made from paper. Did that come true?

ballsymchugh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kHHdQJU4rGo#t=98s

Micky Dolenz

They had a CD that was driven over by a JCB and fcuked around the place but still played.

Yeah, right it fcuking did :mad:

They predicted that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings in Europe will own them.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Sacramento wrote: »

They predicted that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings in Europe will own them.

What happened?

Where To

The predicted that in the mid 90s popular culture would stagnate, and the kids twenty years later would think they are cool but they ARE STILL INTO THE SAME DUNG THEIR PARENTS ARE INTO!!!

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Praetorian Saighdiuir wrote: »

What happened?

It actually happened!!!

BBDBB

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Grayson

The worlds first home computer

Agricola

What's Tomorrow's World, was it a bit like Beyond 2000? I was in 3 channel land with the rest of the poor people in the 80's.

MadsL

EDIT: Dammit Grayson


In the future we will all be typing in bed. Scarily accurate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ6SbvrjxZA

looksee

'his very thoughts could be stored and perhaps accessed for future use' ... er, so that would be facebook then?

Dwork

I want my hover-car. Lying gits..

nocoverart

In 1978 they predicted Robots will in the future be able to host Chat Shows, and many a moon later what do ya know... Pat Kenny and Tubs

MadsL

Tell that to kids today, and they won't believe ya!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v75QpvISUs

MadsL

Dwork wrote: »

I want my hover-car. Lying gits..

We get hoverboards in 2015 though.

MadsL

nocoverart wrote: »

In 1978 they predicted Robots will in the future be able to host Chat Shows, and many a moon later what do ya know... Pat Kenny and Tubs

Nah.

Snog, Marry, Avoid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUB0vLQ6LE

opinion guy

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

They had a CD that was driven over by a JCB and fcuked around the place but still played.

Yeah, right it fcuking did :mad:

The original ones were that good - they had to compromise them in order to mass produce them.

Gillo

I'm pretty sure the featured bullet proof vests in one episode.

God that show was amazing at the time, I'm gonna see if I can find some episode to see how my daughter reacts to it!

Legs.Eleven

Great thread! More links!!

C.K Dexter Haven

They were the BBC. Of course everything they said was true

charlietheminxx

Yep! I remember them saying on an episode in the mid nineties that every household would have a digital decoder box under their tv. I watched it thinking no way!

Ray Palmer

I remember GPS and glue guns. Which came about

They showed spotlight speakers and inflatable products non reliant on gas but they languish in development hell due to business interests

LiamMc

Most viewers anticipated that Not The Nine O'Clock News would do a sketch on it.

(Not The Nine O'Clock News was like Fr.Ted and The Simpsons a decade later. Where people would make reference to those shows from real life events.
The big difference is Not The Nine O'Clock News was/is funny).

Capt'n Midnight

Praetorian Saighdiuir wrote: »

What happened?

two of the kings died and the rest their money on a Ponzi scheme

Firefox11

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

Great thread! More links!!

The self parking car?? what happened to that?:)

I love the way it still had not done it by the end of the programme!!:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVQsVkYbpuw

Stained Class

All I knew, was I wanted to ride Philippa Forrester.



It didn't happen.:(
























So far

Capt'n Midnight

Firefox11 wrote: »

The self parking car?? what happened to that?:)

I love the way it still had not done it by the end of the programme!!:D

They had one on Top Gear this week.


Self driving cars are now legal in 3 US states.





and this

https://xkcd.com/652/

We live in a world where there are actual fleets of robot assassins patrolling the skies. At some point there, we left the present and entered the future.

keithclancy

Firefox11 wrote: »

The self parking car?? what happened to that?:)

I love the way it still had not done it by the end of the programme!!:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVQsVkYbpuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_m8DqTlOLE

Amalgam

Spreading Jam on the CD..

Remember the rather clumsy stereoscopic robot camera thing that would take 'virtual' tours of houses for estate agents.

You look back at the explanation for virtual reality and realise how the vocabulary was so out of context, it never came across well, because there was a slim chance of experiencing it yourself, due to a lack of access to the viewing technology, any technology..

Early 80s, they covered rendering stations (CGI) that were the size of a suitcase and cost £500,000 and nearly always, it was rendering a metallic marble on a chequered background..

Where To

All these fancy pants self driving cars, but can they clean the vomit, piss and **** out of themselves, or wait for you for hours when you're talking nonsense to some younwan who has absolutely no interest in you, or carry your twelve bags of shopping into the house, or wake you up at 4 am to take you the airport?:mad:

They will never take off!! Never I say!! Never!!

Ruudi_Mentari

what about Whickers World, everything seemed to come to fruition over there

but then it was best on fact. something he tended to arrive after

Where To

Ruudi_Mentari wrote: »

what about Whickers World, everything seemed to come to fruition over there

but then it was best on fact. something he tended to arrive after

Eh?

senorwipesalot

I remember an episode where they said someday all cars will be made of plastic.

and they spelled plastic "plastick"

keithclancy

I just went to the Toilet and it flushed .. Tomorrows world !! wooooo !!!

antodeco

Moon pie. I feel so alive!

keithclancy

MadsL wrote: »

Tell that to kids today, and they won't believe ya!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v75QpvISUs

Shift - Run Stop
...............

................................................


f*** ... have to align the tape heads again

Dramatik

MadsL wrote: »

Tell that to kids today, and they won't believe ya!!

ha ha, kids these days... they don't know sh1t about "?SYNTAX ERROR"

mike65

Dramatik wrote: »

ha ha, kids these days... they don't know sh1t about "?SYNTAX ERROR"

These days syntax error describes most youths way of speaking/spelling.

opinion guy

mike65 wrote: »

These days syntax error describes most youths way of speaking/spelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDcbO2bRxhg

snubbleste

I used to watch Beyond 2000, an Australian version that RTÉ showed every week.

books4sale

TW failing was it didn't think big enough and was way too conservative. Personally I think we have advanced way beyond the predictions of TW especially in the last 10 years.

Strangely, the world today and the technologies we are exploring and inventing have more in common with sci fi films like Star Trek (Teleportation, Space Exploration), Bladerunner (Genetics, Body Parts) and Terminator (Time Travel, Cyborgs) which were far more forward thinking.

The Barefoot Pizza Thief

Apparently they once believed that we would have mobile telephone devices one day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vix6TMnj9vY