Where did the future go?

CNN takes stock of yesteryear's sci-fi promises and today's dystopian reality. Where are the jet packs and the food synthesizers? Where are the hovercrafts and the virtual reality units?

The problem with progressive futurism is that futurists tend to see Technology as innately benign, not realizing that as a race we are still barely out of the chimp stage. Whereas the circles that futurists travel will look at a piece of technology and see a tool, those in positions of influence see a weapon. Money quote:

Mark Verheiden, a Battlestar writer, says the show's writers pay attention to current events when plotting their story lines. The contemporary world is filled with the unintended consequences of technology, he says.

"There are so many things you can't anticipate when you create a new technology," he says. "Who would have predicted that the Internet would be taking down shopping malls and wiping out newspapers?''

In Battlestar's finale, human beings abandon their faith in technology's ability to improve the future. They destroy their fancy machines and start again as simple hunter-gatherers.

"At some point, you can't expect a miracle to come in the form of technology to save us," Verheiden says. "At some point, the miracle has to come from a change in attitude and a new outlook."

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