George Jetson...Where's my Flying Car?

Green Energy IS the wave of the future.  Back in the 20th century, the focus was on "Better Living Through Chemicals."  Man-made materials were thought to be the solution to everything; synthetic fabric; the invention of convenience foods like cake mix and canned soup; DDT pesticide; bigger, souped up gas guzzling carse; tc.  Who would think that the most "modern" thing we can do is go back to windmill energy in the 21st century? We've learned that the by-products of man-made materials had consequences that no one thought about during the Baby Boomer 1950's. 

In an interesting article called "Miracles You'll See"  from the February 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine, scientists made some predictions about what the world would be like in 2000. Here are some of the predictions:

An airport is the hub of each town, with concentric circles beyond it housing factories, businesses, hotels, and then residential areas.   (We love jet noise and be sure that folks are as far away from possible from work to use even more gas!)

No one burns coal and all factories burn gas, which is produced in sealed mines.  (We've been lazy with energy innovation.  60 years later and we're still burning coal.)

Housing is cheap, with a typical house costing $5,000, including furnishings. (Don't we wish!)

To clean the interior of your home, you turn on a hose that dispenses detergent with the water. This is possible because everything in the house is made of synthetic fabric or waterproof plastic. The water runs down a drain in the middle of the floor and you dry the house with blasts of hot air.   (We'll swiffer.)

Electronic intelligence is integrated into industrial production and machines are run by this intelligence so you don't need many humans on the production lines. (Amazingly true.)

Weather forecasting is accurate and storms can be controlled by man. (Nope.)

Facsimile systems are used to send documents and it takes only a minute to receive a five page letter. (Spot on.)

Antibiotics are no longer needed because chemists have discovered the molecular structure of viruses and other diseases and can easily cure them.  (over use of antibiotics has created "super virus" strains resistent to current medication.)

TVs are attached to phone lines so people can talk and see each other at the same time and people do much of their shopping on television. (Skype and QVC anyone?)

Businessmen have television conferences. (Yep, all the time.)

Scientists have figured out how to change sawdust and wood pulp into sugary foods and create candy from paper table linen and rayon underwear. (Uh, not so much)
  .
Okay, we'll pass on hosing down the house and eating underwear candy.

Thanks to ACS Technologies for some of the information in this post.

http://www.acstechnologies.com/