Tomorrow's World

I'm sure most of you remember Tomorrow's World. That excellent BBC science and technology vehicle is now long gone, and I'm wondering if a similar programme would work today. Isn't tomorrow already here?
Back in the day I watched with wonder as they told us about compact discs, non stick frying pans, phones that you could carry about, and various other items that caused us to wonder what science could come up with next.
These days I can't keep up with it all, and any TV programme trying would be old hat a few days later.
So what will be the next scientific breakthrough? What would you like it to be?
I thought my space pen, that could write upside down, was the bee's knees, until I got it stuck up my arse.

I can't keep up with all the new tech, i just want Apple to start making the ipod classic again. Can't be doing with all the streaming sites.

I want a hologram TV. Or some type of device that would project a Brucie hologram into my living room. He'd live again.

boltonbonce wrote:I want a hologram TV. Or some type of device that would project a Brucie hologram into my living room. He'd live again.

You need one of those virtual reality headsets then Brucie could be in the room with you.

On second thoughts maybe not a good idea with your accident history 

One thing I would like to somehow see is the world tomorrow moving back to people meeting people, face to face again!

Of course it will never happen because life is such that everything can be done from your armchair these days, you work from home, you shop on line, you socialise on social media - basically you no longer need to actually meet anyone anymore!

I think a whole generation has lost the social skills of 'dealing' with people.

I know of children who basically don't play out, they go to school, come home and play on their computer games until they go to bed.

If you travel anywhere, people don't talk, they are all glued to their phones.

If you are at work, the offices are half-empty of people and any breaks they have, they are on their phones again.

Technology is a wonderful thing, I'm not knocking it, I just feel that we are losing something of souls, we are somehow becoming dehumanised.

It somehow seems normal now to accept the abuse and anger that is on social media, normal to read about daily shootings and stabbings, football players being attacked by fans at games, to see suffering worldwide and somehow not care much about it ourselves.

I know every generation says it was better when I was a boy, but I really think that although in my lifetime we've had all these wonderful leap forwards in science and technology that we've lost something of ourselves getting there.

Has all this been our 'Mess of Pottage' era?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mess_of_pottage

boltonbonce wrote:Back in the day I watched with wonder as they told us about.... non stick frying pans....

The Teflon scandal.....I got interested in this after watching the truly excellent eye-opening film called Dark Waters, and have followed proceedings since then.

This article follows up on the issues involved concerning the "handy" non-stick frying pans and saucepans lurking in your cupboards....

https://theconversation.com/dark-waters-what-dupont-scandal-can-teach-companies-about-doing-the-right-thing-132480

okocha wrote:
The Teflon scandal.....I got interested in this after watching the truly excellent eye-opening film called Dark Waters, and have followed proceedings since then.

This article follows up on the issues involved concerning the "handy" non-stick frying pans and saucepans lurking in your cupboards....

https://theconversation.com/dark-waters-what-dupont-scandal-can-teach-companies-about-doing-the-right-thing-132480

Interesting. Didn't expect to go down the teflon rabbit hole. Cheers for that.
And I get your point Sluffy. Kids shouldn't be glued to a screen all day. None of us should.
As kids, my brother and I were usually at each others throats, and, if we'd had the technology, we could have ignored each other completely.
However, in order to play, we had to interact, inventing games that we still talk about today. Those games, that interaction, formed a bond that has stood the test of time. Despite him being a complete idiot.
Playing out was vital. In the school hols we were out from 7am to 7pm or more, and there were no mobile phones, so mum and dad had to trust we were ok.
Not sure modern parents could, or should, be so accommodating. Great days though.

boltonbonce wrote:And I get your point Sluffy. Kids shouldn't be glued to a screen all day. None of us should.
As kids, my brother and I were usually at each others throats, and, if we'd had the technology, we could have ignored each other completely.
However, in order to play, we had to interact, inventing games that we still talk about today. Those games, that interaction, formed a bond that has stood the test of time. Despite him being a complete idiot.
Playing out was vital. In the school hols we were out from 7am to 7pm or more, and there were no mobile phones, so mum and dad had to trust we were ok.
Not sure modern parents could, or should, be so accommodating. Great days though.

I don't really mean to go too deep or serious about stuff, as ultimately I can never do much to change anything but we (humans), are just basically creatures/animals that have gradually evolved over huge periods of time into what we are.

We've evolved (so too have many other creatures) into complexed beings and societies and we all function within these societies.

We learn how to develop skills by playing when we are young, by interacting with other children and being guided and taught by our elders.

These skills and learning apply not only to physical and practical things - like hunting for food, or learning what plants you can eat, but also social and interpersonal skills, such as working together to keep each other safe, to resolve issues rather than fight each other, to influence and control by persuasion (or propaganda/being brainwashed/fake news) rather than force.

The more we learn from others through (mostly subconsciously) how they act and behave, the more we mimic them and do the same - this becomes our normality.

Technology has been so successful that it has become the norm to grow up/play/learn from others from social media rather than real life itself.

So that  for example young adults view porn and view women (and sex) in a way that it shouldn't (See Andrew Tate who is currently in the news), social media allows people to not only act without limits but makes their behaviour acceptable and normal in this ethereal internet world we now seem to inhabit - which now is/has been transferred across into the real world - many, many people truly believe the utter bollocks they read on social media to be the gospel truth - and of course it isn't!

Of course people telling lies, being manipulated and everything else has always gone on in the past but we much more likely to spot and avoid it by having grown up/played with/drank with/worked with, people who were bullshitters and you learned how to spot and avoid them.

Somehow those abilities (that filter of behaviour honed by real life personal interactions) doesn't therefore seemed to have developed in many of the young simply because they haven't had the same life time experience of such behaviour to learn and develop from with 'real' people (rather than internet personas) anymore - their parent simply gives them a phone to play with instead of learning to be and relate to other real people - that part of their lives is missing and somehow because of it they become more susceptible to the views of those who try to influence them as they grow up- that's how it is these days.

As I say it is what it is.

We get what we deserve as they say.

Not sure about some of these.

There was a newer version of tomorrow's world called click on bbc. Kind of. It wasn't so much about the future in the way tomorrow's works was looking 30 years ahead but it still can give you that fix for the future.

I too think people have forgotten how to socialise, it's a sad thing for the world.

Here is just one of the many episodes of Click

My space pen did write upside down, but I'm easily impressed.

boltonbonce wrote:My space pen did write upside down, but I'm easily impressed.

From the Sky at Night -

How do astronauts write in space?
Do pens work in space?

And did NASA really spend millions on a space pen when a pencil would have done?

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-missions/astronauts-write-space-pen/

Sluffy wrote:


From the Sky at Night -

How do astronauts write in space?
Do pens work in space?

And did NASA really spend millions on a space pen when a pencil would have done?

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-missions/astronauts-write-space-pen/

I found that my normal Parker pen also worked upside down. I was hugely disappointed. But at least I could cease doing my homework hanging from a beam in the loft.