The Future Is Now

It's a look into the future as they present the newest tech and its possible future. It's got computers, nuclear power, solar, guided missiles, TV, and finally a future kitchen. I don't know about atomic corn but that's what the miracle atom used to represent. This is a fascinating time capsule.

THE FUTURE IS NOW is an interesting short documentary on research being done that would determine what the future of 1955 would be like.

Bandied around are terms like "nuclear reactor", "nuclear electricity" for domestic purposes, "solar power", "solar battery", "solar energy", an "electronic brain computer" for automation that will only require a "token work force". Large outsized computers are shown as examples.

The subject of guided missiles comes up with an illustration of how one such missile can destroy a plane. Television for science and industry is another topic, illustrated with scenes of medical procedures using TV screens and a miniature mike while a surgeon performs an operation recorded in color. Magnetic video tape (color or B&W), miniature transistors and video phones are also mentioned.

Final comment concludes that while automation will be fine, it will always require the combination of man's brainpower to guide the machinery that performs the task.

Serves as an interesting reminder of how far we'd come in the age of technology by the 1950s. This would make an interesting companion piece to play on the same program as Friz Lang's famous METROPOLIS.

Although the 1950s are long gone, this decade in particular seemed to have a constant atmosphere of futurism to it. A lot of the cars, home appliances, and other things from this decade look streamlined and high tech even today. In this short, we see how the 50s were a time of great scientific progress, and a lot of the things shown here seem like science fiction even now. Firstly, it can't be a 50s related thing without mentioning nuclear power, and how fitting of them to start with this. Atomic power plants can supply electricity to huge swaths of the US, and other power stations can derive power from the sun itself. It is hoped that maybe someday, solar power will replace all other forms of electricity on Earth. Next, we see how electronics are being implemented in the new age of aerial warfare: the Hughes Falcon is an early guided missile using infrared guidance designed to shoot down enemy bombers that can't maneuver very well. It is the first heatseeking missile used by the US Air Force. Arguably the most massive technology of the entire decade is television. Using this, scientists can study bacteria under a microscope without squinting through an eyepiece, and surgeons can film their procedures and provide live commentary on them in order to benefit medical students. Using television, two doctors, one in California and the other in New York, can talk to each other on what to do regarding a certain patient. Another huge contribution to technology is magnetic tape. Using this, color footage and sound can be recorded and played back instantly without the need for development. The implications this has for filmmaking can't be overstated. Coded information using a typewriter is punched out, and can be run into a synthesizer to play music using only electronics. Radiation, while dangerous in large quantities, has found a use for the American home of tomorrow as well. Cordless lamps can be turned on by placing them in proximity to generators that give off invisble radiation. Gamma rays can preserve food instead of a refrigerator. Corn and other plants can also be grown under controlled radiation levels. Even in medicine, they are contemplating the idea of putting radioactive isotopes in drugs, which will have to be transported in lead containers to pharmacies. Using mechanical arms, an operator shielded behind 3 feet of glass and lead conducts an experiment with hazardous materials on the other side. The short ends by saying that while these inventions are all really impressive and can benefit humans greatly, the most important asset humans have is our drive to always reach higher, innovate, and adapt as a race. I often wonder about what the state of humanity will be like centuries from now (if it even still exists), and wish I could experience some of the inventions that may exist one day. Travel between stars might finally be possible, with spaceships capable of breaking the laws of physics and outrunning the speed of light. Even today, there are people who believe that in order for humans to survive far into the future, they need to become a spacefaring civilization and set up cities and countries on other worlds. While this film doesn't go over that, I still thought it was interesting seeing how futuristic the 50s were. It was a time of many advances happening at once, and radical new things such as jet airliners and microwaves were becoming a thing. I always like to watch things like this, not only to see how far we have come, but also because it looked like a really nice time to be an american.

And now it's the past. As the Red Queen remarked, you've got to run as fast as you can to stay where you are. It also helps to believe seven impossible things before breakfast, like believing that breakfast is coming, that nuclear reactors can produce electricity and not just explosions; that silicon gizmos can get power from the sun, the television can be used to educate people, and that someday computers will help run a lot of the world.

Well, four out of five isn't bad -- I didn't have breakfast this morning, alas. It's hard to believe that this primitive-looking movie, that marvels at such commonplaces of today, which include videorecorders, electronic music and making phone calls with pictures -- was considered wacky sixty-four years ago. I was one year old at the time. Look out for the next wacky projection!

I have read dozens of books and seen at least that many movies that attempt to envision the future. Most miss the mark wildly. Of those which don't, they usually only get one or two things right, like Jules Verne predicting the submarine, or Star Trek showing the "communicator," long before every person on earth had his/her own cell phone.

The rest of the "predictions" in these movies or books usually completely miss the mark, like the Star Trek transporter, as one example.

The worst record for inaccuracy, however, usually goes to those who attempt to specifically predict the future, rather than just showing some idea as a plot device. I was alive at the time this film was made, and many people were predicting flying cars (like we saw ten years later in "The Jetsons."). Chester Gould kept predicting flying ships that used antigravity to stay in the air.

By contrast, this show accurately predicts videotape, three years before Ampex brought the first successful video recorder to market (the 2" Quadruplex broadcast tape recorder in 1958). It shows home video recording twenty years before it happened with the first Betamax. We see home videophones over thirty years before Skype (and later, Facetime) brought it to the masses.

It correctly predicts the microwave oven which also didn't happen for another twenty years, in the early 1970s.

They even showed a woman in a kitchen getting her recipes from a video card catalog, very much like many people cook using recipes they display on their tablet or phone.

One segment shows what amounts to an early MIDI sequencer, a forerunner of the MOOG synthesizer and Melotron both of which didn't happen until the late 1960s.

Some of the things are just happening now, like their prediction of remote surgeries, where the doctor and patient are separated by thousands of miles.

Even small things, like the prediction that we'd have ice dispensers that would dispense both cubes and crushed ice is something I didn't see in homes until the early 1970s.

Most amazing to me -- and it is worth seeing just for this one segment -- is its statement that "many scientists" believe that the future of energy production is direct energy from the sun via solar cells. This is mind blowing given that this was the heyday for nuclear power, and much of the last part of the short describes all the wonders of the atom. I didn't think the silicon solar cell was invented for another five years, but they show a small prototype generating enough energy to move the needle on a galvanometer.

Some of the prediction are less stunning, but in light of the other things they got right, they add to the film's credibility. These include the prediction that the just-invented transistor would help miniaturize electronics, and that the computer would improve manufacturing precision and productivity.

They didn't get much wrong, although since this was the "atomic age," the movie does go a little overboard in predicting that we'd all embrace things like irradiated food. This did happen, and it is perfectly safe, but people got spooked because of all the scare B-movies about monsters created by radiation from the atomic bomb.

I really enjoyed this short and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to see the rare movie that somehow is able to correctly see and predict the future.