Sunday 30 June 2013

Where's my robot?

A ‘significant’ birthday looms this week – ooh!  I can’t quite get my head around the idea of being this old.  I’d somehow assumed that by now I’d know all the answers and feel responsible and capable at everything, and I don’t. 

Thinking about it reminds me of a primary school lesson when we talked about life in the future, specifically the year 2000.  Back then, in the early '70s, it seemed so far away and so momentous a date.  I thought about how old I’d be  – 37 (ancient!) – and presumed I’d be a different person, i.e. not just a more mature version of who I already was, somehow. I’d be sorted, complete, a proper grown-up.  Life would be less ‘complicated’.  Ha!

The class discussion concluded that the future would be easier for everyone.  The main belief was that there’d be robots, of course, to do all the boring chores. Nobody would have to do anything they didn’t want to do.  Actually, nobody would have to do anything, because in our futuristic robotic Utopia our one ambition was to have as much leisure as possible. Mind you, I don’t recall any suggestions about how we’d really use all that free time (apart from day-trips to the moon when we craved a change of atmosphere). We certainly wouldn’t be spending time eating and drinking, because all nutrition would come in pill-form.  Two tablets three times a day would provide all dietary needs - so convenient!  And quite how this lifestyle would be funded, I’ve no idea, because no-one went to work  – except for the robot programmers, I guess.

Funny how, in 2013, everything I used to think of as futuristic now just seems so old-fashioned and retro.  Including me at 50.



20 comments:

  1. I might have touched on this before, but very similar thoughts cross my mind everytime I see the fabulously named Scottish band, We Were Promised Jetpacks mentioned in dispatches. 'Cos we were though weren't we? Promised jetpacks....robots, hovercars and lots of other stuff by the likes of Raymond Baxter, James Burke & co. In fact, come to think of it, Tomorrow's World + Star Trek equalled my vision of the future back in the late 60's and early 70's. Not even a 'possible' future - that was how it was going to be! Where's my jetpack?

    Have a splendid birthday C.

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    1. Thanks, I'll certainly try and have a splendid one - and I'm still holding out hope for the jetpack!

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  2. I want a jet pack and I want those underwater cities they promised us. ;-) Happy milestone birthday my friend, you're not getting older, you're getting better.

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    1. Haha, underwater cities - yes! Thanks for kind words, that's a nice way to think about age...

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  3. A very happy special birthday to you! Yes, all those visions we had were all bollocks weren't they? Never mind just rock on!

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    1. Thank you! And what a great summation of those visions, ha! Love it.

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  4. I go more in the line of the Stepford Wives, that to me is the way we should be going. Stepford Wives with Jet packs.

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    1. Aargh, what a terrifying thought! I'm outta here...

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  5. "Where we're going Marty we don't need roads"... that was the 80s view of 2015 wasn't it? Flying cars, hover boards and jackets that you pressed a button for a perfect fit. But look at the reality now - the internet on a device in your pocket available anywhere (nearly) anytime (nearly)... crazy!

    Happy birthday - I passed (stumbled) through that one last year and felt much like you do - surely by now I ought to be the wise one who knows it all and thinks and acts like a proper grown up. How do you tell your kids that? Hardly an inspiring role model, but an honest one at least - someone once said to me many years ago "if you find someone who truly seems to know it all - they are clearly someone not to trust"... or something like that, now I'm beginning to understand what they were trying to tell me

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    1. Thanks, Furtheron. Great words of wisdom there, I'll remember that quote. We're all just muddling through it, really, aren't we?!

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  6. It's called your prime. C...it's Prime Time!

    Of course, I also thought I'd be internally sorted by now (40). Instead I still have the same asinine thought patterns and daydreams of my teens or twenties. On top of that I'm a Daddy now. I thought for sure that would have some magical sorting affect but...no.

    Happy Birthday ma'am...Happy Birthday.

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    1. Well thank you, e.f. :-) Of course the reason I even mentioned the birthday was my childish need for a bit of reassurance - ironic, really. But I'm appreciating it, oh yes!

      My 40th seems like only yesterday. If there are any words of wisdom I can offer from my ten extra years on you it's...erm... aah... well... Ok, I'll have to come back to you on that ;-)

      I personally can't share the parent angle with you, but I know for absolute sure that you're not alone!

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  7. A mixture of the picture in the Ladybirds Book of Monarchs for Liz 2 and articles in ''Look and Learn'' comic summaize the future from me.

    The picture showed the post office tower, Concorde , pence pieces , a transistor radio and a pop group who looked like the New Seekers. ''Look and Learn'' came from jumble sales and so the future was usually out of date when I got to look at it anyway.

    Fifty is merely an excuse for a good holiday for me. Assigning any more significance to it is probably a bad idea.

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    1. A slightly tipsy reply for you tonight, bena48! - as fifty is an excuse for a bottle of bubbly :-)

      What a sweet vision you describe and I smiled when reminded of Look and Learn which I occasionally indulged too! Your picture of the future which is so much a picture of our past now is great. Ah, how time flies...

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  8. I now really wish that I had sent you a proper, handwritten birthday card. Delivered by real postman as he whistled a Buzzcocks song that he'd heard on TOTP the night before.

    Halfway there, C :-)

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    1. Ah, thank you. I can wait until next year, when postie will be whistling something from the TOTP re-run of the 13 July 1978 show! Meanwhile I enjoyed my virtual cake crumbs :-)

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  9. A belated Happy Birthday to you, girlfriend. I'm six months ahead of you and can report that it's really not that bad...x

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    1. Ah, thank you KK, and lovely to see you! x

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  10. I want my money back. I can accept no flying car, though that is disappointing. But my robot is mine. They promised me. At least that's what they showed in the year 2000. And it was supposed to be such a long time in the future. But now it went by a long time ago even. I'm gonna stomp around now. OK I'm back. No robot makes me mad. Ok I'm happy again. Wouldn't it be cool though. Robot, wash and wax my car, then clean the dishes and rub my back. Just think, these babies now will probably get their robots. This makes me hate babies. Just kidding. Love to all.

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