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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: A Speculation on "Back to the Future" - 1985 vs 1955
Message-ID: <1040@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 00:00:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1040
Posted: Tue Jul 30 00:00:24 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 23:19:34 EDT
References: <596@gitpyr.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 35

In article <596@gitpyr.UUCP> ofut@gitpyr.UUCP (Jeff Offutt) writes:

>> What things about 1985 would be most suprising to someone from 1955?

>One of the most surprising thing would be the continuation of the
>Cold War.  Quite a chilling thought, eh?

Something that is briefly referred to in the movie.

>To a science fiction fan, the lack of meaningful space exploration
>would be disapointing.  To others, the space exploration we have done
>would be amazing.

One thing that's evident about fiction about space exploration is that
authors have almost always overestimated how much energy would be available.
No one appreciated, until fairly recently, that a) fission is a pain and that
b) fusion is VERY difficult.  Nobody guessed how much mileage we would 
(literally) get from gravity except Clarke (_2001_, for instance).

I think a BIG suprise would be how wierd the solar system has turned out to
be.  Nobody expected Io!

>As far as the electronics go, I think the average person would expect
>something along those lines -- though perhaps not quite what we do
>have.

In many respects, yes.  The ubiquity of calculators and computers would be
suprising, though; people were leaning towards a wired world, with big central
computers.

One thing that would be very suprising: the fact that technology has acquired
a definite proletarian tinge.  Think of wood vs. plastic, organic foods,
cotton vs. polyester....

Charley Wingate