2020 - Visions of the Future (Page 2 of 7)
Aspen, Colorado
September 5, 1980
2020 - Visions of the Future - Roaring Fork Valley (Page 2 of 7)
Nick's 1980 predictions for the year 2020
Document courtesy of:
Aspen Historical Society, IDCA Time Capsule Collection
Text:
2
In 1945 we climbed out of World War II and looked upward wih Utopian optimism. In 1980 we look around at a frontierless landscape and we feel from here on up it’s downhill all the way-or worse, the reverse!
So futurists tend to try to cheer us up with space talk and colonies on the moon are a favorite. Colonies in space are more practical. In looking for an issue forty years from now, I asked lots of counter-culture types, not a single one had a suggestion! Perhaps we won’t have problems in 2020 - I hope not, but I might suggest human cloning. Oil shale - Ouch! That one’s so scary I left it out, but I’m certain we’ll discuss the daylights out of that later. If the oil shale growth boom occurs, which I frankly doubt, we sure will have a lot of smoke coming down wind this way.
Now, let’s tackle the future, sticking to possible or feasible scenarios or happenings.
First, there are “wish” and “fear” futures. These are not probable, but are the ones we mostly talk about - we’re scared of them or dream of them.
Then there are “get” futures. These are what we’ll get if we coast. Some good, some bad. “They” will do this for “me.”
There are “want” futures that “I” prefer and would like to get, and in some cases “we” will do this for “them.”
Now to scratch the crystal ball, let’s start with a few “fear” items.
Laser beam weapons reach Poor Paul’s war surplus market.
Computers outwit us, snoop on us, and do our planning.
Major nuclear war = if so, we are upwind of Colorado Springs, but downwind of the MX missiles in Nevada and Utah, so it’ll be a lot safer in Los Angeles than here.
In the “wish” department, these are largely the province of technology. Whether we like it or not, it is only technology that can make a drastic change in our options. There is hi-tech, lo-tech, appropriate-tech (soon to be a fighting word), and “silly-tech” or “fantasy-tech.” Things like:
Cryogenic power lines
Matter scanner transporters
Anti-gravity units
Anti-matter disposals
Microwave power from the pie-in-the-sky
Earthbound laser missile stoppers
Space colonies. Prof.O’Neill (Princeton) sez “By 2150 there could be more people living in space than on earth; earth might serve mainly as a tourist attraction, a carefully planned preserved monument to man’s origin.” If so, Aspen will have a ball, but we’ll have to fix the airport.
Plastic bubble over the city (controlled micro-climate)
Air cars and personal hovercraft (the whoosh dream is a clatter-roar reality)
Extra-terrestial aliens teach us a thing or two
Holographic movies save Hollywood
Procreative solar devices manufacture themselves (currently called wheat)
Biological engineering creates mental superperson
Local tracked private electric mini-cars with computer pilots
Separate airport busway (I put in the “wish” category)
Alcohol fuel dominates transport (the fumes in Brazil are already a problem)
Computers eliminate paper money (the underground economy won’t permit it)
A car link-up system to deliver our cars to Denver as we get off the train
Video phones - long rejected because you have to put on your clothes to answer the phone.
part of an archival project, featuring the work of nick dewolf
© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Requests for use are welcome via flickrmail or nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com
2020 - Visions of the Future (Page 2 of 7)
Aspen, Colorado
September 5, 1980
2020 - Visions of the Future - Roaring Fork Valley (Page 2 of 7)
Nick's 1980 predictions for the year 2020
Document courtesy of:
Aspen Historical Society, IDCA Time Capsule Collection
Text:
2
In 1945 we climbed out of World War II and looked upward wih Utopian optimism. In 1980 we look around at a frontierless landscape and we feel from here on up it’s downhill all the way-or worse, the reverse!
So futurists tend to try to cheer us up with space talk and colonies on the moon are a favorite. Colonies in space are more practical. In looking for an issue forty years from now, I asked lots of counter-culture types, not a single one had a suggestion! Perhaps we won’t have problems in 2020 - I hope not, but I might suggest human cloning. Oil shale - Ouch! That one’s so scary I left it out, but I’m certain we’ll discuss the daylights out of that later. If the oil shale growth boom occurs, which I frankly doubt, we sure will have a lot of smoke coming down wind this way.
Now, let’s tackle the future, sticking to possible or feasible scenarios or happenings.
First, there are “wish” and “fear” futures. These are not probable, but are the ones we mostly talk about - we’re scared of them or dream of them.
Then there are “get” futures. These are what we’ll get if we coast. Some good, some bad. “They” will do this for “me.”
There are “want” futures that “I” prefer and would like to get, and in some cases “we” will do this for “them.”
Now to scratch the crystal ball, let’s start with a few “fear” items.
Laser beam weapons reach Poor Paul’s war surplus market.
Computers outwit us, snoop on us, and do our planning.
Major nuclear war = if so, we are upwind of Colorado Springs, but downwind of the MX missiles in Nevada and Utah, so it’ll be a lot safer in Los Angeles than here.
In the “wish” department, these are largely the province of technology. Whether we like it or not, it is only technology that can make a drastic change in our options. There is hi-tech, lo-tech, appropriate-tech (soon to be a fighting word), and “silly-tech” or “fantasy-tech.” Things like:
Cryogenic power lines
Matter scanner transporters
Anti-gravity units
Anti-matter disposals
Microwave power from the pie-in-the-sky
Earthbound laser missile stoppers
Space colonies. Prof.O’Neill (Princeton) sez “By 2150 there could be more people living in space than on earth; earth might serve mainly as a tourist attraction, a carefully planned preserved monument to man’s origin.” If so, Aspen will have a ball, but we’ll have to fix the airport.
Plastic bubble over the city (controlled micro-climate)
Air cars and personal hovercraft (the whoosh dream is a clatter-roar reality)
Extra-terrestial aliens teach us a thing or two
Holographic movies save Hollywood
Procreative solar devices manufacture themselves (currently called wheat)
Biological engineering creates mental superperson
Local tracked private electric mini-cars with computer pilots
Separate airport busway (I put in the “wish” category)
Alcohol fuel dominates transport (the fumes in Brazil are already a problem)
Computers eliminate paper money (the underground economy won’t permit it)
A car link-up system to deliver our cars to Denver as we get off the train
Video phones - long rejected because you have to put on your clothes to answer the phone.
part of an archival project, featuring the work of nick dewolf
© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Requests for use are welcome via flickrmail or nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com