As our very long (and short) year of 2020 has drawn to a close, and people begin to look towards the future, I thought I’d share a video I found both amusing and thought provoking.
In 1967, Ford/Philco captured their view of what the far-in-the-future year 1999 would look like. Nearly 20 years after this imagined future was to take place, some of their predictions werewildly off, others happened, but not exactly in the way that the future was portrayed. Some of them are only just now coming to be realized (nearly 20 years later).
More than anything, this video shows how much life and society have evolved and changed.
A reminder as we look at our own product roadmaps, and attempt to envision the future — 20 years from now, some of our predictions will be laughed at, some will come true in ways we couldn’t see, and other assumptions we assumed were constants will no longer be valid, but things WILL be different.
Here’s to hoping that 2021 will bring a more positive future for us all!