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Comment by jgrahamc | Hacker News Reader

In 1967 we imagined a future in which everything has been automated so that preexisting roles could be carried out as before. Wife will cook, buy clothes; husband will shake his head at all the money wife is spending and be the spending decision maker.

Film is interesting from a technology perspective but also for what it says about society.

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It's very interesting to note how futurists always nail the technological changes but ignore or otherwise turn a blind eye to sweeping societal upheavals that are far more difficult to predict. The archetypal patriarchal, white nuclear family is far less common than it was in the 60s, and use cases for appliances are typically genderless. Sure, there are still disproportionately more women in ads for cleaning products than men, but the growth of residential technology isn't centred around the sexist assumption that women are exclusively full-time homemakers as presented in the video. Instead, it's more or less adapted to the relatively egalitarian standards we live by today.

The movie also had the computer telling the boy that he flunked. Back in 1967, they didn't predict that by 1999, every child would get a trophy just for showing up.

Or rather it didn't predict that in 1999 there would be more provisions for people with learning difficulties and special needs? Don't be so knee-jerk, there's a damned good reason for why we try not to harm kids' self-esteem anymore-- it doesn't work.

I doubt pumping up children's self-esteem without developing their self-worth is going to work either.

If you think that's what's happening, you haven't been paying attention.

Yep, it's so lucky for you that you just happened to have been born into the last generation that was really, truly human, isn't it?

The Jetsons is a fantastic example of this, it's literally 60's White Suburban America, but in space!

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