Saturday, September 02, 2006

The Supersonic Future (1975)

This is really a must-see video commercial titled 'The Supersonic Future (1975)' which was made by Braniff Airways in 1975 - predicting the future of air travel. And even the petrol pump attendant has a jet-pack! Terrific!

As a critique IFTF's Future Now blog has the following comments:

'The design tries really hard to Look Like the Future. Everyone is wearing these robe-and-cowl things (the women look like Bene Gesserit going clubbing). Chairs have been replaced by giant eggs. (Perhaps in the future people are hatched; the commercial doesn't go there, thankfully.)

Absolutely ordinary human activities have been automated. People don't walk any more: instead, their chairs are pushed around by robots or something.

More seriously, the commercial makes the classic mistake of positing vast technological changes, with no accompanying social changes. When you watch, notice that the pilots are all men, and the cabin crew is all female. This is something you see in lots of "home of the future" exhibits.'

Via IFTF's Future Now

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