What happened to the future?

[Mich the Tester]

Americans put men on the moon. Tweed jacketed British chaps with pipes in their mouths and pencils behind their ears got together with suave French fellows to build supersonic passenger jets. Further back, the brilliant Isambard Kingdom Brunel (coolest name in history) built the modern world in Britain.

We were promised 500 kph magnet trains.
We were promised hypersonic jets to fly to Australia in a few hours.
We were promised flying cars.
We were promised manned Mars missions and moon colonies.

And all these things CAN be done.

What we’ve got is tulipty buggy bookkeeping and beancounting applications that crash every few minutes and cost gazillions to build.
We’ve got banks that have lost all the money.
We’ve got microwave ovens that leave your food boiling in one place and freezing 1 cm further up.

The future was supposed to be brilliant. It’s tulipe at the moment. Who ruined the future? How do we take it back and rebuild the dreams?

[EternalOptimist]

I think it wasn't tested properly

[sasguru]

Who ruined the future?

Accountants.

Have you noticed how many of these achievements were government funded?

[Mich the Tester]

Accountants.

Have you noticed how many of these achievements were government funded?

Yes, and I think that’s just fine; at least these achievements could be called progress.

[Bagpuss]

Maths, Science, Engineering, what are these skills compared to Speculating on the value of things, 'adding value', or being famous innit?

[Mich the Tester]

We’re here reminiscing about the future when we should be building it.

[BrilloPad]

Americans put men on the moon. Tweed jacketed British chaps with pipes in their mouths and pencils behind their ears got together with suave French fellows to build supersonic passenger jets. Further back, the brilliant Isambard Kingdom Brunel (coolest name in history) built the modern world in Britain.

We were promised 500 kph magnet trains.
We were promised hypersonic jets to fly to Australia in a few hours.
We were promised flying cars.
We were promised manned Mars missions and moon colonies.

And all these things CAN be done.

What we’ve got is tulipty buggy bookkeeping and beancounting applications that crash every few minutes and cost gazillions to build.
We’ve got banks that have lost all the money.
We’ve got microwave ovens that leave your food boiling in one place and freezing 1 cm further up.

The future was supposed to be brilliant. It’s tulipe at the moment. Who ruined the future? How do we take it back and rebuild the dreams?

compare 1944 to 1969 to 2004.

I also think some of the above would have happened if not for the internet.

[bogeyman]

The Future is being developed jointly by EDS and Accenture.

It is now 50 years late and $35 quintillion over budget.

It is hoped that The Future will be ready for the 2012 Olympics.

[DimPrawn]

Maths, Science, Engineering, what are these skills compared to Speculating on the value of things, 'adding value', or being famous innit?

I reckon Maths, Science, Engineering will be worthless in the future.

I'm so confident infact I'm going to short them on the stock market and make a killing.

[PM-Junkie]

The future was supposed to be brilliant. It’s tulipe at the moment. Who ruined the future? How do we take it back and rebuild the dreams?

The answer to you question lies in the example of the rebuild of the Twin Towers, and why it is taking so long compared to the original. Red tape upon red tape upon red tape - the world is run by jobsworths and civil servants now.

Oh, and to correct you a little - Americans may have landed on the moon, but it was Germans who put them there