Asklemmy

Bluetooth that works. The ability to email large files. Low cost broadband. The right to repair. Not lose the ownership of digital media.

I was born in the 1980s. I remember growing up, I always had the impression that by this time in the 21st century, we'd have figured out some way to break the established laws of physics. Maybe it was because of watching so much sci-fi, but I feel like I'm not alone in this. The media seemed to reflect the same line of thinking. "Back to the Future 2" with its hoverboards and flying cars is now set several years in the past.

Be it anti-gravity, interstellar travel, teleportation, whatever, I always kind of assumed that by now, we'd at least have a working theory of how we might implement it in the next few decades. I think a lot of that has to do with the start of the "information age." Computers and the way they could connect us were so revolutionary, it seemed like "magic" to the layperson. More "magic" would only be a few years away, right? If we could fit all this power into a box that sits on your desk, then it wasn't beyond the scope of reason to think that anything was possible; it'd just take a few more years for us to figure it out, then we'd be planning the first NASA mission to another solar system.

What I never would have predicted is just how rapidly computer technology would advance. We now have supercomputers in our pockets, powered by CPUs that are well into the realm of nanotechnology and are now starting to run into limitations imposed by quantum physics. As a technological society, we've probably progressed farther than I would have ever imagined, just not in the way I expected.

High speed rail.

It's insane Amtrak is the best we got. You should be able to go from Orlando to New York in hours, cheaply.

Not backsliding into feudalism?

• open source software that pays for contributions
• privacy laws that protect people against corporations
• living wage
• end of sexism and mysoginy
• global democracy

Universal Healthcare.

more international cooperation for global benefit. instead we have more profit taking from everyone

High speed rail (USA)

Not a particular technology, but I really had a little bit of hope that we’d be able to tackle climate change like we tackled ozone depletion due to CFCs/HCFCs/HFCs with the Montreal Protocol.

From the perspective of a kid in the 70s, I thought for sure some level of space colonization, whether it be a Moon colony or O'Neill type settlements. Along with that would be moving industry into space to tap unlimited resources and allow the Earth to heal.

Something, anything in the freaking moon.

Why haven't we been back there in, like, 50 years? That mission was done with computers that were less powerful than my stupid phone.

Anything, a telescope, a transmitter of I-don't-know-what shit, a lunar farm, a Coca-Cola or Disney advertising, ANYTHING!

I grew up in the '80s. I was expecting either nuclear annihilation or cities on the moon.

The one thing I feel deprived of, is the proper sci fi aesthetic in our devices.

The beeps, the switches, the UI. All forsaken for an asinine black mirror .

First we sent small animals into space: a dog, then monkeys.

After that: people.

And then we stopped. I expected that we would have sent cows, horses, maybe even hippos or elephants by now.

Advanced cybernetics. From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel.

It's saddening to see the slow slow progress of cybernetics.

Fiber to the Home Internet connectivity that was paid for 30 years ago.

A functional healthcare system.

Reasonable justice reforms for social media used as public alert and communication systems, AI, crypto, gaming, etc to regulate new markets emerging from new tech to prevent predatory monetization policy and monopolies causing increased wealth centralization and patent trolling slowing down technical innovation in general.

I'm just mad as hell at how many things seem to have topped out in the 1940's. My car is basically the same. Five wheels and I chase an explosion around. Air travel is basically the same. Big aluminum tube that's expensive size as hell. TV is basically the same. Tune in, sit on ass, watch.

You look at how life changed between 1900-1945, and how life changed since then, and we've really stagnated.

That's not to say it's all the same, phones are amazing, but they don't change my life fundamentally, a day without my phone is very much the same as a day with my phone.

Fully automated luxury communism

Half-Life 3

Honestly thought I'd see more phones, with desktop modes, replace laptops in day to day life.

Wisecracking robots who drink alcohol.

I'm more concerned with the things we had a few years ago that are now gone, and the new fascist hand me downs that are popping up everywhere.

Laptops with good build quality, I mean the type of build quality Thinkpads used to have

Flying cars and hover boards

The Bell Riots.

Universal Healthcare

Still waiting for my personal jetpack and/or flying car

Private jet packs, flying cars, robot butlers, implantable cybernetic upgrades, a cure for baldness, affordable and safe space flight, free healthcare, a future that doesn't look like the love child of Idiocracy and Demolition Man.

Humans on Mars. We are 15 years late already.

I thought surely by now autocorrect would not still be horribly wrong in its predictions

The utilization of global powers to collaborate and defeat climate change before the doom clock hits zero.

A more civilized, earth friendly, peaceful world working for the common good.

The virtual reality you used to see in movies or on TV where you would put on a helmet and actually enter it and have full movement capabilities. Something like that one episode of Batman The Animated Series where Commissioner Gordon goes into the Riddler's computer and gets trapped or just about any other cliche, dumb way they portrayed VR back then.