Bad future?

One of the industry films in my bedtime playlist (probably from 1955) cites stats about the power of the auto industry. One out of seven Americans worked directly for car makers or their suppliers, and another two out of seven depended completely on cars and trucks.

Most of these films tried to extrapolate current stats to a better future in 1975 or 1985. None tried to look farther ahead. Wonder what they’d think if I came back from the future and told them that in 2025 the auto industry is still running but much less dominant, and most of the factories here are owned by Japan. In 1955 every adult remembered, and many men had permanent damage, from our long hard war to DEFEAT Japan.

The closest equivalent stat: One out of two Americans subscribes to a Chinese TV network that lets them record their own TV shows, which can be watched by anyone in the world.

1955 folks would see this as a positive future, and they’d be right about the tech itself. Seeing and being seen, hearing and being heard, are GOOD no matter how it’s done technically. In 1955 only radio hams, a few types of hobbyists, and rich travelers had international contacts in highly restrictive channels.

The bad consequences of this tech come from the receiving end, not the recording end. And the worst consequences are NOT from the Chinese TV network but from the good old California-owned** networks that do the same thing.

BUT: The bad consequences of living entirely in a TV world were already visible in 1955, long before we started recording our own shows. Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury had already written TV-centered dystopias. Columnists and commentators were warning of our divorce from hands-on reality.

In short: the bad parts wouldn’t be a surprise. The good parts are much BETTER now than 1955.

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** The 1955 folks were familiar with Hollywood as the center of TV and movie propaganda. I’d have to explain that the new TV networks were picturephones, not regular TVs; and they were centered in a different part of good old California but still the same good old propaganda. Then I’d have to explain why all high tech moved from upstate New York (home of Hollerith) and New Jersey (home of Edison and Bell.) This would also be understandable as a trend, since the inventors of the transistor had already moved from New Jersey to Stanford and started a new branch of tech, which eventually farmed out its factories and engineers to China and kept the propaganda parts in good old California.

The abandonment of ALL industry would be the hardest thing to explain, but AGAIN it had already started from exactly the same technology, with transistor radios moving to Japan. Eisenhower, the president in 1955, saw it happening and tried to warn us of the treason. Then in the 1970s Ike’s evil vice-president closed the door to America with his EPA and opened the door to China. 1975, heart of the great industrial future seen by those films, was in fact the END of industrial America. (Makes me wonder if Ike was really warning us about a more specific and personal treason.)