A look back at works of genius (plus a cartoon) that forecast today's technological, economic, and social innovations...
SEVEN GENIUSES
Howwell can people predict innovation? Here's one way to tell: Pop open a beer, go to YouTube, and stream original episodes of The Jetsons.
By P.J. O’Rourke
The primetime Hanna-Barbera cartoon debuted in 1962 and was set in the “distant future” of 2062. We’re more than halfway there. It’s 2017. My family should be starting to get the innovations the Jetson family took for granted... They had flying cars. We have Fast and Furious movies on Netflix . They had a robot maid who was practically part of the family. We have a Roomba that the dog chased, caught, and chewed to bits. Their son had routine Boy Scout field trips to the moon. My son has routine Boy Scouts field trips to... the field. Where the Scouts camp out, get drenched by a thunderstorm, and their tents collapse.
And George Jetson had a full-time job working one hour a day, two days a week, turning his computer on and off. I turned my computer on at 8 this morning. It’s now past 6 p.m., and I still have 55 unopened work e-mails. Of course, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon is not a work of genius. Let’s look at real works of genius that tried to predict the future... attempted to forecast coming technological, economic, and social innovations. Nobody would care to sit through an animated version of The Wealth of Nations by ADAM SMITH (1723-1790) . But it was more accurate than The Jetsons . Smith predicted the abandonment of precious metal coinage in favor of paper money, to replace “a very expensive instrument of commerce with one much less costly.” Smith foretold modern central-banking policy
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66 | September 2017
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