I recently re-read Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, a sci-fi classic written in the 50s, winner of the first Hugo Award for outstanding science fiction. I hadn’t read it since I was in college (and I must say, I had only the vaguest flicker of recollection throughout). Reading it again now (thanks to a parting gift from a friend), two things struck me:

How uncynical it is. It reflects a time when people — or at least the author, but I suspect he represents his era — believed that the world of the future would be a better place. We trusted in “progress” back then, the embodiment of which were World’s Fairs on the one hand and the United Nations on the other. Technology would lead the way to a brighter future in which hunger and poverty would be eradicated, and international cooperation would replace war and strife with a new era of peace and justice. Reality check: On the human development front, sadly, “Past future” kicks “Present future”‘s sorry ass.

The degree to which technology has surpassed our wildest imaginings. At the time Bester wrote The Demolished Man (1951), the development of the microchip was still almost a decade in the future. Even a highly creative forward-thinker like Bester couldn’t conceive of portable computing or communication. (Yes, Dick Tracy had a two-way wrist radio in 1946, but he lived in a cartoon world, not the “real” world of the future.) There are video phones in The Demolished Man, but they are stationary. There are computers, but they occupy the entire wall of a room. (Reading the book in my 20s, I couldn’t imagine those things either; I took Programming in Basic in college in 1979, and I had to log in to a mainframe that still looked like the computer in Desk Set.) Reality check: In terms of technology, “Present future” wins hands-down, except for flying cars. It’s 2015 — where is my flying car, already?!

Thinking about past vs. future technology got me going on one of my favorite time-wasters: thinking of “modern” songs that reference outdated technology. For your listening pleasure, here are a few of them:

Steely Dan, Everyone’s Gone to the Movies. (“I know you’re used to 16 or more; sorry, we’ve only got eight” is probably completely incomprehensible to anyone under age 50 or so.)

BowWowWow, C30,C60, C90, Go!

Steely Dan, Bad Sneakers.

Blondie, Hanging on the Telephone.

Smiths, Big Mouth Strikes Again. (Remember how revolutionary and liberating the Walkman was? Your music, anywhere, anytime. A life-changer!)