1960s

These Designers of 1960 Predicted That Fashion of the Future Would Be Very Retro

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at past predictions of the future over the years. But every once in a while I uncover something that’s so accurate, it’s almost spooky. This video from 1960 is just such a video. The short film, published by British Pathe, depicts what fashion will be like in the…

Tech News Matt Novak Jun 19

This Robot Gardener from the 1960s Looks Like a Techno-Utopian Version of the Apocalypse

When people of the 1950s and 60s imagined the robot lawnmowers of the future, they were generally pretty small and cute. But not this guy. The May 6, 1962 edition of the Sunday comic strip “Closer Than We Think” pictured the most enormous and frankly terrifying robot gardener of all time. Illustrated by Arthur Radebaugh,…

Tech News Matt Novak May 16

British Kids From the 1960s Had Some Really Dark Predictions for the Future

Some of the most interesting predictions for the future don’t come from expert futurists or well-financed think tanks, they come from average kids. Today, we have video from the 1960s that features kids talking about their own vision for tomorrow. And it’s depressing as hell. The footage comes from a December 28, 1966 program on…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 16

Was Jane Jetson a Child Bride?

A viral tweet about the 1960s TV show The Jetsons recently brought up a troubling question. Was Jane Jetson a child bride? The answer: Not quite. But it’s easy to see why people might be outraged. If we do the math on the admittedly fictional relationship between George and Jane—specifically, when their daughter Judy was…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 11

These Were the Flying Hospitals of the Future in 1960

Do you need urgent medical care but are far away from a hospital? We’ll bring the hospital to you! At least, that was the futuristic idea behind this edition of the newspaper comic, Closer Than We Think. And while it still feels a long way off, there are signs that we’re slowly but surely moving…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 20

7 Fake Journalist Names the U.S. Government Used to Spread Propaganda During the 1950s

Back in the 1950s and 60s, the American government’s foreign propaganda arm, the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), invented fake names for journalists to plant stories in newspapers. In 2016, I wrote about Guy Sims Fitch, just one of the pseudonyms that was used globally. But I recently stumbled upon a few more names that might…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 10

Who Drew This Futuristic Space Picture From the 1960s?

I need your help. Yes, you. I can’t figure out who drew this futuristic picture of two astronauts sometime in the 1960s. And it’s driving me nuts. Here’s what I know: I found it on the back page of the first issue of Space Horizons magazine from 1965. There’s no signature or copyright notice of…

Tech News Matt Novak Jun 20

Check Out a Miniature Machine Catalog From 1961

Back before computers were ubiquitous, salespeople had a hard time showing their customers what stuff looked like, especially big stuff. Sure, there were photographs and drawings, but for a full three-dimensional effect, you needed a physical model. That’s where Topping, Inc. came in. Having developed new injection molding methods, Topping was the place to get…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Jun 10

A Guide to the Golden Age of Corporate Logo Design

NASA. Audi. ABC. Lufthansa. The MTA. Beginning in the 1960s, some of the world’s best-known corporate entities were immortalized thanks to the work a group of graphic designers who were responsible for introducing to the notion of “branding.” And now, there’s an anthology that collects them all in one place. It’s not that branding didn’t…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Aug 25

John Lennon wrote “Come Together” for Timothy Leary but pot ruined it

Pull up a chair, Beatles fans, I have a story for you, a story about politics, pot, and rock and roll, starring John Lennon and Timothy Leary. IT’S A GOOD ONE. The story starts—as so many good ones do—in the 1960s. Specifically, it starts the day after Christmas in 1968, when Timothy Leary was arrested…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Aug 8

A Peek Into the Jetsons Archive at Warner Brothers Animation

Earlier this week I had the rare opportunity to meet with archivists from Warner Brothers and got a peek at their archive of Jetsons material. As you can imagine, I was in paleofuture nerd heaven. I shot a segment here in L.A. with “CBS Sunday Morning” (airing this Sunday April 28th) about the impact of…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 28

A superpowered poet meets a conspiracy during the Summer of Love

The year is 1967, and Banning James, a young poet with the ability to psychically inflict his own experiences onto others, thinks he’s on his way to Boston. But his plans change when he gets caught up in an anti-Vietnam War protest, one that ends with an act of destruction that never occurred in our…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis Aug 24

Nobody Walks in L.A.: The Rise of Cars and the Monorails That Never Were

“Who needs a car in L.A.? We got the best public transportation system in the world!” says private detective Eddie Valiant in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Set in 1947, Eddie is a car-less Angeleno and the movie tells the tale of a an evil corporation buying up the city’s streetcars in its…

Tech News Matt Novak Apr 26

TV Will Tear Us Apart: The Future of Political Polarization in American Media

Imagine a world where the only media you consume serves to reinforce your particular set of steadfast political beliefs. Sounds like a pretty far-out dystopia, right? Well, in 1969, Internet pioneer Paul Baran predicted just that. In a paper titled “On the Impact of the New Communications Media Upon Social Values,” Baran (who passed away…

Tech News Matt Novak Apr 5

The Jetsons Get Schooled: Robot Teachers in the 21st Century Classroom

This is the last in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The final episode of the first season (and only season until a mid-1980s revival) of “The Jetsons” originally aired on March 17, 1963, and was titled “Elroy’s Mob.” In the opening sequence of…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 29

Sad Jetsons: Depression, Buttonitis and Nostalgia in the World of Tomorrow

This is the 23rd in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The 23rd episode of “The Jetsons” originally aired on March 3, 1963 and was titled “Dude Planet.” In the year 2063, the people in the Jetsons’ universe work just a few hours a…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 25

The Newspaper of Tomorrow: 11 Predictions from Yesteryear

Many of us here in the 21st century like to think of the newspaper as this static institution. We imagine that the newspaper was born many generations ago and until very recently, thrived without much competition. Of course this is wildly untrue. The role of the newspaper in any given community has always been in…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 18

Mid-21st Century Modern: That Jetsons Architecture

This is the 21st in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The 21st episode of “The Jetsons” originally aired on February 17, 1963 and was titled “TV or Not TV.” Much like both “Elroy’s Pal,” and “Elroy’s TV Show,” this episode ostensibly gives viewers…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 14

Jane Jetson and the Origins of the “Women Are Bad Drivers” Joke

This is the 18th in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. “The problem with these skyways is that by the time they’re built they’re obsolete. This traffic is the worst I’ve seen yet,” George Jetson proclaims as he zips around in his flying car.…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 14

3D-TV, Automated Cooking and Robot Housemaids: Walter Cronkite Tours the Home of 2001

Legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite’s regular half-hour CBS documentary program “The 21st Century” was a glorious peek into the future. Every Sunday night viewers of the late 1960s were shown all the exciting technological advancements they could expect to see just 30 or 40 years down the road. The March 12, 1967, episode gave people…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 29

1960s

These Designers of 1960 Predicted That Fashion of the Future Would Be Very Retro

This Robot Gardener from the 1960s Looks Like a Techno-Utopian Version of the Apocalypse

British Kids From the 1960s Had Some Really Dark Predictions for the Future

Was Jane Jetson a Child Bride?

These Were the Flying Hospitals of the Future in 1960

7 Fake Journalist Names the U.S. Government Used to Spread Propaganda During the 1950s

Who Drew This Futuristic Space Picture From the 1960s?

Check Out a Miniature Machine Catalog From 1961

A Guide to the Golden Age of Corporate Logo Design

John Lennon wrote “Come Together” for Timothy Leary but pot ruined it

A Peek Into the Jetsons Archive at Warner Brothers Animation

A superpowered poet meets a conspiracy during the Summer of Love

Nobody Walks in L.A.: The Rise of Cars and the Monorails That Never Were

TV Will Tear Us Apart: The Future of Political Polarization in American Media

The Jetsons Get Schooled: Robot Teachers in the 21st Century Classroom

Sad Jetsons: Depression, Buttonitis and Nostalgia in the World of Tomorrow

The Newspaper of Tomorrow: 11 Predictions from Yesteryear

Mid-21st Century Modern: That Jetsons Architecture

Jane Jetson and the Origins of the “Women Are Bad Drivers” Joke

3D-TV, Automated Cooking and Robot Housemaids: Walter Cronkite Tours the Home of 2001

Someone Finally Took a Good iPhone Photo of the Moon. Good Luck Copying Their Trick

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