Between last night and this morning I’ve consumed a lot of Back to the Future content. In celebration of the 25th anniversary, and to take part in the marathon television rituals associated with bringing in the New Year, AMC has been showing the trilogy every night this week. I took in the second one last night, which is my favorite of the bunch. It’s not the best of the trilogy, part one reigns supreme. However, two’s a much more endearing movie, mainly due to the future sequence that the film opens with. Looking at where we can go, what could be possible is far more interesting than looking back at what once was. Sure, being able to see your parents before they were your parents is somewhat intriguing. And sure, being able to experience a time that you’ve only heard about through twisted, idealized stories of yesteryear would be… I guess eye opening is a good way to describe it. Maybe disappointing, depending on how skewed your elders’ memories of the good old days are. No matter what the experience, I don’t think it ranks even close to what it would be like to experience a time yet to even be conjured up.
One of the fun parts of watching Back to the Future 2 is looking at how close our world resembles the imagination of the late 80s. We’re now a matter of hours from being only four years from the future that Doc, Marty and Jennifer visit. AMC did a great job of prefixing each of its commercial breaks with a look at the predictions made in the film, and which of those predictions came true so far. What I found interesting in my latest viewing was the technologies and everyday items that the people in the 1980s thought would stand the test of time and still be an integral part of daily life in 2015. Let’s take a look.
Growing up, my experience with laser discs was brief, but memorable. One of my parent’s friends had just bought a new laser disc player and we went over there to allow them to show it off. We watched Terminator 2. I remember the sounds booming. I remember Arnold ripping around on his motorcycle. The T1000 latching on to the back of their car as they sped away; all this in picture quality I had never seen before. It was awesome. My 10 year old brain nearly exploded.
It’s easy to recall why in 1987 LD seemed like the wave of the future. But it’s bulky, awkward size and high price tag made sure it would never catch on. Being the predecessor to DVD and Blu-ray is an ok consolation prize though…I guess.
This one’s a little more baffling to me. The first generation of mobile devices was already in existence at the time this movie was being penned. They were nowhere near the mainstream yet, but they were there and by the early 90s, the down fall of phone booths was already under way. Can you remember the last time you saw a phone booth? No? Me neither.
It’s no secret that newspapers and magazines are in serious trouble. Making it through 2011 alive is the goal of the industry right now; forget about making it to 2015.
The Internet was there in the 80s, but it wasn’t until the 90s when it started its meteoric rise. But still, a median like the newspaper that requires massive consumption of a natural resource should always be considered in danger of being supplanted in the future.
Fax machines are still part of the business world in a diminished capacity. It has a slim chance of existing in 2015, but it will never be, and never was, at the prevalence depicted in part two. Marty gets fired, he has fifteen different faxes going off to tell him about it. I don’t think I’ve even seen a total of fifteen fax machines in my entire life.
The fax machine had its placed, and still does. Unfortunately for the fax, not for us though, another technology (email) was lurking in the dark, primed for the head shot and exclamatory tea-bagging.
So, what can you take away from this post? I didn’t write this post to nitpick at the movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to pick this stuff apart, but it’s not the point here. I’m using the flick to make a point about the perils of an ever evolving world. Paradigm blindness. “This is how we’ve always done it”-syndrome. It’s a defense mechanism against the laser discs and fax machines of the world. But, it cripples you to being open to the planet shakers and world shattering advancements. If you’re a consumer, this isn’t a huge deal. It’s the difference between being an early adopter and catching on once the new technology is in the mainstream. Not a big deal; it probably saves you a bunch of cash and heartbreak when a new product doesn’t catch on. However, if your in the business world with this mindset, it’s a much bigger problem. You’ll always be playing catch up; no way of getting ahead, no way of hitting it big if you aren’t at least willing to explore new ways and new developments.
