Full transcript Well, in the year 2000, I think I'll probably be in the spaceship to the moon dictating robots, two robots. Or else I may be in charge of a robot court, judging some robots. Or I...
Full transcript
Well, in the year 2000, I think I'll probably be in the spaceship to the moon dictating robots, two robots.
Or else I may be in charge of a robot court, judging some robots.
Or I may be at the funeral of a computer.
Or if something's gone wrong with their nuclear bombs, I may be sort of coming back from hunting in a cave.
I don't like the idea of sort of getting up and finding you've got a cabbage pill to eat for breakfast or something.
Oh, I think all these atomic bombs will be dropping around the place.
One will get near the centre, because it will sort of make a huge, great big crater.
And then the world will just melt, and the world will become one vast atomic explosion.
And it will become, like you'll see whenever, stars.
Some madman will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world into oblivion.
There's nothing you can do to stop it. The more people who get bombs, the more somebody's going to use it one day.
Well, I think it'll be so overpopulated that there'll be wars.
All the nuclear explosions and everything, it'll make the earth, you know, too much radiation on it.
It'll become too hot to live on. I think that there'll be no life at all, really, on the earth.
I don't think there is going to be atomic warfare, but I think that there is going to be all this automation.
People are going to be out of work and a great population, and I think something has to be done about it.
If I wasn't a biologist, that's what I'd like to do, to do something about the population problem.
Try and sort of temper it somehow. I don't know how.
I think it'll be very dull, and people will all be squashed together so much, there won't be any fun or anything.
And people will be rationed the amount of things they can have, because if they had too many things,
they'd just squash their houses and there just wouldn't be room for them.
I think people will be regarded more as statistics and as actual people.
I don't think it's going to be so nice. I think sort of all machines everywhere, everyone doing everything for you,
you know, you'll get all bored and I don't think it'll be so nice.
I think it's going to be very boring, and everything will be the same.
I mean, people will be the same, and things will be the same.
First of all, those computers are taking over now, computers and automation.
And in the year 2000, there just won't be enough jobs to go around,
and the only jobs there will be will be for people with high IQ who can work computers and such things,
and other people are just not going to have jobs. There just aren't going to be jobs for them to have.
I expect they will set aside parts of the country solely for recreation and have large blocks of built-up areas,
and I think these are going to be very ugly indeed, probably.
I don't think I'll still be on Earth. I think I'll be under the sea.
I think the population will have gone up so much that either everyone will be living in sort of big domes in the Sahara,
or they'll be under the sea.
There'll be so many people that they'll have to have an overflow into the sea,
and so there'll be houses underneath the sea and houses above the sea.
They're not going to have so many square houses, you know, more curves and artistic designs,
instead of just sort of boxes like they've got nowadays.
People wouldn't be able to live in ordinary houses because I would take up too much room.
It'd have to be in flats piled on top of one another, like that.
And the houses would be rather small, and everything would be cramped up, very cramped.
Animals, as they have here, sheep and cows and livestock, they'll be kept in batteries.
They won't be allowed to graze on pastures. They'll be kept in buildings altogether, all in one big building,
and artificially reared so they'll yield a larger, be bigger and give more food.
All the Sputniks and everything that are going up sort of interferes with the weather,
and I think the sea may rise and will sort of cover some of England.
There'll be just islands left from, like, only the highlands in Scotland,
and some of the big hills in England and Wales.
I don't think all England will be wiped out because some of it will be too high.
I think the sea will rise to about 300 to 600 feet.
It might freeze because the sun, I think, will probably burn out,
and there's an ice cap coming down from North Pole. I think it'll cover the earth.
It might have another ice age.
I don't think there's anything to be frightened of, and a lot of people think it's going to explode, but I'm certain it won't.
I think it'll be much more efficient because there'll be more cures for the diseases, and not so many people will get sick.
The black people, you know, won't be sort of separate. They'll be all mixed in with the white people,
and, you know, the poor people and rich people will become the same.
Well, they will be poor and richer, but they won't sort of look down on each other.
I'm not looking forward to living in that year, about 50 years' time.
I mean, the world seems to be in such a terrible state now, let alone in 50 years' time.
Thank you.
Well, these kids have some depressing visions for the future. For once the future was actually demonstrably better than what they thought. What living in the cold war era does to you, I guess.
Well, these kids have some depressing visions for the future. For once the future was actually demonstrably better than what they thought. What living in the cold war era does to you, I guess.
I read an unrelated article a little white after watching this and it reminded me that Star Trek first aired in 1966. It's easy to see why people, even young people, were attracted to its positive...
I read an unrelated article a little white after watching this and it reminded me that Star Trek first aired in 1966. It's easy to see why people, even young people, were attracted to its positive view of the future.
This is an interesting video of children predicting what life will be like in the year 2000. It’s interesting to see what even now we haven’t yet got, and what things are routine! I think there...
This is an interesting video of children predicting what life will be like in the year 2000. It’s interesting to see what even now we haven’t yet got, and what things are routine!
I think there also some interesting parallels to some of the thoughts we have about the advance of AI now, and how things may be slower than we expect.
Good grief, was that ever bleak. When I think of England circa 1966, I think of the Beatles et al., mod fashion, James Bond, vintage Michael Caine, all the groovy stuff Austin Powers was...
Good grief, was that ever bleak. When I think of England circa 1966, I think of the Beatles et al., mod fashion, James Bond, vintage Michael Caine, all the groovy stuff Austin Powers was lampooning. Wasn't London the epicenter of the swinging '60s? I did NOT expect a 6-minute montage of fatalistic children describing an unavoidable coming apocalypse, all in the same expressionless monotone.
I grew up decades later on the Epcot-style optimistic futurism that blossomed in the '60s and '70s. Its roots go back to the advent of the postwar "atomic age" and the dream of limitless energy and automation that took hold in the '40s and '50s. None of that spirit seems present in these kids. @stu2b50 mentioned the Cold War and I think that's some fair framing, but still... where is the hope? Children are supposed to be overflowing with hope. Hadn't any of them watched The Jetsons? Lost in Space? Doctor Who? Star Trek wasn't a smash hit yet but it had been airing on the BBC for a few months before this aired.
I'm gonna assume the kids were fed leading questions by a somber off-screen interviewer with an agenda, and only the most fatalistic responses were selected for the final edit. I don't buy the general zeitgeist having been that egregiously off-balance, at that place and time in history.
I mean, one kid predicted the end of not only segregation but also classism. That's an impressive shitton of hope to have at this era tbqh. Honestly a lot of their predictions map well onto scifi...
that's some fair framing, but still... where is the hope? Children are supposed to be overflowing with hope.
I mean, one kid predicted the end of not only segregation but also classism. That's an impressive shitton of hope to have at this era tbqh.
Honestly a lot of their predictions map well onto scifi from that era and earlier. Even though that scifi was typically for adults, kids aren't blind and deaf to the concerns of adults.
Yes, considering one of them was mentioning quite metaphorical things like going to the 'funeral of a computer' (which I'm not really sure how to picture), I would expect many of their visions...
Yes, considering one of them was mentioning quite metaphorical things like going to the 'funeral of a computer' (which I'm not really sure how to picture), I would expect many of their visions come from sci-fi
I don't think it's that surprising. Not only was it around the height of the cold war, but remember that these kids were raised by parents who went through world war 2. The UK had already seen the...
I don't think it's that surprising. Not only was it around the height of the cold war, but remember that these kids were raised by parents who went through world war 2. The UK had already seen the horrors that can come just from conventional bombs, it makes a whole lot of sense that in the context of the cold war they would be terrified of the possibilities.
Well like most I found it pretty bleak, but there were some real gems in there. My favorite was the particularly insightful boy from 1:28s. Up until he started referring to the "population...
Well like most I found it pretty bleak, but there were some real gems in there. My favorite was the particularly insightful boy from 1:28s. Up until he started referring to the "population problem" which usually has some pretty problematic undertones, I loved his stance about helping folks who's jobs were displaced by automation.
Other highlights were "People will be regarded more as statistics than individual people"; "I don't think it'll be so nice, all machine everywhere. People doing things for you. You'll get all bored"; "It'll be boring, people will be the same and things will be the same"; "They will set aside parts of the country solely for recreation";
Some really big assumptions. I love the concern for automation, identifying national/state parks, high density housing, globalization of culture, and gig based service economy.
Full transcript
Well, in the year 2000, I think I'll probably be in the spaceship to the moon dictating robots, two robots.
Or else I may be in charge of a robot court, judging some robots.
Or I may be at the funeral of a computer.
Or if something's gone wrong with their nuclear bombs, I may be sort of coming back from hunting in a cave.
I don't like the idea of sort of getting up and finding you've got a cabbage pill to eat for breakfast or something.
Oh, I think all these atomic bombs will be dropping around the place.
One will get near the centre, because it will sort of make a huge, great big crater.
And then the world will just melt, and the world will become one vast atomic explosion.
And it will become, like you'll see whenever, stars.
Some madman will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world into oblivion.
There's nothing you can do to stop it. The more people who get bombs, the more somebody's going to use it one day.
Well, I think it'll be so overpopulated that there'll be wars.
All the nuclear explosions and everything, it'll make the earth, you know, too much radiation on it.
It'll become too hot to live on. I think that there'll be no life at all, really, on the earth.
I don't think there is going to be atomic warfare, but I think that there is going to be all this automation.
People are going to be out of work and a great population, and I think something has to be done about it.
If I wasn't a biologist, that's what I'd like to do, to do something about the population problem.
Try and sort of temper it somehow. I don't know how.
I think it'll be very dull, and people will all be squashed together so much, there won't be any fun or anything.
And people will be rationed the amount of things they can have, because if they had too many things,
they'd just squash their houses and there just wouldn't be room for them.
I think people will be regarded more as statistics and as actual people.
I don't think it's going to be so nice. I think sort of all machines everywhere, everyone doing everything for you,
you know, you'll get all bored and I don't think it'll be so nice.
I think it's going to be very boring, and everything will be the same.
I mean, people will be the same, and things will be the same.
First of all, those computers are taking over now, computers and automation.
And in the year 2000, there just won't be enough jobs to go around,
and the only jobs there will be will be for people with high IQ who can work computers and such things,
and other people are just not going to have jobs. There just aren't going to be jobs for them to have.
I expect they will set aside parts of the country solely for recreation and have large blocks of built-up areas,
and I think these are going to be very ugly indeed, probably.
I don't think I'll still be on Earth. I think I'll be under the sea.
I think the population will have gone up so much that either everyone will be living in sort of big domes in the Sahara,
or they'll be under the sea.
There'll be so many people that they'll have to have an overflow into the sea,
and so there'll be houses underneath the sea and houses above the sea.
They're not going to have so many square houses, you know, more curves and artistic designs,
instead of just sort of boxes like they've got nowadays.
People wouldn't be able to live in ordinary houses because I would take up too much room.
It'd have to be in flats piled on top of one another, like that.
And the houses would be rather small, and everything would be cramped up, very cramped.
Animals, as they have here, sheep and cows and livestock, they'll be kept in batteries.
They won't be allowed to graze on pastures. They'll be kept in buildings altogether, all in one big building,
and artificially reared so they'll yield a larger, be bigger and give more food.
All the Sputniks and everything that are going up sort of interferes with the weather,
and I think the sea may rise and will sort of cover some of England.
There'll be just islands left from, like, only the highlands in Scotland,
and some of the big hills in England and Wales.
I don't think all England will be wiped out because some of it will be too high.
I think the sea will rise to about 300 to 600 feet.
It might freeze because the sun, I think, will probably burn out,
and there's an ice cap coming down from North Pole. I think it'll cover the earth.
It might have another ice age.
I don't think there's anything to be frightened of, and a lot of people think it's going to explode, but I'm certain it won't.
I think it'll be much more efficient because there'll be more cures for the diseases, and not so many people will get sick.
The black people, you know, won't be sort of separate. They'll be all mixed in with the white people,
and, you know, the poor people and rich people will become the same.
Well, they will be poor and richer, but they won't sort of look down on each other.
I'm not looking forward to living in that year, about 50 years' time.
I mean, the world seems to be in such a terrible state now, let alone in 50 years' time.
Thank you.
Thank you for your work!
Well, these kids have some depressing visions for the future. For once the future was actually demonstrably better than what they thought. What living in the cold war era does to you, I guess.
I find it interesting that I can't tell how old these kids are. My eyes tell me one thing, but they're all so very serious!
I read an unrelated article a little white after watching this and it reminded me that Star Trek first aired in 1966. It's easy to see why people, even young people, were attracted to its positive view of the future.
This is an interesting video of children predicting what life will be like in the year 2000. It’s interesting to see what even now we haven’t yet got, and what things are routine!
I think there also some interesting parallels to some of the thoughts we have about the advance of AI now, and how things may be slower than we expect.
Good grief, was that ever bleak. When I think of England circa 1966, I think of the Beatles et al., mod fashion, James Bond, vintage Michael Caine, all the groovy stuff Austin Powers was lampooning. Wasn't London the epicenter of the swinging '60s? I did NOT expect a 6-minute montage of fatalistic children describing an unavoidable coming apocalypse, all in the same expressionless monotone.
I grew up decades later on the Epcot-style optimistic futurism that blossomed in the '60s and '70s. Its roots go back to the advent of the postwar "atomic age" and the dream of limitless energy and automation that took hold in the '40s and '50s. None of that spirit seems present in these kids. @stu2b50 mentioned the Cold War and I think that's some fair framing, but still... where is the hope? Children are supposed to be overflowing with hope. Hadn't any of them watched The Jetsons? Lost in Space? Doctor Who? Star Trek wasn't a smash hit yet but it had been airing on the BBC for a few months before this aired.
I'm gonna assume the kids were fed leading questions by a somber off-screen interviewer with an agenda, and only the most fatalistic responses were selected for the final edit. I don't buy the general zeitgeist having been that egregiously off-balance, at that place and time in history.
I mean, one kid predicted the end of not only segregation but also classism. That's an impressive shitton of hope to have at this era tbqh.
Honestly a lot of their predictions map well onto scifi from that era and earlier. Even though that scifi was typically for adults, kids aren't blind and deaf to the concerns of adults.
Yes, considering one of them was mentioning quite metaphorical things like going to the 'funeral of a computer' (which I'm not really sure how to picture), I would expect many of their visions come from sci-fi
I don't think it's that surprising. Not only was it around the height of the cold war, but remember that these kids were raised by parents who went through world war 2. The UK had already seen the horrors that can come just from conventional bombs, it makes a whole lot of sense that in the context of the cold war they would be terrified of the possibilities.
Well like most I found it pretty bleak, but there were some real gems in there. My favorite was the particularly insightful boy from 1:28s. Up until he started referring to the "population problem" which usually has some pretty problematic undertones, I loved his stance about helping folks who's jobs were displaced by automation.
Other highlights were "People will be regarded more as statistics than individual people"; "I don't think it'll be so nice, all machine everywhere. People doing things for you. You'll get all bored"; "It'll be boring, people will be the same and things will be the same"; "They will set aside parts of the country solely for recreation";
Some really big assumptions. I love the concern for automation, identifying national/state parks, high density housing, globalization of culture, and gig based service economy.