Visions of the Future

There's a new Discovery Channel docu(-drama?) series entitled 2057 that I've been combing through. It's essentially a futurist showcase, speculating what technologies we'll have 50 years from now.

One of the problems I have with many visions of the future is a total disconnect with the present. "2057" is very well-made, but the world it shows us is too clean. It doesn't look lived in. The common household technologies it offers would only be accessible to the very wealthy, living in spacious luxury apartments without a spot of dirt. I'm nitpicking a bit because the point of the show is obviously to titillate with the best gee-whiz gadgetry they can come up with, but the way they draw the world makes it feel far more like science fantasy than something that I'll be enjoying when I'm 81. (Like I'm really gonna live to see 60...)

The most curious aspect of the series, however, is how each hour-long episode actually weaves a dramatic story into the future-speculation. Between talking heads blathering on about what will be, we see footage of present technologies that will form the basis of future technologies, plus we get a scripted narrative:

A schoolboy accidentally unleashes an antiquated computer virus into a city's wired infrastructure... and his crotchety old grandfather has to save the day.

A man loses his health insurance just as he's about to have his mechanical heart replaced with a freshly-grown organic heart... so a doctor switches his identity with that of an insured patient who just passed away.

The scenarios are made more peculiar because each story develops beyond a simple illustration of technologies. There are plot twists and character developments that aren't really necessary if you're looking for a show that just offers a catalog of tomorrow's gadgets. (Hammacher Schlemmer from the future's junk pile.) All the actors are pretty committed, too. At least as committed as most of the actors on "24"... take that however you want.

Worth checking out, if it's the sort of subject that interests you. Some of the techs seem more far-fetched than others. I doubt it's the face of the world 50 years from now, but 50 years is a lot of time to kill so who knows...