History Quotes / IWantMyJetPack

->''"Dear [[TheBBC BBC]]. Well it's now 30 years down the line, and I'm no closer to owning a robotic housemaid. ''Tomorrow's World''? Tomorrow's horseshit, more like!"''

->''"The [[BillClinton Clinton Administration]] came in in early 1993. This administration had its focus on the domestic economy...With budget cuts necessary, NASA was an obvious target. Public humiliations like the revelation that the Hubble telescope was near-sighted did not help. The organisation found itself moving further and further away from pioneering space flight and opened the industry up to international or private efforts. The decline of NASA was such a public spectacle that even shows like ''Series/TheXFiles'' ('Space') and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' ('Deep Space Homer') touched on it.\\\

->''"Today it is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy's edge. But in the process, [[JobStealingRobot we have lost the human element]]; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create 'one world.' Instead of one world, we have '[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan star wars]],' and a future in which dumb, dented human toys will drift aimlessly about the cosmos after [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves our small planet's dead.]]"''

The wondrous space-faring future of ''Star Trek'' seemed further away than ever. Jetrel seems like a way top address these anxieties, exploring the legacy of splitting the atom. It feels like a reflection on early atomic era optimism, wondering whether the cost had been worth it. It was also perhaps a way of mourning the passage of that optimism and enthusiasm – the idea that the future might find a way to turn destructive scientific advances into the gateway to a better tomorrow."''

->''"Today it is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy's edge. But in the process, [[JobStealingRobot we have lost the human element]]; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create 'one world.' Instead of one world, we have '[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan star wars]],' and a future in which dumb, dented human toys will drift aimlessly about the cosmos after our small planet's dead."''

->''"[[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids I feel sorry]] for those who think innovation will ever lead humanity to some new era of intelligence and social awareness. Hacktivists and crowdsourcing and cryptocurrencies and [=WikiLeaks=] are all proof...we’re not giving the elite much incentive to let us keep these freedoms, although mobile devices and the Internet are proving to be a wonderful at pacifying people too."''

->''"Today it is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy's edge. But in the process, [[MachineWorship we have lost the human element]]; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create 'one world.' Instead of one world, we have '[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan star wars]],' and a future in which dumb, dented human toys will drift aimlessly about the cosmos after our small planet's dead."''

->''I thought by now we'd live in space\\

You turn my blood to sand, the earth stands still again.''

->''Where's my hovercraft?\\

Where's the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now?''

-> The future ain't what it used to be.

-->--'''ThreePanelSoul''', [[http://threepanelsoul.com/2008/11/05/on-advancements/ On Advancements]]

->'''Mark''': This isn't the future! THIS IS THE LOUSY STINKIN' NOW!
->'''John''': We still have hope for 2030 or even 2020. I mean, people are working on humanoid robots as we speak!
-->'''A filler comic from {{Tropers/StongRadd}}'s webcomic-to-be'''

->''"Boy, were we off base. It isn't simply that the predictions were wrong. No one with half a brain really expected that sort of accuracy. And true, though some marvels did not come to pass, others that were and weren't predicted did. We certainly live very different lives from that of our fathers and grandfathers. That is not in dispute. But what did not happen is what many expected, though never talked about much. Assuming that we dodged the ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'', ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' bullet, our future was supposed to be a sort of technocratic, atomic-powered, computer-controlled, antiseptic, space-travelling Jerusalem that would at last free us from the curse of Eden and original sin...We expected a sort of bloodless, benign French Revolution with Hugo Gernsback as our Voltaire and CarlSagan as our Robespierre. And what did we get? The City of Man with Tivo."''

-->-- '''Ed Byrne:''' , ''MockTheWeek'', "Unlikely letters to be read out on ''Points of View''"

-> ''"We've all got gadgets coming out of our ears; ipods, satnavs, an electrical item for every job. To many, it must seem like we're living in the future. But to other's the cry has always been: "Well if this is the future, then where's my jetpack?" Well today, those people will definitely have a smile on their face."''

->''"You know what's so disappointing about the future?" growled the torrid half-Klingon. "NO {{FLYING CAR}}S!" She swung back her arm and hurled the speedster as hard and far as she could."''

->''"Boy, were we off base. It isn't simply that the predictions were wrong. No one with half a brain really expected that sort of accuracy. And true, though some marvels did not come to pass, others that were and weren't predicted did. We certainly live very different lives from that of our fathers and grandfathers. That is not in dispute. But what did not happen is what many expected, though never talked about much. Assuming that we dodged the ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'', ''BraveNewWorld'' bullet, our future was supposed to be a sort of technocratic, atomic-powered, computer-controlled, antiseptic, space-travelling Jerusalem that would at last free us from the curse of Eden and original sin...We expected a sort of bloodless, benign French Revolution with Hugo Gernsback as our Voltaire and CarlSagan as our Robespierre. And what did we get? The City of Man with Tivo."''

->''"Today it is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy's edge. But in the process, [[MachineWorship we have lost the human element]]; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create 'one world.' Instead on one world, we have '[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan star wars]],' and a future in which dumb, dented human toys will drift aimlessly about the cosmos after our small planet's dead."''

->''"Boy, were we off base. It isn't simply that the predictions were wrong. No one with half a brain really expected that sort of accuracy. And true, though some marvels did not come to pass, others that were and weren't predicted did. We certainly live very different lives from that of our fathers and grandfathers. That is not in dispute. But what did not happen is what many expected, though never talked about much. Assuming that we dodged the ''{{1984}}'', ''BraveNewWorld'' bullet, our future was supposed to be a sort of technocratic, atomic-powered, computer-controlled, antiseptic, space-travelling Jerusalem that would at last free us from the curse of Eden and original sin...We expected a sort of bloodless, benign French Revolution with Hugo Gernsback as our Voltaire and CarlSagan as our Robespierre. And what did we get? The City of Man with Tivo."''

->''"Today it is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy's edge. But in the process, [[MachineWorship we have lost the human element]]; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would creates 'one world.' Instead on one world, we have '[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan star wars]],' and a future in which dumb, dented human toys will drift aimlessly about the cosmos after our small planet's dead."''

->''"Dear [[TheBBC BBC]]. Well it's now 30 years down the line, and I'm no closer to owning a robotic housemaid. ''Tomorrow's World''? Tomorrow's horseshit, more like!"''
-->-- '''Ed Byrne:''' , ''MockTheWeek'', "Unlikely letters to be read out on ''Points of View''"

-> The future ain't what it used to be.
-->-- Attributed to Yogi Berra; this trope in a nutshell.

->''"Wait a minute, ''those'' existed in the 50s?! What a rip-off! I want one! I demand one right now!"''
-->-- '''TheSpoonyExperiment''', during his riffing on ''Captain Z-Ro''

->''"{{The future}} had never really been built past [[TurnOfTheMillennium the change of the millennium]], and without that to anchor it there was just a vast, featureless present. Even technological advancement had become oddly fixed and predictable. The future came in regularly scheduled product launches headlined by Steve Jobs, incremental, predictable, and mostly leaked to rumor sites a few weeks in advance. It was not even a hugely pessimistic historical moment. Rather it was one captured by a grim banality. Nothing changes. Humanity sits past the ghost point, [[ShaggyDogStory all the ideas and storming progress of the twentieth century ground to a point]]. For a hundred years now we had assumed we were building to something -- that there was some sort of stable endpoint that all the churn and upheaval pointed towards. Whether that endpoint was utopia or armageddon was up in the air, but the broad idea that history was going somewhere wasn’t. Instead, however, the wheels simply fell off, and the tow truck never came. We sat, abandoned on history’s roadside, left thinking, “is this all there was?” And, seeing no sign of civilization, we [[{{Twitter}} tweeted]] about it."''\\

--'''[[http://www.philipsandifer.com/2014/03/pop-between-realities-home-in-time-for.html Phil Sandifer]]''

->''"Boy, were we off base. It isn't simply that the predictions were wrong. No one with half a brain really expected that sort of accuracy. And true, though some marvels did not come to pass, others that were and weren't predicted did. We certainly live very different lives from that of our fathers and grandfathers. That is not in dispute. But what did not happen is what many expected, though never talked about much. Assuming that we dodged the ''{{1984}}'', ''BraveNewWorld'' bullet, our future was supposed to be a sort of technocratic, atomic-powered, computer-controlled, antiseptic, space-travelling Jerusalem that would at last free us from the curse of Eden and original sin...We expected a sort of bloodless, benign French Revolution with Hugo Gernsback as our Voltaire and CarlSagan as our Robespierre. And what did we get? The City of Man with Tivo."''
-->-- '''''[[http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm Tales of Future Past]]'''''

->'''Hobbes:''' Frankly, I'm not sure people have the brains to manage the technology they've got.
->'''Calvin:''' I mean, ''look'' at this! We still have weather?! Give me a break!

->"Wait a minute, those existed in the 50s?! What a rip-off! I want one! I demand one right now!"
-->-- '''Spoony''', during his riffing on ''Captain Z-Ro''

->''Dear [[TheBBC BBC]]. Well it's now 30 years down the line, and I'm no closer to owning a robotic housemaid. ''Tomorrow's World''? Tomorrow's horseshit, more like!''
-->-- '''Ed Byrne:''' , ''MockTheWeek'', "Unlikely letters to be read out on ''Points of View''"

->'''Leo [=McGarry=]''': A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?

->''[The iPhone] can contact nearly anyone in the world, locate me on aerial maps, and plot directions to any location in the country. It is unquestionably the future, and you would have crashed your stupid flying car anyway.''
-->--'''ThreePanelSoul''', [[http://threepanelsoul.com/2008/11/05/on-advancements/ On Advancements]]

->'''Mark''': This isn't the future! THIS IS THE LOUSY STINKIN' NOW!
->'''John''': We still have hope for 2030 or even 2020. I mean, people are working on humanoid robots as we speak!
-->'''A filler comic from {{Tropers/StongRadd}}'s webcomic-to-be'''

->''Where's my hovercraft?\\
Where's my jetpack?\\
Where's the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now?''
-->-- '''Music/TheyMightBeGiants''', "The World Before Later On"

->''I'm going to write a story set after {{the Singularity}}, a million years hence, when we are all intergalactically-empowered immortal sentiences in the Beyond, and people will STILL BE COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT HAVING SODDING JETPACKS.''
-->-- '''[[http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011324.html Patrick Nielsen Hayden]]'''

->''[[{{Zeerust}} It wasn't that long ago that...we had a future that we could clearly imagine.]] The future wasn't tomorrow, next week, next year, or next century. It was a place with a form, a structure, astyle [sic]...The future was a world with a distinct architecture. It had its own way of speaking. It had its own technology. It was for all intents and purposes a different land where people dressed differently, talked differently, ate differently, and even thought differently. It was where [[ScienceHero scientists were wizards]], where machines were magically effective and efficient, where tyrants were at least [[EvilIsHammy romantically evil rather than banal]], and where the heavens were fairyland [sic] where dreams could literally come true...

->As Midnight brought in the year 2000 (or 2001 if you prefer), something odd began to sink in. For people of my generation, who had lived through the tarnished promises of the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the Computer Age, and the This That and Another Age, the year 2001 was a gateway. We waited twenty, thirty, forty years and some longer to pass though that gate into a time when [[StarshipLuxurious spaceships the size of ocean liners]] plied between colonised planets, where [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas cities were colourful collections of brand new towers without a single old building or blade of grass, where people wore jumpsuits like they were the togas of a technocratic Rome]], where [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot robots were our powerful and obedient servants]], and where [[JetPack jetpacks]] were as common as galoshes...Our future was supposed to be a sort of technocratic, atomic-powered, computer-controlled, antiseptic, space-travelling Jerusalem that would at last free us from the curse of Eden and original sin...We expected a sort of bloodless, benign French Revolution with Hugo Gernsback as our Voltaire and Carl Sagan as our Robespierre. And what did we get? The City of Man with Tivo.

-->-- '''Tales of Future Past'''

->''[[Film/BackToTheFuture In five years, we're gonna have flying cars and hoverboards and self-lacing shoes]]... it better happen. Otherwise they should have made it the year 3000. Even if they made it 2100, we'd all be dead. It wouldn't make a difference anyway. Better to be a mystery than to be ''wrong''!''
-->-- ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd''

->I thought by now we'd live in space\\
and eat a pill instead of dinner\\
and wear a gas mask on our face, \\
a President of female gender.\\
Though progress marches on, \\
our troubles will grow strong\\
and my expectancies, become my fantasies.\\
You turn my blood to sand, the earth stands still again.
-->-- '''DanielAmos''', "(It's the Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs"

-> ''"We've all got gadgets coming out of our ears; ipods, satnavs, an electrical item for every job. To many, it must seem like we're living in the future. But to other's the cry has always been: "Well if this is the future, then where's my jetpack?" Well today, those people will definitely have a smile on their face."''
-->-- ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=vDIojhOkV4w&NR=1 Series 4, Episode 3]]

->"You know what's so disappointing about the future?" growled the torrid half-Klingon. "NO {{FLYING CAR}}S!" She swung back her arm and hurled the speedster as hard and far as she could.

->"Unless you're over 60, you weren't promised flying cars. You were promised an opressive cyberpunk dystopia. Here you go."

-->--'''ThreePanelSoul''', [[http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2008-11-05 On Advancements]]

->"You know what's so disappointing about the future?" growled the torrid half-Klingon. "NO FLYING CARS!" She swung back her arm and hurled the speedster as hard and far as she could.

->''"You know what's so disappointing about the future?" growled the torrid half-Klingon. "NO FLYING CARS!" She swung back her arm and hurled the speedster as hard and far as she could.''

-->-- ThatMitchellAndWebbLook [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=vDIojhOkV4w&NR=1 Series 4, Episode 3]]