Miracles of the Future

Let's assess our success, as it were.

Chick-fil-A's breakfast bisquits exist, so we can put a check mark beside "eating sawdust."

Amazon, Shipt, DoorDash... Shopping by "picture phone" is a definite yup.

Taking a rocketplane to an orbital city. Well, give Muskrat another 18 months and he'll probably be building a city up there. He's already working on the rocketplanes -- although the landings to date have been a bit dodgy. Still, they did technically land. Hey, that last one (SN10) somebody could have theoretically walked away from... if they had walked really fast. "Ladies and gentlemen, please leave your carry-on in the overhead compartment and depart the lightly burning rocketship in a brisk but orderly fashion. Thank you for flying Flaming Muskrat Spacelines."

As for living in scientific comfort, well we can't really deny that. Our houses are heated and cooled and everything we could possibly want is at our beck and call. Well done on this one.

Cooking by solar heat? Not so much, no. We've got microwave ovens, which are far superior; infrared and the visible spectrum take too long. Maybe on the Muskrat Orbital. Unless you're a vegan, of course, in which case you might lay your kale in the sun before munching dejectedly on it while angrily contemplating your manifold failures and blaming your poor life choices on everyone but yourself. Not much future there, I'm afraid.

Shop by television... Wait, didn't we just cover this? Somebody really didn't like going to the store. Can't say I blame them.

So how did the 1950s prognostication fare? Not too shabby, actually. We could have had a worse future. Could have been better, too. If you're a 1950s time traveler reading this, here's a hint: Listen to Joe McCarthy. He's right.