Monday, May 27, 2013

Living in the future

Sometimes, when I'm walking down the street, I look around and imagine what a person from the past would think of what I'm seeing and doing and experiencing.  What would look familiar to them and what would look impenetrable to them?  Which changes would they think are a miracle and which ones would they think are a tragedy?  How would this live up to their expectations for the year 2013?  Would they be disappointed by the lack of flying cars, or amazed at the computing power in our handheld devices?

So I was walking down the street, thinking these kinds of thoughts, and I saw a Future Shop.

And I found myself wondering what people from the past would think of the fact that, in the future, we have a Future Shop! 

It seems like something out of a mid-20th-century scifi B-movie, doesn't it?  "I need a new space phone.  Better go to the future shop!"

When you add in the mid-20th-century retroish vertical signs on some of the urban locations (like this one) it almost comes across as something created in the 1950s in an attempt to fit into the future as imagined in that era. (Even though the internet tells me it was founded in the early 80s, and most stores don't have those retroish signs - they seem to be used where the stores open right onto the sidewalk instead of into a parking lot as they do in most big box locations.)

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