Predictions about the future are always interesting to check back many years later. some can be Therefore completely unfounded, but those who hit too close to home are the ones who poke fun at matters in their own time. Nothing really changed.
In case you lost it:
Pervasive consumerism and an automobile-centric lifestyle were ripe for a boom in 1963 when a small UK companyfounded the animation studio Halas and Batchelor (the people behind the 1981 animated film Wild) Heavy metal) produced an Oscar-nominated short film Automation in 2000.
You should really watch the whole thing in about nine short minutes, but if you don’t have time or don’t have a headset, I’ll summarize for you: It’s a look into the not-too-distant future of 2000. Science has liberated the entire planet from any worry of hunger or need. Humanity, without the burden of cooking food or producing electricity, is instead focused on constantly acquiring larger versions and many more objects are now easily created thanks to the miracle of technology.
Result not exactly like interstellar travel-Unbelievable style you hope for (probably because interstellar travel won’t broadcast for another three years). Cars became so big and piled up so quickly that people forced to live in their cars couldn’t literally navigate through the mass of traffic.
And even still! With cities engulfed in cars, people buy more cars to park on top of their neighbors and win the pointless battle to keep up with the Joneses. So science devised the self-renewable car to eventually satisfy consumer demand for more cars; a kind Gray Goo script.
I love everything about this cartoon: the dark humor, the dark consumerism, the focus on how car-centric life makes us accept ridiculous living conditions, the narration too serious by actor Ed Bishop — that’s all my extreme jam. I especially like when consumer wishes and messages from everyone from manufacturers to “psychologists” lead to longer and larger cars. In the end, when all the cars stack up, they’re big enough anyway to accommodate a family of four comfortably.
How silly! You can imagine? Buy bigger and bigger cars until they threaten our very way of life? Who will do such a thing?
