Days of future past

Ned is having a rant. The cries of “Bushbabies! Where’s my gyrocopter? I want my silver suit!” are this evening echoing around Genie Towers. I have no idea what prompted this right now, but those of you of a certain age (Hello? Is anyone else there?) will recognise that those are items which, when we were at school, were promised to us by ‘The Year 2000’. It was True Fact that in that magical year all menial tasks would be performed by robots, everybody would wear silver space-suit type outfits and have jetpacks and personal flying machines so that traffic jams would be things of the past. It must be true. They told us that in school, and we all drew pictures of "Life In The Future".

Well, what happened then? And what toot are they filling children’s heads with for 2050 (apart from having to work till they’re 70 before they qualify for a pension, by which time they might just have paid off their student loans)?

Where did it all go so wrong? We have been cheated.