Tomorrow begins 2008. Two-Thousand Eight!! We’re well into the 21st century people! I’ve always enjoyed those far-out forecasts of what life will be like in the future. (I’m still waiting for my flying car, dang it.) However, as technology advances all around me, I find myself more and more often blurting out, “That is so Star Trek!!”

Once again, I have bent the rules on English. Before I turned Google into a verb. Now I’ve turned Star Trek into an adjective.

This phrase first entered my lexicon when I walked in on a coworker reading Lord of the Rings as an eBook on his PDA. Because, seriously, Captain Picard always read books and reports on a little, hand-held computer screen. (Someone PLEASE send me a picture of this.) Now, right here in my own life time, I can do the same thing. That’s unbelievable. That’s Star Trek!!

I think it’s healthy for us to look back once in a while and see just how far we’ve come. That gives us the ability to make much better predictions about where we’re going. I found this great forward thinking movie from 1956 on YouTube. (In a 1956 frame of mind, YouTube is incredibly Star Trek!) The best thing about this old flick is how many things they got right. Here are my favorite (follow along as you watch the video):

• Automatic lighting on highways. (00:29)
• Heated bridges reduce black ice. (00:40)
• Cadillac’s “Night Vision” (2000) was improved upon last year by Mercedes and BMW. (00:53)
• In dash navigation systems now incorporate traffic reports. (01:06)
• Rear view cameras.
• “Care Flight” helicopter ambulance service. (01:31)
• Suburbia and long distance commuting (02:42)
• Interstate highways. (03:00)
• “Synchronized scanning map” again answered by in dash nav system. (03:33)
• Increased leisure time and RV’s with “all the comforts of home”. (04:55)
• Amphibious RV. (05:35)
• Shipping containers transition from ship, to train, to truck. (But not yet rockets. *wink*) (05:44)
• And don’t forget the smog! Subtly added at the end around 08:21.

Here’s another great “future” video. “The Future Is Now” – 1950. From personal video cameras to guided missiles, microwave ovens to solar panels. These guy’s nailed it.