Forecasting the future is always risky. But in November 1988 Discover took the plunge, dedicating an entire issue—19 articles in all—to describing what daily life would be like at the “Dawn of the 21st Century.”
A typical day in 2001, as divined by our reporters, went like this: Wake up. Have a nutritional breakfast of South American tubers with fake fat in your butter and artificial sweetener in your coffee. Leave it to your automated house to do the laundry, water the lawn, and scare off burglars. Commute to work on a magnetic levitating train. Or let your car do the driving using a global positioning system, or GPS. Stop by your robotic doctor for a checkup. If you need a replacement body part, just grow it on yourself. Return to an evening of computer-generated animation or, better yet, a Hollywood film starring you. This last idea excited editor in ...
