21st Century Problems: Why Technology Has Some Catching Up To Do

In the 1950s, when they imagined the 21st century, it was amazing. The Jetsons has become the go-to to describe the kind of lives we were meant to be living. We’d wake up to a fresh breakfast, go to work in our flying car and return home to our house cleaned by the robot butler. It was going to be great.

Image Source: Flickr

So, er, what went wrong? We’ve been in the 21st century for awhile now, and we seem to be no closer to The Jetsons’ lifestyle than we were in 1950. And in 1950, rationing was still a thing. Something has gone terribly wrong here.

The flying cars can wait, but the household conveniences we were promised? Those can’t, or at least, they shouldn’t. It’s hard to believe the below annoyances aren’t things we have fixed yet.

Going Into the Garden and It’s Too Hot

Still looks cooler than your back yard in summer.

“It’s too hot in this room,” you think. “I’ll go outside and cool down. Oh no, turns out I’ll go outside and feel like I’m standing on the surface of the sun.”

It doesn’t work. We have air conditioning indoors – so why do we not have climate controlled gardens yet? Come on, inventors. Do your homework. Sure we can try things like Casablanca Fans and even run through garden sprinklers, but it’s got to be easier than this.

Washing Up

Looks familiar …

But we’ve fixed this right? Dishwashers have existed for a long time, so what’s the problem?

You still have to load it. You still have to empty it. If your dishwasher isn’t that great, you might still have to dry the dishes. We have cut down the process, but we’ve not eliminated it.

Isn’t it about time we just put our dishes back into their cupboard, and they immediately washed themselves there and then? Even fairytales had the right idea, with The Beauty and the Beast making its crockery anthropomorphic. Really, this should be sorted by now.

Cleaning – All

As does this…

We still have to do it. We’ve made our vacuums into robots, and that’s a great first step. So that’s vacuuming sorted! That just leaves:

• Dusting
• Wiping down surfaces
• Hoovering
• Laundry and all included activities
• Removing stains from carpets

So that’s still… quite a lot, isn’t it?

At the very least, it seems reasonable to expect furniture to be immune to staining, dust and water circles. Yet we still have to remember to use coasters. It’s basically still the 14th century, only with less plague (which is admittedly appreciated).

Your Car Trying To Set You On Fire

What it feels like when you step inside.

Sorry, that should be: getting into your car when it’s been sitting in the sun. But I think we can all agree it’s the same thing.

Tinted windows don’t fix it. Those pull down covers – that you never remember to put in place – don’t fix it. Yes they can make things cooler, but they don’t remove the issue altogether. It still burns when you touch the steering wheel.

All we’re asking for is an air conditioning system that doesn’t cost anything to run or require any fuel. That can be too much to ask, can it?