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Back to the future

© Simon Jones

What will life be like in the 21st century? Ask any nine year old and you'll get an exhaustive description of a Metal Mickey-esque creation that does the washing up, vacuums the house and if you ask it nicely helps you with your homework. Back in the 50's this vision was expected to come into fruition in the 80's or 90's. It is now the year 2000 and we are a long way off to a Fritz Lang Metropolis of flying cars and a life controlled by robots.

Bordering between science prediction and fantasy science fiction has always had a bit of an identity problem. In the public eye it is interpreted (quite wrongly) as the science world's vision of the future. "Science Fiction" never catches up with "science fact". Even so, utopian dreams are vital in helping to inspire society's progression, conversely dystopian visions warn of impending doom. In retrospect Science Fiction has always been far out, in both senses of the word. Whenever science forces an idealised futuristic vision on the public it inevitably ends in disaster. The Sinclair C5 -'the vision of the electric car' is one such example.

The future is never clearly defined as many of us think, generally there are a few diversions along the way that throw us off course. Few would have thought back in the sixties that two decades later mock Olde Worlde housing would become hugely popular when at the time high-rise living was universally envied. Today's pub is transformed into a museum set devoted to battered copper pots, fake beams and enough oak panelling to rival the House of Commons. Nothing looks more ridiculous than an awkward mish-mash, I recently saw, of a Victoriana style pub on the futuristic steel and glass exterior of Milton Keynes Shopping Centre.

Does returning to a bygone era signify an inner desire to escape from a fast moving ever-changing world or is it simply that the past just seems more cosy? The typical home of the future could be nothing more than a tudor patische with advanced electronic gadgetry cleverly camouflaged amongst the antiquarian decor like a scene from a spy novel.

Comfort in the home is a desired commodity for most of us. Who really wants to live in a clinical white minimalist unit typified in the sci-fi genre? They are best leftto the arty Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowens of this world many of us believe. In Britain we like to deck our homes out with wall to wall furniture. As soon as we spot a space in the room we feel an inner compulsion to fill it in an effort to make the

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