How "2001" Got The Future So Wrong

Episode 1.01: This inaugural episode of Soonish is about the boldest vision of the future ever put down on film: Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey." The movie came out in 1968, and it offered a detailed and inspiring forecast for life the early 21st century, including giant space stations, moon bases, thinking computers, and humans traveling to Jupiter. By putting the year in the title, Kubrick tied these forecasts to a very specific date. But by the time the actual year 2001 rolled around, very few of the film’s predictions had come true, and its optimism seemed almost naïve. In today’s episode we ask why we lowered our expectations so drastically—and what that means for our own future. The Soonish theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay. Additional music by Kai Engel and Philipp Weigl.