The Future Is Now!

Way back in 2007, my nephew Aaron had a homework assignment to draw himself as a high school senior in the far off year of 2017.

Knowing I'm a graphic designer and illustrator, he decided to cheat by asking me to help with his assignment. And of course by "help," he meant "do it for me." 

So I agreed and drew "Future Aaron" for him, depicting what I thought he'd look like in the year 2017. I never did find out what grade I, er, I mean HE got on the assignment. Hopefully at least a B+!

Anyway, now that 2017 is actually here and he's graduated from high school, let's dredge up the drawing and see how I did!

Looking at my various "predictions," it's obvious I was going more for comedy here rather than accuracy. Especially with things like "Animated Hair Dye." I don't even know what the hell that means.

Same with the "TV Monitor Built Into Clothes." I knew that wouldn't come to pass by 2017, if ever. 

Amazingly, some of my snarkier predictions actually did come true after all. Well, sort of.

Take the "T-Shirt Displaying Animated Advertisements." We don't have anything quite like my illustration, but in 2014 a company called Digital Dudz came out with a line of t-shirts that utilized a smart phone to display moving images.

Simply download an animation onto your phone, then slip it in a special pocket on the inside of the shirt (behind a strategically placed hole) and watch the hilarity ensue.

So believe it or not, I sort of got this one right!

I was joking about the "Transparent Shoes" as well, but sure enough, a couple years ago Converse came out with clear Chuck Taylor All Stars! Amazing!

As you might expect, these shoes are made of some kind of clear vinyl instead of canvas, like normal Chuck Taylors. The number one complaint about them is the material "doesn't breathe well." Imagine that.

I did pretty well on most of the technology predictions. My "Goggles Displaying TV, Movies, Incoming Cell Phone Calls, Etc" is basically Google Glass, which came out in 2012 (and promptly disappeared shortly after!).

The "Personal Computer (Voice Activated— No Keypad Needed") is pretty much the same as the smart phone that everyone and their dog carries around today. Of course the first iPhone came out the same year I drew this, so it wasn't much of a stretch to predict it. 

Thor knows why I thought we would stick the thing to the back or our hands instead of actually carrying them or putting them in our pockets.

The "Cell Phone Earpiece" is puzzling, as that's pretty much a Bluetooth, which came out around 2000, well before I drew this in 2007. Congratulations to me, for predicting a seven year old technology! Maybe I'd never heard of Bluetooth at the time. I honestly don't remember. 

Note that I thought a "Cell Phone Receiver" would be necessary to go along with the earpiece and pick up your voice— something an actual Bluetooth doesn't require. Ah well. Can't predict everything right!

And the "Strange Fashions His Parents Don't Understand"— that's a safe prediction in ANY year! And we don't have "Government I.D. Barcode" tattoos... yet. Give 'em time!

Overall about half the predictions in my stupid drawing came true. That doesn't sound too bad, until you realize it's a "F" on the school grading chart. No wonder I hated school!