2011: Living in the Future

About this book

Originally published in 1972 2011: Living in the Future wondered how we would live in the 2000s. This optimistic book is both whimsical and nostalgic inspiring and disappointing. Where are those jet-packs? In Geoffrey Hoyles book 2011: Living in the Future in the far-off year 2011 well all do our work attend school and read library books on ingenious video screens that can connect to each other from anywhere around the globe. Hoyle calls these miraculous devices Vision Phones " (much more lyrical than i-Phone.) Of course in author Geoffrey Hoyles 1972 vision of the 2000s those screens are telephone-based the size of a large dishwasherand we use them while wearing practical and ingeniously designed jumpsuits made of a material so light you can hardly feel it. We eat using an amazing device into which we simply type our culinary desires on a screen and voila a fresh cooked meal to our exact specifications! Better yet no more rush hour no more gas fueled vehicles and no houses larger than any familys needs (if only wed heeded the warnings!) Some of Mr. Hoyles nearly forty year old predictions are remarkably accurate some are delightfully wrong all of them are thought provoking in a very entertaining pull it out at a party kind of way. Accompanied by its original ultra seventies illustrations 2011: Living in the Future is a near facsimile of the original with very slight modifications. Mr. Hoyles book makes a wonderful gift to both children and adults or to anyone who has ever speculated on what the future holds lamented the lack of modern day jet packs or just likes to laugh at how different the future turns out to be from anything we could have or can predict!