I Wondered About the Year 2010

When I was 16 I read a scifi novel, "Stand on Zanibar." John Brunner wrote a compelling, sprawling story set in the year 2010. A large part of the story takes place in Manhattan, which was under the Fuller Dome.

I don't really want to review the book. He got a lot of the future wrong. He missed the digital revolution completely. There are no PCs, or laptops or net books, or Ipods, or cell phones or anything like that. He didn't anticipate environmental degradation, except maybe sideways via overpopulation. About the economy of 2010 he says not a word. We can infer from the novel that by 2010 there had been a move away from gasoline engines. No explanation why. He also didn't anticipate the ruinous War on Drugs. In 2010 pot is legal, a big industry.

He did get genetic typing right. In SOZ it is a tool of government to enforce draconian laws regardin, as we would say, "reproductive rights". In 2010 large families (more than two children) are penalized by law and stigmatized socially.

I loved this book and can still recommend it. I hadn't thought about it in years until the year 2010 actually rolled around.

At age 16 I wondered about 2010 and what my life would be then. If I could have had a vision of myself at this very moment I wouldn't have known what to make of it. Like the MacBook I'm writing on. The keyboard I would have got, but this is no typewriter. what is this cool, bright TV thingy that the words appear on.

I would not have understand the cell phone I just checked for messages. An couple of hours ago a big shot from Medicare called to give me some information that will allow me to settle a client's case. He obligingly repeated his message into my voice mail. I'm going to play it back it back for the judge and opposing counsel Friday morning.
I would have been impressed by the big hi-def TV. But I wouldn't have gotten watching "Have Gun, Will Travel". I didn't like that show when I was a kid.

I would have been pleased to see I got married. I would not have believed that I became a lawyer. I had no such thought in 1970. I would not have understand how a kid who wanted to paint portraits ended up becoming a political operative, a court official and a practicing attorney. Actually it all made sense as it happened, but you have to take my word for it.

I guess even though I wouldn't have understood a lot I would have been encouraged. The adults around me were a bitter, frustrated bunch. I could see it on display at family gatherings. My parents, the most materially successful ones of the extended family, always hosted. I used to wonder if that was all I had to look forward to in the year 2010, when I would be even older than most of the relatives who were bumming me out.

I couldn't have known in 1970 what my life would look like forty years on. But it is kind of fun to look back and try to remember my fears and my hopes for myself.