2011: Living In The Future

Originally published in 1972, 2011: Living in the Future wondered how we would live in the 2000's.  This optimistic book is both whimsical and nostalgic, inspiring and disappointing.  Where are those jet-packs?  

In Geoffrey Hoyle’s book 2011: Living in the Future in the far-off year 2011, we'll 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 Hoyle's 1972 vision of the 2000's, those screens are telephone-based, the size of a large dishwasher—and 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 family’s needs (if only we'd heeded the warnings!)

Some of Mr. Hoyle's 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 it’s original ultra seventies illustrations  2011: Living in the Future is a near facsimile of the original with very slight modifications. Mr. Hoyle's 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!