“ The house of 1999 will be virtually maintenance free , ” the narrator adjudge in his 1967 concept film . And while you may probably venture some of the technological advancements in the picture show — like computers , facsimile machine machines , and even netmail — there ’s one forecasting from the short promotional film that did n’t quite trash out . It was the dishwashing machine of the hereafter . Or , more incisively , the dirty dish uprooter .
The narrator declare that the American kitchen of tomorrow will have “ coloring material - key disposable dish ” a concept of disposability that was all the furore in predictions from the 1960s . The celluloid , titled “ 1999 A.D. , ” was produced in 1967 by the Philco - Ford bay window and had deal of ideas like that . But the construct of every sept using fuddle - away lulu was n’t needfully as wasteful as it seems at first glance . At least we hope not .
The implicit hope of the nursing home of tomorrow was often that your dishes would be reuse when an invisible simple machine would craunch up the dirty plates and glasses , only to reassemble them in a sixties adaptation of 3D printing for the next prison term they ’re needed .
Gif: Philco-Ford
How was any of this more energy effective than , say , just blasting some urine on the hapless pipe bowl and saucer ? The manipulation of energy was way beside the level in the 1960s , it would seem . The central idea to almost every corporate - produce vision of the hereafter from the twentieth hundred was build on an idea of the leisure time gild .
While 1999 A.D. did n’t include the robot Samuel Butler of a piece of soda pop culture like “ The Jetsons , ” it had futurist gadgets that were about giving hoi polloi time to pursue their dream — something that was commonly promised indishwasher ads of midcentury . In the typesetter’s case of wife and mother type in “ 1999 A.D. , ” she gets to spend metre score pottery , a rage that she can quest after because “ the house demands on her time have been greatly diminish . ”
And since the company who made the celluloid , Philco - Ford , was trying to sell regular base appliance like radiocommunication and video at the clock time , the advertisers were trying to associate their intersection with forwards - thinking ideas and the technology that was supposedly just over the apparent horizon .
Gif: Hanna-Barbera/Warner Bros. Animation
astonishingly , the hoi polloi of the sixties were convinced that thing like flyer dishes were all part of cut back the ordinary American ’s workload without taking by any of their income . In fact , one newspaper publisher clause that come out the same twelvemonth as “ 1999 A.D. ” boasted that citizenry would have a16 - hr work weekby the year 2020 .
“ There is reason to fear , as some do , that free time , storm loose time , will bring on the restless check of boredom , idleness , immorality , and increase personal violence , ” one political scientist predicted in 1967 . The pickle float for these trouble when everything is automated was a warrant payroll check for everybody , no matter how much they work .
From the newspaper article , which appear in the November 26 , 1967 edition of theGastonia Gazettein Gastonia , North Carolina :
One possible solution : a separation of income from work ; perhaps a guaranteed annual wage to ply “ the wherewithal for a life of leisure time for all those who think they have the temperament . ”
We did n’t get disposable dish aerial , nor a guarantee income for 2020 , but we did get some facet of that techno - utopian society . If anything , we got a standardisation of waste product and an ability to start fresh with inexpensive good .
“ The Jetsons ” imagined something similar to the disposable dishes of “ 1999 A.D. ” in thefifth episodeof the invigorate series , which first aired on October 21 , 1962 . Jane Jetson , the materfamilias of this family from 2062 , complains that she hat doing the sweetheart and her girl Judy declare oneself to do them in her place .
“ It ’s been so long since I ’ve done the dishes , ” Judy says to herself , think over how to get the task done with a giant “ dish administration ” sign sitting next to the kitchen board .
After push the button , a flat crushing motorcar descends from the roof , destruct the knockout completely , and a large broom emerges from the wall to bull the pieces away .
All done . Everything is clear and sweet ; a cartoonified reset that would determine expectations for numberless generations of tyke through constant reruns on Saturday morning TV . And Judy did n’t even suffer “ buttonitis , ” a vulgar malady in the Jetsons universe of discourse .
There are , of course of study , other examples of throwaway culture in onetime futurism . Disposable clothes were all the rage in the1950s and 60 . The futurist mankind of the 21st century from 1939 even haddisposable socks .
Admittedly , I once threw away an quondam pot that had been sitting in my fridge for month rather than scrape out the science project inside and just wash off it . It was a horrifically wasteful thing to do and it ’s not my proudest bit , but withdirt - cheap kitchen productsavailable at big box store like Target , Walmart , and Ikea , modern consumer club is fundamentally built to be thrown away .
We ’re still waiting on a lot of thing from one-time futures we were call , from the flying car to the 16 - hr workplace calendar week . But one way or another we get the disposable sweetheart . frankly , I think I speak for most of humanity when I say I ’d choose theshort oeuvre hebdomad .
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