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Following the path of so-called ‘retrofuturism’, we’re in search of strange, time-old office predictions that came true... or didn’t.

In 2011, several robotics companies saw such success that they established new office space all over the world, thanking massive revenue increases due to demand.

The iPad seems to have appeared straight from the pages of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, once dreamt-of virtual reality games are flying off the shelves, and the likes of automatic doors and escalators are unimpressive features of everyday life.

In so many ways, the sci-fi future predicted in the old days looks to be manifesting itself in the 21st century. But how was the working world envisioned? And how many predictions came true?

1. Your Daily Commute: FALSE

For a brief, fevered moment in the early 1970s, the hover car became a reality in the form of the flying Pinto. Unfortunately, this resulted in the instant fiery deaths of the two pilots at Oxnard, California. Despite the dreams of any of us sat bumper-to-bumper in the early mornings, it doesn’t look like we’ll be literally flying through our commute any time soon.

2. Your Office Clothes: FALSE?

The closest we’ve come to the foreseen fashions of yesteryear is Lady Gaga. Although, somewhere among the all-in-one space suits and – dare we remember – fur bikinis, one common theme stands out above the rest: gender neutral, or androgynous, fashion. Looking around... how wrong were they, really?

3. Your Office Space: TRUE?

There were some awfully strange predictions of future cityscapes floating around (some literally) in the 1930s. These ranged from a monolithic ant-farm Manhattan and ‘walking’ cities (a little out there) to mile-high skyscraper cities and bland, practical housing estates (not at all unusual in the 21st century).

4. Working From Home: TRUE

In a stunning example of future foresight, BT’s previous incarnation, the General Post Office (GPO), once predicted a world of remote-working in which technology removed our full-time reliance on physical office space. We’ve already hailed 2012 the year of the flexible office but it looks like the GPO got there first... in 1969!

Take our office technology survey and tell us if you would prefer to return to a world without tech and which office supplies you think might have lived their last.

Elsewhere on the Blog...

• What If: We Took Your Tech?

• 2012: The Year of the Flexible Office

• Ikea to Assemble Flat Pack City

Published by JuliaF on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 at 9:09 AM