In 1950, all eyes were turned excitedly towards the future. The New York Times ran a feature filled with optimism, looking at all the great technological advances we could expect in tomorrow’s world.

The year 2000 and beyond would bring great leaps forward, all designed to make life better and more comfortable.

The vision began well enough. It pictured a thriving metropolis surrounded by an airport, factories and hotels. Beyond the town lay the leafy suburbs, apartments, houses, parks and playgrounds.

In this world, solar and atomic power are used to create the energy needed to heat the homes, atomic-driven liners cruise the oceans and cars drive on double-decker highways.

With the more efficient lower deck reserved for business traffic.

Naturally.

However, it’s the little knick-knacks of daily life that provide the most amusement and go to show that predicting the future is no simple task.

A TV set combined with the radio and telephone which allow for video conferencing and shopping has to make do for Skype and the internet.

Not a bad try, I suppose.

And once the housewife has bought new clothes on her TV, she can head into her futuristic kitchen to prepare a cake with a difference…

For in 1950, it was predicted that sugary foods would be made from recycled sawdust shavings and wood pulp. Now, it would be uncharitable of me to suggest that my local bakery probably employs those methods today, but anyway.

Speaking of shaving, razors are a thing of the past in the 1950 vision of tomorrow, as pesky whiskers are literally rubbed away thanks to the application of male grooming chemicals.

Classy.

Of course, we’re just as eager to look ahead and imagine what things might be like in another 50 years from now. With the speed at which technology develops today, how different will the world of 2083 be in comparison to ours?

The classic American TV series Star Trek has always thrived on that curiosity, and has thrown some great suggestions our way. But for a show based in the 23^rd Century, it’s hard not to look upon their flip-open communicators in Into Darkness, (the latest film in the franchise) and think that they look a little Motorola circa 2003.

Surely we won’t even be holding devices by then?

Perhaps we’ll be able to link into an invisible network merely by thinking ourselves there, thanks to implants in our head. Or maybe a click of our fingers will be all we need to teleport ourselves to the office in person, our molecules reassembling themselves in a conference room miles away, ready to begin the meeting.

Who can say…?

What is for sure is that you need to prepare for the future, no matter how unpredictable and far-away it may seem. And right now, some things are substantially different to how they were foreseen back in 1950.

Take a look at the following. Not science fiction – but startling financial FACT.