When I was little, I used to love the TV show The Jetsons. The talking robot that cleaned and cooked and gave you advice, the flying cars, the little pods they floated in to get to school. All of that amazed me. I wanted so bad to be a part of that futuristic world. But what's crazy to think about is that world, the world of the Jetsons, was set in

262. So maybe I will see flying cars and jet packs. According to the

Smithsonian magazine writer Matt Novak, quote, though it was just a cartoon, with all

of its slight gags and parodies you'd expect, it was based on very real expectations for the

future.

As author Danny Graydon notes in the Jetsons, the official cartoon guide, the artist drew

inspiration from futuristic books of the time, including the 1962 book 1975, The Changes

to Come by Arnold B. Baroque. The designer also drew heavily from the George aesthetic of Southern

California, where the studio was located, a style that perhaps best represents post-war consumer

culture promises of freedom and modernity. The years leading up to the Jetsons premiere in September

1962 were a mix of techno, utopiasism, and Cold War fears.

The launch of Sputnik by the Soviets in 1957 created great anxiety in American public that

already had been whipped up into a frenzy about the communist threat.

In February, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, but less than a year

earlier, the Bay of Pigs fiasco raised tensions between the super American to orbit the Earth, but less than a year earlier, the

Bay of Pigs fiasco raised tensions between the superpowers to a dangerous level.

Americans seemed equally optimistic and terrified for the future, end quote.

And for me, that combination of optimism and fear still rings true.

In a world filled with technology, I often find myself wondering what is next.

In a world where artificial intelligence can write our collegiate papers without us contributing

one ounce of research or write our lesson plans without us picking up a single resource,

is it so far-fetched to think of a day when technology plays a greater role in our lives

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