Chicago 2035

I'm watching I Robot with Will Smith right now, and it makes me sad. Why sad? In the first five minutes we are introduced to Chicago in 2035, and what an image it is! There are monorails zipping in and out, mega sky-scrapers, subterranean mega-highways, and robots! Oh! The robots! And, no more lake, or the river. I think they dried up or something. It's apparently not too hot, Will Smith spends most of the movie wearing a leather coat.

Now, for the sadness. There's no way that's Chicago in 2035. No. Frickin'. Way.

First, let's just look at the robots. And we'll even assume that they're technically possible 28 years from now. Which, given the advancements in this sort of thing in the last 10 years is achievable. The problem isn't technical, it's political. The movie shows robots taking out the trash, walking dogs, delivering FedEx packages (oh, the product placements!) and a host of other work. Yeah, I see technological progress on that front coming to a screeching halt as soon as someone realizes that they won't have a job because C-3PO is going to do it for him (or her), cheaper, without complaining, on time, and efficiently. Well, I assume efficiently.

We already have a huge fight in this country over out-sourcing and "undocumented laborers." Can you imagine the furor when robots start taking out the trash? Forget those are city jobs, well-paying city jobs, or that there's definitely a union involved, but there's an Alderman who is going to need votes, and they're going to want to provide jobs.

I guess my point is, the future looks nothing like what is imagined in I Robot. Not because it's technically not possible but because it is going to be limited by politics and social issues. No, I'm thinking Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott had it right in Blade Runner. No robots...er...androids, allowed on the planet, dreary used up places here with people trying to get off planet. Of course, that movie portrayed the world of 1997.