I’m sitting down watching the pilot episode of SeaQuest:DSV, and aside from being hilarious in production quality and silly dialogue, I can’t believe what some of the most creative set designers on TV thought would be in use technologically 20 years from now.

There are computers with 50 inch screens that are controlled by what look like steam-powered levers. The computers 0n the bridge are silver panels with giant plastic buttons, and there’s not a touch screen to be seen. Plus Jonathan Brandis is wearing a Marlins jersey…like they’ll be around in 2032.

The phones are corded, the walkie talkies are yellow and grey plastic, no headsets. And while space may be the “final frontier”, the sea is the next. We seem to think that the future holds no changes in thinking or approach, only the ability to do the particular things we dream about now. I wonder what we’ll think 10 years from now when we look back at Minority Report, or I, Robot?

And what of our myopia? Why can’t we seem to think beyond the paths that have already been plotted? The one think I liked about Zoolander was the super-tiny cell-phone; too small for reasonable use, but what we’ll end up with if we stick to what we’ve been doing (making stuff “more portable”) because of inertia.

The church is on the same path. I heard a joke at an event once:

A guy is visiting a Lutheran church and talks to one of the greeters before the service.

“At my church we’ve got enough money to have two projectors that put the service on screen so everyone can know what’s happening.”

“Well, here we have the services printed into a book, bound, and give one to everybody.”

Why do we keep using new technologies to do the same old thing? Where are the new ideas?