Futures Forgotten, Futures Denied
There was a time when we dreamed loud. Jetpacks, moon colonies, utopias powered by clean energy and collective goodwill—futures so vibrant they spilled into comic books, architecture, children's toys. Cities of tomorrow glittered in pamphlets and parades. The future was a promise. But somewhere along the way, the future changed. It shrank. It hardened. It became an app update, a quarterly projection, a branding campaign. We didn’t just forget the futures we once believed in—we were taught to stop believing altogether. This isn’t just nostalgia. It’s grief. The Age of Grand Futures Mid-century modernism didn’t just design furniture—it designed tomorrow. We built monorails, imagined self-cleaning kitchens, and watched rockets pierce the sky with the kind of awe reserved for gods. There were plans—not dreams, plans —for underwater cities, world peace through technology, and post-scarcity societies. Even revolutionaries were future-makers. Black liberation movements, queer radica...