It’s hard to presume anything about the future any more. But isn’t it the business of magazines to speculate on what we think we know – acting as an oracle on how culture can move forward?
Digging into the 30-year archive of Dazed, we looked and laughed at life in 1991 and beyond. As our post-internet world moves at warp speed, we took the opportunity to look back at some of the features that hypothesised our future, and brought them up to date for life in 2021.
Cultural seer Sean Monahan remixed an A-Z of the Future from our eighth issue, in 1994. We cleverly made some spot-on predictions back then – that we’d all don our party garms for a night in thanks to the rise of digital clubbing, and nurse our hangovers the next day in a movies-on-demand utopia (*ahem*, Netflix). But some of our predictions – cryogenics as the key to eternal life, say – were sadly less on-point. Anna Cafolla breaks it down.
We also stake a flag in the ground for some of the societal trends making news today, from the unknown territories of NFTs and the addictive but clouded future of cryptocurrency. Ever wondered why fashion and music forecasting makes for hard work? Read ahead.
From the queasy vantage-point of our own peculiar moment, the predictions of the past can seem strangely over-confident, grounded as they were in less uncertain times. Then again, won’t they say the same about us in 2051?
Perhaps where we’ve landed in the following pages will be rendered completely obsolete in 30 years’ time. But isn’t that part of the fun? Understanding what we think we know today, and being proven wrong at the same time tomorrow. It’s a surefire way of keeping the future interesting!
A
Artificial Intelligence
Illustrations of AI always take one of two forms. The first is quasi-divine – a cybernetic Jesus bursting forth from the internet’s astral plane. The second is the cold, black obelisk of Kubrick’s 2001. Both are human metaphors reflecting our desire to escape the flesh and discover the cool, absolute logic of the universe. But when AI does arrive, will we be able to understand it? Is it already here?
B
Books
There was a time when books were treasured artefacts housed in a sacred place we call a library. But don’t count them out yet. Experts used to say that nothing could be forgotten on the internet, but things are forgotten – because they get lost, or because they’re hidden by states, tech platforms and companies colluding to disappear the inconvenient. In an age of disinformation, the book becomes a last resort.
C
Climate Engineering
While we totally failed to stop global warming, one thing is clear: we already did climate engineering. We heated up the planet! In the future, climate engineering will come in banal flavours like cloud seeding, and terrifying ones, like releasing sulphur aerosols to reflect the sun’s radiation. Which decisions nations and mega-corporations make about climate engineering will define future politics.
D
DNA
The mysteries of the double helix are being revealed. Applied genomics like CRISPR gene editing may make sci-fi scenarios like the edited babies of Gattaca a reality. Countries are competing to harvest the largest DNA datasets – perhaps for noble causes, or perhaps for bioweapons. Where great minds of the past looked to the metaphysical to explain human nature, the 21st century will focus on the potential gene editing has to shape behaviour.
E
Endorsement
How much do brands really matter? In all honesty, less and less. Things are either hyper-specific, niche and tailored to you, or they are generic, cheap and convenient. It’s Amazon Basics or a direct-to-consumer brand you and your 40 closest friends are obsessed with. To solve this problem, the mainstream brands of yore are turning to internet personalities. Fuck advertising your product. Get Jake Paul or Travis Scott to slap their name on it.
F
Fuckability
The intractable problems associated with fast fashion have everyone feeling a little bit guilty about keeping up with the infinite scroll of micro-trends, but things are rapidly changing. Filters, filler and extreme exercise regimes are, for better or worse, becoming the new frontiers of fashion. To put it another way: no one will care what you are wearing if you look good naked.
G
Gamerbait
Video games have become the most important element of culture. As the world moves away from the top-down model of the 20th century, games have increasingly taken on the role previously played by music – a platform where style, art, politics and socialising are all excitingly intermingled. Its aesthetics drive fashion. Its avatars influence our collective understanding of identity. And its competitive nature serves as a model for work.
H
Heads
We live in an age of addiction: psychological, social, physical. Lovers of weed are potheads. Lovers of cocaine are cokeheads. Lovers of advertising are agencyheads. Lovers of shoes are sneakerheads. The cult-like obsessions with the hedonistic, aesthetic, productive and destructive will continue to strengthen as new disciplines like persuasive design teach us how to craft experiences that trigger our dopamine and reinforce our behavioural patterns.
I
Invisibility
As surveillance tech embeds itself into everyday life, a counter-trend of invisibility will follow. Creators will focus
