What I remember:
People saying "by the year 2000. . .", followed by some kind of prediction (either really great or really awful)
Domed cities, sort of like in the Jetsons
No more food, everyone would get their nourishment from pills
Robots would do all the housework (Jetsons again)
Computers would do everything (actually, that one came true)
Everyone would use those jet-pack thingies to get around, no cars
World hunger would be solved
No more war
20th Century Fox would change to 21st Century Fox
"The Year 2000" was considered magical, powerful, special. It was something to aim for, to strive for, a shining Olympian ideal, when really it was just a dumb-ass date lumbering along waiting to come at us. Then there was Y2K! Remember Y2K and "the new millennium" (which everybody spelled wrong)? The new millennium this, the new millennium that, when really, all that happened at midnight was a lot of booze and fireworks. Besides, the real new millennium didn't start until 2001, and we all know what happened THAT year.
It's fun, though, when you're watching, say, an old Star Trek (and I'm into watching them again now that they're in HD and look so much better - how did they do that, I wonder? Now I can see every pock mark on Sulu's face) and all of a sudden they're talking about the awful war of 1992 that annihilated all life on earth except for a few protozoa. Or one of those SF movies from from the '50s where they're making predictions about the future, say, 1980 or 1990, which is now way in the past. So how can it be, like, the past and the future at the same time?
And these time-travel things, I don't know. You'd go back and meet yourself, wouldn't you? You'd watch yourself walking around and eating Fritos and washing the dishes, and it would TOTALLY freak you out. And then what would happen when you saw each other? Which one would be the "real you"? Would you sort of cancel each other out? There'd be this younger you and this older you. Either that or one of you would disappear. Sounds like a crappy deal to me. Sorry, Mr. Einstein, I think you bombed out on that one.
