A Dark Future Seen through Rose-Coloured Glasses

First and foremost, the vision for the future presented at Expo 67 is not relevant today from a technological perspective. This is exemplified by Expo’s false forecast of railway transport, space exploration, and digital mass media. To begin, the presentation of monorails as the future of transportation is grossly dated. The Minirail, built to transport visitors around the site, was touted as an example of modernity. Many who rode it compared the experience to, “boarding a futuristic craft.” With plans today of constructing high-speed rails such as the bullet train, it can be safely said that Expo’s vision of railway transport is obsolete. In addition, the future of space exploration presented at Expo has been eclipsed. Competing in The Space Race, The United States and The Soviet Union both proudly displayed spacecraft capsules, model spacesuits, and satellite replicas. The rivals saw a moon landing as the apex of outer space travel. Their vision was extremely shortsighted, however. Today, suborbital spaceflights are in development to be offered commercially and the prospect of colonizing Mars grows ever more attainable. Additionally, Expo’s depictions of digital mass media were highly glamourized. The utopian vision was one of a world made better by technology. Commenting on the modern world’s relationship with technology, historian David Leonard said, “we now look at [technology] with a far more critical lens … as opposed to the bright-eyed optimism of the ‘60s.” Though the vision of digital mass media’s prominence has proven true, the idea that it has made for an idyllic world is patently untrue. Therefore, the vision for the future at Expo 67 is not relevant today from a technological perspective.