Innovation is about more than technology

I was watching an old Twilight Zone last night, filmed in 1962. The one where an elderly couple comes into a gleaming tech company to purchase new, young artificial bodies for themselves. Spoiler alert: the new technology has unforeseen negative consequences. (Isn't that the theme of every sci-fi work?)

While they are touring displays of young, healthy bodies they may inhabit, for a price, a leggy secretary comes in and tells the executive that he has a call on the video phone. Oh how modern. A video phone. Artificial biology. And yet, a woman still has to be the secretary?

Why was it easier for the writers/producers of this show to imagine videophones, brain transference technology, and more, but they could not imagine a shift in gender roles? Shiny new objects can gain entry into our lives easier than new ideas. 

It's always easy to look back and see what others did not see due to their cultural blinders. But what are missing in this moment? How will people 50 years from now look at the choices we are making?

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