I started reading The Mote in God’s Eye today, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The actual plot of the book starts off in the year 3016AD, so there’s a Chronology in the front of the book, outlining some of the major points between 1969 and the opening of the book. The first three entries, specifically the third, made me smile:
1969 – Neil Armstrong sets foot on Earth’s Moon.
1990 – Series of treaties between United States and Soviet Union creates the CoDiminium.
2008 – First successful interstellar drive tested. Alderson Drive perfected.
First interstellar drive in 2008? Afraid not, Larry and Jerry. 
We don’t even have hovercraft yet!
A) Sure we have hovercraft, and have for a long time. They look goofy and are a far cry from Star Wars speeders, but hey.
B) We should consider ourselves lucky not all fictional future pasts turn out to be true. Last night on Futurama they watched the “2007 classic” Charlie’s Angels III: The Legend of Charlie’s Gold.
I see this came out in ’74? Their getting 1990 more or less right is quite cool then, I’d say.
And that’s why reading old scifi is fun; I just started reading I, robot and according to the book we should have some workstation on Mercury right now, with working robots (as it’s way to hot for humans to be around)
Slone: I guess when I think of hovercraft, I think of the orange vehicle that Luke Skywalker uses on Tattooine; not this. Thanks for pointing it out, though.
Nils: Yep, 74.
Kristin: Yeah, it is one of the charms of reading older science fiction. It’s always fun to see what folks thought we’d have right about now.
But after 50 years of testing we are getting a magnetic monorail track for public transport over here. Perhaps. And then it’s just a little step to the next galaxy. I guess.
I wish 1984 had turned out to be more inaccurate than it is. Although it could be much worse, I guess.
Ever see Space:1999? Old 70′s sci fi. The moon is knocked out of orbit (I forget how), sending the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha on a ‘Lost in Space’ type adventure, but instead of a space ship, they’re traveling on the moon. Glad we still have our moon, even though that would solve any problems you may be having with any pesky werewolves, I suppose.
Anyway, everybody knows that in the 1990′s we were supposed to be overrun by damned, dirty apes!