The Jetsons: 13 objects from the futuristic series that became reality

Many of us have seen and enjoyed how The Simpsons have foreseen various situations in the real world: we can read about them in this previous FayerWayer article. But did you know that The Jetsons was a few decades ahead of the technologies we use in the 21st century?

For those who don’t know her, Los Supersónicos (The Jetsons) was an animated series created by William Hanna y Joseph Barbera, which was launched in 1962. There, a family lives in the year 2062: It is made up of Super, Ultra, Lucero and Cometín Sónico, as well as the dog Astro and the house help Robotina.

Among the technological elements used by Hanna and Barbera (not invented, as the ideas come from science fiction masters like Jules Verne himself) several stand out that came true.

And not in the year 2062, but already in the mid-2000s. Let’s see some of them.

Technology from The Jetsons that came true in our days

Video calls: When only the royal houses were adding huge telephones with rotating dials, video calls already existed in The Jetsons, telephone conversations watching the interlocutor on a screen.

Robotic Vacuums: Among Robotina’s tasks was cleaning, which we can see today, for example, with the Roomba.

Tablets: Just as they were common at the time posed for The Jetsons, today we can use these devices. We didn’t have to wait until 2062!

The robotic house: The most curious thing is that today many still call it the “home of the future”, but it is common to see how various functions can be programmed in current homes.

The flying cars: We haven’t suffered from the traffic jams that appear in the series yet, but several companies have already experimented with flying vehicles.

Vertical cities: We have the example of The Line, in the desert of Saudi Arabia, a city that grows vertically and not horizontally, for the best use of services. The Jetsons already foresaw it.

Smart Watches: Seeing the face of the person calling on the watch, or consulting any type of data, has been possible for us for several years. Another preview made by The Jetsons.

Drones: One of Cometín’s toys is a small flying ship, which we could consider the ancestor of our drones.

Holograms: Being able to see another person in full body, even if they are thousands, millions of kilometers away. Even deceased. All thanks to holograms.

Microscopic cameras: In the 1960s, to be able to film someone you needed a huge camera, but in The Jetsons they already had a camera the size of a pill. Today, it may even be smaller.

Jetpacks: The jetpack used by Cometín seeks to be common not only in shows, as we see them today, but also for rescues in places that are difficult to access.

Flat screen televisions: Let’s remember that in the 60s, televisions still needed a large space to have them in the home. Even, they still used black and white screens. But in The Jetsons we see how flat and color screens already exist.

3D printed foods: There is an image of the family at the table asking a machine to “cook”, in a way that we could consider as a predecessor of 3D printing.