Futurama is an American animated comedy series predicting the future,
specifically the year 3000. Set in a futuristic New York City, more accurately
New New York City, it focuses on the life of Philip J. Fry – a delivery
boy accidentally frozen by a cryogenic tube for a millennium, his life, and his
adventures in the future.
The pilot episode of the series, Space Pilot 3000, uncovered a bunch of
technologies and gadgets we do not know of today; among the many are career
chips and suicide booths. These two alone related to us the difference of today
and the predicted future. It showed a more controlling yet also a more free
world, oddly at the same time. Career chips dictated the future of each citizen
alive, human or not, controlling their paths and successes. Suicide booths, on
the other hand, showed the other side of the coin, the toleration of people
dying when they wish to without judgment; bizarrely this particular freedom is
bought. The pilot episode also presented how the present-day world evolved, through
years of wars and rebuilding, to a scientifically powered and technology driven
world, a society of controlled lifestyles but liberal people.
Solely based on the pilot episode, I wouldn't
directly call being frozen in time time-traveling as the characters don't
actually move around time. Although, it was shown in the episode how the main
character’s being fast-forwarded through time became beneficial to him. It
depicted opposites again as his 'time-traveling' gave him a clean slate,
removing him from a life he wasn't motivated and proud to live anymore, while
it also obviously took away his loved ones or at least the family that he knew.
Futurama provides us a comedic view and understanding of what could happen in
the future, how advanced science and technology could be, and what society and
civilization could be like. It gives us an idea of the evolution of man, the
changes of the world and the events we would miss. All in all, it makes us
ponder on the question: if we could fast forward time, would we?
Audrey Anne
A. Arocha
2012-51626
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