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On April 3, 1988, the Los Angeles Times Magazine produced a special issue predicting what life would be like a family all the way in the distant future of 2013. Believe it or not, the vision they painted for the Granada Hills-dwelling clan of the future was not that far off from the world we live in today.

Perhaps it wasn't such a leap to think that we'd have pocket computers and "smart cars" just 25 years from the late 1980s, but some of their scenarios must have seemed utterly ridiculous back then. Just as, in hindsight, some of their misfires seem completely obvious to us. The magazine marveled at the idea of an American business interacting with colleagues in Tokyo, or information workers doing their jobs in the living room. While some of the ideas are still fanciful (robot butlers?), in some areas it's clear they didn't dream big enough.

What's most interesting is how one prediction can come so close to being right, yet be completely misguided on an important detail. For example, in the imaginary 2013, computers compile "the family's personalized newspaper, featuring articles on the subjects that interest them"... but then they print it out on a laser-jet printer to read it. Or how they predicted that the roads of L.A. would be full of "'sports-utility' vehicles" but defined that as a car "that can go from being a two-seat sports car to a beachbuggy—thanks to a plug-in module." Or how they correctly surmised that banks would starting charging people to talk to tellers, forcing customers to do their banking online... where they video chat with a teller remotely.