IMAGE FROM SHORT FILM

My particular bent is to render an optimistic future because we are rehearsing for our own future—why not do it as pleasantly as possible? —Syd Mead

The next installment in the BMW short documentary series: Activate the Future dropped today with part 2: “The Future Just Isn’t What it Used to Be”. Much of the same cast of talking heads from part 1 join us again, and this time talk about how the sci-fi has historically gotten major transportation advances wrong; plus why there is such a difficulty in predicting the course of future developments.

The short however is a bit contradictory; on the one hand it warns against those who attempt to predict the future, while on the other, devotes major screen time to entrepreneurs predicting the dawn of space tourism. Ultimately this chapter continues the slick look and feel of part 1, and with its jaunty pace, is eminently watchable. However now a creeping worry is starting to set in that the series really has nothing interesting to say.