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The world of tomorrow

When the future arrived, it felt… ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?

All these images offer alternatives to a world in which ordinary people were isolated on farms or crowded into rapidly growing cities, where serious material privation was still a recent memory if not a daily reality, and where work, whether household or paid labor, was physically grueling and often mind-numbingly dull. It incorporates diverse living arrangements: families large and small, nuclear and ex­tended; clusters of households sharing common interests and facilities; integration of home, work, shopping, and services; whatever people desire, imagine, and build. But one thing is clear: For progress to be appealing, it must offer room for diverse pursuits and identities, permitting communities with different commitments and values to enjoy a landscape of pluralism without devolving into mutually hostile tribes.

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