Future Living 2025 (found Science Channel documentary special; 2002)

The title card of the documentary.

Status: Found

Date found: 06 Jan 2024

Found by: omeglidan and mikusingularity

"Come with us on a journey into the future, to see how we'll be living in 2025. It's closer than you think."

Future Living 2025^[1]^[2], 2025: Future Living^[3]^[4], or simply 2025 (according to the title card) was a documentary that aired on the (Discovery) Science Channel in 2002 and re-ran multiple times during the 2000s. The documentary attempted to predict technological advances in the year 2025, showing the high-tech life of the fictional DiMarco family, combined with real-world footage of prototype technologies and interviews with scientists and engineers. Future Living 2025 discussed topics such as:

Self-driving vehicles
Tele-immersion (3D video calls) and remote work
Virtual and augmented reality
Wearable computers (e.g. smart glasses)
Low-cost space transportation
Affective computing (emotion-sensing machines)
Ambient intelligence (electronics that respond to human presence)
Green buildings
Home security systems
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
Personalized media (music/TV)
Ultra-thin LED displays
Intellectual and creative games and toys

One of the reruns was once uploaded to YouTube in five parts, with links being posted on sites like the TechEBlog^[5] and SgForums^[6] in 2007, but the YouTube account that had uploaded them had been terminated for several years.

Before its rediscovery in 2024, a description on an archived page on science.discovery.com^[7] provided one of the only direct proofs of its existence, as no physical media (such as a DVD) was released, and the show was not listed on any version of the website after the early-to-mid 2000s. The documentary was listed as part of the "Digital Domain" anthology series.

"Future Living - Discover what life will be like in the year 2025. Advanced technology will enable the creation of iris-scanning security systems and refrigerators that reorder cartons of milk when the old ones expire. Meet the Robosapien who is more human than machine."

On January 6th, 2024, YouTube user mikusingularity (@piplupsingularity) uploaded a recording of the documentary provided by Reddit user omeglidan, after a request was made on the r/lostmedia subreddit^[8] in December 2019, rendering the full documentary as found.

Gallery

Videos

The full documentary.

The documentary used these exact clips of the Japanese reusable rocket concept "Kankoh-maru" (at timestamp 8:52), albeit with an electronic soundtrack and no text.