The Future that is Futurama

by Jovialis Jill N. Yeung (2013-72341)

Futurama depicts a future that is a much more comical and sarcastic version of the present.  Fantasy elements have been added, and instead of just robots being new there are also aliens in society. The basic structure of things is the same though, like buildings, but things like transportation have become more advanced, like hover cars and transport tubes. A person’s destiny though, is determined through his genetics. People who are satisfied with their destiny go on with life as usual but for those who aren’t so happy with how things are for them, the easy option of a suicide booth is made available (this is one of those comical and sarcastic “wonders” of the future).  The characters challenge the system of predetermined destinies and so struggle to make their futures with their own hands.

Time travel in Futurama isn’t really the typical time travel, at least in the case of the main character, since they only reason why he was in the future was because he got stuck in a cyrogenics chamber until a thousand years had passed. But, it does lead to a future that is more advanced than what we have today, unlike some stories that say that the future will revert back to how it was at the beginning, after humankind suffers from divine punishment or an explosion that will destroy the earth. That is not to say though that the future is any better than the present since many problems faced today have been magnified to greater heights in the 31^st Century, issues like global warming and pollution have become especially terrible all over the world. On face level Futurama is more advanced but when you go deeper, it’s actually worse than now.