From Instagram filters to smart watches: 12 technologies 1960s TV show ‘The Jetsons’ accurately predicted

As US billionaire Jared Isaacman declares his space mission goal is to create a world like ‘The Jetsons’, we reveal the 2021 technology the show anticipated 59 years ago

Video calls: Rather than make calls on traditional phones, the Jetsons communicated with friends and family via video calls on a special screen in the house. It's an idea director Stanley Kubrick would use six years later in the Oscar-winning ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. Courtesy Zoom, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Robots: In the Jetsons' space home in Orbit City, Rosey the Robot took care of all the household chores, including cleaning up after messy patriarch George. Rosey was a precursor not only to today's increasingly realistic AI, but also to the automated vacuum cleaner, the Roomba. Courtesy Amazon, AP, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Instagram filters: Caught on the hop by early morning video calls by her super-glam bestie Gloria, Jane would put on her ‘morning mask’ so she could look her best, which definitely has shades of early face-tuning Instagram and Snapchat filters. Reem Mohammed / The National, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Drones: Jetson kids Judy and Elroy were dropped off at school every day in their own personal flying pods. These days we have drones which, although not quite yet carrying people, are used to deliver parcels and in filmmaking. Courtesy: Amazon, Hanna-Barbera Productions

3D-printed food: They might not be a household staple yet, but 3D printers are now capable of printing entire meals. But Jane Jetson had one first, with her kitchen gadget that would create any meal the family wanted with the touch of a button. Antonie Robertson / The National, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Smartwatches: George Jetson’s video-watch was his nagging boss's, Cosmo Spacely’s, preferred way of reaching him. And these days we have Apple watches and various other timepieces that make us contactable 24 hours a day. Reuters, Hanna-Barbera Productions

YouTube: Everyone’s favourite online PE teacher Joe Wicks might not have been born yet, but Jane Jetson was working out with his predecessor on an early precursor to YouTube, with workouts that could be done in the comfort of her own space home. Getty Images, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Treadmills for dogs: Living in space made it tricky for the family dog, Astro, to enjoy a walk in the park, so he was exercised on a doggy treadmill atop the house. Nowadays, we don’t bat an eyelid at the concept of pet treadmills both for pet weight loss and physiotherapy post-surgery. Jamie Rector, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Jetpacks: Although at the moment jetpacks are used exclusively over water using water jet propulsion, a number of tech and energy companies are working on jetpacks for everyday use. The National, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Electric scooters: These days, you can't walk to Spinneys without almost getting run over by a teen on an electric scooter, and the youth of today might just have Jane Jetson to thank for their ability to zip silently along the pavement on their way to grab a frappuccino. Reuters, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Rocket in a briefcase: We might not quite be at a tech-age when we can pack our spaceship into a briefcase, but plenty of other modes of transport can be, including bikes, strollers and electric scooters. Courtesy Bikoff, Hanna-Barbera Productions

Flying car: The Jetsons had their flying saucer, and Toyota, Uber, Airbus and Boeing are all working on their versions of flying cars. AP, Hanna-Barbera Productions

On Tuesday, US billionaire Jared Isaacman, 38, made headlines when he announced his plans to buy up an entire SpaceX flight to take three people with him to circle the globe.

Unable to keep the boyish enthusiasm from his reasoning, the pilot-turned-technology entrepreneur declared: "I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like The Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the Moon with their kid in a spacesuit."

For the uninitiated, The Jetsons was an animated children's TV show from Hanna-Barbera Productions that was broadcast from September 1962 to March 1963, running for 24 episodes. It was later rebooted in 1985.

The animated sitcom featured the Jetson family – George and Jane, their children Judy and Elroy, their robot maid Rosey and dog, Astro – who lived in space, and was set in the year 2056, almost a century on from the year it was first shown in 1962.

Living in Orbit City, patriarch George flew his spaceship each day to work at Spacely Space Sprockets, Inc, while the family home featured a host of fantastical mod-cons, including a robot that took care of the housework, smart watches, video phones and jetpacks. And in the kitchen, any meal could be made in a matter of seconds at the touch of a button.

A product of its time that was ahead of its time

The show was created at a time when the US was heavily embroiled in the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, it was also in 1962 that American physicist John Mauchly co-designed a computer the size of a suitcase (as opposed to the room-sized ones that were the norm at the time) and predicted everyone would be walking around with their own personalised computer within a decade.

The Jetsons also launched at the peak of the "Space Race", and seven months before it was first broadcast, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, while Neil Armstrong would land on the Moon seven years later.

"It coincided with this period of American history when there was a renewed hope – the beginning of the '60s, sort of pre-Vietnam, when Kennedy was in power," Danny Graydon, author of The Jetsons: The Official Guide to the Cartoon Classic, told Smithsonian Magazine. "So there was something very attractive about the nuclear family with good honest values thriving well into the future. I think that chimed with the zeitgeist of the American culture of the time."

Fifty-nine years on, scroll through the gallery above for a look at what The Jetsons predicted for the future we're living in now …