Everything today seems to be going retro – home and clothing designs have been mimicking the 1950s, 60s and 70s for about a decade already! But back in the day (not that I would remember those days), the future was all the rage. Everyone from Walt Disney to Stanley Kubrick tried to predict what our lives would be like and how our work and homes would adapt to the many technology advances taking place.
“The 21st Century” was a show on CBS in 1967 and Walter Cronkite did a segment on the future kitchen.
Star Trek: The Next Generation writers must have seen this episode before they created Replicators! It probably seems a little naive looking back from our vantage point, but consider how much faster cooking is with microwaves, steam and convection ovens, even toaster ovens.
In 1967, punch cards to program appliances was high-tech. Just last month Dacor announced an iPad embedded into an oven. An iPad and all it can currently do would have been hard to comprehend even 10 years ago!
The molding/melting/remolding of dinner plates is the one thing we really haven’t come close to mastering – probably the soap manufacturers are blocking us there. 
Sounds a whole lot better than the recycling scheme we’ve got today… will the next Steve Jobs please step forward?!