This text explores the kinds of visions of the future current earlier this century in American society. It shows how these ideas of the future illustrate a confidence - sometimes a naivety - in science and technology. Related to this is the fact that the futures envisaged involve technological, rather than social and political, changes. A range of sources are used, such as popular-science magazines, science fiction, world fair exhibits, films, advertisements, and plans for things only dreamed of - for example, the "videophone".