Miss you too!!!

Happy birthday(?)!!!

this is actually very good merch

Absolutely. Logotypes/display fonts don’t need to prioritize legibility in the way body text does.

Thus concludes my neofuturist reading of Clueless.

It’s important to note that Cher’s extreme wealth is inextricable from her access to futuristic technology.

She grew up in a culture where the latest technology is a status symbol, and so it’s part of her identity to be immersed in the most expensive and innovative tech.

And finally, Clueless accurately predicted what current-day Paul Rudd would look like (that man does not age).

I won’t even go into the influence of the language of Clueless, because that’s been written about before in detail by @benzimmer.bsky.social and others. www.wsj.com/articles/how...

Projecting further out in the future, self-driving cars could eliminate the need to learn to drive entirely.

Cher’s devaluing of parking and driving as a skill is 25 years ahead of her time.

In 1995 parking (and driving) was an important skill for someone like Cher living in LA.

But today, many high-end cars can park themselves, and with ridesharing apps, learning to park or even drive has become less of a priority for many people in big cities than it was in 1995.

Moving on.

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Cher doesn’t understand the importance of learning to park a car. When asked by Josh if she wants to practice parking, she said “What’s the point? Everywhere you go has valet.”

Tech’s influence on fashion is right there in Clueless if you only look.

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The tiny backpacks can be seen as predictive when examined through a near-future lens. As technology gets smaller and smaller (somethingsomething Moore’s Law) our bags can shrink down along with it.

In preparation for this same date, Cher customizes the lighting in her home. This is a widespread technology today thanks to products like Philips Hue, but this was surprising to a 1995 audience.

Same with her remote-control fireplace, which read as a visual gag in 1995.

Before Cher’s date with Christian, Dionne take photos of her outfits. Cher explains “I don’t rely on mirrors so I always take polaroids.”

When seen through a neofuturist lens, this line predicts the rise of selfies and the way the cameras in our phones have become our mirrors.

Cher’s wardrobe touchscreen is a prototype for in-home touchscreen experiences today.

It also shows a vision for online shopping before online shopping was really a thing.

For context, Amazon and Ebay launched in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Clueless came out in 1995.

Another example: a phone rings at the dinner table and everyone checks their cells.

Even just the pure ubiquity of phones in Clueless did not reflect reality in 1995. But watching this movie today, the phone use almost doesn’t register as a joke.

How prescient!

The use of phone technology in Clueless was a punchline in 1995, but today it reflects real-world use.

For example, two teens approach each other in a hallway while having a phone conversation with each other. An absurd image in 1995. I remember laughing in the theater.

When people think of Clueless from a critical lens, it’s often in terms of its roots in the past. It is, after all, a modern-day adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.

However, recently I’ve been thinking of the vision of technology presented in Clueless.