07 Jul 2026

But wait / Be here now

Tom Tomorrow gets a surprise visitor—and when is the future, asks Annalee Newitz

Today: Tom Tomorrow, the creator of the weekly political cartoon, This Modern World; and science journalist, columnist, podcast host, and science fiction writer Annalee Newitz, author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, The Terraformers, and Automatic Noodle.

Issue No. 601

Tomorrow’s Yesterday
Tom Tomorrow

The Wave of the Present
Annalee Newitz

Tomorrow’s Yesterday

by Tom Tomorrow

[Two versions of the author, head & shoulders in frame. Bedraggled Tom, materializing with a *BZZRP!*] HEY, QUICK—WHAT YEAR IS THIS? [Composed, hair neatly combed Tom] UH—T'S 2015. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? [Bedraggled Tom] I'M YOU—FROM THE YEAR 2026! [2015 Tom] WAIT—IN 2026, CARTOONISTS HAVE ACCESS TO TIME MACHINES? [2026 Tom] I ADMIT, IT SEEMS IMPLAUSIBLE! BUT THERE'S NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! [2015 Tom] OF COURSE NOT. [2026 Tom] YOU NEED TO LISTEN CAREFULLY! THE TEMPORAL LINK WILL ONLY LAST A FEW MINUTES, AND I'VE ONLY GOT ONE SHOT AT THIS! YOU'VE GOT A ROUGH PATCH COMING UP IN YOUR LIFE. NOT MUCH YOU CAN DO TO AVOID IT, BUT MAYBE YOU CAN BE BETTER PREPARED THAN I WAS. OH, AND BY THE WAY—YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO GET POLITICALLY! DONALD TRUMP WINS THE PRESIDENCY NEXT YEAR! IT LEADS TO FOUR YEARS OF CHAOS AND A MISMANAGED PANDEMIC THAT KILLS MORE THAN A MILLION PEOPLE! AND AN ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION WHEN HE LOSES IN 2020! AND THEN HE SOMEHOW WINS RE-ELECTION IN 2024, AND EVERYTHING GOES COMPLETELY OFF THE RAILS! HE SENDS I.C.E. INTO CITIES LIKE AN INVADING ARMY! HE STAFFS HIS ADMINISTRATION WITH PODCASTERS AND FOX NEWS HOSTS! HE STARTS A WAR OF CHOICE WITH IRAN! THE MADNESS NEVER ENDS! BUT NEVER MIND THAT—I'M WASTING PRECIOUS TIME! THAT'S THE THING ABOUT LIFE UNDER TRUMP—THERE'S NO RESPITE! YOU'RE FORCED TO THINK ABOUT HIM CONSTANTLY! I CAME HERE TO WARN YOU ABOUT YOUR OWN IMMEDIATE FUTURE—WHICH IS TO SAY, MY PAST. NOW PAY ATTENTION! THE THING THAT'S VITAL FOR YOU TO KNOW IS—[2026 Tom temporal link begins to dematerialize with another *BZZRP!*] OH, CRAP. [2015 Tom, now alone in frame for a beat, then] "DONALD TRUMP WINS THE PRESIDENCY." HAH! AS IF THAT COULD EVER POSSIBLY HAPPEN. WHAT A LUNATIC. [Signed] TOM TOMORROW © 2026

A FIERY ROAR ACROSS THE SKY

Bluesky post from Elon Green: ‪For the better part of a year, I've been looking into the night LaGuardia Airport was bombed. I'd appreciate it if you'd give it a read. slate.com/news-and-pol... It’s One of the 20th Century’s Greatest Cold Cases. But What Happened Next Is Almost a Worse Crime. When I began contacting the survivors, they thought I was a prank caller. slate.com — **Elon Green**

Bluesky post by David Roth: If I may do some Peggy Noonan Stuff real quick, I saw multiple Jackson for Governor yard signs in the midcoast earlier today that had been hand-altered into Jackson for Senate signs. ‪[QUOTE POST] Kyle Griffin‬ ‪@kylegriffin1.bsky.social‬ · 2h Former Maine state Senate President Troy Jackson is the first Democrat to officially explore a run to replace Graham Platner. Jackson filed paperwork today to form an exploratory committee for the race. First Challenger Files Paperwork to Potentially Replace Platner Former Maine state Senate President Troy Jackson has been hyped as an alternative progressive candidate. www.notus.org — **David Roth**

Bluesky post by Rax King: guy who wears a lot of button down shirts: listen snowflake that's just how tough guys talk! sorry you're such an HRcel! actual tough guy: this is my shih tzu Princess Fluffy she has a different sweater for every day of the week and if you look at her wrong i will beat you to death with your own leg ‪[QUOTE POST] Kath Barbadoro‬ ‪@kathbarbadoro.bsky.social‬ · 3h Being like “that’s just how tough guys talk!” When you yourself are clearly fantasizing about how you think tough guys talk…. Many layers to this — **Rax King**

The Wave of the Present

by Annalee Newitz

We’re living in the future
I’ll tell you how I know
I read it in the paper fifteen years ago

– John Prine

1.
Billboards and billionaires solemnly inform us that we are “living in the future.” You can see the phrase in AI ads and business plans; you can read it in New York Times headlines. Gemini, the AI chatbot that slops out sentences where Google search results used to be, responded to a search for the phrase “we are living in the future” with this bizarre assertion: “We are living in the future for several undeniable reasons: Your pocket computer… everyday automation… [and] commercial spaceflight.”

This tips us off immediately to what is meant by the phrase “living in the future.” It almost always refers to the vertiginous feeling of adopting new technologies like smart phones. It does not however refer to other kinds of novel experiences, like the potential for curing cancer through mRNA vaccines, having access to better hormones for gender transition, the rise of American fascism on social media, or funding for universal childcare. Our future, in other words, is not social or political. It is a commodity, and you can buy it right now. Usually from a tech company.

2.
I first heard the phrase “we’re living in the future” sometime in the 1980s, roughly a decade after John Prine popularized the term in his satirical folk song. This was the era of the “home computer,” when modems screeched and disks were floppy. Supposedly we were living in the world of tomorrow because we could play videogames on our cathode ray televisions, and type our term papers into digital files before spitting them out onto the perforated pages of a dot matrix printer.

As the ’80s ground to a close and the Soviet Union crumbled, pundits declared that history itself had ended along with the Cold War. That is not how time works, either in physics or culture. But it is how ideology cooks our brains into believing that there is some kind of final endpoint to civilization, when information from our past is no longer useful to us.