If I knew then what I know now

More than 25 years ago Douglas Coupland’s Reverse Time Capsule was published on wired.com. I loved the idea, that you could travel back even as recently as 20 years and shock people with details of what has transpired in the near future. Though smartphones and social media were still years away when Coupland’s piece first appeared, advances in technology already seemed to be accelerating at a breakneck pace.

Even now, just using the subject of music alone, I could travel back in time with a few facts and blow the mind of the 20something me who read Coupland via dial-up modem:

• Pet Shop Boys are pushing car insurance

• OMD is encouraging you to plan for retirement

• “Voodoo Ray” and several other acid-house anthems are now available as classical renditions

• U2 and Amy Grant are Kennedy Center honorees — and on the same night

• The Cure, U2, Duran Duran, Eurythmics and Depeche Mode are all Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees

• Kate Bush finally scores a massive hit in America, thanks to a sci-fi TV show set in the 1980s

• Crowded House’s lead singer joins Fleetwood Mac

• Boy George has traded in his riverboat for a cruise ship