Futurism is easily remembered as the good or accurate speculations, and the inventions that make those thoughts into reality. But for every misstep that never leaves the drawing board, there are ones which tragically go through without knowing the consequences. These are wolves in sheepskin clothing, chemicals that seem like they save lives in the moment but go on to take far more in the next.
While researching the use of asbestos in futurism, products sold as advancements turning out to be deadly kept coming up, and I would eventually make cataloguing this trend into its own issue. These cases, while not unique, are some of the most damaging cases of hazardous chemicals approved before their time. In many cases, the manufacturers selling them would take decades to fix their mistake, and a full-scale recall is impossible. Many of them would go so far as to hide away symptoms and throw complaints under the bus in the name of selling their miracle invention.
It can be easy to write off these stories as part of the past, that we as a species have learned from these mistakes and that they will never happen again. But new technologies will always come with the possibility of new unintended effects, and some of these are already been identified in the modern day.
While it might seem that the Revelations are behind us, this may as well be only the beginning. And with an uncertain future in front of us, an unstable climate and a growing concern for the current products, the apocalypse may yet still be coming.
