We had a thread a while back on something like this.
It was about the 1964 World's Fair, and GM's view of the future.
The point I made then was something I still believe, that a culture and its ideals are a large part of progress. That the idea that the future can and will be a better place through human effort and ingeniuity will tend to drive it in that direction, and that the idea that the future is pointless and filled with impending doom tends to drive things the other way.