No need to be ugly about it, Marni. I quoted what I'd read, and upon further reading (both here and elsewhere) the story about the sinkhole seems to be unsubstantiated rumor. As much as I loved Horizons, it did need a lot of work to bring it up to spec. Of course I wish that Disney had seen fit to spend the bucks. But they have much more data than I do, and perhaps it just didn't make sense to throw money at a pig.
Spaceship Earth has been overhauled three times since its creation, and it isn't even a very future-heavy ride (only the finale descent). Even Living with the Land got a major overhaul in the early-mid 90's with some scene alterations (its greenhouse scenes are continually cared for and occasionally swapped out with different exhibits even today).
Even needing updates, Horizons actually felt more futuristic than literally anything else in Future World today (including Mission Space). And for the cost it took to build Mission Space, they could have updated Horizons multiple times, easily addressing any issues of feeling dated. The first half of the ride didn't even really need fixing, as it was more of a timeless lighthearted look at how previous generations perceived the future. But even the real future scenes are still relatively out there in terms of what we're able to do in 2015. Underwater and space colonies are still largely beyond us, and even things such as desert irrigation, holograms and such are still a ways out. Most of the changes required would have been very minor, mostly the aesthetic design of architecture, clothes and the shape and appearance of computers, TV's, other electronics etc).
Even the idea of a flying car is just as cool and out there as it has been since the Jetsons, it's the design of said flying car however that has changed. In this day, most people's idea of what a flying can would LOOK like would not be Jetsons-inspired. Again, the concepts are almost all still futuristic, it's the appearance of those technologies that needed updating.
The problem is that Disney abandoned the idea of Future World in the mid 90's. A betrayal shortly after the construction of Innoventions. And despite what some apologists may try to argue, no it is not an impossible or even a particularly difficult or expensive task to keep up with Future tech. As mentioned with Horizons, there's a TON of exciting future tech being looked into that won't arrive for decades or longer. And with CES happening every year, Disney can stand to do something similar with Innoventions as well as give their headliner rides (the originals) a nice upgrade every 5 years or so. An infinitely less wealthy (yet still massively profitable) corporation built EPCOT and vowed a commitment to maintaining its vision, the modern version of this company can afford to do the same.
