All I know is that when we went there in 1982 it seems a lot more futuristic than it does today.... Now it just seems like any typical Disney park only without any real Disney magic injected into it... Could be it never really had as much future as recall because when your a very young a lot of things seem more magical than they really are.
What is different today is Communicore. That is were new items and prototypes of possible future technology was showcased and set the tone for the entire park. Horizons, at least at the time, was about the only one that primarily focused on the possibilities of the future. Let's look at it. Starting with
Spaceship Earth... Almost all the history of communication up to the time that was currently the present with a dissertation about how much further this was going to go, but, not with a lot of specifics until the technology actually did exist. Then,
World of Energy.. nothing more then Exxon talking about how great they were at making life better for all of us by telling us where fossil fuels came from and how they are obtained today.
Wonders of Life... No future unless you thought we really would be shrunk down to microscopic size and sailed through the bloodstream to fix internal problems (in other words just an entertainment Sci Fi show) or Cranium command another interesting show but dealt with how things work, not how they will work. That along with current ways of keeping fit or explaining how the body works.
Horizon... I already covered as being mostly futuristic.
World of Motion... a funny look at the history of transportation ending in a line of current GM vehicles and perhaps a concept car to look at on the way out.
The Seas... A great representation about the importance of the seas and some of the things that we were learning about how we are connected to the sea and how it affects us now.
The Land... not a lot of emphasis on the future at all. Almost everything presented were presently current technologies, even with the boat ride that seemed futuristic to those of us that hadn't seen how it worked, it was still actually actively used methods, just not by regular folk.
Imagination... A wonderful show, especially the beginning of Journey, but, quickly sent us to what Imagination currently had given us and a vague promise of what is still ahead. The only thing that one might possibly call futuristic was Capt. EO and seriously, that was just another musical Sci Fi movie. All other displays were current technology in entertainment mode.
Most of the feel of futuristic came from the association with the name. EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow), but it wasn't like that except in pieces of Communicore in my memory. The name was a tribute to Walt. Now that is not to say that what was there wasn't great because it was, but, it never really was what it was advertised as except in our minds.
