I keep seeing and reading articles on different things, and see the phrase "ahead of its time". Does this mean that the thing was scheduled or guaranteed to happen at a predetermined point in the future? One example would be Isaac Newton. I keep hearing about how "ahead of his time" Newton's theories were. It seems like you can certainly say Isaac Newton was "accurate" or "clever" or "innovative"---- but assuming there was no Newton, does this mean that Newtonian physics would have manifested on it's own with some sort of natural progression? Another example would be an influential rock and roll artist-- we'll say "Jimi Hendricks" for example. Sure his style was extremely creative. He is used as a benchmark by which a guitar player's skill is measured......, but does this mean his style was supposed to happen later on? --Or another would be the latest stealth bomber. People say that it's ability to avoid radar detection, operate using fly by wire technology, and use computer guided weapons makes it "years ahead of it's time".....but we were able to successfully design and build it today.
Originally, the phrase "ahead of its/his time" was in the context of public approval, understanding, popularity, acceptance, etc. The 1948 Tucker automobile was a good example. It had 4-wheel independent suspension, a center headlight that swiveled with the steering wheel, a 9.8 liter engine, and safety features like a padded dashboard and a pop-out windshield. None of these things were fantastic technical advances. But they were things that the average car buyer did not care about, was not looking for, and would not happily pay for, especially so soon after the war when Americans were hungry for transportation of any kind. Tucker was convicted of fraud and his company went bankrupt after building about fifty cars, but it's doubtful that it would have been a profitable venture. The Tucker was "ahead of its time" because it would be ten years before American drivers were captivated by gadgetry and five more before safety became a major issue. In the arts, a creator can be "ahead of his time" because he catches the public by surprise and shocks them with motifs and techniques that are unfamiliar, difficult to understand, and have no comfortable relationship to what has gone before. Jimi Hendrix was not "ahead of his time." He may have been hailed as the most talented guitarist of his (short) time, but Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and many others were also breaking new ground. Cream, Quicksilver, the Who, Big Brother and the Holding Company, even the Beatles, and several other bands were experimenting with new modalities and thematic structures, forming a movement that created a new genre of rock and roll. Hendrix was very much a part of this and he was embraced by the rock audience. The scene in "Back to the Future" where Fox's character launches into fireworks of Hendrix riffs in 1957, before we had even heard Chuck Berry: that music was (literally of course) "ahead of its time" because it had no antecedents to spring from--and more importantly because the audience was not ready for it. Einstein? I don't understand how a scientific theory can be "ahead of its time." If adequate evidence cannot be found to support it, it remains a "theory," but the same can be said even if evidence is available, because a "theory" can never be proven true beyond all possible doubt, merely beyond all reasonable doubt as in a court trial. Einstein may have been thought of as "ahead of his time" because laymen were not ready to wrap their heads around his concepts. Most people had never heard of subatomic particles and did not know how light and electromagnetic energy are propagated. If his ideas were unpopular, misunderstood, or ignored by the public, then this just bolsters my definition that "ahead of one's time" applies only to public reaction. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Today, the phrase "ahead of its time" is commonly misused and has lost its meaning. It's hyperbole, just meaning, "strikingly advanced."
