The World of Tomorrow

I just started reading this collection of short stories by the sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov.

What is so fascinating about the few stories that I've read so far (most of which had been published in the mid 50s) is that they can conceive of many fantastical machines & futuristic appliances; a giant all-knowing computer, say, or a "chronoscope" that can look into the recent past.

But what they don't conceive of in this future is a world where lighting up a cigarette in an office or public building is frowned on.

I mean, these people of the future light up EVERYWHERE. The office, a federal building, in bed. The only character who is portrayed as an anti-smoker is some poor sap who burned down his house when he carelessly half-stubbed out his cigarette (and his daughter died in the resulting fire). So--the only reason he doesn't smoke is that he's been emotionally damaged.

Ahhh...the 1950s. When smoking was king.