The lights and the rest of the house are run by a talking computer named Alexander.

"The palatial, 7,500-square-foot house has four bedrooms with marble baths and fireplaces. In the dining room, a waterfall flows over crystal rocks and the embedded ends of severed optical fibers, creating underwater pinpoints of colored light, like drowning fireflies."

"Large abstract paintings by Iranian artist Massoud Arabshahi, featuring networks of strings, decorate it. The 20-by-18-foot "Return of the Comet" dominates the entryway, its vertical strings "showing that we strive to go up, up in our fantasies, but the day-to-day world pulls us down," explained one of Nouri's representatives."

"Americans traditionally jockey for a good view of the future, but futurology's record is spotty. In 1947 it was Sunday supplement wisdom that, in the 1980s, atomic power would reduce the workweek to four hours and there would be two helicopters in every garage."

Builder Dennis Michael Nouri unveiled the "House of the 21st Century" in Encino at a high-profile event attended by Mayor Tom Bradley and approximately 280 guests. The 7,500-square-foot palatial mansion features four bedrooms with marble baths, fireplaces, and innovative design elements including a dining room waterfall with embedded optical fibers creating colored light effects. The interior showcases bleached-bone white oak throughout, and the swimming pool contains optical fibers arranged to duplicate the constellation Orion. Large abstract paintings by Iranian artist Massoud Arabshahi decorate the space. The event served as a political fundraiser, real-estate promotion, and media spectacle. The article questions whether such extravagant design represents realistic future lifestyles for average citizens, noting that historical predictions about the future have proven unreliable.

Read at Los Angeles Times