Have you ever looked at some old-timey science fiction book covers, comics, or even TV shows from the 50's, 60's (or earlier) and found yourself thinking, "this looks really out of date"?
Maybe it's just the way the buildings don't look quite right. Maybe it's because the robots look all big and cumbersome and they've all got laser vision. Maybe it's because the rockets have fins. Hell, maybe it's just because your video phone has a rotary dial. For whatever reason, the style- which was considered futuristic for its time- has become in a weird, looping way old fashioned by today's standards.
That is Zeerust.
Zeerust (AKA "Retrofuturism" or just "retro-future") is a term coined by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd in their book The Meaning of Liff (which turns place names into neologisms) referring to the phenomenon of things intended to be futuristic becoming aesthetically outdated. It isn't enough that technology didn't progress the way the past thought it would, but that the futuristic style itself is reminiscent of the era it came from.
The world of Zeerust is filled with rayguns and hovercar convertibles and some car things that don't hover and computers that don't get the internet.
Zeerust can be done intentionally for the anachronistic alternate reality fun of it, but honest Zeerust is unintentional on the past's part.
Zeerust is also the name of a South African town. The Jetsons is a pretty good place to find Zeerust (the style, not the South African town).
Images courtesy of the internet.