Yeah, the article seems not much different than the way they were pushing plastic gears back in 1967 during the Space Age, when everyone was always thinking a more advanced "future" is right around the corner. Because it was happening in many ways.

Well, at the rate things were progressing until Nixon . . .

But plastics do not always mean progress, except maybe for plastic sales campaigns. By at least 1984 the timing gears on a regular Ford 302 V8 had become plastic, instead of the metal specified by the original engineering documents.

Naturally the joke is going to precede the punchline.