It may be hard to believe today, seeing that A.I.’s chief purpose seems to be in displacing organic human creativity with synthetic slop, but there was a time not too long ago when the future seemed gloriously, optimistically futuristic for artists. “Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet,” a remarkably ambitious exhibition currently at the Tate Modern, offers visitors “a rare chance to experience incredible works of vintage tech art in action—a look back at how artists imagined the visual language of the future.” Featuring a sensory-overload array of algorithmic and machine-oriented pieces made between the 1950s and 1990s, the drawings, sculptures, and videos gathered here provide a poignant glimpse at the wonders of technology and its relationship to art prior to Big Tech and the slow cancellation of the future. —Spike Carter