They had airports, bikes with farings, tanks, videophones, wireless news all down.
Apparently fashions weren't ever going to change!
2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
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Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#22Hm, for some of them I couldn't even see which part is supposed to be so two-thousandy, e.g. the fifth from the top. (Edit: Got it from paleofuture - it's the "phonographic message")
Perhaps some things weren't every going to change?
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#23They weren't so wrong... sure their form factors were way off but they had all the ideas down... 1. Electronic Books 2. High speed aerodynamic trains 3. Computer aided manufacturing 4. Motorized personal transport 6&7. Ok no one is letting a robot cut their hair or do makeup, but we're using robots for surgery 9. Aerodynamic motorcycles 10. Webcams 11. Where's my flying car! 12. Tanks 13. Electronic news etc. etc. If…
The other big miss is that the outside scenes have one or two people and a lot of green, and the indoor scenes have a tiny amount of utilitarian furniture.
There's no sense of stuff and clutter, urbanisation and buildings everywhere and people people people.
( and the train is nothing like high speed and aerodynamic - it has balconies! )
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#24so much hardware. no silicon.
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#25Well, not "so wrong". For example pic 10. Today we call it skype with webcamera. And it doesn't even need a footpedal. :)
They even got the helicopter and humvee right (sort of). The people in 1900s have over-estimated the usage of robotic arms. We don't have that kind of arms working on human yet, but we do have them on automotive manufacturing.
Yes, they were in the age of mechanization and the easy prediction was "everything will be mechanized"
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#26Whatever happened to predicting the future? We should make predictions for 2100 for them to laugh at our naivety.
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#27Looking back at old visions of the future, they always seem to imagine the obvious things, e.g. flying cars and nuclear power. What I haven't ever seen is anything close to modern computers, which arguably have just as profound an impact on our lives and are probably more impressive technologically.
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#28Anyone know of some modern equivalents? What do we think the year 2100 is going to look like, for instance?
I believe you'd have to turn to science fiction writing these days. Well, that or the futurist movement.
But for the most part, I think the public has lost its thirst for knowledge about the far off future. We're much more of a "want it now!" culture. I find it very sad.
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#29They had airports, bikes with farings, tanks, videophones, wireless news all down. Apparently fashions weren't ever going to change!
>Apparently fashions weren't ever going to change!
It is very sensible of them not to attempt to predict fashion IMO, because it is by its very nature unpredictable, and possibly irrational and random, depending on how you look at it.
Imagine how much more ridiculous these would have been were all the people depicted in one-piece silver jumpsuits or something.
Re: 2000 as Seen in 1910 (23 pics)
#30Anyone know of some modern equivalents? What do we think the year 2100 is going to look like, for instance?
I believe you'd have to turn to science fiction writing these days. Well, that or the futurist movement. But for the most part, I think the public has lost its thirst for knowledge about the far off future. We're much more of a "want it now!" culture. I find it very sad.
I think this is because people have gotten so used to rapid innovation that they no longer look to the far future for the arrival of new tech, because it now arrives week on week.
As a consumer, why speculate on the next 100 years when you know from experience that you will have some undreamed of tech next year?
I don't see this as a bad thing. As long as those in society that actually do the innovating don't completely succumb to a similar myopia.