FW: What People in 1900 Thought the Year 2000 Would Look Like

From: Dennis Fischer [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2015 10:42 PM
To: Sf Readers List; Brooke Lambie; Susan Hathaway; Pamm Handel; Kathryn Stuckey; Doug Woods; MIchael Hall; Marlene Willauer-Lowe; Tim Ziesmer
Subject: What People in 1900 Thought the Year 2000 Would Look Like

What people in 1900 thought the year 2000 would look like



By Ana Swanson<http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/ana-swanson>
There are few things as fascinating as seeing what people in the past dreamed about the future.
"France in the Year 2000" is one example. The series of paintings, made by Jean-Marc Côté and other French artists in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910, shows artist depictions of what life might look like in the year 2000. The first series of images were printed and enclosed in cigarette and cigar boxes around the time of the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, according to the Public Domain Review<http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/france-in-the-year-2000-1899-1910/>, then later turned into postcards.
[The next 800,686 years, in sci-fi predictions<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/11/the-next-800686-years-in-sci-fi-predictions/>]
Lots of their ideas involve mechanized devices, flying, or a combination of the two. Some, strangely, involve people interacting in a very close and personal way with marine life. As Open Culture points out<http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/how-french-artists-in-1899-envisioned-life-in-the-year-2000.html>, however, there are no images of space travel.
[Kurt Vonnegut graphed the world’s most popular stories<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/09/kurt-vonnegut-graphed-the-worlds-most-popular-stories/>]
Some of the portraits are fantastic -- swashbucklers riding on giant seahorses, anyone? But others are actually surprisingly accurate visions of our current era, including farming machines, helicopters, and what looks like a precursor to the new robot vaccum, the iRobot Roomba vacuum:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Electric_scrubbing.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
There is something vaguely familiar about these visions of mechanized farming, for example:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/France_in_XXI_Century._Farmer.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Intencive_breeding.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
Perhaps this is the precursor to the motorhome?
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Rolling_house.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
However, some of the other machines didn't quite come to pass:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Barber.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Toilette_madame.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/France_in_XXI_Century._Latest_fashion.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Robot_orchestra.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._School.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
The series also features a great assortment of flying machines and devices, including a helicopter:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Helicopter.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
One drawing features an airship, which were being used at the time, but fell out of favor after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Air_battle.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
The series imagines small winged planes or devices being used by cabbies, postmen, police, firemen and hunters:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Air_cab.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Air_postman.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Flying_police.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/France_in_XXI_Century._Air_firefighters.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Little_robbers.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
Here's their conception of a "war plane" and "war cars":
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._War_plane.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._War_cars.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
Strangely, the series also includes some fairly far-out examples of people cavorting with marine life:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Divers.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Fishing.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Race_in_Pacific.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/France_in_XXI_Century._Water_croquet.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000
And finally, the "Whale bus," which really ought to be a thing by now:
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/10/800px-France_in_XXI_Century._Whale_bus.jpg&w=1484]
France in the Year 2000