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

These are somewhat whimsical, but a little while ago I came across a more
seriosu effort at prediction: an article from the Brisbane Sunday Mail of
August 1931, a speculative article about what Brisbane might be like 100
years hence:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/10202974

We're still a few years short, but I find it instructive to see what they
got right and what they did not.

Some things that it got right:
- Outer regions like Redcliffe and Southport functioning as suburbs to
Brisbane (the train line to Redcliffe is still under construction, but will
be completed before 2031).
- Routine air travel to other cities in Australia, and elsewhere in the
world.
- Every house has a car parking place
- Every person carries a mobile phone, which includes a device for
determining its location.
- There is a lot of interest in health and fitness, and home gym equipment
is a commonplace.

Some things they got wrong:
- Private households do not have personal flying machines, and landing pads
in the city are rare.
- Speed of trains.  Trains travel at about 60 mph, not at 200.
- Speed of aircraft.  Instead of propellor aircraft which fly from Brisbane
to Sydney in 2 hours and rocket aircraft which get to London in 6, we have
jet aircraft for both destinations (1 hour and 28 hours respectively).
Though I guess we have a bit of time on that one.  (Ditto flights to Mars)
- Voting methods.  We do not have a device in each household to allow
citizens to vote electronically on matters of importance.  Or perhaps I
should say the device (computers attached to the internet) is there, but no
one has made a serious attempt to use them in that way.

Barry

On 14 October 2015 at 02:27, Cahill, Colleen <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> *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:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> There is something vaguely familiar about these visions of mechanized
> farming, for example:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> Perhaps this is the precursor to the motorhome?
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> However, some of the other machines didn't quite come to pass:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> The series also features a great assortment of flying machines and
> devices, including a helicopter:
>
>
> 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:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> The series imagines small winged planes or devices being used by cabbies,
> postmen, police, firemen and hunters:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> Here's their conception of a "war plane" and "war cars":
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> Strangely, the series also includes some fairly far-out examples of people
> cavorting with marine life:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
> And finally, the "Whale bus," which really ought to be a thing by now:
>
>
> France in the Year 2000
>
>
>



-- 
I am a Statistician.  One False move and you're a Statistic.