Our ideas about the future have always been more complicated than hoverboards or self-lacing sneakers from Robert Zemeckis films. Of course, in various bad (and sometimes good) sci-fi films appeared various images: food in tablets, flying cars, personal jetpacks and butler robots.
But futurologists also predicted the appearance of whole beautiful new worlds that are now completely forgotten – for example, a world in which the English alphabet, the letters C, X and Q have disappeared. And about the world in which from worn sweets are made, generally it is better not to remember.
So, in this article the most ambitious forecasts are collected, which did not become a reality.
1900 Farewell to the letters C, X and Q
“These predictions will seem strange, almost impossible,” So began an article published in Ladies’ magazine in 1900 Home Journal. – “Despite the fact that they appeared in the most America’s conservative and educated minds. ”
These “educated minds” suggested that by 2000 some the letters of the English alphabet will simply disappear:
“In the English everyday alphabet, there will be C, X and Q. From them refuse as unnecessary. Words will be spelled the way they sound first it will happen in the newspapers. English will become a capacious language words expressing capacious ideas, and will be the most common in the world. The second will be Russian. ”
1909 Flying bikes in deserted cities
A photo from open sources
In 1909, Jules Bois, whom the New York Times called, then “mystic”, then “writer”, then “Frenchman”, accurately predicted a change in the ideal of female beauty characteristic of that era:
“Physical weakness, extreme refinement of facial features and agreement occupy more modest positions in public life, will be replaced the type of [beauty], which combines beauty and muscle development ”
Later he went on and made a number of less quality predictions in which he argued that:
“a kind of flying bike will be invented, which will allow everyone to move through the air, much higher than the earth. It is unlikely that anyone will want to stay in the cities for the night, it will be just a place to do business. People of all classes will live in countryside or garden cities away from densely populated places ”
1950 All items will be covered with plastic, and food will be brought to pieces of ice.
Article in Popular Mechanics by Waldemar Kempert, then science editor of The New York Times, predicted a future in which everything is either disposable or recyclable.
A photo from open sources
Kempfert illustrated his point of view with an example of a conditional Dobson family living in the conventional city of Tottenville (population about a hundred thousand people).
“When Jane Dobson is cleaning, she just points the hose at everything that is at home, “Kempfert wrote.” “Why not? Furniture (including upholstery), carpets, draperies, scratch-resistant floors – Everything is made of artificial fabric or water-repellent plastic. After the water disappears in the sink in the middle of the floor (which later covered with an artificial fiber mat), Jane directs a stream of hot air and dries things. ”
With the advent of frozen food in the form of bricks, he adds, “cooking as an art will be preserved only in the memory of the elderly. Some die-hard still boil chicken or roast lamb legs, but experts invented methods of deep freezing partially cooked pieces of meat. Even milk and soup are delivered in the form of frozen bricks. ”
In addition, Jane Dobson can cook a steak in less than three minutes, while preparing a complex table consisting of multiple dishes, never takes more than half an hour. Yes, but the old bedding (and even underwear) is processed and transformed in candy.
1950 3D television, complemented by “odor vision”
By 2000, “three-dimensional television will become commonplace and so simplified that a small device will project images on the wall of the living room so that they appear alive, “- this is how it will be according to an article published by Associated Press at The Robensonian, the newspaper of Lumberton in North Carolina. Exactly enough, except for the part in which it is said about the inclusion of smells in a television picture: “Room automatically filled with the scent of the flower garden shown on screen. ”
Another audio-visual prediction describes movie theaters of the future as domed arenas in which screens are on all walls and ceilings.
“These surfaces will be the“ screen. ”Most of the actions, like Now, will be happening right in front of you. But something will be happen over your head, something on the sides, and something even behind you ”
1952 Space travel for everyone
A photo from open sources
In 1952, an article published in Kentucky New Era by scientists from two different scientific meetings – the International Congress on astronautics in london and the american chemical society in New York – joyfully predicting the disappearance of the majority diseases and overpopulation of the Earth by the year 2000.
“In this version of the future, sunlight is the main form energy, and travel through space in rocket ships “- the usual and economical form movement. ”
Dr. Werner von Braun testified that people would be in able to overcome most research challenges space, towards the end of the 1950s. “The first step to real navigation in space – earth moons, artificial satellites in the upper layers atmosphere, “Kentucky New Era rephrased his words.” People, those on board will constantly revolve around the Earth, to observe and report on any unusual activity which can threaten world peace. Earth resistance gravity with the help of centrifugal force of fast movement, will allow launch spaceships from these satellites using very moderate energy consumption, because there will be no atmosphere. ”
1964 Underground houses with robotic kitchens
In 1964, science fiction Isaac Asimov introduced how she could 2014 World Exhibition looks like a correspondent The New York Times (there will be no World Expo this year, so he was already mistaken). Most of his predictions were extremely insightful, which is not surprising for a man who lived and breathed the future. However, he did not foresee cheap and effective means. birth control, vegetarian turkeys and smart technologies, and mistakenly predicted the appearance of colonies on Moon, hovercraft and underground cities.
“People will continue to flee from nature to create an environment a habitat that suits them better, “he wrote.” By 2014 electroluminescent panels will be used everywhere. The ceilings and walls will glow softly, and their color can be change by pressing a button. Underground country houses in which regardless of the weather, you can easily change the temperature, control air purity and light will be quite common. ”
“The kitchens will be equipped with” autocookies “boiling water and independently making coffee, spreading bread, toasting, brewing and beating eggs, toasting bacon and so on. Breakfast will be order the night before and prepare for the right hour tomorrow morning, “he continued.
1972 General hippie washrooms
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern Interior Experts predicted that hippie fashion – or what they called “long hair culture” – by 2000 will dictate and need for adequate housing. Shared bedrooms, nurseries and kitchens will become the norm.
“One large room for meetings, relaxation, group psychotherapy and the like, will be arranged poorly, but at least with carpeted, as space, materials and group interaction will make sitting on the floor very important, “suggested one of the experts. “The bedrooms in the wings of the hostel will be designed for couples, as group sex [will be] rare, “the article adds. “But preference will be given to collective rather than individual showers and toilets. ”
1982 Of course, colonies on the moon!
In 1982, the New York Times interviewed futurologists (including famous for his theory of singularity Ray Kurzweil) to find out what the next 20 years will bring. Conservative Kurzweil’s predictions included electric cars, small families (“one child or no children at all”) and an increase in the number of common work spaces.
Independent futurologist Barabara Hubbard promoted much more radical views on 2002. There are resources on the moon and asteroids, enough for thousands of planets like Earth, ”she said to the newspaper. – “In 20 years, you can create a cosmic civilization.” Not less, Hubbard warned that “infantile species” – people – must “turn themselves away from destruction and engage in creation” to realize this dream.
Water Life Moon Plastic Robots
