What do you want in 2055?
Most of these things we already
have, and the readers of Modern Mechanix seem to have been better at guessing what was possible than a lot of futurologsts. I like the man who says he wants a decent raincoat, for when we are 'outside the roofed-over towns'. I think he's taking the mickey.
Some are rather scary - such as the machine that projects everyone's thoughts. But at least the 10 second 'ultrasonic shower'
allowed the magazine's editors to get a naked women in. She
then gets a slug of booze from an automatic booze dispenser.
Labels: Future
The World in 2008 from 1968
Not
terrible as such predictions go, but it was only 40 years ago and they have that typical obsession with the idea of microwave automatic meals that most of these things have.
Labels: Future
The house of the future in the 1950s
I quite
like it. A shower that uses hot air to blow you dry - that's a good invention. And you do sort of get pans that do the cooking themselves.
Labels: Daily Mail, Future
Impressive futurology
The 1971 Roskill commission on air transport predicted 260m passengers flying from London's airports in 2006. The actual figure in 2005 was 229m. Unfortunately the estimates were steadily lowered over the intervening years as numbers never were as high as the targets - by 1990 the 2000 estimate was down to 130m at the highest.
Labels: Future
Life in the year 2000
The Royal Society of Arts helds its biennial competition in 1954 on the theme of "practical aspects of life in the year 2000".
The Times in September of that year reported that the winner, with a prize of £250, equivalent to between £5k and £15k today, wrote about...actually in fact rather sourly they were "unable to make any recommendations" for it. Or for the second prize. The third prize of £50 went to Wing Commander T.R.Cave-Browne-Cave (!) for a "scheme for rooftop roadways" (look, I've found a website about his plans for
heating or something). The fourth prize went to C.E.H. Watston, for "a scheme for underground roadways" (there's a clearly a pattern here). F.R. East took fifth prize for "synthetic food".
Labels: Future
