2000 as viewed by 1899: What they expected everything to be like
99 replies, posted
[IMG]http://puu.sh/11SZh[/IMG]
[QUOTE]If you asked me back in the year 2000, what 2012 was going to be like, I'm not sure I could have gave you a good answer. So you could imagine how wrong people back in 1899 were about the year 2000. They thought there were going to be flying firemen!
It's funny to see people's vision of the future mostly because it's ridiculous but also because it's constrained by the reality of their present. People in 1899 didn't know that touch screens and tablets would be a thing, the just imagined more complicated and automated versions of what they already had. They weren't completely wrong though, they knew we would figure out a way to find an electric floor scrubber and invent awesome bathtubs.
The pictures were made by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists in France in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. The first series of these pictures were produced for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. [/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1dc9jdlmjpg/original.jpg[/IMG]
Barbers aren't quite there yet.
[IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1dc0qb0rjpg/original.jpg[/IMG]
Roomba!
[IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1fb67ff9jpg/original.jpg[/IMG]
Now we do it with LASERS.
[IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1fb7fsbtjpg/original.jpg[/IMG]
This cracks me up so much.
[IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1fb36u6zjpg/original.jpg[/IMG]
I think every generation dreams of flying cars.
[IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1ha5pao2jpg/original.jpg[/IMG]
Rest, relaxation and robots.
[URL]http://gizmodo.com/5939765/what-people-in-1899-thought-the-year-2000-would-look-like?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow[/URL]
This sort of thing makes me wonder what the future is going to look like. I mean, in many ways we're way past what they imagined was possible; with that in consideration, who's to say that 50 years or so down the line we're lightyears beyond what we currently view as a possible future?
It just makes you realize how much your vision of the future is obscured by the present. I keep trying to imagine what the next 50 years will be like, and then these images are pretty clear examples that your vision of the future is completely inaccurate.
That is a good thing.
[editline]4th September 2012[/editline]
holy shit hivemind
[quote][img]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1fb7fsbtjpg/original.jpg[/img][/quote]
If that was a real thing I would so fucking be a firefighter
firefighter at day
batman at night
while thinking about the future is entertaining, it's completely pointless. evidently, we are incapable of predicting things with any degree of certainty
I mean hell, think about how much things have changed since 1990, or even 2000 for that matter
Year 1899 sure beats us at mustache sciences.
Steampunk much?
I read the title as 1989, and was confused by the school room image right away...
[QUOTE=Ryu-Gi;37533242]This sort of thing makes me wonder what the future is going to look like. I mean, in many ways we're way past what they imagined was possible; with that in consideration, who's to say that 50 years or so down the line we're lightyears beyond what we currently view as a possible future?[/QUOTE]
we're advancing faster and faster as new breakthroughs are discovered. then again, pretty much all the stuff we need has already been invented, so I'm just expecting stuff like it is now, only faster, more reliable, and unnecessary touchscreens out the ass.
[QUOTE=KaIibos;37533256]while thinking about the future is entertaining, it's completely pointless. evidently, we are incapable of predicting things with any degree of certainty
I mean hell, think about how much things have changed since 1990, or even 2000 for that matter[/QUOTE]
We've been able to predict the weather with some degree of certainty. That certainty becomes smaller as you go further out in the future, though.
[QUOTE=Cone;37533266]we're advancing faster and faster as new breakthroughs are discovered. then again, [B]pretty much all the stuff we need has already been invented[/B], so I'm just expecting stuff like it is now, only faster, more reliable, and unnecessary touchscreens out the ass.[/QUOTE]
Says who? I bet people in the mid 90s never imagined having the internet in your pocket, but now we can't live without our smartphones. Who says that something in the next 5 to 10 years won't completely shift our perception of necessity. Google Glass certainly seems to challenge the notion of what we need.
I bet people in the 50s also felt comfortable with what they had. Humanity will never hit the point where we simply have invented everything ever needed. Society and technology evolve as one; new discoveries will push society's perceptions of need.
I can't wait to see what technology brings in the next few decades.
I'd say that picture of learning children isn't too far off.
Look at Wikipedia and Smartphones.
The information may not be stored in our heads but it is available pretty much anywhere in the developed countries, instantly.
Then nowadays we have internet sites where you stand before a webcam and you get clothes made to fit you.
The international plane traffic beats every imagination of flying cars.
We fight forest fires by dumping water from planes and helicopters.
When I was a young kid, I feared when I got the legal age to take a driving test and get my license we would be having flying cars
2012, I'm 16, no flying cars :suicide:
I am still awaiting atomic powered superairliners, high speed monorails, capsule size meals and flying fucking cars.
So far all we saw was a gas shortage, a flock of seagulls, the internet, and HD footage of the surface of mars.
We could find the Mass Relays and then we'd advance 1000 years.
[QUOTE=Cone;37533266]we're advancing faster and faster as new breakthroughs are discovered. then again, pretty much all the stuff we need has already been invented, so I'm just expecting stuff like it is now, only faster, more reliable, and unnecessary touchscreens out the ass.[/QUOTE]
Cancer. Aids. A sustainable economy.
Are you kidding.
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;37533245]It just makes you realize how much your vision of the future is obscured by the present. I keep trying to imagine what the next 50 years will be like, and then these images are pretty clear examples that your vision of the future is completely inaccurate.
That is a good thing.
[editline]4th September 2012[/editline]
holy shit hivemind[/QUOTE]
Something like [URL="http://vimeo.com/46304267?action=share"]this[/URL], I'd say, to a lesser degree, maybe.
(linked because vimeo seems to autoplay in video tags)
[QUOTE=LegndNikko;37533319]Something like [URL="http://vimeo.com/46304267?action=share"]this[/URL], I'd say, to a lesser degree, maybe.
(linked because vimeo seems to autoplay in video tags)[/QUOTE]
And yet, the paradox of this whole situation. This thread shows how people in the past completely failed to predict the future. For all we know that video might be so wrong that people 20 years from now will be laughing at the very concepts presented.
[QUOTE=Cone;37533266]we're advancing faster and faster as new breakthroughs are discovered. then again, [B]pretty much all the stuff we need has already been invented[/B], so I'm just expecting stuff like it is now, only faster, more reliable, and unnecessary touchscreens out the ass.[/QUOTE]
You DO know that everyone that has said that, has turned out to be completely wrong?
[QUOTE][IMG]http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17xpn1fb36u6zjpg/original.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
That one is [I]really fucking impressive.[/I] Look at those flying cars in the background. Look at the design, and remember this was [I]before airplanes were invented![/I]
And these had [U][I]propellars[/I][/U] and [I]fixed wings[/I] and even vertical stabilizers on those in the background. That is goddamn impressive.
Most aero-vehicle designs at the time were based on flapping wings, but thought to be impossible, until the Wright brothers pulled off making the first ever airplane in 1903, which even looked more primitive then what's drawn here. Amazing!
[QUOTE=Cone;37533266]we're advancing faster and faster as new breakthroughs are discovered. then again, pretty much all the stuff we need has already been invented, so I'm just expecting stuff like it is now, only faster, more reliable, and unnecessary touchscreens out the ass.[/QUOTE]
Hahaha, no.
What about quantum & DNA based computing or hydrogen fusion? And don't even get me started about nanotechnology, we're barely even scratching the surface of it.
[QUOTE=mac338;37533378]That one is [I]really fucking impressive.[/I] Look at those flying cars in the background. Look at the design, and remember this was [I]before airplanes were invented![/I]
And these had [U][I]propellars[/I][/U] and [I]fixed wings[/I] and even vertical stabilizers on those in the background. That is goddamn impressive.
Most aero-vehicle designs at the time were based on flapping wings, but thought to be impossible, until the Wright brothers pulled off making the first ever airplane in 1903, which even looked more primitive then what's drawn here. Amazing![/QUOTE]
And realistically the Wright bros didn't even have the plane thing really down. Yeah they achieved flight, but the airplane as we know it didn't even really come about until Santos-Dumont flew in 1906.
[QUOTE=MIPS;37533309]I am still awaiting atomic powered superairliners, high speed monorails, capsule size meals and flying fucking cars.
So far all we saw was a gas shortage, a flock of seagulls, the internet, and HD footage of the surface of mars.[/QUOTE]
I get where you're coming from, but the internet and HD footage of the surface of Mars is already an amazing achievement for a species that only discovered flight just over a hundred years prior.
[QUOTE=Cone;37533266]we're advancing faster and faster as new breakthroughs are discovered. then again, [B]pretty much all the stuff we need has already been invented[/B], so I'm just expecting stuff like it is now, only faster, more reliable, and unnecessary touchscreens out the ass.[/QUOTE]
They said that in the 1900's.
What have we gotten since then? Television, Radio, the Internet etc.
I suppose it could be debated if we actually [i]needed[/i] these things, but it's become such a large part of life, made an uncountable amount of things easier and more streamlined for sure.
It's not like the Wright Brothers invented wings.
Often an "invention" is the first implemented version of theories existing long before. I'd say the same for that picture.
[QUOTE=mac338;37533378]That one is [I]really fucking impressive.[/I] Look at those flying cars in the background. Look at the design, and remember this was [I]before airplanes were invented![/I]
And these had [U][I]propellars[/I][/U] and [I]fixed wings[/I] and even vertical stabilizers on those in the background. That is goddamn impressive.
Most aero-vehicle designs at the time were based on flapping wings, but thought to be impossible, until the Wright brothers pulled off making the first ever airplane in 1903, which even looked more primitive then what's drawn here. Amazing![/QUOTE]
Actually the concept of the modern plane has been around since about the early 1890's and even goes as far back as the 1840's. And by "modern plane", I mean with fixed wings, internal power to a propeller and a general rear-fuselage stabilizer. Even the idea of aerofoils existed by this time. The Wright Brothers' only "inventions" were the compact combustion engine they used and the propeller shape they used. Everything else was a compilation of other people's work that just so happened to achieve what we call "sustained powered flight" (and even then they arguably didn't even do that). I'm not saying you're completely wrong, but a lot of the things in that pic existed by that time.
Also note that the article says these were painted between 1899 and 1910 and while it's highly unlikely it was painted post-1903, judging by the plane's shapes, it's not exactly out of the question.
[QUOTE=Killuah;37533525]It's not like the Wright Brothers invented wings.
Often an "invention" is the first implemented version of theories existing long before. I'd say the same for that picture.[/QUOTE]
This sums my blurb up quite well. [sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]You fucking ninja'ing shit[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]
[QUOTE=NeonpieDFTBA;37533499]I get where you're coming from, but the internet and HD footage of the surface of Mars is already an amazing achievement for a species that only discovered flight just over a hundred years prior.[/QUOTE]
And this is relative to what exactly? do you know of another species that couldn't for 200 years?
please don't critique based on nothing, it makes yourself look silly.
It looks very similar to todays society.
[QUOTE=Pilotguy97;37533547]Actually the concept of the modern plane has been around since about the early 1890's and even goes as far back as the 1840's. And by "modern plane", I mean with fixed wings, internal power to a propeller and a general rear-fuselage stabilizer. Even the idea of aerofoils existed by this time. The Wright Brothers' only "inventions" were the compact combustion engine they used and the propeller shape they used. Everything else was a compilation of other people's work that just so happened to achieve what we call "sustained powered flight" (and even then they arguably didn't even do that). I'm not saying you're completely wrong, but a lot of the things in that pic existed by that time.
Also note that the article says these were painted between 1899 and 1910 and while it's highly unlikely it was painted post-1903, judging by the plane's shapes, it's not exactly out of the question.
This sums my blurb up quite well. [sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]You fucking ninja'ing shit[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/QUOTE]
Yours has more info and had more effort.
We most certainly do [I]not[/I] have everything we need.
I was supposed to be flying to work by now. Obviously something is amiss.
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