Predictions for the year 2000 (from 1900)

The_Minister

I don't think this got posted before, but here are some predictions that were made for the year 2000, by a woman's magazine in 1900 (http://www.yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm)

It's interesting what they got wrong, and what they got right.

Prediction #9: Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.

Mr Benevolent

Not bad. They got 90% of it almost right. The invention of the airplane couldn't really have been forseen in the next 3 years.

5318008!

A university education will be free to every man and woman

They got that one horribly wrong !

Dartz

Predictions wrote:

Yet, they have come from the most learned and conservative minds in America.

Oh dear.

And it shows too. I wonder how truly daft modern predictions of the future are?

AnonoBoy

Wait that's a hoax.... how did they post all this stuff on the internet in 1900???

Pffttt... How dumb are you guys? :rolleyes:

The_Minister

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Wait that's a hoax.... how did they post all this stuff on the internet in 1900???

Pffttt... How dumb are you guys? :rolleyes:

Believe it or not, they used to have things called archives. Real places, where they kept things written in a black liquid on a thin, squashed strip of cellulose.

Blisterman

Prediction #10: Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.

Pretty spot on with this one

shenanigans1982

The_Minister wrote: »

Believe it or not, they used to have things called archives. Real places, where they kept things written in a black liquid on a thin, squashed strip of cellulose.

Pfft...its easy to make predictions about the past.

Good read though...I like numbers two and four. Hard to believe that the life expectancy was so low only such a short time ago.

Also hard to believe we will ever see a time where no cars will be present on the city streets.

AnonoBoy

The_Minister wrote: »

Believe it or not, they used to have things called archives. Real places, where they kept things written in a black liquid on a thin, squashed strip of cellulose.

Take it to the Conspiracy Theories forum you nut!!!

The_Minister

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Take it to the Conspiracy Theories forum you nut!!!

Archives exist!

They are held in great, cold vaults under every city, hundreds upon hundreds of them, each one containing hundreds of sheets of cellulose, with ideas, concepts frozen somehow, right onto them.

I'm not crazy!

Wake up sheeple!

Pighead

It's amazing what they believed back in the 19th century.

Pighead's reading a book about a murder case from the 1850's and the detective on the case actuallypaid big bucks for a specialist guy to inspect the dead child's eyes as it was widely believed that when somebody was murdered the murderers image would form into the murdered persons eyes. In this particular case the special concluded that the murdered child must have been sleeping as there was no image of the murderer to be found.

Ha ha what a crock! Yer man that was inspecting the eyes had some neck pulling that scam. It's like that film Mystery Men where Invisible Boy claims he can become invisible, but only when no one is looking.

Sanjuro

While some predictions are based on what was happening at the time, where in the hell did this come from?!-

There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.

Earthhorse

Somewhat related: postcards from the same era illustrating what life would be like in the future.

I know there's a French set somewhere too, where they show the fire brigade having the ability to fly.

To be honest, I have a hard time believing the veracity of these types of things.

Terry

Sanjuro wrote: »

While some predictions are based on what was happening at the time, where in the hell did this come from?!-

I'd imagine it was to do with the (then) recent dumbing down of the English language for Americanz.

Prediction #12: Peas as Large as Beets. Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day. Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does. Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply. The milkweed will have been developed into a rubber plant. Cheap native rubber will be harvested by machinery all over this country. Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox. The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.

Genetic manipulation.

Terry

Earthhorse wrote: »

Somewhat related: postcards from the same era illustrating what life would be like in the future.

I know there's a French set somewhere too, where they show the fire brigade having the ability to fly.

To be honest, I have a hard time believing the veracity of these types of things.

Quite a few of them were correct. In a certain manner anyway.

House-Moving by Train
Has been done. Also, moved on the back of a flat bed truck.
Not common, but possible.

Televised Outside Broadcasting
Quite easily done.

Weather Control Machine
Seeding clouds.

Combined Ship and Railway Locomotive
Hovercraft.

Undersea Tourist Boats
Can be done. Also, submarines.

Roofed Cities
Large shopping centres.

Personal Airships
Private plane.

Summer Holidays at the North Pole
Global warming.

Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine
Scanners and such.

Earthhorse

Terry wrote: »

Quite a few of them were correct. In a certain manner anyway.

Eh, that's why I have a hard time believing them.

Aodan83

The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only. A penny will pay the fare.

I immediately got an image of a Family Guy character saying this when I read it. Possibly Louis' dad. Only wayyy in the past.

Mr.Lizard

His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present – for he will reside in the suburbs.

The life expectancy of (United States of) Americans was 35 in 1900? Surely this is a mistake?

dsmythy

"There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second."

Sanjuro wrote: »

While some predictions are based on what was happening at the time, where in the hell did this come from?!-

duno wot dat prediction was al bout. funy de predictions people make from de past nd al dat.

dsmythy

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

The life expectancy of (United States of) Americans was 35 in 1900? Surely this is a mistake?

I'm not sure if it was that low. Maybe 45-50 years would be closer to the actual number.

Capt'n Midnight

LOL
Prediction #3: Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.

the furthest distance an American will willingly walk before getting into a car: 600 feet