Oceanic subways?!!? Oh, you overly-optimistic-about-future-technology dolts!!But seriously, it's always kind of neat to look and see where folks in the past thought we'd be today. For every way in which we've ended up far in advance of, say, the original Star Trek (communications, computing, no Eugenics Wars), we've come up short in others (inter-stellar travel, hot alien babes). So how about an obscure 1946 comic book??
Future World Comics was an odd little title that only lasted 2 issues. And in between long and boring comics stories about the technological magic of "Pulse-Time Modulation" radio, sonar, and inductive radio, they had little two-page features titled "What In The Future World," detailing how sweet our life was going to be in the future.
Apparently based on something somebody read about somewhere (but not explicitly sourced), here's what the folks of 64 years ago thought we should be living with by now:
Mmm, not so much.
Again, not so much.
Sadly, no.Our forebears did have an apparent obsession with the concept of glow-in-the-dark paint:
Really--you can't find your home at night because you can't see the number?!?Medically, they over-estimated our progress a bit:
And by a lot, unfortunately:
In fairness, they did get some things right:
OK, they were a teeny bit off on the concept of "freeze-dried coffee," but still...But of course, as hack stand-up comedians will not hesitate to point out, we still don't have flying cars...or hot alien babes!!
Ahh, not so fast, Snell! A few of the "not so much" predictions actually did come true.
ReplyDeleteHere's the clothing glue.
Here's the human echolocation technology to aid the blind in "seeing" objects around them. The technology's been around for about 20 years, but modern devices are pretty amazing. In fact, I just saw one last night on the Science Channel, which a London woman used to great effect. She could "see" the London Eye (a giant ferris wheel) from the back seat of a moving car using the device.
Here are solar-powered house numbers that store up energy during the day and glow at night (along with other solar-powered lighting technology).
Still, thanks for posting that great old stuff!
Maybe that's why later generations became more and more jaded. When we realized some of these technologies were never coming to pass (and why flying cars may end up being a bad thing) we all stopped dreaming to keep from being disappointed.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I live to be disappointed....I mean, dream.
Re: "Ahh, not so fast, Snell! A few of the "not so much" predictions actually did come true."
ReplyDeleteSeconded! And don't a lot of major airlines have autopilot systems which performs similar functions as they're presenting here?