Past Predictions of the Future Every Decade

[Music] imagine for a moment what the world will look like in 10 years time not much different what about 50 or 100 years from now in this future world what will our cities look like how we travel to work school or college and what kind of new technologies we have at our disposal what will the planet look like and will we be any happier than before now this particular question is by no means new predictions and prophecies of the future are as old as time itself what have been some past predictions of the time we're in right now the early 21st century an age filtered through the internet algorithms and data let's see if they're onto something so let's start by going back 120 years ago in the 1900s the invention of the first airplane opened massive potential in transportation and sparked the imaginations of the public in germany a chocolate company called hildebrands made a series of commemorative postcards imagining their life in the year 2000. they speculated that the world would go airborne people will take to the skies in their very own personal airships and gliders the same series also speculated that housing blocks will travel via giant steam trains although entire cities will be encased in glass to protect them from the rain they even imagined some vacations spent up at the north pole sadly maybe that one might come true one day take a look at these french prints they also depict life in the year 2000 but this time were made around 1910 once again it was the future for the aviators who will seemingly replace the motor car by the year 2000 this one pictures a man in a glider grabbing a glass of wine for the road or should i say skies it's a bit like a modern day drive through this man is getting a haircut from his mechanical barber now i would use the term robot but it won't be coined until 1920 10 years from now in the classroom this contraption is fed books whose words are then played directly into the student's ears an early audiobook perhaps whilst it seems that fashionable go unchanged these quaint imaginings from the start of the 20th century show a great sense of optimism for the future it reminds me of the steampunk genre a future vision and aesthetic but stuck in victorian technologies like steam power and industrial machinery as well as goggles and top hats now moving towards the 1920s and we get another vision of the future fritz slang's 1927 masterpiece metropolis has some great resources for the topic in this film cities now supersized featuring mega skyscrapers expansive highways and beautiful robots all with a jazz age art deco aesthetic it was no doubt influenced by contemporary new york which during the 20s was undergoing rapid vertical growth just look at how the city changed from the 1910s to the 1930s it's also in the 1920s where we see the first flying cars this 1923 drawing by early science fiction writer hugo guernsbach introduces the first wheeled helicar a levitating vehicle speculated to enter the market in 1973. so now let's take a realistic look at the road ahead and what tomorrow's motorists can expect in the years to come [Music] speed safety and comfort will be the keynotes of tomorrow's highways a multi-colored highway system may enable the motorist to reach his destination by following the correct color strip the increased speed of tomorrow's automobile will demand that highway signs be larger and more simple to read so that the motorist can anticipate his moves well in advance if visibility is poor our windshield becomes a radar screen showing the outline of objects ahead or fog may be eliminated by dispelling devices along the right-of-way other predictions of the future include one 1950s article that too imagines what the year 2000 will be like it predicts that the future will be one of convenience and luxury this picture phone will allow us to buy products from a screen and have it delivered without leaving the home then again it also predicts that all our food will be made from a sort of flavored sawdust that can be recycled into clothes confusing i know most interesting is the role atomic energy plays in the 1950s future after the detonations of the atomic bomb in japan the world was awakened to the immense potentials of nuclear power in the same article it speculates that atomic power will provide 100 of the world's power and by the year 2000 that street lamps will be replaced by micro suns suspended 200 feet in the air and powered by uranium in reality nuclear power only really accounts for 10 of global energy and there are no micro suns in sight when we come to the 60s and 70s the age of the moon landings and later star wars visions of the future changed accordingly in my mind this is perfectly laid out in the hanna-barbera 1962 animated series the jetsons which follows the everyday lives of an ordinary nuclear family in the far far future of 2062. despite the wonderful technologies it all seems somehow very 60s the hometown of orbit city is designed in the googie architectural style an early futuristic style that was extremely popular at the time even their outfits have some sort of retro futuristic look by the end of the 60s once the space race reached a climactic head in the apollo moon landings many predicted that mankind will soon reach mars in the next 50 years and as the 70s came and went the dream of space colonization continued this nasa video imagines that by the year 2000 humans would have begun to colonise space opening a permanent settlement on mars take a look this is taurus the concept that has evolved from the work of these teams of scientists and engineers they believe the huge space colony could be built before the year 2000 from dairy farms to manufacturing the concept of living and working in space is a possibility with existing technology that new space home located a quarter of a million miles from earth would even have a far out address in the 80s and 90s as personal computing and home technology were just getting underway our imaginations for the future changed once again in back to future 2 the 1989 movie about time travel doc and marty visit earth in 2015. in it were featured hoverboards thumb payment systems and an automatic dog walker yet oblique imagining comes from 1984's the terminator predicts a future in which rogue technological giant skynet takes over the world is just one of a slew of predictions about the dangers of oncoming technology and finally as the 1990s came along video games offered more digital immersion than ever realized and the advent of the world wide web and its growing popularity offered the possibility of living inside a virtual reality and hence the rapid growth of vr headsets in this time including the ill-fated virtual boy from nintendo only now with the oculus rift and playstation vr headsets are beginning to finally live up to those 1990s streams looking back at visions of the future every decade and we get a very diverse picture the year 2000 looks very different in the 1910s to the 1950s and the 1970s and yes some predictions have come true like the development of the driverless car or shopping at simple press of a button but a lot of far off let's go back to that question at the start of the video what will our future really look like in his book homodeus author yuval noah harari expects that humanity will begin its quest to immortality with humans being able to sustain life of over 150 years equally projects may be underway to develop cybernetic enhancements on humans giving them improved strength and intelligence these indeed could be reality by the end of the century it is believed that by 2050 nearly half the amazon rainforest would have been deforested wildfires might have tripled in regions like california and some in australia and by 2056 global temperatures may have risen by 3 degrees celsius and if that's too depressing for you don't worry by the year 2100 space travel could decrease in price enough for humans to visit and perhaps even colonize the planet mars the thing about the future though is that no one really knows what's going to happen all we have to go on is current trends and then make guesses but as we've seen each present moment imagines a future with themselves clearly in it taking advantage of the newest technology of the day to its furthest limits the 1910 saw a future with a newly invented airplane taking center stage the 1950s saw a future of atomic power and driverless cars and the 1960s and 70s saw their future in the stars perhaps influenced by the ongoing space programs my best guess is to expect the unexpected after all who could imagine the way 2020 has turned out people in 2120 will likely look back at our future predictions just like the way we look at those made in 1910 old antiquated maybe even a less naive that's my prediction at least hey thanks for watching if you like my content and want to see more subscribe to hilargo maybe add a like or a comment i'll be sure to read them do check out matt novak's blog paleofuture where he provides countless articles and resources uncovering what past decades thought about their time in the future his articles were incredibly useful in researching this video anyway i look forward to seeing you next time goodbye you

Channel: hochelaga

Views: 3,246,091

Keywords: past predictions, future predictions, every decade, speculation, visions of the future, sci-fi, history, speculative history, hochelaga

Id: UOtb5jUogXw

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020