Gallery: Here's How People 100 Years Ago Thought We'd Be Living Today
Courtesy of Ed Fries01Wired1
With the propeller churning and the spotlight on their destination, a group of travelers returns from the moon in the year 2012. Sure, we actually went to the moon in 1969, but this image suggests that lunar travel would become routine, Fries says. "Just another weekend trip."
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This video phone let people talk across continents (notice the architecture in the projected image). But even though the concept is high tech, Fries says, the device itself is "this giant steampunk contraption with wires everywhere."
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The cab of this aerotaxi looks like it came from a horse-drawn carriage. Fries especially loves the taxi's gaslamp. "It's so period."
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What would people do if they could fly in machines? They would catch birds. Obviously.
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No more opening the front door to let in the chimney sweeps. This card envisions future technology being used to solve a present-day problem, Fries says. Also: "How is that plane just hanging there?"
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The seahorse cavalry is armed with swords. "It all makes sense," Fries said.
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Automation was popular in the Victorian imagination, but there's always a human in the picture to push the buttons or operate the crank, Fries notes. The idea of machines doing things all by themselves was totally foreign.
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Another aerotaxi, picking up shoppers from the store.
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The other side of the previous card. The cards came free with boxes of chocolate, and some people actually used them.
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Victorians had trains, and autos weren't far behind, but they envisioned a future that combined the two. "The auto-rail is clearly going very fast because the dog is being blown upside down," Fries said.
