I think they missed, though on the mice, rats, etc. And, I don't know that I'd really want a pea as big as a beet!
Well, electric vehicles are coming into common use now, I see quite a few around the city these days so we're on the way to that one. Had the electric car not been killed by American politics in the 80s and 90s we'd probably really be zooming with electric vehicle technology.Joel_BC said:A real hoot! Impressive, in a lot of ways, Beekissed. Thanks for posting it.
In terms of the basic ideas, the author was maybe correct more times than wrong.
Correct about cars (in some ways), subways, rail skytrains, highspeed rail (especially in Europe, Japan, China). Incorrect about lack of congestion on city streets. Incorrect about electricity providing motive power for the majority of vehicles. Incorrect about obsolescence of fossil fuel for motive power. Correct about move into suburbs (though suburban lots of 1950-present are generally smaller than the suburban semi-farm situations of around 1911).
Allowing for an understanding of technology from 100 years ago, I'd say that shopping on the internet qualifies for the "shopping by a centralized system of delivery tubes"
Actually, hydrofoil ferries are very common in Russia, Japan, and SE Asia, and used to be common for the Channel crossing before the Chunnel, so the author is correct there.
In an American sense perhaps, but many European nations (Britain in particular) as well as all communist nations have free university education for students who qualify based on their marks. And Europe, Japan, and a few other nations as well as Canada have a variety of national medical programs, most of which are free or have minor fees. In Alberta for example we don't pay anything for basic medical and dental care, our premiums were absorbed by the Provincial government 2 or 3 years ago.
You're right about the spirit of the predictions. In that way, the author was predominantly right.moolie said:Definitely more correct than incorrect, an amazing set of predictions
If we consider the spirit of each prediction rather than the actual delivery method, even more correct than Joel has outlined.
Joel_BC said:
There's a good point.moolie said:Allowing for an understanding of technology from 100 years ago, I'd say that shopping on the internet qualifies for the "shopping by a centralized system of delivery tubes"
Joel_BC said:
Another good point. And Alexander Graham Bell made impressive experiments with hydrofoil boats out in Nova Scotia in the early 20th century, after his work with the telephone and other devices. But I'm not sure bout the idea of using hydrofoils for ocean-crossing vessels... I don't believe there's too much of that, though maybe I'm wrong.moolie said:
I think the vision was more accurate than not but the details could not be imagined. Just think of how far we've come from there and in so short a time....imagine what we will "know" tomorrow.Joel_BC said:A real hoot! Impressive, in a lot of ways, Beekissed. Thanks for posting it.
In terms of the basic ideas, the author was maybe correct more times than wrong.
Correct about cars (in some ways), subways, rail skytrains, highspeed rail (especially in Europe, Japan, China). Incorrect about lack of congestion on city streets. Incorrect about electricity providing motive power for the majority of vehicles. Incorrect about obsolescence of fossil fuel for motive power. Correct about move into suburbs (though suburban lots of 1950-present are generally smaller than the suburban semi-farm situations of around 1911).
Wrong about elimination of mosquitoes, roaches, and flies. Misdirected about the overall advisability of doing away with wetlands.
Wrong about a number of aspects of geopolitics.
Wrong about the way in which English spelling would be updated (and officially accepted)But it has been updated and accepted officially...there is text slang now being accepted in dictionaries and schools as we speak...er...type. Author figured newspapers would take the lead.
Very wrong about centralized production of heat and cooling for home comfort for a whole communityBut only wrong about the location of the centralization~don't we have central air and heat now in individual homes?. Right about the development of power equipment for use in food preparation. Very wrong about the manner of central preparation of food (if, as article says, that would involve distribution at each meal, and clean-up of dishes). Our supermarkets have you shopping for frozen, canned, and packaged food - supply and wash your own dishes and utensils. Very wrong about shopping by a centralized system of delivery tubes! Centralized production of a lot of things has proven problematic, sometimes undesirable.
Cost of energy has made the production of tropical or semi-tropical ftuits and foods un-cost-effective, not as envisioned by author. Huge fruit and vegetables may be possible to grow, but their flavor and texture are not necessarily so wonderful. You've got to also remember that the huge strawberries we have now are just as large as some of the apples produced back then...apples were smaller then but due to the same advances that make strawberries huge, they too have increased in size. But, true, roses of all different colors have been bred.
Right about airships and modernized, engine-driven sea.water vessels. Wrong about the use of hydrofoils for ships. But paints an accurate picture of ski-doos, maybe?
Right about worldwide voice communication. Right about eventual replacement, by electric circuits, of most telephone operators. Right about distant electronic image transfer (fax, Web, etc). Right about electronic transfer of entertainment & cultural experiences.
Wrong about the average level of physical fitness in the population, but right about the proliferation of fitness centers (gyms).
Way wrong about free university education for everybody. I think they meant that it would be more available to the masses, rather than just for the rich. And the availability of grants to some minorities and income levels has made college education available to classes of people that never could have gone back then. Wrong about free medicine & dentistry for all kids. Same thing....Medicaid has made it possible for the lower classes to obtain this whereas, back then, only the wealthy could afford medical maintenance. Wrong about poor kids being taken to far parts of the world (on the public dime) as an educational experience. Again...some grants do afford lower income college/high school age kids to become exchange students to foreign schools
Few (medicinal) drugs will still be swallowed, author says. Wrong. But the medical imaging the author envisioned has proved true.
A real interesting article.
) is HOW very close the author came to trying to understand how life would change over those 100 years.
