The Year 2000 as Seen by 19th Century Artists

Open Knowledge Foundation ^

[GVnana]

Originally in the form of paper cards enclosed in cigarette/cigar boxes and, later, as postcards, the images depicted the world as it was imagined to be like in the year 2000. There are at least 87 cards known that were authored by various French artists, the first series being produced for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris.

[GVnana]

More at the link. How did they do?

[Argus]

Amazingly accurate, predicting road rage, the RV, and government school computers.

[Argus]

Actually, #3 could be Facebook.

[Drew68]

Where’s my whale bus?

[Red Badger]

They did surprisingly well!...........

[cripplecreek]

The 3 you posted aren’t wildly off the mark but I draw the line a seagull fishing.

[Red Badger]

[latina4dubya]

Actually, #3 could be Facebook.

number 3 is very much government school... spot on...

[dfwright]

“At School” is pretty close if you replace the book machine with a bunch of Ipods

[Tupelo]

I think they did very well.
I notice that many of the artists were influenced by Jules Verne. I guess that is due to the fact that "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was a huge best seller just a few year prior.

[muir_redwoods]

Arthur Clarke once observed about predictions that humans tend to be over-optimistic in the short run and under-optimistic in the long run. At the age of ten, I thought I’d be vacationing on Mars by now but I never imagined the Internet.

[JRios1968]

I didn’t see how many times the French were predicted to have surrendered to Germany...

[Buckeye McFrog]

#1 seems to have drive-by shootings in Detroit and Baltimore nailed.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

The one I liked the most is the postal worker flying to deliver paper mail. It shows how people take whatever the new thing is of their time (flying, in this case) and expand it beyond reason or practicality, but fail to imagine other innovations, like the fact that paper mail is now fairly obsolete. I always love looking at these though because its a real insight into how people used to think.

[Owl558]

“At the age of ten, I thought I’d be vacationing on Mars by now but I never imagined the Internet.”

I just want my flying car :)

[ops33]

During my high school years I used to have an on again, off again summer job working as a deck hand on shrimp boats. I actually did go fishing for sea gulls.

[Red Badger]

I actually caught a seagull on my line while fishing. I think he was diving for my bait. It was a real mess trying to get a hook out of a pissed off gull..........

[thackney]

We are still waiting on that flying car...

[cripplecreek]

6 months ago I would have never believed FReepers would declare Americans to be war criminals over treatment of nazi Germany.

[rochester_veteran]

I’m still waiting for flying cars!