Tales of the Future Past

atlacatl writes "One of the coolest sites I've been to: Tales of the Future Past - It tells the story (In pictures) of the predictions of the new millenium, early in the 20th century. I had forgotten the web was actually fun and interesting - use at your own risk."

Comments

analyzing past predictions

[pedantic bore]

It's always interesting to analyze predictions of the future (made in the past) and see how reality differs. There's usually some assumption that seemed to make sense at the time, but turned out to be wrong over time. Then look at our current predictions about the future and ask whether we're still making those assumptions, or whether we're making different, newer assumptions that will turn out to be equally wrong. Excellent reality check.

Let's make fun of all visionaries !!!

[PHPhD2B]

The author seems to find great pleasure in mocking everything about past predictions of the future. Rather than taking the time to write a coherent comparison and analysis the author instead put up a bunch of magazine scans and straw men and pushed them all over.

This could have been a great website, featuring what people thought the future would look like, comparing it to what it ended up looking like, and featuring some analysis as to why the discrepancies occured, or at the very least some surmises.

It's not easy telling the future, and I doubt very many of the magazine scans and "future" products were meant to be authoritarian "this is what it WILL look like" presentations. Rather, they were "hey, wouldn't it be neat if we could have this in the future?" With that view this could actually have been an inspiration to help develop what we already don't have. Instead it was turned into a poorly written "ha ha, what stupid ideas"-fest.

What's the use of even putting up this website when all it is doing is slam those who try to have some sort of vision?

The common thread

[rewt66]

Almost all of these predictions were based on bigger - more power, more steel, etc. The big (no pun intended) thing that the predictions missed was smaller and smarter - the transistor, the (micro) computer, embedded systems.

But we may be making the same mistake. More power was the biggest deal until about 1970. Then smaller became the big deal. But this doesn't mean that smaller is going to rule forever. In particular, our predictions of nanotech and biotech may be just as naive as the predictions the site laughs at.

So what will the future really be? I don't know. Maybe "more connected" is going to be the next big area.

Re:The real problem: Physics has stalled.

[spaceyhackerlady]

Lately basic physics has branched out into such technologically unproductive pursuits as String theory. They are interesting to mathematicians but the technological fruits aren't there yet.

You forget the operative word. Basic, fundamental investigation is where all the neato cool interesting stuff comes from. We have no idea what that stuff will be, but it will come, if we are prepared to let people continue their research.

Just think what the world would be like if the Powers That Were had told Messrs. Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen to quit messing with those ridiculous bits of germanium, that crazy chemistry and that silly quantum theory (none of which has any application anyway, you know) and work with something real, like better tubes.

...laura