The year 2000 - from 1900 | Hacker News Reader

The year 2000 - from 1900

morletsblog.blogspot.com

20 pointsnreece13 comments

The Moving Pavement

They're not widespread due to energy consumption, but most large airports have moving conveyers between terminals; and escalators (vertical moving sidewalks) are ubiquitous in malls.

House-Moving by Train

It's normally done by flatbed truck, but it is done.

Televised Outside Broadcasting

Justin.tv.

Personal Flying Machines

Um, hang gliders?

Weather Control Machine

[feverish paranoid conspiracy fantasy involving HAARP, Hurricane Katrina and global warming removed at the request of the commenter]

Combined Ship and Railway Locomotive

Containerization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization

Undersea Tourist Boats

Disneyworld's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" ride.

Roofed Cities

Toronto's PATH. http://www.toronto.ca/path/

Personal Airships

Luxury private jets.

Summer Holidays at the North Pole

Check back in 20 years.

Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine

Ubiquitous urban CCTV cameras, TSA heavies.

>Summer Holidays at the North Pole

Wait about 20 more years for this one.

Wow, roofed cities and personal airships?

How could they miss the obviousness of the domes and flying cars we use today?

The Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) has 70 acres of enclosed floor space. I think people in 1900 would count that as a roofed city.

Personal airships == private helicopters.

Personal flying machines == ultralights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Huntair.pathfinder.arp.jpg

Shopping malls are basically roofed cities. The roofed cities concept has been a very popular nation of the utopian literature of that time. I think one day we'll reach that state. We're just not yet there.

I'm pretty sure that the main reason we're not there is that many people actually prefer roofless cities.

Yeah, but roofed cities doesn't mean the city is a huge building like you probably imagine but the idea behind it is the ability to stay dry when it rains etc. So maybe we should talk about roofed sidewalks instead.

Funny how they think a "Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine" is a good thing...

And that's the one they got right.

Somehwhat more accurate predictions from mid-century

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJjUVIIYptE

What, no flip-flops or tatoos?

I find it interesting that so many of these "predictions" consider technology while completely ignoring popluar culture. Notice that no matter what the prediction, people are still wearing Victorian garb. The easiest prediction of all would have been that people would wear more functional clothing.

This is just content theft with no source given. The source is http://www.paleofuture.com I can't find the deep link now though.

Well 50% success rate isn't too bad.

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