For as long as humanity has existed, we have been wondering what the world will look like in the future. In less than a month we will be in 2020. Have you guessed what previous genera-tions predicted for us in the second decade of the 21st Century? We can say that, although we have seen plenty of impressive technological advances, it is not quite the world of flying cars people once imagined we would have by now.
1. We’ll have ape chauffeurs, by RAND Corporation, a global think tank that’s contributed to the space program and the development of the internet, in 1994;
2. All roads will become tubes, by Popular Mechanics, in 1957;
3. We’ll finally make it to Mars, by Wired Magazine, in 1997;
4. We will live in flying houses, by Inventor, science writer, and futurist Arthur C. Clarke – who co-wrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odys-sey, in 1966;
5. And our houses will be cleaned by hoses, by Popular Mechanics, in 1950;
6. We’ll eat candy made of underwear, by Popular Mechanics, in 1950;
7. We will have both telepathy and teleportation, by Michael J. O’Farrell, founder of The Mobile Institute, in 1985;
8. Mail will be sent via rocket, by Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield, in 1959;
9. We’ll have personal helicopters, by Popular Mechanics, in 1951;
10. C, X, and Q will not be part of the alphabet, by John Elfreth Watkins Jr., the curator of mechanical technology at the Smithsonian Institution, in 1900;
11. Women will all be built like wrestlers, by, Associated Press writer Dorothy Roe, 1950;
12. Human feet will become just one big toe, by a surgeon named Richard Clement Lucas at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in 1911;
13. We’ll wear antenna hats and disposable socks by product designer Gilbert Rhode for British Vogue, in 1939;
14. Everything will be made out of steel, by Thomas Edison fo Miami Metropolis, in 1911;
15. We’ll be able to vote electronically from home, by Schwartz and Leyden for Wired, in 1997;
16. Everyone will stop drinking coffee and tea, by Nikola Tesla for Vogue, in 1937;
17. There will be “blood banks” for teeth, by journalist Lester David for Modern Mechanix Magazine, in 1947;
18. Everyone will be a vegetarian, by Gustav Bischoff, former president of the American Meat Packers Association, in 1913;
19. But also, eating will no longer be necessary, by futurist and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, in 2005;
20. We’ll have robots as therapists, by global trends expert Ariane Van de Ven;
21. Vacuums will be nuclear-powered, by Alex Lewyt, former president of Lewyt Vacuum Company, in 1955;
22. Nobody will work and everybody will be rich, by Time magazine, in 1966;
23. There will be no need for futurists to predict the future, by Dave Evans, the chief futurist for Cisco Visual Networking;
How about next decades? Maybe we will communicate with dead relatives via virtual reality; or our kitchen will be able to restock itself; maybe pills will be able to cure cancer; an asteroid “might” destroy us all, and we will have to leave Earth.
It is that time of the year again. How do you see us in the future?
Source: Bestlife