This image, from a 1911 issue of Life magazine, was drawn by Harry Grant Dart and features the farcical technologies of the future. To see pre-R.U.R. images of personal, robotic servants is extremely rare. Dart never ceases to amaze with his tremendous wit, vivid imagination and biting social/technological commentary.
The image can also be found in the book about the 1984 Robot Exhibit in New York.
See also:
Futuristic Air Travel (circa 1900)
Picturesque America (1909)
Much-Needed Rest (1903)
The Robot is a Terrible Creature (1922)
R.U.R. (1922)
What I love about this picture is that it assumes that to have access to all these things you'd need a separate machine for each one. The internet would look like millions of machines pointed at your head.
ReplyDeleteThe only error is in the design, not the concept.
ReplyDeleteI guess the modern version would be a fat guy playing World of Warcraft in a motorized massage recliner, waiting for the pizza he ordered online to arrive.
ReplyDeleteI have this illustration in a book called " Predictions" from 1956. It just amazes me how much it looks like he is on the internet. He has drop down menus for his favorite subjects, and the projector is on his lap much like a modern day laptop. I was just googling around to find more info on the artist.
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