Something must be wrong with its radar eye! (Chicago Tribune, 1959)

Part two of the September 13, 1959 Chicago Tribune article Call a Serviceman: This Cry Will Still Be Heard in Year 2000 offers more paleo-future goodness. To bring you up to speed, our housewife of the future has just heard the yelps of her poodle Fifi as it is being attacked by the futuristic vacuum cleaner.

By the time I'm back in the house, the cleaner, having finished its job on Fifi, has scooted back to its cubbyhole in the baseboard.

"I think," my daughter says, "you'd better call a service man."

The vidiphone (telephone combined with television) signals for attention. A neighbor's face comes into view. Scowling, she says, "Your lawnmower is cutting all the flowers in my garden!"

"O, dear! Something must be wrong with its radar eye!"

"Yes," my neighbor agrees. "It needs glasses!"

I call a service man. It seems the logical thing to do. Afterwards, I sink into a chair and pick up a book.

A door slams and my son comes in, announcing, "I'm hungry."

"I'll get something," my daughter volunteers. (That's what's so wonderful about the pushbutton age - everyone is willing to help with the work.) "We'll have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," she proclaims, pushing a button.

We wait, nervously, while the electronic-brain goes to work.

Guess what - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! Only, instead of serving them on plates, the electronic brain tosses the sandwiches upward. They land on the ceiling.


Stay tuned for part three of this riveting tale of domesticity.

See also:
Call a Serviceman (Chicago Tribune, 1959)

Lunar High Jump (1979)

As promised, today we have a highlight from the 2020 Olympic Games; the lunar high jump. These Games will, of course, take place on the moon.

One of my favorite things about this image is the "special equipment" needed to replace the bar. At first glance I assumed the bubble enclosing the man in the vehicle was to protect him and that air was being pumped in. I then realized that the athletes don't need the same type of protection.


A reoccurring element of the paleo-future is the expectation of superfluous design. That is to say, we make things appear different and beautiful because we can. With a few design modifications the utility vehicle could be much more practical, but where's the fun in that? I guess that's why we fall in love with the future and why dystopian images are that much more jarring.

This image is featured in the 1979 book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century (World of the Future) which is a volume in the compilation book The Usborne Book of the Future: A Trip in Time to the Year 2000 and Beyond.

See also:
Olympic Games on the Moon in 2020 (1979)
Sea City 2000 (1979)
Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century (1979)
Ristos (1979)
The Future World of Transportation

Computers the size of a room (1970)

While this image of the 1954 "computer of the future" is a hoax that still manages to pop up whenever the topic turns to paleo-futurism, I recently came across a hilarious quote from the 1970 book The End of the Twentieth Century? along much the same line of thinking.

This excerpt, from page 71, illustrates the lack of imagination we often have when it comes to technology and thinking exponentially:

"Computers will benefit even more than telephones from the development of integrated circuits in ever smaller 'chips', and very small computers may emerge. Most computers will probably still occupy a large room, however, because of the space needed for the ancillary software - the tapes and cards to be fed in, the operating staff, and the huge piles of paper for printing out the results. But future computers, though no smaller, will be capable of doing far more than their predecessors.

Paleo-Future Forum

If you look to the sidebar you'll see that I've included a link to a new forum on Google Groups dedicated to Paleo-Future. This forum will hopefully allow for more interactivity and allow readers of Paleo-Future a place to discuss paleo-futurism and present-day futurism, share resources and bring attention to important links.

I've started the group with a handful of topics that I often discuss here on the Paleo-Future blog. Your input is always welcome, whether it be here on the blog or on the newly created message boards. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of this new experiment.

-Matt

matt@paleofuture.com

Undersea Cities (1954)

Rather than a floating city, today we have an image of undersea cities from the book Out of Time: Designs for the Twentieth-Century Future.

The book says that the image was published on the cover of if magazine in January of 1954. The most perplexing choice of the artist is why some of the "undersea cars" are driving on the ocean floor. It doesn't seem very practical but I'm sure that it helped 1950s audiences picture such an environment as familiar or more desirable.

See also:
Sea City 2000 (1979)

Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 1, 1993)

There are no language barriers in the paleo-future.

In 1993 AT&T produced a fourteen minute video called Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future. It looks like it had quite a large budget but I can't figure out who the audience was for such a video. It has a similar feel to AT&T's "You Will" TV commercials which were also produced in 1993.

You can view part 1 of Connections here. Stay tuned for more. We follow a large cast of characters through this world of the future which of course includes plenty of Virtual Reality.

See also:
AT&T "You Will" (1993)
Face-to-Face Telephones on the Way (New York Times, 1968)
The Road Ahead: Future Homes (1995)

Virtual Reality (1980s-today)

10 Zen Monkeys has a great article about the paleo-futuristic promise of Virtual Reality. As the article points out, we may have things like Second Life, which is mentally gripping but is far less physically immersive than what was projected.

I remember looking at Nintendo's Virtual Boy in the mid-90s and thinking, "Finally! It's just a matter of time before virtual reality takes over the gaming market."

Jaron Lanier, the developer that was interviewed for the 10 Zen Monkeys article has a Top Eleven Reasons VR Has Not Yet Become Commonplace. It's worth a look. I find number 7 the most intriguing in a lot of ways.

"Because human acuity is so good that you can't get away with so-so specs as you can when the interface is less intimate, as with existing mass produced devices." I can't decide if the Wii proves number 7 or shows that technologies that are becoming more immersive are more attractive for their playability than their graphics.

The image above is from the Walt Disney World attraction Carousel of Progress which was updated in the late 1990s to include a futuristic family playing a virtual reality game.

Fusion Energy in Space (1984)

The caption to this photo reads, "Fusion energy may someday power spacecraft on journeys beyond the solar system, but its first uses will be on earth, perhaps by the decade of 2010."

From the EPCOT Center book The Future World of Energy.

See also:
The Future World of Transportation
The Future World of Energy (1984)

The Prophetic Year 2000 (1968)

In his 1968 book Criswell Predicts "psychic" Jeron Criswell persuaded with impeccable logic. Because no prophets have mentioned any year after 2000 the world will most surely come to an end before that year.

"A study of all prophets - Nostradomus, St. Odile, Mother Shipton, the Bible - indicates that we will cease to exist before the year 2000! Not one of these prophets even took the trouble to predict beyond the year 2000! And if you and I meet each other on the street that fateful day, August 18, 1999, and we chat about what we will do on the morrow, we will open our mouths to speak and no words will come out, for we have no future... you and I will suddenly run out of time! Who knows but what future generation from some other planet will dig down through seven layers of rubble and find us some 2,000 years hence, and crowd around a museum glass containing a broken fragment of a Coca Cola bottle, a bent hairpin and a parched copy of our Bible which managed to escape the terrifying destruction of civilization! They will wonder what on earth was meant by the words 'Henry Ford' or 'Hollywood' ... and what in heaven's name was a Criswell!"

The excerpt above was found in the book Bad Predictions by Laura Lee.

See also:
The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon
Nuclear Holocaust Before 1999
Nuclear War to Start September 12, 2006
Nuclear War Revisited (2006)

The Tricentennial Report: Letters From America (1977)

Paleo-Future reader Mr. Wallace recently inquired about an advertisement he came across many years ago that asked people to send in their ideas of what the year 2076 would look like.

After some searching I found a book called the Tricentennial Report: Letters From America, sponsored by the Atlantic Richfield Company and published in 1977. This was the year after the United States Bicentennial, which is when the solicitations most likely took place.

From the introduction to the report, "The people had been asked by Atlantic Richfield Company in newspapers, magazines and television advertisements, to discuss their country's future. Some 60,000 Americans responded and this report is a distillation of their ideas and feelings."

The book includes drawings from schoolchildren, letters from average Americans, speculative fiction and interviews with forward-thinking professionals and philosophers. Stay tuned for great excerpts from this volume.

I'm still looking for the advertisements bought in newspapers and magazines by the Atlantic Richfield Company asking for submissions. Anyone with additional information about the Tricentennial Report is encouraged to educate us all about this intriguing project.


The image above is from page 32 of the report. Stay tuned for more.

Miss A.D. 2000 (Chicago Tribune, 1952)

While browsing the Chicago Tribune archives this past weekend I came across this feature from May 4, 1952. It highlights fashion designs from Jacques Heim, Marcel Rochas, Madame Carven and Jacques Griffe.

"What will women wear in the year 2000? A photographer put the question to leading Paris couturiers, who took the wraps off their imaginations and produced these forecasts of future fashions."

My favorite vision of what we'd be wearing in the year 2000 is probably that of Marcel Rochas, whose clothes are pictured in the image below.

"Marcel Rochas envisions a spiral antenna headdress for thought transference; sunglass-shaped eye make-up; costume reminiscent of ancient armor; floating veils, and sandals of panther skin."

Collier's Illustrated Future of 2001 (1901)

[Update: The Paleo-Future blog has moved. You can read and comment on this entry here.]

Today we have a follow-up to Monday's post about Arthur Palm, the 14-year-old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who in 1901 made predictions about what the world of 2001 might look like.

The editors of the book Yesterday's Future: The Twentieth Century Begins (Voices of the Wisconsin Past) suggest that Arthur Palm's article in his school newspaper was taking many ideas about the future from the image above, which was printed in Collier's Weekly on January 12, 1901.

This seems quite likely given the specific mention of a sign reading, "Old People Restored to Youth by Electricity, While You Wait." In the upper left corner we can see a sign in the Collier's illustration reading, "Youth Restored by Electricity While You Wait." Palm also mentioned a "Manhattan Air Line" which is visible on a sign in the Collier's illustration as well.

See also:
The Predictions of a 14 Year Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)

TWA Advertisement (1963)

The image above is a TWA advertisement from 1963. The ad features some great paleo-future design and can be found in the book The Golden Age of Advertising - The 60s.

Challenge of Outer Space (circa 1950s)

Wernher von Braun begins the film Challenge of Outer Space by saying, "The conquest of outer space is the greatest technological challenge of the age in which we live."


Even before a manned mission to the moon the nation's top space scientists were speculating about what space stations would look like. I find it difficult to mentally put myself in an era when space exploration had not yet occurred, but films like this help a great deal.

The torodial space colony is featured heavily in the film and is a favorite among those depicting space stations of the future.

Above is a short clip of the 30 minute film and I hope to explore Challenges of Outer Space in depth as more information about this paleo-futuristic wonder becomes available.




There is very little information about Challenge of Outer Space on the web, including the year. Any additional information you may have about this film is much appreciated.


See also:
Space Colonies by Don Davis
More Space Colony Art (1970s)
Mars and Beyond (1957)
Sport in Space Colonies (1977)

Apple's Knowledge Navigator (1987)

In 1987 Apple Computer produced a concept video for a hypothetical product called the Knowledge Navigator.



Having a normal conversation with your computer as though you were conversing with a friend seems to be the most paleo-futuristic aspect of this video. The inefficiency of such a system certainly raises questions about the user interfaces of tomorrow.

(Inefficiency aside, there's no doubt that I'd make my virtual butler wear a bowtie too.)

See also:
The Road Ahead: Future Homes (1995)
Picturephone as the perpetual technology of the future
AT&T "You Will" (1993)
Face-to-Face Telephones on the Way (New York Times, 1968)

'Summer Terrace' All Year Round (1960s)

The image above is the "home of the future" where "electrically operated climate-conditioned extensions will permit 'summer terraces' all at will by your electricity."

The text for this ad from America's Independent Electric Light and Power Companies is featured below. The ad can be found in the book The Golden Age of Advertising - The 60s.



See also:
Monsanto House of the Future (1957-1967)
The Future World of Energy (1984)

Population Close to "Standing Room Only" (Chicago Tribune, 1899)

The April 30, 1899 Chicago Tribune article, "Population Close to 'Standing Room Only'" seems like it could be written today with just a few dates and statistics changed. Much like the fear of population growth we've explored in Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book The Population Bomb, the article warns of a dangerous population explosion.

If the population of the United States continues to increase at the rate that has prevailed during the last twenty years in the year 2000 it will reach so great a density there will be room for an average of only one person to an acre in the vast area.

The article uses American presidents to distinguish between different times in history and different population sizes, as pictured below.


The fear of immigrants sounds similar to the arguments heard in American political circles today.

Deductions must be chiefly speculative, but all that have been made public by the weightier minds turn to the restriction of immigration as the most logical method of imposing a check on an advancement that is fast growing menacing.


See also:
The Population Bomb: Scenario 1 (1970)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 2 (1970)

The Future World of Energy (1984)

While paging through the EPCOT Center Book: The Future World of Energy, published in 1984, I noticed that even images demonstrating positive advances in the field of energy production took on a distinctly dystopian illustration style.

The image below shows something the book's authors clearly believe to be an advancement in technology. But I can't then understand why it looks like a vehicle right at home in the dytopian world of Blade Runner. It seems that in the paleo-future, energy is still a dirty business.


Power plants may someday grow their own fuel. Here, a harvesting machine is cutting trees and separating the wood that would be burned to produce electricity.


See also:
The Future World of Transportation
Syd Mead

The Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)

In the year 1901 Arthur Palm, a fourteen-year-old student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, published an article in his school newspaper (the Excelsior) describing the world of 2001. Below is an excerpt of his article as featured in the book Yesterday's Future: The Twentieth Century Begins (Voices of the Wisconsin Past).

"How it may appear a hundred years hence, when modern inventions have been carried to their highest point of development that even Edison would feel jealous of the great inventions in the year 2001. In the year 2001 you will see sky-scrapers sticking far above the clouds over 200 stories high. On the streets there will not be any room for street cars, so they will build lines way up in the air, and there will be landings fastened to the high skyscrapers, where the people will wait for the cars. The carlines will have different kinds of names and you will see the name "Manhattan Air Line" many hundreds of feet above the ground. You see air-ships and carriages fastened to balloons for the transportation of the people through the air, and you will often see collisions in the clouds. In one of the sky-scrapers on the 119 story you will see a sign, 'Old People Restored to Youth by Electricity, While You Wait.'"

The belief that electricity would eventually cure all ills was surprisingly common. I guess that's why I'm so amazed that people still receive electro-shock therapy. It seems so primitive and naive.

Century 21: Space Needle Designs (1962)

In a way, Seattle has a permanent piece of the paleo-future.

The always amazing blog BibliOdyssey has a great post titled Century 21 Exposition. It features proposed designs for the Space Needle and the fairgrounds for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair (also known as the Century 21 Exposition).

For an amusing film following teenagers through the expo be sure to check out Century 21 Calling.





See also:
Expo '92
To The Fair! (1965)
Walt Disney Explaining the Carousel of Progress to General Electric (1964)
All's Fair at the Fair (1938)

Olympic Games on the Moon in 2020 (1979)

For those of you who can't get enough of the book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century, here are the Olympic Games of the year 2020 which, of course, will be on the moon.

After a Moon city is established the 'Moonies' will "want the prestige of holding a major world event." Their idea is the Olympic Games of 2020, complete with a stadium covered by a huge plexiglass dome where "the visitors from Earth will have a fine view of their home world."


Stay tuned for a great illustration of the "Lunar high jump" coming next week.

See also:
Sea City 2000 (1979)
Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century (1979)
Ristos (1979)
The Future World of Transportation

Nuclear War Revisited (2006)

In case a flyer wasn't clear enough, the House of Yahweh posted video of their September 12, 2006 nuclear war prophecy.

"Prophecy shows that nuclear war will start September the 12th, 2006. A third part of the people will be killed over a fourth part of the earth. If you live this long you are going to see this take place. We're in the last three and a half years of prophecy that shows that mankind will almost totally destroy himself before this thing is over."



See also:
Nucelar War to Start September 12, 2006
The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon

Is Futurism Dead? (New York Times, 1982)

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about the postmodern paleo-future here's an excerpt from the March 14, 1982 New York Times article, "Now and Then, Congress Also Ponders the Future."

....activity in the field [of futurism] has slowed to the point of stopping. "Actually, [futurism] died somewhere in the 1970's," said Michael Marien, the editor of "Futures Survey," a monthly abstract published by the World Future Society. "Nobody announced its death, but it happened." Mr. Marien, who has been monitoring futures literature for the past dozen years, said the flood of books on trends and forecasts is down to a trickle.

If you have a TimeSelect subscription you can read the entire article here.

See also:
Postmodern Paleo-Future

The Road Ahead: Future of Police Work (1995)

Now that we've seen what the classroom of the future and the home of the future look like, let's take a look at police investigations of the future. The video below is from the CD-ROM included in the 1995 Bill Gates book The Road Ahead.



With video monitors in cars and wireless "wallet PCs" the most hilariously paleo-futuristic thing about this video is the huge audio recording device he plops down on the desk.

See also:
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
The Road Ahead: Future Homes (1995)
Bill Gates on Charlie Rose (1996)
Jet Flying Belt is Devised to Carry Man for Miles (New York Times, 1968)

Sport in Space Colonies (1977)

This 1977 illustration by Rick Guidice is from the book Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future.

"Scientists have long known that exercise will be especially important for denizens of space colonies, since there is no gravity to give the body a natural workout. One wonders, however, whether this image of suburban jogging and tennis may prove to be more nostalgic than accurate."

Rick Guidice also did the illustrations featured in this post from February.

See also:
Space Colonies by Don Davis
More Space Colony Art (1970s)
Mars and Beyond (1957)
Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century (1979)

Postmodern Paleo-Future

Lately, I've been trying to organize my thoughts around this idea of the postmodern paleo-future. That is to say, when did a certain level of self-awareness about futurism outweigh the sincere, optimistic brand of futurism?

I might suggest that the first great postmodern paleo-futuristic film was Woody Allen's Sleeper from 1973. Allen was not so much reflecting present-day anxieties and dreams of the future but rather those of generations before him.

In a world of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Meet the Robinsons, and the Futurama TV show, (not the General Motors exhibit from the 1939 World's Fair), where do we go from here?

Is a return to sincerity the answer? Is such a thing even possible, let alone desirable?

Despite what some may have argued at the time, irony did not die on September 11, 2001. In fact, it was the only way Americans knew how to deal with tragedy. Yet, there continue to be moments when a sincere reverence for the future and its possibility poke through, as though asking if it's safe to come out and play.

As usual, your thoughts on this topic are more than welcome.

Nuclear War to Start September 12, 2006

You have to admire a man with the "cahones" to put a date on his prophecies even if that means becoming a laughingstock.

Excerpted from the House of Yahweh newsletter found in late August of 2006 near the Minnesota State Fairgrounds:

"My Dear Friends, We must warn the world of nuclear wars that will start no later than September 12, 2006. You need to take part in this Last Days Work of Yahweh."

According to their website the House of Yahweh now claims that a "nuclear baby was conceived September 12, 2006 and will be born June 12, 2007," which is an interesting revision of their original claim.

See also:
The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon

Sea City 2000 (1979)

Today we have more from the great book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century.

The Sea City 2000 shows some great paleo-future technology such as the dish-shaped antenna that "beams microwave energy, generated by solar cells, to a receiver on the nearby coast."

The bottom right corner shows a Buckminster Fuller design for a floating community. His design includes shops, schools and homes for 5,000 people.

See also:
The Future World of Transportation
Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century
Ristos (1979)