Fuzzy-Duzzy, The Computer You Cuddle (1976)

The August, 1976 issue of The Futurist magazine ran this blurb about the need for humanized machines, which would make technology less intimidating for the average user. The piece appears to have originally appeared in Hal Hellman's 1976 book Technophobia: Getting Out of the Technology Trap.

We need "humanized machines." Wes Thomas, editor of the future-oriented newsletter Synergy Access and a computer expert, once told me of a "dream" he has. "What I'd like to do," he said, "is develop computer systems that are more 'human,' that people are not afraid of, in fact that they would get along with and even enjoy." He would like, therefore, to develop the "Fuzzy-Duzzy."

Today, he explains, computer terminals are made out of metal and plastic. They are cold and uninviting; therefore most people are immediately turned off by them. And they look menacing, like something a mad scientist would create.

With Fuzzy-Duzzy, he says, "you would put your hands into this warm, inviting Teddy-Bear thing, and you would be able to look inside through a porthole. Inside there would be these big knobs you could get hold of and turn, instead of the usual miniature keys everybody keeps making mistakes on. By moving things around, you'd be able to communicate with the machine.

"And the pictures that come on the screen would not be the usual angular shapes, but nice, round organic forms.

"So I'm interested in developing a sort of organic computer terminal that people will feel at home with immediately."

When I mentioned this to an acquaintance, he became furious. He called it underhanded, meretricious, and worse. A machine has no right being "friendly."

Thomas's "dream" is a bit extreme, I will admit. Yet humanized machines combined with people who are not afraid of them (and who understand where and how to use them) may be the way we will eventually do many of the things that remain to be done in basic education and job training, in health care and perhaps in many other applications as well. Just as the supermarket put the customer to work, so too may it be necessary for patients and prospective patients to do some of the pre-entry work themselves, aided by computers - humanized ones, of course.

Machines will also help us provide sight for the blind and hearing for the deaf, mobility for the lame and dexterity for the handicapped. Will humanization of such machines be necessary too?

Sports Car of Tomorrow (1966)

This Ford concept car appears in the 1966 book Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler. The description of the car appears below.

Exotic engines of tomorrow may provide the power for a sports car such as this, which could be mass-produced while keeping the appearance of a racing car.

See also:
Automobiles of the Future (1966)

Vision (Clip 2, 1993)

This clip from the 1993 concept video Vision demonstrates why the videophone has never caught on.

There is nothing communicated between the characters that necessitates visuals. If the best application of videophone technology you can think of is proving that helicopters exist, there probably isn't a pressing need for the technology.

See also:
Vision (Clip 1, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (1993)
Writer and Producer of Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future
The Road Ahead: Future Homes (1995)
Starfire (1994)
Apple's Grey Flannel Navigator (1988)
Apple's Knowledge Navigator (1987)
AT&T "You Will" (1993)

Jamaican Food in 2000 A.D. (1969)

The December 4, 1969 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) ran a piece by James MacDonald titled, "Food in 2000 A.D." that examined the food of the future within the context of Jamaican beef imports and communal eating.

It is interesting to note that the communal kitchen concept was very much in vogue in the late nineteenth century (see Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy) and seemed to make a comeback in the 1960s and 70s. Below are excerpts from the piece.

Milk that never saw a cow, fruit that never grew on a tree or in the ground, and steak bearing no relation to a bullock -- in other words, fabricated food. It sounds a little distasteful and perhaps unbelievable but, according to eminent scientists studying food science it is inevitable and will be soon on our tables.

Take the steak for instance. Soya beans can be woven to resemble a bullock's muscle, the fat presents no problem nor do vitamins, colouring is simple and flavour can be injected to order. The stuff can be even made to suit the taste buds of an institutional canteen or those who like to see blood.

The development is not a new one - vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists have been eating this type of meat for the past forty years - but it is developing rapidly in recent years, and could hang a large question mark over the future of beef herds. Here in Jamaica it might solve the problem we have of having to import so much beef though I doubt if a patty would ever taste the same again.

Food Technologists also forecast the days of communal feeding, when whole sections of the community, several streets joined together, would be served by a communal kitchen. Mrs. Community, tired of her cooking chores, will simply pick up the phone and order any variety of quality convenience foods from the self-serving central chef. An indication of this trend is visible at the moment in the home delivery services of some restaurants and also the ready to heat TV Dinners. Quality at the moment may leave a lot to be desired but in the future, new methods of keeping food such as A.F.D. (Accelerated Freeze Drying) and cooking Infra-Ray Ovens will keep the gourmets happy. The result - less time spent on cooking and shopping and more time for leisure.

See also:
That Synthetic Food of the Future (Ogden Standard-Examiner, 1926)
Food of the Future (Indiana Progress, 1896)
Delicious Waste Liquids of the Future (1982)

The Complete Book of Space Travel (1956)

The classic 1956 book The Complete Book of Space Travel contains some amazing imagery. The book was targeted at young boys and had that unique blend of sincerity, wonder and confidence we so often see in 1950s futurism. As early as 1956 the question was not if we'd explore the moon and other planets in our solar system, but when we would make this a reality. Chapter 22 is even titled, "If We Are Visited First."

Below is the introduction to the book as well as an illustration from the title page. Stay tuned as we look deeper into this paleo-futuristic classic in the coming weeks.

The first space pilot has already been born. He is probably between ten and sixteen years of age at this moment. Without doubt both he and his parents listen to radio and television programs dealing with much space adventure but with few accurate facts. This book is designed to outline the facts of space travel, and the conditions we expect to find in space and among the planets and stars. These facts alone are sufficiently exciting, since they are factors in man's greatest single adventure - the exploration of the universe.


This book has not been written for the space pilot alone. It is written for his engineer, his astrogator, the vast grounds crews who will design the ship, and the many people whose taxes and investments will make it vital to understand the problems and progress of space travel.

Space travel is already here. Flying saucers are probably indicative of space travel by a race other than ours. We are slowly solving the problems of man's own survival in space. It is only a matter of a few years, and many, many dollars, before our first space pilot will launch himself into the last frontier of exploration, adventure, and commerce.

We read much about space stations, the small man-made satellites which will be designed to circle the earth at an altitude of several thousand miles. Actually, these space stations will be very useful, even if space travel never develops any further, and we should know about them too.

Although much has been written about space travel, much of this material deals with the mechanics of ship construction to get us into space.

It is the purpose of this book, on the other hand, to show that space travel is also a biological problem, even perhaps to a greater extent than it is an engineering problem. Moreover it is the purpose of this book to describe, to the best of present knowledge, what we expect to encounter when we get to space. This is important, because the success of man's greatest adventure will depend upon being well prepared.

Today, space travel is one of the ultimate goals of scientific and military research. The familiar cry, "Who rules the moon controls the earth!" reflects our readiness to exploit space. Our military might is ready for space; our economic strength is ready for space; soon our ships will be ready for space.

Let's find out what space travel is all about.

See also:
Man and the Moon (1955)
Mars and Beyond (1957)
Challenge of Outer Space (circa 1950s)
Animal Life on Mars (1957)
Plant Life on Mars (1957)

Flying Machines (circa 1885)

This image, depicting many different flying machines, is from the Library of Congress, dated circa 1885. The full image appears below along with many different cropped versions showing the detail of the piece. The Library of Congress description of the engraving also appears below.

No. 18 shows a collapsible Montgolfier balloon from 1784; no. 23 is the design for a glider balloon as described in "Reflections on the aerostatic sphere," 1783 (September); no. 24 depicts Jean-Charles (l'avocat) Thilorier's plan for transporting troops across the English Channel to invade England, ca. 1800; and no. 32 shows the dirigible balloon glider used by Charles Guillé for an attempted ascension in Paris, November 13, 1814.










See also:
Going to the Opera in the Year 2000 (1882)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
Collier's Illustrated Future of 2001 (1901)
Paleo-Future Wallpaper: Round 2

WALL-E Promo Postcards

In what seems to be another example of postmodern paleo-futurist design (repurposing past visions and versions of the future) we have promotional postcards for the upcoming Disney/Pixar movie WALL-E. Apparently these were given out at Comic-Con 2007. (via The Disney Blog)

You can view the teaser trailer for WALL-E here.

See also:
Disney Calls Future a Thing of the Past (1997)
Postmodern Paleo-Future
Article for MungBeing

Going Backward into 2000 (1966)

This clip from the 1966 radio documentary 2000 A.D. is of a short interview with Philip Johnson, an architect that designed the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Dallas, Texas.

Mr. Johnson sounds quite pessimistic about the future of American cities but ends the interview with an oddly optimistic tone. Below are excerpts from the interview.

How about innovations for the American home? How will we be keeping ourselves warm or cool?

I don't believe in innovation. I think we'll probably go slightly backward in that regard. We've had too much and we can't keep the air-conditioning systems running that we've put in.

What about green grass and trees and fresh water and clean air?

Ah, green grass and clear water and beautiful air . . . it's a nice dream, uh, are we going to have it or not I think depends on what the people of America want.

See also:
2000 A.D. Radio Documentary (1966)

Nazi Paleo-Futurism (1941)

Heliport/Railway StationMartin Kappler has scanned and uploaded a German poster from 1941 which shows Third Reich images of the paleo-future. The poster was in a book called Durch die weite Welt vol. XIX, one in a series of books for boys.

Many thanks to Flickrfy for the tip, and of course, Martin Kappler for scanning and translating this poster.


The headline and main text read:

What new things will the technology of tomorrow bring?
Today still a venturous plan - tomorrow maybe reality

Technology and economy in the Greater German Reich have gone into an unexpected upswing. The largest network of Autobahn highways has been constructed in just a few years, whole new industries were created and great architectural and urbanistic tasks are about to be realised. Although the war, that was forced upon us, makes it necessary to concentrate our economy on the war efforts, the great plans for the buildup are drawn with the certitude of our victory in mind. Many keen inventions and many thoughts that still seem fantastic today will then be realised. The pictures in this poster show on which branches the engineers are working today and what the technology of tomorrow will bring.


Underground Train called "Driving Torpedo"
Stratospheric Airplane
Ocean Liner
Water Airplane
Double Decker Bus
Motel
Submarine With Rotating Outer Hull

See also:
Commuter Helicopter (1947)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)

Vision (Clip 1, 1993)

In 1993 Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture) created a concept video called Vision, which demonstrated the communications possibilities of the future. The clip below shows us a universal language translator, digital personal assistants, a tablet, as well as the pervasive videophone culture we were supposed to see by now.

(Thanks to the iSight camera on my Mac, the barcode scanner shown at the beginning of the video is essentially a reality. I'd be a little surprised if we didn't see barcode applications for all of our mobile phones soon.)

See also:
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (1993)
Writer and Producer of Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future
The Road Ahead: Future Homes (1995)
Starfire (1994)
Apple's Grey Flannel Navigator (1988)
Apple's Knowledge Navigator (1987)
AT&T "You Will" (1993)

Start 'em Young (1991)

I have three questions about this picture:

1. Why did we believe paper faxes were the future?

2. Does that toddler have Wi-Fi?

3. Why does the teddy bear have a phone?


This illustration by Tom Chalkley ran in the November-December, 1991 issue of The Futurist magazine.

See also:
Apple's Grey Flannel Navigator (1988)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (1993)
Starfire (Part 3, 1994)
Online Shopping (1967)

Lyndon B. Johnson on 2063 A.D. (1963)

Today we have Lyndon B. Johnson's predictions for the future of space exploration, as printed in the book 2063 A.D..

Perhaps the outstanding feature of a prediction about the next century in space is that our imagination today is too limited to visualize the vast possibilities. In other words, more will be accomplished in space than we can now come anywhere near labeling as specific projects and benefits.

Among the space activities in the next one hundred years will probably be: weather control, global communication, global navigation, regular travel of people and freight between places on earth and space stations and the planets, and international policing against space and terrestrial conflicts.

The benefits flowing from space activities will be even more widespread than the space activities per se. Education, language, living standards, and world peace will all benefit as space exploration and space living become a permanent part of man's institutional structure.

See also:
General Dynamics Astronautics Time Capsule (1963)
Broken Time Capsule (1963-1997)

"Grasshopper" Golf Cart (1961)

The March 5, 1961 Chicago Tribune ran this Closer Than We Think! strip, showcasing the golf cart of the future. Hey, it can't all be starving children and future shock.

To save steps for the par-shooter of the future, a Tokyo firm has designed a remote-control golf cart, based on the same principles that permit a television viewer to change channels without leaving his chair. Once our golfer arrived at the edge of a green or bad rough, he would walk to the ball, take his shot, and then summon his cart by voice or button as he moved along toward the nineteenth hole.

Still another advance, lacking in the Japanese concept, lies ahead. It's the "ground effect machine" principle, through which the cart could float on a cushion of air instead of riding on the turf. No more fairway flattening in the future!

See also:
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Sport in Space Colonies (1977)
Olympic Games on the Moon in 2020 (1979)
Future Without Football (Daily Review, 1976)
Lunar High Jump (1979)

2000 A.D. Radio Documentary (1966)

The 1966 radio documentary 2000 A.D.: A documentary on life in the universe in the 21st century, hosted by Chet Huntley, covers some very interesting topics. Government, energy use, leisure time, electronics, use of the oceans, and private enterprise were among the many issues discussed by Mr. Huntley and those he interviewed.

You can listen to the introduction here. A transcript of the program's introduction appears below.

Year 2000!

Now, here is Chet Huntley.

We'll be celebrating a special New Year's Eve. Bells will ring, orchestras will play "Auld Lang Syne," boys and girls will embrace and the new century will be upon us.

It will be the year 2000. Or, if you prefer twenty-hundred. But what shall we call it? Two-triple-oh, perhaps.

A baby born tonight could not be president of the United States in the year 2000. He would have not yet attained the constitutional age of thirty-five years.

Statistics indicate that about three-fourths of the people listening to me at this moment will live to see that year, which is no further in the future than the election of Franklin Roosevelt is in the past.

What do we know about year 2000? Well, ecologists tell us that in that year we will have run very nearly out of food, that half the world's population will be on a starvation diet. We can project the so-called electronic revolution and predict that the number of workers engaged in actual production will drop to only 18 percent of the workforce. At the same time, the number of people in all the various service occupations will almost double.

Experts tell us that we will cluster more than ever into cities, drive electrically powered cars, work less, and retire earlier. But what about these things? What will they mean to you and me, to the average worker and to his family?

See also:
Closer Than We Think! Monoline Express (1961)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 1 (1970)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 2 (1970)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 3 (1970)

Broken Time Capsule (1963-1997)

Since my first post about the General Dynamic Astronautics Time Capsule of 1963, we've learned that it was likely crushed when the building was torn down sometime in 1997. As noted in the comments, 201 copies were produced and distributed to major universities, which is where I happened upon the copy I now have in hand.

It makes you wonder just how many time capsules are destroyed each year when a building is torn down to make way for development of another kind.

The image above is from the second page of the 2063 A.D. book and shows the burying of the time capsule on July 13, 1963. I'll do my best to scan the entire book before returning it to the library.

See also:
General Dynamics Astronautics Time Capsule (1963)
Year 2000 Time Capsule (1958)

Automobiles of the Future (1966)

The 1966 book Automobiles of the Future by Irwin Stambler contains some pretty awesome projections of what we were supposed to be driving by now. The image above is the cover of the book. Stay tuned as we check out the cars of the (paleo) future as featured in this classic book.

Electronic Shopping (1983)

Terry R. Hiller wrote an article titled "Going Shopping in the 1990s" for the December, 1983 issue of The Futurist magazine. Mr. Hiller was understandably skeptical of the prospect of electronic shopping. However, many of the things he asserted would not come to pass did indeed happen.

An excerpt appears below, along with graphics from the piece.


Nor is electronic retailing equipped to deal with the logistics of delivery. Product information, selection, and billing can all be transmitted electronically, but physical merchandise must be physically moved. Today's mail-order houses depend on federal or private package delivery, services that are simply not structured for the huge traffic increases that large-scale teleshopping would generate. It would require not only the total restructuring of existing routes and systems, but an investment of billions of dollars in equipment and personnel - resources we are simply unable to spare either now or in the foreseeable future.

Furthermore, since teleshoppers can only view products piecemeal, electronic marketing has severe drawbacks as a retailing device. In nine square feet of drugstore shelf space, you might easily encounter as many as 80 or more different brands and sizes of cold remedies. But in electronic marketing, shelf space is defined as time- the number of second an item appears on the screen. Allowing even 10 seconds per item, it would take more than 13 minutes to show that same 80 items. Add to this the cost of production, handling, and shipping, and we begin to suspect that the "convenience" of electronic marketing will be very expensive. Unless we are prepared to sacrifice variety - and therefore competition - some products will never be purchased "in absentia."


See also:
Online Shopping (1967)
Mobile Malls (1981)

EPCOT Publicity Materials (1981)

The diverse and informative Disney blog, 2719 Hyperion has a very interesting post about the publicity materials sent out prior to EPCOT's opening on October 1, 1982. Below is a description of the attraction New Horizons from an early brochure.


New Horizons
An underwater colony is one of the future habitats highlighting your journey through New Horizons, presented by General Electric, In the Omnimax Theatre, you'll spiral through eight-story-high projections of the macro and micro worlds that form the building blocks of our future. And you'll take a whimsical look backwards at the tomorrows imagined by visionaries of the past.


See also:
EPCOT's Horizons
The Simpsons go to EPCOT
Astuter Computer Revue
Westcot (1991)

General Dynamics Astronautics Time Capsule (1963)

The booklet 2063 A.D., published by General Dynamics Astronautics, was placed into a time capsule in July of 1963. It contains predictions by scientists, politicians, astronauts and military commanders about the state of space exploration in the year 2063. The introduction to the book appears below.

This archive records the predictions sealed in a time capsule during ceremonies commemorating the fifth anniversary of the dedication of the General Dynamics Astronautics facility. The time capsule is located on the west ramp entrance of the General Dynamics Astronautics facility at 5001 Kearny Villa Road, San Diego, California. The capsule is to be opened on July 13, 2063.

See also:
The Tricentennial Report: Letters From America (1977)
Tricentennial Report Ad (Oakland Tribune, 1976)
Journey Into Space (Time Magazine, 1952)
Year 2000 Time Capsule (1958)

Robot Farms (1982)

The 1982 book Our Future Needs (World of Tomorrow) contains this two-page spread of robot farms of the future. No, they don't grow robots. The robots just work on the farms. But combine the idea of robot farms and the robot rebellion we looked at a few months back and you've got a hilariously horrifying combination.


Look at this fruit farm of the future. There are at least three things that make it different from a farm of today. The first, of course, is that robots are picking the oranges. The second is that the orange trees are not growing in any soil. Now look at the landscape to spot the third difference. The farm is situated in an arid region where little rain falls from the sky. Today, such regions are virtually uninhabited and useless. These three difference show how robot farms of the future will be able to produce more food for the world's people than farming can today.

See also:
Superfarm of the Year 2020 (1979)
Delicious Waste Liquids of the Future (1982)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 1 (1970)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 2 (1970)
The Population Bomb: Scenario 3 (1970)
The Robot Rebellion (1982)

Picturesque America (1909)

After recently reading about how devoid the paleo-future is of advertising I thought it'd be a good time to pull out a cartoon Harry Grant Dart drew for a 1909 issue of Life magazine.


This image can be found in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection.

See also:
Futuristic Air Travel (circa 1900)

The Air Ship: A Musical Farce Comedy (1898)

The 1960's TV show The Jetsons taught an entire generation what to expect of the future. Using comedy to create fanciful expectations of the future is not an idea exclusive to the twentieth century. The posters above advertise The Air Ship: A Musical Farce Comedy from 1898.

Below is an article which appeared in the January 18, 1899 Fort Wayne News (Fort Wayne, Indiana) along with illustrations from a January 16, 1899 Fort Wayne Gazette article.


"The Air Ship," a new and original spectacular musical farce comedy, written by J.M. Gaites, possesses some novel and realistic scenic features, and it will probably draw a big audience at the Masonic Temple ton-night. One of the most realistic stage scenes ever presented will be the flight of a real air ship with fifteen passengers on a Klondike expedition, and a view of Dawson City in winter. While the author does not claim a plot, "The Air Ship" has a central idea or theme, with which it is infested by amusing dialogue, new songs, dances and specialties. Careful attention will be given to staging "The Air Ship," and the company of artists engaged will give a lively presentation of the farce. The principal members are Marie Stuart, the clever vaudeville artiste; Lattie Burke, Marlaud Tyson, Raymond Finley, Ben Welsh, James T. Kelly, Max Millian and Shields, and Nana Bancom. The management of the company announce that the scenic features and the performance of the piece will be both new, novel and worthy of cordial support.

There are many places online to buy posters like those shown below but I would recommend downloading the Library of Congress files here and here and bringing them to your favorite photo-printing establishment that can handle poster-sized prints.



See also:
Going to the Opera in the Year 2000 (1882)
Futuristic Air Travel (circa 1900)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years (Ladies Home Journal, 1900)

Up-Wing Priorities (1981)

Paleo-Future reader Mark Plus sent me a very interesting piece from the June 1981 issue of Future Life magazine. The author, F.M. Esfandiary, insisted that the Right/Left political and social dynamic was outdated. The new direction was Up.

Mr. Esfandiary would later change his name to FM2030 because he was convinced that he would live to see the year 2030, which would have been his hundredth birthday. He died in the year 2000 at the age of 69 and was cryogenically frozen.

An excerpt from his 1981 piece about "Up-Wing Priorities" appears below. I will likely return to this article in the future as it goes in many interesting directions.

Around 2010 the world will be at a new orbit in history. We will translive all over this planet and the solar sphere - at home everywhere. We will be hyperfluid: skim on land - swim in the deep oceans - flash across the sky.

Family will have given way to Universal life. People will linkup/linkout free of kinship and possessiveness.

We will stream ahead propelled by a cornucopia of abundance.

Life expectancy will be indefinite. Disease and disability will nonexist. Death will be rare and accidental - but not permanent. We will continuously jettison our obsolescence and grow younger.

At 2000 plus ten all this will be the norm - hardly considered marvelous.

Much-Needed Rest (1903)

A common fear of the future is that life will become much too hectic. This idea is commonly portrayed in cartoons such as the one above, which ran in the June 4, 1903 edition of Life Magazine. The caption reads, "Mr. A. Merger Hogg is taking a few days' much-needed rest at his country home."

This image by Charles Dana Gibson was found in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog via the book Turn-of-the-century America: Paintings, graphics, photographs, 1890-1910

See also:
Future Plane Travel (1920)

Space Spiders (1979)

The 1979 book Toward Distant Suns features the "Space Spiders," illustrated below. Space Spiders are designed to help build the space colonies of the (paleo)future.


Use of Space Spiders to build a space colony of the Stanford torus type. In the foreground mobile teleoperators carry rolls of aluminum to restock the Spiders' supplies. Detail shows a Spider laying down the hull of the colony, which has the shape of a bicycle tire. Central disk structure will carry solar arrays.


See also:
Space Colony Pirates (1981)
Sport in Space Colonies (1977)
Space Colonies by Don Davis
More Space Colony Art (1970s)
Mars and Beyond (1957)
Challenge of Outer Space (circa 1950s)
Like Earth, Only in Space .... and with monorails (1989)
Space Colony Possible (The News, 1975)

Sees World Better or Worse (1923)

Of all the contributions to the February 12, 1923 Bridgeport Telegram article Thinking Men and Women Predict Problems of World Century Hence Educational Director of the Rand School, Algernon Lee makes the most non-commital prediction of them all.

A hundred years hence the world will be either a great deal better than now or a great deal worse.

In the field of individual morality we have made a good deal of progress. On the average, we are less cruel more truthful, more capable of mutual understanding, foresight and self-control than our ancestors were. But this does not enable us to solve the problem which arise out of the increasing complexity of our social system and the enormous growth of our powers of production and destruction.

If the world grows better it will be because mankind gets beyond individual [unreadable] and individual morality and develops a capacity for social self-control commensurate with the growth of our mastery over the forces of nature and with the interdependence of human interests which that involves.

See also:
Thinking Men and Women Predict Problems of World Century Hence (1923)
Homework in the Future (1981)
The Answer Machine (1964)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)

Wristwatch of the Future as Crimefighter (1979)

The 1979 book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century goes into some detail about how the "risto" may be used in a variety of applications. Aside from instantly voting via your watch the device apparently has crime-fighting capabilities.


Crime in cities could get a knock from the risto. Police would all be equipped with ristos, making equipment in patrol cars unnecessary. Conversations would be "scrambled" so they could not be overheard and in an emergency, police ristos would have priority over other. In the picture above two thieves have just stolen a car - its owner presses the emergency button on his risto to get help quickly. Emergency calls could be free, though computers would add up the price of other ones.


See also:
Ristos (1979)

House of the Future for the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition (1956)

The photos and excerpts below are featured in the book Fifties Source Book and highlight the Kitchen of the Future built for the 1956 Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition.


Peter and Alison Smithson were major exponents of Modernist architecture in Britain, commissioned to design the House of the Future for the 1956 Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition. The house was an exercise in futurist design, built of pre-fabricated plastic. The Smithsons admired the manufacturing methods of the American auto industry. The mass production-based industries had already revolutionized half the house - the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and garage. The architects advocated using factory-built, fitted kitchen units which could be easily updated. The House of the Future took the concept of flexibility beyond conventional open plan with only the kitchen and bathroom modules differentiated from the rest. An electrostatic dust collector was provided and cooking utensils incorporated their own heating elements. It was ideas such as these that impressed visitors to the exhibition rather than the building itself, with no external windows.




See also:
1999 A.D. (1967)
Monsanto House of the Future (1957-1967)
Frigidaire Kitchen of the Future (1957)