I'm surprised at the accuracy of these predictions. Some are outrageous, like the peas and strawberrys sections, but the sections on transportation and especially ready cooked meals are eerily accurate.
What is interesting is the mapping of the 1900 culture onto future possibilities, like the big fruits and veggies, airships, and the people assembling in a hall for an orchestra within a distant one.
I wonder where our future predictions are most colored by our own present culture. Personally, I think it has to do with the common assumption that humans will remain the primary decision-makers on the planet. Once we have strong AI, I think all bets are off. It's a scary proposition, but IMO that's where we are pointed.
If we ever achieve a true AI. I think were more likely to initially achieve a ridiculously powerful system which will be able to weigh options and outcomes far more effectively then any human or group of humans ever could but would still ultimately depend on human programmers to guide its goals (thus drastically coloring any outcomes.) But by that point we will beginning to step towards extreme integration of the human mind and machine, thus eventually creating a human network of so that can draw from the processing power of a billion brains, and a billion minds which have instantaneous access to all information to guide their individual goals. Such a reality would create a hyper democratic society while diminishing one of the biggest flaws of democracy (a largely uneducated society who is easily tricked into voting against their own interests.)
I think the message here is that its easy to predict that things that are already invented will get a lot better, but its really hard to presage inventions that have not yet occurred. That seems tautological, but three years after this was published the airplane was first successfully tested. That certainly cut the travel time to England to just slightly less than two days.
Its also odd to see the obsession with big plants. I wonder what cultural psychology was driving those speculations.
The most ominous prediction is about the advent of big guns, which did come true, a fact that the world would come to be familiar with 14 years later in WWI.
Has any one been able to find reactions from the 1900s to this article. I've been doing some searching myself (no luck yet), but think it would be interesting to see how it was received at the time.
Nicaragua and then Mexico will join the US. -It's interesting that the US has been able to maintain roughly the same Union all these years. There are certainly "territories" that are close to becoming an official part of our Union, most pressingly Puerto Rico but not as many stars have been added to the banner as this prediction may have envisioned.
A very interesting post, thanks.
This is pretty awesome, but I kind of want to know what people from our age have in mind for what will be possible in 100 years.
Although the purchases through tubes thing sounds pretty cool. I would like it if I bought something online and it arrived via Pneumatic Tube almost instantly.