Image: Public Domain Review
Image: Public Domain Review
Created between 1899 and 1900 by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists at the request of a toy maker in Lyon, this series of postcards envisions what life would be like in the year 2000.
Image: Public Domain Review
Let's see how well these postcards from over a century ago predicted the future.
One postcard predicted holographic distance communication, not too far off from today's video calls.
Image: Public Domain Review
Another one depicted an underwater taxi, a piece of technology that is currently not viable given cost and infrastructure limitations.
Image: Public Domain Review
One imagined automated tailoring, measuring and sewing machines. We are halfway there with a partially automated tailoring process.
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The image cards imagined air taxis. As per some media reports, many airlines are testing aero taxis.
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The artists were right about hydroplanes, which are nothing but light and fast motorboats designed to skim over the surface of the water.
Image: Public Domain Review
One postcard pictured duels at the bottom of the ocean. The most advanced atmospheric diving suits (ADS) enable humans to remain 700 metres underwater for several hours.
Image: Public Domain Review
While some of the predictions were quite accurate, a whale-powered underwater bus missed the mark.
Image: Public Domain Review
It imagined we would have learning aids powerful enough to cram knowledge straight from a book and into our brains.
Image: Public Domain Review
These cards, made at the turn of the 20th century, encapsulate the hope and excitement that people held for the future.
Image: Public Domain Review
Thanks for reading!
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