1910 French 'Futurists' predict life in the year 2000

Check this out. They were wayyyyyy off haha. But it is interesting to see what they came up with.


year 2000

Please dont banish me to BTS, because only like 10 people go to that site!

Wow, those are both interesting and funny. Strange how they thought everyone would be flying around with wings, yet would still use a record player that looks like the original.

Thanks for posting.

I think my favorite one is all the kids at school with machines hooked up to their brains. I guess they were thinking that information can just get zapped into your brain by the year 2000.

Well, that's a good one! That's The Matrix! 74 years previous to William Gibson's Neuromancer. Wow!

[edit on 13-9-2007 by Areal51]

Funny in a way.. look at it like this though..

The first one .. men with wings putting out a tall building fire. Helicopters and very large ladders can do this, but couldn't back then?

Car Shoes ...... Roller blades? Hellooooo

The barber is just stupid..

Avenue of the Opera .. technically I believe we have the ability to make flying cars, but not efficiently.. so its not TO far off.

A curiosity .. wierd? No not at all.... we now make reserves to show people "farm life" and what a "horse is" ... There is one down the street from my parents.

Electric train ... that came true?

Rescue at sea by plane? No, we search for bodies with planes though, but we DO RESCUE WITH HELICOPTERS ..

Sentinel in a Helicopter? ... We do that now, only with computers and cameras instead of actual eyes.

Cyclist Scouts came true in WWI

Phonographic message. We passed that by some 80 years ago

One for the Road ... We offer bars and drinks and so on at Airports before taking off?

Ok, to many to name em all but I would say most came true, like Hearing the news, the movie, "fighting cars" ...

He had the right idea anyways.

Really interesting.

Some of their stuff wasn't too far off.

Nice to see that they thought everything would be about I flying and that we think the future is space. I wonder how wrong we're gonna be?

Nice find

I agree with Rockpuc, alot of these things aren't far off the reality, especially the vehicle based ones. It's surprising how intunitive the French were during that time. I like the "A Curiosity" one. It was very accurate on how the change will be almost total.

I wouldn't even know where to start predicting what life would be like in the year 2100. I suppose they did do a good job, because it would be impossible to even imagine some of the technologies we have now compared to them. Imagine what we will have in the year 2100... its really not easy, my head is hurting even trying to think about it.

Flying Fire men - No, but they do have trucks with latters. A little off.

Car Shoes - Skates, Roller Blades

The Barber - There are machines that ASSIST barbers with cutting hair

The Avenue of the Opera - We have flying cars now so..

A Curiosity - We have something like it

The Electric Train From Paris to Beijing - No but we have an air plane for that

A Rescue - Close enough

Speak to the Caretaker - We do sometimes

Sentinel Advanced in the Helicopter - Sorta

Cyclist Scouts - Biker gangsters?

Phonographic Message - (cell) Phones. internet communications

One For the Road - Drive Threw

Lady In Her Bathroom - It up to the lady if she wants her bathroom like that

Heating With Radium - Well we have heaters

Hearing The Newspaper - News channels?

Correspondence Cinema - It's sorta like a video game

Cars of War - Tanks

Building Site - Close but not close enough

At School - no (not yet)

A Festival of Flowers - If you wanna I guess

A Chemical Dinner - Most fast foods and drug pills (LOL)

Airship On The Long Course - Better we got PLANES!

The Tailor - Sorta

Flying Police - Yes they fly in helicopters but I wouldn't call them "Police"

The website is just a blank screen to me..

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[edit on 9/14/07 by NovusOrdoMundi]

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi

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Same here.

Just like to know if it is that never published Jules Verne piece that surfaced a few years back you're talking about?

Someone fix the link ...eh !?


Edit to add. Works OK for me now. So Villemard is the artist.

Kinda funny they couldn't imagine people would wear a different fashion.

Reality always surpass fantasy.

[edit on 14-9-2007 by khunmoon]

Just, whatever you do, DON'T portray your people in the same cultural dress sense of your time. That is the weirdest thing about the pictures (aside with the fascination with flight) - everyone's wearing dapper waistcoats and long dresses with bustles - the whole Jeeves and Wooster thing! I guess nobody predicted the exponential rate of technological change - but I guess if it wasn't for Roswell, maybe we still would be listening to gramophones, donning top hat, white tie and tails!!

Really good find

A lot of it was pretty accurate, very surprising considering most modern day technologies wouldn't have been conceived without the invention of the computer.

I particularly like the "Correspondence Cinema" one - very good prediction of a video phone

I loved the way the people were using motorized skates the way you would ordinary skates.

I'm certain it was all a bit of fun for the artist but one prediction really hit the nail on the head.

Cinema correspondance = Video Phones?

That's a pretty big leap of the imagination as cinema had only just been invented.

Also loved the flying machines...more primative than davinci's drawings.

Alright I just saw it. Some were kinda off or confusing as to what they meant, but there were a lot that were actually close.

The school one where the kids have the things hooked up to their head, perhaps they didn't mean the information just gets zapped into their heads. What about the books on tape that you can listen to? That's how I interpreted it anyway.

Those were pretty good predictions though for 1910.

Funny that they illustrated people from 1900 as wearing the same clothes. But then again.. They would have no idea about what we would be wearing, especially that we would be wearing less clothes generally (e.g. when going out clubbing or to the beach )

Some of these are pretty close to what it's like.

The way it's dipicted reminds me a bit of Steam Punk.

The cinima conferance thing, well, Video Conferancing anyone ?

Had anyone in the 1910's seen a computer from now they'd have no idea how it works, they'd see the keyboard as something familure, but the rest of it would be far over their heads to understand.

We heat with electricity, that's kinda like what they show, sort of.

I bet if you showed someone in the 1910's a Ionic Breeze they'd just scratch their head even if you explane what it does.

We do take all our tech for granted

It's almost hard to imagine how much of what we have now would seem like magic to folks from as little as 90 some odd years ago.

fascinating. most had the right idea, but the wrong mean. seems like we've accomplished most of what is portrayed, just by other methods.

There been a story in the Uk recently about concerns of new 'petrol motor driven roller skates' so really not so far fetched at all!

www.dailymail.co.uk...

I think the principles behind the pictures are actually quite accurate, the 'futurist' him/her self probably realised how daft the actual images would seem to those of us with the benefit of hindsight, but he was attempting to convey a lot of ideas to people that accepted the recent developments in tech.

In reverse order:

Flying police: We have flying police, chopper coppers. We also have various air forces all patrolling their various bits of air space. It is a simple leap to imagine that as more people use the air, more restriction will have to be applied.

The Tailor:

We have clothes and other products that require fast cheap production made in factories that have a certain amount of automation. (okay it is still cheaper to use third world labour - different issue) Computers can specifically tailor certain items such as a sports shoe or a space suit glove right down to orthopaedic shoes.

Air ship:

We have those - the dream kinda died with the Hindenburg, but is still a current area.

A chemical dinner:

Mc Donalds and the like - just not as swank as the pic

A Festival of Flowers:

This dude loved the idea of personal flying machines didn't he?!

At school:

Not far off, we use headphones / visuals in assimilating information, not sure exactly what the mechanical grinder screwing up all those books symbolises exactly, possibly foreseeing the replacement of text on paper with more efficient methods of sharing information.

Building site:

We have fantastic machines for building nowadays - does make me think about what this dude intended everyone to do for a job though, but the women in France could walk past a building site without being jeered at I suppose.

Cars of war:

Goes without saying - take any vehicle - select weapons and bolt em on, works for planes, trains and automobiles.

Correspondence Cinema:

Video conferencing is old news (older than we think )

Hearing The Newspaper:

People uses to pay just to see the news reels at the cinema before radios were affordable.

Heating With Radium:

Just basic understanding of heat being transferred through radiation.

Lady In Her Bathroom:

Lady In Her Bathroom with her toys??

One For the Road:

He foresaw the need for road side amenities, even though this dude still seems addicted to his simple flying machines!

Phonographic Message:

He didn't predict how flipping annoying answer machines are did he?

Cyclist Scouts:

Police have used motorcycles since the day they became usefull, before that it was push bikes.