How the world should have looked today, 60 years ago.

I can across this site Modern Mechanics and they have an article from a magazine called Popular Mechanics printed in feb 1950.
The Image you see on the front page reminds me of the Venus Project, purhaps this is where Jacque got his ideas from.

WHAT WILL the world be like in A.D. 2000? You can read the answer in your home, in the streets, in the trains and cars that carry you to your work, in the bargain basement of every department store. You don’t realize what is happening because it is a piecemeal process. The jet-propelled plane is one piece, the latest insect killer is another. Thousands of such pieces are automatically dropping into their places to form the pattern of tomorrow’s world.

The only obstacles to accurate prophecy are the vested interests, which may retard progress for economic reasons, tradition, conservatism, labor-union policies and legislation.

This is exactly what has happen and probably why this image is still just a sci-fi fantasy for our future 60 years later.
Source

Also
Magnetic Trains in 1931

ELEVATED trains whizzing at tremendous speed from city to city, powered solely by electromagnetic lines of force, is the new and startling method of rapid transportation now being developed by German engineers.

A war against friction losses has long been waged by scientists; and this electromagnetic rapid transit project now promises to end the conflict. No wheels are to be used for traction. The cars are drawn forward, in one scheme by powerful electromagnets, in the other by huge solenoids.

blog.modernmechanix.com...
The Idea has been around for nearly 80 years and yet there are very few around the world.

New Efforts May Harness SUN LIGHT (Oct, 1934)
blog.modernmechanix.com...
Putting Nature’s Power to Work (Aug, 1932)
blog.modernmechanix.com...

It's Kind of sad we had solar power nearly 80 years ago and still very little technological progression in harnessing the power of the sun.
Unfortunately money make the world go round and it will always hold back out technological advancement

Isn't it amazing that 60 years ago means the 50s now?!

..

Excellent find. Reminds me of all the tomorrow's cars I used to drool over as a kid.

And shut up Donnie you're reminding us how old we are already.

Thanks for posting this, I was talking about something similar to this with the family not too long ago.

Always makes me upset - Where in the heck is my flying car?????

This was pretty cool. It is especially interesting how they called the cause for delay. Do you think many main stream magazines would dare call it that way now?

You think that weird ever wonder why our cars still run on gas.

www.pbs.org...

Timeline: History of the Electric Car
1832-1839
Scottish inventor Robert Anderson invents the first crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells.

1835
American Thomas Davenport is credited with building the first practical electric vehicle -- a small locomotive.

1859
French physicist Gaston Planté invents the rechargeable lead-acid storage battery. In 1881, his countryman Camille Faure will improve the storage battery's ability to supply current and invent the basic lead-acid battery used in automobiles.

1891
William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa builds the first successful electric automobile in the United States.

Originally posted by Signals
Thanks for posting this, I was talking about something similar to this with the family not too long ago.

Always makes me upset - Where in the heck is my flying car?????

Some of the food that Jane Dobson buys is what we miscall “synthetic.” In the middle of the 20th century statisticians were predicting that the world would starve to death because the population was increasing more rapidly than the food supply. By 2000, a vast amount of research has been conducted to exploit principles that were embryonic in the first quarter of the 20th century. Thus sawdust and wood pulp are converted into sugary foods. Discarded paper table “linen” and rayon underwear are bought by chemical factories to be converted into candy.

I suspect it is hidden in the same warehouse that's holding all of that candy made of underwear and paper towels.


That is one heck of an odd prediction. I'm sure glad that it didn't come true.

LOL Passengers will rocket from NY to San Francisco in 2 hours! They never saw the TSA coming did they?
mmmmm Chemical shave..........smooth.......%#^%^&@!!1 My face burned off!!! Scratch the chem-shave
You'll eat sawdust for food! Who the hell ever though of that? Great find and flag for posting it.

[edit on 5-2-2010 by Asktheanimals]

reply to post by Pajjikor


Because the energy density of petroleum is far greater than that of any battery anyone has ever created ever?

Oh, right - this is ATS. It's a conspiracy!!!!.

They forgot to mention SOYLENT GREEN.
Somebody shoot me before I eat sawdust. That is what they fed to Jewish slaves in the German rocket factories to get a few more hours of work out of them before they died.

WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS!

There is a band with that name in the UK

By 2000, a vast amount of research has been conducted to exploit principles that were embryonic in the first quarter of the 20th century. Thus sawdust and wood pulp are converted into sugary foods.

In a way they were right - high fructose corn syrup. Who would've thought that corn would have replaced sugar?

I like how everything in there refers to "The housewife" lol. Man, they would flip out if they saw how it was today. "Wait... you mean... they work?" O.O

so true, it because of lack of invocation and too many freaking regulations, there still closet inventor making all kinda of stuff that can be used, you often refer to them as crazies or mad scientist or rednecks, but thanks to ridicules regulation, fee, patents, and much more depending on what your trying to work with, hell go try to make a plane and fly it see what happens, or build your own vehicle, if ya want a jet pack TOO BAD U ARE TERRORIST
not to mention, most people are idiots by olden times standard, most people can't feed themselves let alone understand basic engineering mechanic even if they had a book, all come down to the fact that the government/corporation don't want you being unique and rival their billion dollar money sinks, every major invention is generally done by one inventor or a small group, all corporation due is give you the same # for 30 years with no innovation... Look at the television, video games, cars, and phones... everyone is so impressed over new features, that where already old inventions, invented purely to be replaced a year later, with # they should already had.

Where my holograms and my robots,my jet pack and flying personal vehicles, what happen to space travel we just give up, should already have colonies on the moon.

/end rant