We are all watching, whether avidly or incidentally, the progress being made in the sciences especially as it pertains to the technology field today and noting how these advances may be way beyond what we had ever imagined would be possible in our lifetime. For example, we are now seeing 3-D printers that can follow patterns and “print” usable body parts, motor components and even guns, and recently driverless cars have been produced and are on the roads but that technology is being expanded to include pilotless drones and even small passenger aircraft. Who’d a thunk it?
During the 20th Century, Popular Mechanics magazine was considered the go-to place to find out what living would be like by the 21st Century, and as it turned out some of their predictions published in various articles actually did come to pass. They said in 1932 that much of our food would be cooked by microwaves (it is), in 1942 that we would have push-button phones, (we did); and in 1954 that our televisions could be mounted on walls (they can be). Probably one of the best predictions from 1968 is that by 2000 our wristwatches would not just tell us the time but would also be miniature computers used for communication by voice and by vision. There are also a few predictions that not only did not come about but were also so way off the grid (at least to date) that it makes one wonder how they could even think that would ever happen.
While it may be an innovative way to clean a house, we unfortunately are not able to take advantage of the prediction that we would only need a hose to get the job done. It was suggested that to clean an entire home one would simply add some detergent to the water coming from a hose and spray it on our non-scratchable floors and our drapes, furniture and carpets which were all to be made from some waterproof plastic or from some type of synthetic fabric. To finish the job the water would run out through a drain in the floor and everything would be dried by turning on the hot air for a short period. Then, to take care of kitchen and bedroom linens one would simple hang them on a line and hose ‘em down! That would have worked for me, however…..!
Not sure today’s garages could have accommodated them, but according to a 1967 article we were all supposed to have at least one personal helicopter, big enough to seat two people and small enough to set down in the front or back yard, to serve as our means of transportation by year 2020. In an article by Glenn Seaborg, coming from the RAND Corporation’s “think tank,” it was suggested that by now we might have been able to breed intelligent animals to carry out the “heavy lifting” chores required (unless we had house robots for those tasks) and that apes might be skilled enough to serve as the family chauffeur (possibly decreasing car accidents). But we would probably have to rethink how we were going to walk around now since Richard Lucas, a prominent surgeon in England, in 1911 predicted that in 100 years we would have become one-toed beings since he expected our big toes to continue to develop while the smaller toes, being used less and less, would gradually disappear leaving each foot with only one large toe. Wouldn’t that be a sight to see?
In a 1957 article in Popular Mechanics it was predicted that we would no longer have to worry about potholes as all roads in the country would be replaced by pneumatic tubes so that all one had to do was leave their home and get to a nearby tube which would then “whoosh” them to their destination. Around the same time, it was predicted that all mail would be transported via rocket to speed up the delivery time. To prove the point, in 1959 a missile, (warhead removed) was packed instead with 3,000 letters addressed to various political figures and successfully launched from the U.S.S. Barbero, a Navy submarine, and delivered to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station. But, hey, it is actually better now since AOL says, “You’ve got mail” and you can skip the rocket! And even though Wired magazine predicted in 1997 that this year, 2020, was the one in which we would set foot on Mars, NASA says, “Not so fast!” It is now predicted to be, maybe, in 2030, if we get lucky!
In addition to travel there have also been quite a few predictions about our food habits. Gustav Bischoff of the American Meat Packers Association said that due to the shortage of meat we all would be vegetarians by now, while Nikola Tesla, in 1937 said that in another 100 years, the stimulants, coffee, tea and tobacco would no longer be the “in” thing in our society. Well, tobacco maybe – but for me and many others I know you had better bring a lot of help with you if you plan to pry the coffee cup from my hands! In a 1950s article in Popular Mechanics by Burt Kaempffert (who also predicted hose house cleaning) he thought it possible that we would be able to take our kitchen and dining linens along with our rayon underwear to chemical factories to have them converted to candy. Not for me, thanks! And finally, Ray Kurzweil in his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology said that the way we consume food now will be obsolete by the 2020s because by then the cells would be fed and waste extracted by recently developed “nanobots” capable of entering the bloodstream. Say what?
But, for me the wildest prediction for 2020 (beyond the one-toed foot), but the most fascinating is the “flying house!” Back in 1966, Arthur Clarke, science writer and inventor who incidentally co-authored the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey ventured that by the 21st Century all homes would have a compact power source and be untethered so that if one decided the climate was too warm or too cold where they were they could just move their house to a site where the climate was more to their liking. As a matter of fact, he predicted that not just one house, but whole communities could move to anywhere on earth. Can you just imagine houses flying by overhead? I would say the closest thing to the self-contained moveable residence today is the Recreational Vehicle. But we can dream, can’t we?
