Paleo-Future, the futures that never happened

Paleo-Future is a popular blog that collects all sorts of historical visions of the future. Since most of the visions come from newspapers and magazine articles, they aren't serious forecasts and as expected, many of them focus around flying cars, edible pills, and Jetsons-esque view of the future. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see how popular culture imagined the future in the past and the trends you can see from different decades (i.e. space travel in 1960s, massive cities early 20th century). They also have lots of video clips which are mostly corporate and tend to be advertisements more than forecasts. As Bill mentioned, you can clearly see how hair style can ruin the authenticity of a video.

Selected posts:

Fuller's Traveling Cartridge (circa 1960s)

This concept drawing by Buckminster Fuller looks to have a lot in common with the airport of the future article we looked at last week.


The illustration was found in the excellent 1968 book Transportation in the World of the Future.

Transportation in 2000 A.D. (1966)

This interview from the 1966 radio documentary 2000 A.D. asks William Roman, chairman of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, about our transportation needs for the future. An excerpt appears below but you can hear the entire (5 minute) interview here.

I think we're going to find new types of transportation. I think the vertical rise aircraft is just about to come into its own, so that we'll be able to have airports which will be close in to the central parts of our cities. And these vertical rise aircraft will take very little space. They'll be able to take-off and carry people and I think they're going to prove to be answer to what some thought the helicopter would be able to produce for us in the past.

Going Backward into 2000 (1966)

This clip from the 1966 radio documentary 2000 A.D. is of a short interview with Philip Johnson, an architect that designed the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Dallas, Texas.

Mr. Johnson sounds quite pessimistic about the future of American cities but ends the interview with an oddly optimistic tone. Below are excerpts from the interview.

How about innovations for the American home? How will we be keeping ourselves warm or cool?

I don't believe in innovation. I think we'll probably go slightly backward in that regard. We've had too much and we can't keep the air-conditioning systems running that we've put in.

What about green grass and trees and fresh water and clean air?

Ah, green grass and clear water and beautiful air . . . it's a nice dream, uh, are we going to have it or not I think depends on what the people of America want.

Future Buses (1939)

The September 9, 1939 Syracuse Herald Journal (Syracuse, NY) ran a short piece about the shift from railways to buses as a form of mass transit in New York City. The piece ended on an optimistic note about buses and alternative energy of the future. An excerpt appears below.

Doubtless some day the operators will have to meet the problem of increased fuel costs, for consumption of gasoline cannot go on forever at the present rate. But the day seems far distant when curtailment will be necessary - so far distant that no one save a few scientists and government conservation people are giving it any thought.

Even should shortage of gasoline develop, say, 50 years hence, it seems wholly probable that some new and economical means of propelling buses will have been discovered by that time.

Certain scientists are convinced that in the comparatively near future a method of transporting electrical current by wireless will be discovered which will make it possible to provide buses with power from central development stations.

How hair can ruin a future video: Motorola video from 2000 A.D. (Part 1, 1990)

Motorola part 1
Uploaded by donaldtheduckie

And for pure comedy: Instant Baby Machine (1930)

This scene from the 1930 film Just Imagine shows how babies will be made in the futuristic world of 1980. The clip directly follows the scene we looked at a few months back about meal pills.