[HN Gopher] French artists in 1899 envisioned what life would lo...
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French artists in 1899 envisioned what life would look like in the
year 2000
Author : gslin
Score : 78 points
Date : 2024-03-03 21:09 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.openculture.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.openculture.com)
| Affric wrote:
| It's interesting because they got so much right but they just
| couldn't quite imagine the computer so they have humans pulling
| levers, remotely operating machinery, being carried by advanced
| surveillance helicopters...
|
| Perhaps this hints that our vision of the future should have us
| doing less.
| sotillan wrote:
| Yeah, I do think the thing that will date most 20th century
| science fiction is that it usually has humans actively doing
| most things, like mining, piloting space ships, fighting
| battles, etc. When it seems more likely that almost all of that
| will be done by AIs, with humans directing them at best.
| mc32 wrote:
| Probably more like AI doing everything and very few humans
| overriding a few things here and there, negative things.
| shantara wrote:
| Regarding space sci-fi in particular, the image of a human
| manually piloting a space ship is iconic in both Western and
| Soviet fiction. Before the advent of real world human
| spaceflight era, it could be linked both to the lack of
| understanding of computers and other technical systems, along
| with the eternal popularity of the heroic
| explorer/captain/pilot archetype. However, even as public
| knowledge of space exploration has advanced, this portrayal
| persists in fiction.
|
| We humans just like good engaging stories, even if they are
| not always realistic.
| mseepgood wrote:
| It's also interesting to see what they could not envision. For
| example, they obviously could not imagine that women could wear
| anything other than a dress.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| Strictly speaking, Parisian women could not legally wear
| trousers until 2013: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
| europe-21329269
| redeeman wrote:
| WOULD, not "could"
| dado3212 wrote:
| This might be a better source, with all of the images.
|
| https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-19th-century-vis...
| geor9e wrote:
| My favorite one is "Chemical dinner". Literally just people
| eating dinner. The idea of chemicals in their food was science
| fiction to them. https://the-public-domain-
| review.imgix.net/collections/a-19t...
| eastbound wrote:
| They are all my favourite. "Radium heating" with everyone
| gathered around a futuristic fireplace.
| geor9e wrote:
| That one reminded me of soviet UV baths
| https://natgeofound.tumblr.com/post/48043261031/children-
| cir...
| bombcar wrote:
| Chemical may be also translated something like medicinal -
| note the butler has tiny pills on his plate; it's the "meal
| in a pill" that comes up now and then (famously in Willy
| Wonka).
| SunlitCat wrote:
| Which makes me wonder what people in future will think about our
| science fiction media.
| eastbound wrote:
| Which science fiction media? Is there any dream that is
| physically possible while unrealized?
|
| - Going to other galaxies: As opposed to flying, those are
| physically impossible,
|
| - 2100 utopia would be about ecology and people consuming less,
| not more,
|
| - When I was a kid, I used to dream about flying blades
| (drones) or minicomputer in our hands where would could read
| stuff of program. Today I don't see a single thing that I would
| like to dream about.
|
| Maybe social relationships?
| type0 wrote:
| > 2100 utopia would be about ecology
|
| and social relationships
|
| Silent Running https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/
| IshKebab wrote:
| Fusion power, flying cars (air taxis), fully reusable
| rockets, driverless cars, AGI, wow you really couldn't think
| of anything?
| skydhash wrote:
| > Is there any dream that is physically possible while
| unrealized?
|
| The unified computing ecosystem from The Expanse.
|
| The public transport from Westworld
| southernplaces7 wrote:
| If anyone thinks anything about the future of humanity will
| involve us consuming less instead of more, they're forgetting
| the entire history of most human endeavors and tendencies up
| to the present day, completely. We may find cleaner, better,
| less invasive ways of consuming and creating things from what
| we consume (I would hope), but I would bet any amount of
| money that across all metrics of practical use, humans will
| consume more food, energy, needed materials and so forth by
| far in 2100 than they do today, unless some truly enormous
| catastrophe sets our civilization back or causes
| depopulation.
|
| I can see us consuming less of any given resource we heavily
| use now, but only because we no longer need it due to some
| new innovation, and for no other reason.
| zabzonk wrote:
| seems mostly right to me:
|
| 1) ok, but should be staring at iphones
|
| 2) not this one perhaps, given our treatment of whales
|
| 3) john deere tractors - it's a thing
|
| 4) could see many of our overvalued billionaires going for this
|
| 5) drone strike
|
| 6) robo hoover - available everywhere
| type0 wrote:
| > not this one perhaps, given our treatment of whales
|
| Whaling was one of the biggest industries back then, I'd argue
| by the standards of 1899 that would seem quite humane
| simonsarris wrote:
| One of the interesting things about these photos is that, aside
| from all the under-water ones, many of the contraptions exist. We
| just call them Roomba, Kubota tractor, Audible, Philips All-In-
| One Trimmer, etc. One consistent facet is that many of our modern
| technologies are a lot more complex on the inside, but simpler in
| appearance. There really is one guy pushing buttons to harvest
| thousands of acres.
|
| There's a complex kitchen one, and many people do have robot
| butlers in their kitchen today, they're just corporate chic
| instead of nearly alchemical, and called a Keurig. Though I would
| not invite such a creature into my home on account of its
| aesthetics I do admit its impressive.
|
| Another observation is that we've abstracted away the robot-ish
| nature of a lot of these machines. There's a special factory that
| makes k-cups, so that our home environment can have the simpler
| machine. We decided to pave millions billions(?) of miles of
| road, and also perfectly flatten the square footage of nearly
| every store and warehouse, just to make the machines run
| smoother. I think it would be hard for a person from 1899 to
| understand just how much flatness we've engineered for our cars
| and roombas and shopping carts to work universally.
| badpun wrote:
| People desired flat roads before cars. There was a huge effort
| in XIX century to develop better roads for the horse-drawn
| buggies and stagecoaches.
| simonsarris wrote:
| I think, like with almost all of these, the scale of our
| modern success is out of the scope of any of their beliefs.
| eastbound wrote:
| Yes. In 1899, they hadn't even invented the _lift_ ,
| necessary for skyscrapers. Imagine showing them, not Dubai,
| but a mundane success story like Bangkok.
| userbinator wrote:
| Sorry, but that's incorrect; the guy who invented that
| had already been dead for over 3 decades in 1899:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Otis
| manmal wrote:
| The flatiron was finished in 1903.
| samatman wrote:
| In 1899, the Eiffel Tower was 10 years old. Not only did
| it have lifts, it _famously, notoriously_ had lifts.
| French futurist artists could hardly be more aware of the
| concept.
| ant6n wrote:
| I believe the better road movement was started by cyclists.
| thih9 wrote:
| What contributes to accuracy is what's not there. To me
| especially the biology and medical advancements are missing.
|
| While we're way better at maintaining our bodies than 100 years
| ago, we're still mostly focused on improving our environment,
| just like 100 years ago.
|
| In 2124 I'd like no illnesses, regrowing limbs, perfectly
| balanced nutrition that is universally available, safe and
| accessible bio tech, and I could go on.
| Animats wrote:
| That's not the full set. Here's the archival copy.[1] Not
| much biology, though. Biology in 1900 was mostly observation.
|
| [1] https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operati
| on=...
| GuB-42 wrote:
| I didn't realize that the underwater thing was so important
| back then.
|
| We are all thinking about flying cars, and these drawings don't
| disappoint, but there is as much happening underwater as it is
| happening in the sky.
|
| Now, we are still fascinated with flying, machines, etc... but
| going underwater is boring by comparison. We have submarines,
| mostly for the military, a bit of scientific exploration,
| etc... but besides a few passionate people, people usually
| don't think that much about the underseas. It is as if space
| completely took its place in our imagination.
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| What would be the benefit of large scale underwater
| transportation and living?
|
| I suppose if the surface became uninhabitable, or if we
| wanted to hide from space-based surveillance.
| bboygravity wrote:
| Nice radiation shielding in case the earth poles reverse.
|
| I can't think of anything better.
| bboygravity wrote:
| This seems super logical to me though: it's just way cheaper
| and simpler to build into the sky: few to no issues with air
| pressure. Fewer issues with sun-light. No issue with the
| build-surface moving (except for during earthquakes).
|
| Compared to building underwater: massive costly issues to
| overcome due to water pressure (when going deep), issues with
| lack of light. When building at the surface: waves, wind,
| lack of stable build platform.
|
| These are all issues that where known and predictable in 1899
| as well...
| Simon_ORourke wrote:
| Either accurately by design or through omission they didn't
| portray much in the way of collective bargaining through work
| unions either.
| thih9 wrote:
| Now I'm curious what would be a today's vision of life in 2124.
|
| Also, could we use these to train an AI? As in: pair 1899
| predictions with the actual outcome, train a model, and later
| provide today's predictions of 2124 as input?
| karolist wrote:
| "AI" of today would spit out real artist interpretation mashups
| of today, nothing you wouldn't find on DeviantArt
| pmontra wrote:
| One of the most difficult things seems to be forecast fashion but
| probably the artist didn't even attempt to envision future
| clothing, except for technical ones. That would distract from the
| main point. There is even a gown in the underwater game of
| croquet.
| type0 wrote:
| They envisioned robotic tailors and even today we are far away
| from that
|
| it's last one this slide
| https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-19th-century-vis...
| a1o wrote:
| I read somewhere that people understimate how much things in the
| long time and overstimate how much things change in the long
| time.
|
| Seeing this drawings is interesting because it's possible lots of
| things that happened are old ideas like automation in farms. The
| ideas are correct in some with the visuals or details different,
| but overall very interesting. Shows how important it is having a
| vision.
| freitzkriesler2 wrote:
| They're not that wrong.
| type0 wrote:
| Should we wait until 2099 to get a usable brain computer
| interface that school systems will adopt?!
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