People in the past Looking to the future, what did they imagine?

[EireEmerald]

I always wondered what people imagined in the past when looking to the future, what someone 2000 years ago thought the world would be like 2000 years from then. Obviously nothing like what it is actually like now but are there any sources that show people imagining the future that long ago? I know that the number of sources decreses with the distance in time, I am sure there are plenty of sources from people imagining the future in the last 1000 years, what did people think? I almost seems inevitable as it is engrained so obviously in human nature nowadays with so much media being produced venturing some 200 to 1000 years into the future through film and literature.

And also, anyone ever thought would what we are typing right now on the net be some historical source in the future for looking at society and how we as a people at this time are defined by looking at our menial conversations .

[Civil1z@tion]

Well if they were Christian they probably believed the end times would have come by now. Its worth remembering that futurist speculation is a more modern idea arising from the rapid social and technological changes that have occured in the past 200 years. Such changes tended to be far more gradual in the past than nowadays so people had far less expectation of a radically different future than the lives they were living at the time. When people did speculate about the future most ideas were either apocalyptic or declinist with the idea that morals and people's situation tended to decline over time.

[EireEmerald]

Well if they were Christian they probably believed the end times would have come by now. Its worth remembering that futurist speculation is a more modern idea arising from the rapid social and technological changes that have occured in the past 200 years. Such changes tended to be far more gradual in the past than nowadays so people had far less expectation of a radically different future than the lives they were living at the time. When people did speculate about the future most ideas were either apocalyptic or declinist with the idea that morals and people's situation tended to decline over time.

Yes, people still think in that way, but that didn't stop people in the past from imagining an alternate future, what would happen if the world didn't end? And the more educated people in sociert would have questioned the "imminent end of the world " and tried to imagine the future.

How would they react if they saw the western world as it is today?

[Lysimachus]

Isn't there a Russian drawing in the early XX. Century of what they pictured futuristic tanks to look like? I've seen it but I can't find it. Point is, their view of the future would be based pretty much on the technology they had at the time. Yes, they can be imaginative but the ancients knew less than us so their idea of "futuristic" would be less outrageous than ours. They probably had very interesting views but just not as wacky as the ones we have now.

[konny]

2000 years? That's a long periode. I once had seen a book from the early 1970s showing the world as it will be in the year 2000 (and that's a mere 30 years). Absolutly nothing claimed in that book had turned out true, like colonies on the Moon, robots doing all physical work, cities under giant domes of glass, cars that can fly and stuff like that. While also absolutly nothing that changed the world since then was prophecied in that book, like computers, internet, mobile phones, 100 tv stations (and still nothing worth watching) and stuff like that. Or like they had it in one episode of the Simpsons taking place in the 80s: "In twenty years computers will be as large as houses and only the three richest men in the world will be able to afford one."


Going back in history a good deal I don't think that anyone seriously thought about such things. One thing is, as already mentioned, that changes in technology were very slow, like peasants in 1800 didn't live very much different than in 800. Another thing would be that before the 19th Century only very few people realy bothered with learning history, what followed that the majority wasn't aware that things once had been much different, and that they might be even more different in the future.

[EireEmerald]

2000 years? That's a long periode. I once had seen a book from the early 1970s showing the world as it will be in the year 2000 (and that's a mere 30 years). Absolutly nothing claimed in that book had turned out true, like colonies on the Moon, robots doing all physical work, cities under giant domes of glass, cars that can fly and stuff like that. While also absolutly nothing that changed the world since then was prophecied in that book, like computers, internet, mobile phones, 100 tv stations (and still nothing worth watching) and stuff like that. Or like they had it in one episode of the Simpsons taking place in the 80s: "In twenty years computers will be as large as houses and only the three richest men in the world will be able to afford one."


Going back in history a good deal I don't think that anyone seriously thought about such things. One thing is, as already mentioned, that changes in technology were very slow, like peasants in 1800 didn't live very much different than in 800. Another thing would be that before the 19th Century only very few people realy bothered with learning history, what followed that the majority wasn't aware that things once had been much different, and that they might be even more different in the future.

Its funny how ambitious humans and their expectations of the future are.

[Dr. Croccer]

Isn't there a Russian drawing in the early XX. Century of what they pictured futuristic tanks to look like? I've seen it but I can't find it. Point is, their view of the future would be based pretty much on the technology they had at the time. Yes, they can be imaginative but the ancients knew less than us so their idea of "futuristic" would be less outrageous than ours. They probably had very interesting views but just not as wacky as the ones we have now.

You mean this one?




I remember reading in Geert Mak's In Europe that someone wrote a book around 1900, about a timetraveler of the time arriving in the year 2000, in which there are electric lights everywhere, the roads are are polished and people have in their possession all kinds of strange gadgets, such as a kind of telegraph wire connected to every house, dispensing information in personal film theatres, grammophones and other machinery (INTERNETS) and such. The 20th century wept tears of sadness, as he felt guilty to witness such a peaceful and perfect world in comparison to his own.


There was also a British show a while ago on the BBC, which showed old British commercials and programs from the 60s and 70s, imaging what kind of everyday machinery and gadgets people would have in the future (2000). It's really amusing to watxh all these ridiculous designs being trotted out, like a revolving kitchen/living room in the center of a room.

[Lysimachus]

There was also a British show a while ago on the BBC, which showed old British commercials and programs from the 60s and 70s, imaging what kind of everyday machinery and gadgets people would have in the future (2000). It's really amusing.

Link?

[Dr. Croccer]

Link?

I dunno it's name anymore. I just remember it.

[CiviC]

i'm still waiting for flying cars ...
in 1960's I guess they predicted they would be a reality by now

[Lysimachos11]

I think people before the Modern Era did not really expect much things to change. A well known example is that looking back, people in the Middle Ages pictured the Romans wearing the clothing of their own time. It's not unlikely that until the dawn of technological revolutions after 1650/1700, people did not expect things were going to change much.

[EireEmerald]

Sant Elia, Italian Architect + visionary.

[EireEmerald]

[SturmChurro]

Hovercrafts, Jetpacks, shiny suits etc.

[EireEmerald]

[Azog 150]

I know the Aztecs thought the world would have ended by now and they apparently predicted the rise of Hitler....

[EireEmerald]

I know the Aztecs thought the world would have ended by now and they apparently predicted the rise of Hitler....

I believe that was the Mayans.

[Banfred]

Fallout

[Gelgoog]

I don't know about you, but I fly to work everyday using my trust Nissan jetpack 2000.

[Barry Ferguson]

Whatever happened to the pill that contains a day's meal I was promised by Tomorrow's World?