The Pleasure City, London, A.D. 2500
November 26, 2016 4:11 PM Subscribe
I love how "wireless television" gets thrown in amongst the like of atomic energy* and excursions to mars as a wonder of the future
* Which has a history in SF going back before the 40s, though what it actually meant may have been kind of hazy lacking concrete examples.
posted by Artw at 4:23 PM on November 26, 2016
* Which has a history in SF going back before the 40s, though what it actually meant may have been kind of hazy lacking concrete examples.
posted by Artw at 4:23 PM on November 26, 2016
I like how the future involves pretty legit skyscrapers but no wide-span roofs.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:36 PM on November 26, 2016
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:36 PM on November 26, 2016
The most ironic thing they got wrong is that, even in 2016, you can't advertise cigarettes. By 2500 cigarettes will probably be just another curiosity in a glass case in a medical museum, much like phrenology heads and Rorschach inkblots today.
posted by Emma May Smith at 4:37 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Emma May Smith at 4:37 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
The desire for easy space travel combined with the reality of atomic reactors and weapons convinced everybody in the postwar years that high power density projects were The Future. The hints at what would really happen in communication and information science were largely classified and not available to the public. And there was fusion; the first computer in the US built by John von Neumann was used extensively to check the hydrodynamics of atomic weapons, a very classified purpose.
In the years that followed both communication bandwidth and information processing capacity increased by over ten orders of magnitude. If energy density had increased that much we would have made bombs capable of blowing up the entire Solar System. This was a thing nobody saw coming. While you are pining for your jet-pack or flying car consider how much better your smartphone is than Dick Tracy's two-way TV watch. Consider how the combination of that phone and resources like Google combine to be better than anything in Star Trek until DS9, set centuries in the future.
Meanwhile the whole resource extraction thing is messing up the climate pretty badly and we will have a nasty turn dealing with that which nobody saw coming either. Who would have thought it would be plain old burning carbon rather than the power of the atom that might undo all our mighty works.
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:43 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
In the years that followed both communication bandwidth and information processing capacity increased by over ten orders of magnitude. If energy density had increased that much we would have made bombs capable of blowing up the entire Solar System. This was a thing nobody saw coming. While you are pining for your jet-pack or flying car consider how much better your smartphone is than Dick Tracy's two-way TV watch. Consider how the combination of that phone and resources like Google combine to be better than anything in Star Trek until DS9, set centuries in the future.
Meanwhile the whole resource extraction thing is messing up the climate pretty badly and we will have a nasty turn dealing with that which nobody saw coming either. Who would have thought it would be plain old burning carbon rather than the power of the atom that might undo all our mighty works.
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:43 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
I do love the building topped with the giant hand holding a "sigarete" smokestack in the background of the mechanical orchestra building. Reminds me of the weird whimsical Treasure Town in Tekkonkinkreet.
posted by rodlymight at 5:11 PM on November 26, 2016
posted by rodlymight at 5:11 PM on November 26, 2016
They really capture something vital about the technological trade-offs of the future. Having all your meals delivered by pneumatic tube from a central cookhouse does sound pretty good, but maybe not quite good enough to make up for living in a cigarette super-factory hive city.
posted by sfenders at 5:19 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by sfenders at 5:19 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
By 2500 cigarettes will probably be just another curiosity in a glass case in a medical museum, much like phrenology heads and Rorschach inkblots today.
Or that really big turd from Jorvik.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:22 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or that really big turd from Jorvik.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:22 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Dig that ad copy...
Picadilly, London, A.D. 2500.
Roofed-in under non-conductive mica glass . . moving pathways . . rubber roadways avenued into 50, 100, 150 and 200 miles per hour . . suspended mono railways . . motors driven by atomic energy . . phonetic spelling . . wireless television . . lighted by captured solar rays . . excursions to Mars.
The Pleasure City, London, A.D. 2500.
Pleasure-seeking has been raised to a fine art . . . mutitudes when the short day's work is done find a satisfying means of relaxation in smoking "GREYS" Cigarettes and listening to the mammoth mechanical orchestra . . . characteristic of the music of the period . . . music so complex that it can be rendered only by wonderous mechanism.
A Hive of Industry, A.D. 2500.
Literally a "hive" in that it is a city unto itself . . . radiating from the mammoth super-factory are wokers' dwellings and associated institutes . . . architecture governed by the prevailing material -- concrete . . . no smoke (other than from tobacco!) . . . no household cooking . . meals delivered by pneumatic tube from central cookhouse.
At the Customs House on the Roof of London, A.D. 2500.
The railway train has followed the ichthyosaurus into extinction. Mighty aerial liners transport passengers in their thousands, with great cargoes of merchandise from continent to continent. Mankind, living amidst such tremendous achievements, thinks, plans, and acts with corresponding bigness
posted by fairmettle at 5:38 PM on November 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
Picadilly, London, A.D. 2500.
Roofed-in under non-conductive mica glass . . moving pathways . . rubber roadways avenued into 50, 100, 150 and 200 miles per hour . . suspended mono railways . . motors driven by atomic energy . . phonetic spelling . . wireless television . . lighted by captured solar rays . . excursions to Mars.
The Pleasure City, London, A.D. 2500.
Pleasure-seeking has been raised to a fine art . . . mutitudes when the short day's work is done find a satisfying means of relaxation in smoking "GREYS" Cigarettes and listening to the mammoth mechanical orchestra . . . characteristic of the music of the period . . . music so complex that it can be rendered only by wonderous mechanism.
A Hive of Industry, A.D. 2500.
Literally a "hive" in that it is a city unto itself . . . radiating from the mammoth super-factory are wokers' dwellings and associated institutes . . . architecture governed by the prevailing material -- concrete . . . no smoke (other than from tobacco!) . . . no household cooking . . meals delivered by pneumatic tube from central cookhouse.
At the Customs House on the Roof of London, A.D. 2500.
The railway train has followed the ichthyosaurus into extinction. Mighty aerial liners transport passengers in their thousands, with great cargoes of merchandise from continent to continent. Mankind, living amidst such tremendous achievements, thinks, plans, and acts with corresponding bigness
posted by fairmettle at 5:38 PM on November 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
Alas, cancerman's world in latticed marble.
posted by clavdivs at 5:50 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 5:50 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Watch out for robots disguised as beautiful young women who teach the children of the workers.
Especially if you're the son of a powerful industrialist.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:56 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
Especially if you're the son of a powerful industrialist.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:56 PM on November 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
I do love the building topped with the giant hand holding a "sigarete" smokestack in the background of the mechanical orchestra building. Reminds me of the weird whimsical Treasure Town in Tekkonkinkreet.
I think this era was a huge influence on Kevin O'Neill And the crazy architecture he puts in his comics.
posted by Artw at 6:16 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think this era was a huge influence on Kevin O'Neill And the crazy architecture he puts in his comics.
posted by Artw at 6:16 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Transcript of a talk on Imaginary London by Darran Anderson, which features these cards as well as a bunch of other fun stuff.
posted by Artw at 6:23 PM on November 26, 2016
posted by Artw at 6:23 PM on November 26, 2016
I like how English has devolved into an inconsistent form of phonetic spelling.
posted by njohnson23 at 7:01 PM on November 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 7:01 PM on November 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
MetaFilter: I like how English has devolved into an inconsistent form of phonetic spelling.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:30 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:30 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
There's an elephant in a parade in one of those pictures. Sadly, elephants in 2500 seem a rather unlikely thing. :(
posted by sexyrobot at 7:47 PM on November 26, 2016
posted by sexyrobot at 7:47 PM on November 26, 2016
On the first card, the uppermost sky bridge crossing the street says:
TO THE HEROES OF THE MARTIAN WAR
They were clever enough to realise some things never change.
posted by adept256 at 9:34 PM on November 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
TO THE HEROES OF THE MARTIAN WAR
They were clever enough to realise some things never change.
posted by adept256 at 9:34 PM on November 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
1921? One area in the mall picture has 'TELEVIZION' on it. It wasn't invented until 1927.
Apparently the Russian Constantin Perskyi first used the word in a concept paper at an international exposition in 1900.
posted by eye of newt at 9:54 PM on November 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
Apparently the Russian Constantin Perskyi first used the word in a concept paper at an international exposition in 1900.
posted by eye of newt at 9:54 PM on November 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
Ichthyosaurus is very specific.
posted by lollusc at 3:47 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by lollusc at 3:47 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Mankind, living amidst such tremendous achievements, thinks, plans, and acts with corresponding bigness
So close! And really, who could knock them for not being able to predict it would be biglyness.
posted by snofoam at 4:06 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
So close! And really, who could knock them for not being able to predict it would be biglyness.
posted by snofoam at 4:06 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Anybody care to speculate as to why it might be advantageous to make roadways out of rubber? Is the idea to avoid needing to have rubber tires?
posted by LiteOpera at 6:39 AM on November 27, 2016
posted by LiteOpera at 6:39 AM on November 27, 2016
Going further down the television rabbit hole, here's more early trading card depictions of the concept.
posted by Artw at 6:51 AM on November 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:51 AM on November 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
Roofed-in under non-conductive mica glass . . moving pathways . . rubber roadways avenued into 50, 100, 150 and 200 miles per hour . . suspended mono railways . . motors driven by atomic energy . . phonetic spelling . . wireless television . . lighted by captured solar rays . . excursions to Mars.
Fitter, happier, more productive ... motorways and tramlines ... no alarms and no surprises ... disappointed people clinging onto bottles ... panic, vomit, and yuppies networking ... airbags that save your life ... a handshake with carbon monoxide ... a pig in a cage on antibiotics ... this is what you get when you mess with us
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 9:12 AM on November 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
Fitter, happier, more productive ... motorways and tramlines ... no alarms and no surprises ... disappointed people clinging onto bottles ... panic, vomit, and yuppies networking ... airbags that save your life ... a handshake with carbon monoxide ... a pig in a cage on antibiotics ... this is what you get when you mess with us
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 9:12 AM on November 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
They were clever enough to realise some things never change.
“The subjects of the glorious British Empire
welcome the birth of Her Royal Highness
PRINCESS EULALIA
Long to reign over us”
(Daguerreotypes of celebrations around the globe: bowler-hatted City gents, beturbanned sahibs, conical-hatted Chinese, Canadian mounties, random dark-skinned people somewhere sunny; a profusion of Union Jacks in every picture.)
posted by acb at 2:56 AM on November 30, 2016
“The subjects of the glorious British Empire
welcome the birth of Her Royal Highness
PRINCESS EULALIA
Long to reign over us”
(Daguerreotypes of celebrations around the globe: bowler-hatted City gents, beturbanned sahibs, conical-hatted Chinese, Canadian mounties, random dark-skinned people somewhere sunny; a profusion of Union Jacks in every picture.)
posted by acb at 2:56 AM on November 30, 2016
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