Dreaming of the CE 2000, the Year Formerly Known as the Future
May 22, 2020 1:12 PM   Subscribe

People were dreaming of what the year 2000 might hold for well over a century, including illustrator and futurist Albert Robida (French fan site; works digitized on Internet Archive), whose illustrations and ideas seemed to foretell the future (Art Kaleidoscope / vsemart.com). Many focused on his visions of future wars (previously), but he also had a view of leaving the opera by air in 2000, as displayed and described by Public Domain Review, who also have a collection of other 19th century French visions of the year 2000. But now, looking back 20 years might be a bit of a future-past shock. 2000, the Year Formerly Known as the Future (Medium.com).
posted by filthy light thief (4 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I came to make a smart assed comment about how in the future everyone commits the biggest sin possible in modern culture, viewing/shooting video in portrait. But then I began to wonder why futurists got 99% of the tech assumptions right (Zoom/Skype/Facetime) but the displays are universally oriented in portrait. Then again I guess the clue needed is in the name of the orientation.

Maybe I just should have stuck to the wise-assery of how olds used weird display orientation.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:25 PM on May 22, 2020 [1 favorite]


Really nice stuff, although I wish the image sizes weren't so ... stingy.
posted by bz at 1:58 PM on May 22, 2020


One of my favorites in this genre was Today Then, a collection of essays from the 1893 Columbia Exposition about what life would be like in 19393.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:03 PM on May 22, 2020 [3 favorites]


I miss the old future.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:52 PM on May 22, 2020 [5 favorites]


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