Risata
Junior Member
Re: Predictions of the Year 2000 from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900
Are you guys flippin' serious? This is INCREDIBLE. The MAJORITY of these predictions have come to pass. Do you not know life of 1900? And you are being too literal. I will put the predictions in bold, with my comments underneath as to my interpretation. I think this was amazingly insightful, and remember the reactions of those in 1900 were "impossible." Yet, read on. PT 1.
There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America
The population of the US in 1900 was around 76,000,000. In 2000, it was around 281,000,000. Great prediction.
Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next.
Nicaragua didn't ask. Neither did Mexico. Mexico just did it. Illegally.
The American will be taller by from one to two inches. His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present.
This is absolutely a truth-and the ages sited were "averages". The average life span of us right now is only in the 70's, yet many far surpass that, due to the above vast reforms mentioned.
The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only.
True. Time is relative. When you consider that in 1900, it would take all day to travel to the city from the suburbs by horse-then the hour commute the average commuter has from city/burbs is essentially a few minutes. Good prediction.
Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.
Had a baby lately? Notice the toys meant to strengthen hand/eye/muscle coordination? Do you think they could've possibly imagined the kind of crap our kids have to play with today? And the gym thing is spot on. Bally's anyone? And we are coming to a point that we look at those out of shape-or morbidly obese-thus unable to walk a mile, much less ten-as "weak."
In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with ?moving-sidewalk? stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels.
This was before the elevated trains in New York and Chicago, before the subway. Moving sidewalk-escaltor. Or if you've been to an airport recently-moving sidewalk. The subway tunnels are well lite and venilated-at least in Chicago. Good predicition.
To go from New York to San Francisco will take a day and a night by fast express. There will be cigar-shaped electric locomotives hauling long trains of cars. Cars will, like houses, be artificially cooled. Along the railroads there will be no smoke, no cinders, because coal will neither be carried nor burned. There will be no stops for water. Passengers will travel through hot or dusty country regions with windows down.
AMTRACK.
Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, automobile truck-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more. Children will ride in automobile sleighs in winter. Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known. There will be, as already exist today, automobile hearses, automobile police patrols, automobile ambulances, automobile street sweepers. The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today.
A horse in 1900 cost 165.00. That would be, in our money, the same if not more than a car costs us today. Farmers own John Deeres, plows, etc. Most farming is done by machinary, and horses have been substituted for every vehicle. We see a few cops on horses in the city and its "quaint." But that's it. The horse in harness is scarce-its now a recreational activity. Spot on prediction.
Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities.
Hi, I'm a missle. Or a bomb.
Such guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts.
Better than a compass. Its called sonar, radar, satellite.And you could call "deadly thunderbolts" missles. Bombs. Remember, this is pre-atom bomb predictions here.
These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of to-day.
Wouldn't this be known as an army tank?
They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile plows will dig deep entrenchments as fast as soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius.
I'd say they predicted the world wars and such with great accuracy.
These photographs as distinct and large as if taken from across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below.
Yeah. Infra red imagery, satellite, etc. Great prediction.
Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance.If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later.Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances.Photographs will reproduce all of Nature?s colors.
Pretty sure we call this TELEVISION. Cable. In techni-color. Right on prediction.
Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.
You can add "internet" to this. Amazing prediction.
Peas as Large as Beets. Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day. Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does. Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply.
Cane is the cheif source of our sugar supply and hey, guess what? You've heard of genetic food engineering, hybreding? Yep. We COULD do peas as large as beets. But we don't seem to like our food adulterated, irradiated, or genically crossed and spliced.
Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox. The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.
Hi, this is called the "chemicals that all of us get on these forums and bitch about being sprayed onto our crops and into our food supply causing us cancer." Pesticides. Unheard of back then. Chemical, anyway.
Liquid-air refrigerators will keep great quantities of food fresh for long intervals.
Indeed. Its called a freezer, or a storage locker.
Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin.
True. Unless you go to catholic school-and even there, learning latin has been pretty much phased out, and we have simplified our language, comparetivly. No "thees' and "thous".
Time will be saved by grouping like studies.
Yep. At least in higher education.
Are you guys flippin' serious? This is INCREDIBLE. The MAJORITY of these predictions have come to pass. Do you not know life of 1900? And you are being too literal. I will put the predictions in bold, with my comments underneath as to my interpretation. I think this was amazingly insightful, and remember the reactions of those in 1900 were "impossible." Yet, read on. PT 1.
There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America
The population of the US in 1900 was around 76,000,000. In 2000, it was around 281,000,000. Great prediction.
Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next.
Nicaragua didn't ask. Neither did Mexico. Mexico just did it. Illegally.
The American will be taller by from one to two inches. His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present.
This is absolutely a truth-and the ages sited were "averages". The average life span of us right now is only in the 70's, yet many far surpass that, due to the above vast reforms mentioned.
The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only.
True. Time is relative. When you consider that in 1900, it would take all day to travel to the city from the suburbs by horse-then the hour commute the average commuter has from city/burbs is essentially a few minutes. Good prediction.
Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.
Had a baby lately? Notice the toys meant to strengthen hand/eye/muscle coordination? Do you think they could've possibly imagined the kind of crap our kids have to play with today? And the gym thing is spot on. Bally's anyone? And we are coming to a point that we look at those out of shape-or morbidly obese-thus unable to walk a mile, much less ten-as "weak."
In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with ?moving-sidewalk? stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels.
This was before the elevated trains in New York and Chicago, before the subway. Moving sidewalk-escaltor. Or if you've been to an airport recently-moving sidewalk. The subway tunnels are well lite and venilated-at least in Chicago. Good predicition.
To go from New York to San Francisco will take a day and a night by fast express. There will be cigar-shaped electric locomotives hauling long trains of cars. Cars will, like houses, be artificially cooled. Along the railroads there will be no smoke, no cinders, because coal will neither be carried nor burned. There will be no stops for water. Passengers will travel through hot or dusty country regions with windows down.
AMTRACK.
Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, automobile truck-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more. Children will ride in automobile sleighs in winter. Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known. There will be, as already exist today, automobile hearses, automobile police patrols, automobile ambulances, automobile street sweepers. The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today.
A horse in 1900 cost 165.00. That would be, in our money, the same if not more than a car costs us today. Farmers own John Deeres, plows, etc. Most farming is done by machinary, and horses have been substituted for every vehicle. We see a few cops on horses in the city and its "quaint." But that's it. The horse in harness is scarce-its now a recreational activity. Spot on prediction.
Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities.
Hi, I'm a missle. Or a bomb.
Such guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts.
Better than a compass. Its called sonar, radar, satellite.And you could call "deadly thunderbolts" missles. Bombs. Remember, this is pre-atom bomb predictions here.
These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of to-day.
Wouldn't this be known as an army tank?
They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile plows will dig deep entrenchments as fast as soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius.
I'd say they predicted the world wars and such with great accuracy.
These photographs as distinct and large as if taken from across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below.
Yeah. Infra red imagery, satellite, etc. Great prediction.
Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance.If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later.Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances.Photographs will reproduce all of Nature?s colors.
Pretty sure we call this TELEVISION. Cable. In techni-color. Right on prediction.
Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.
You can add "internet" to this. Amazing prediction.
Peas as Large as Beets. Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day. Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does. Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply.
Cane is the cheif source of our sugar supply and hey, guess what? You've heard of genetic food engineering, hybreding? Yep. We COULD do peas as large as beets. But we don't seem to like our food adulterated, irradiated, or genically crossed and spliced.
Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox. The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.
Hi, this is called the "chemicals that all of us get on these forums and bitch about being sprayed onto our crops and into our food supply causing us cancer." Pesticides. Unheard of back then. Chemical, anyway.
Liquid-air refrigerators will keep great quantities of food fresh for long intervals.
Indeed. Its called a freezer, or a storage locker.
Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin.
True. Unless you go to catholic school-and even there, learning latin has been pretty much phased out, and we have simplified our language, comparetivly. No "thees' and "thous".
Time will be saved by grouping like studies.
Yep. At least in higher education.
Its great to see the site back. I just said to Brent on FB, I MISS TPN! Then I go to an older email I have and see the email to link to here. I saw your name first and thought YEA! Part of the old gang! (well, familiar to me, anyway.) Part of what I loved about here is that it wasn't negative. Some of the other sites-especialy GLP-yikes. For the most part here, theres just intelligent debate, even when people disagree. Glad to be back, I hope we can wrangle up some more old and new blood to join in! Finally did away with the cat and the lime helmet, huh? LOL