Scenes from the "future": Life in 2000, as viewed from 1950

[BurtWorm]

http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/life_2000.htm

What will life be like in the year 2000? That was the question that the magazine Popular Mechanics posed in 1950 and which Waldemar Kaempffert, the science editor of the New York Times, tried to answer.

The fact that the article was titled "Miracles You'll See in the Next Fifty Years" pretty much summed up the attitude of the day. We weren't just going to see advances or novelties; we were going to see miracles. It was going to be a world of planned suburban communities built in the shape of ever increasing concentric circles with a jet port at the hub, factories and offices next to that, and tracts of land for mass-produced family homes beyond. Supersonic jets would be a common sight, though the family car would give way to the family helicopter, which would be built in robotic factories. Atomic plants wouldn't be a major source of energy except in the northern regions or to propel ships, while solar power would run most of the world.

Everything would be electric, pollution free and, above all, orderly.

[Debi]

1. Well, my cooking tastes like sawdust

:puke:

[BurtWorm]

2. We hose down our furniture.

:thumbsup:

[qnr]

3. Well, it looks like it was going to be a "blue" world, at least n/t

[Stop_the_War]

9. LOL

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. I recall an article in Mickey Mouse Club Magazine from the 1950s

about two 12-year-olds on New Year's Eve 1999.

It was called "Butch and Jan Meet the Atom." Everything was going to be run on nuclear energy. It would have been nice--no air pollution, for one thing--if it weren't for that pesky plutonium.

Of course, reality turned out more like "Tyler and Caitlin Meet the Hand-Held Digital Devices."

[u4ic]

5. I'd say they got the eating sawdust right

Mickey D's happened after this article, correct?

[maveric]

6. Its supposed to be like the "Jetsons".

Flying cars. I want my f***ing flying car!

[Nay]

7. What I want is my leisure time. Remember we were supposed

to have so many robots doing things for us that we would only have to work 15 or 20 hours per week??? THAT'S the future I want. Instead, I get a bunch of extra fucking gadgets, crappy health insurance, etc.

[trof]

8. Nuclear power: "Too cheap to meter".

That's what I was told when I bought a house in southern New Hampshire in 1978.
The Seabrook Nuclear Plant was under construction, and my realtor made the above statement.
It was an all electric house.
"Yep, when Seabrook comes online the electricity will be so cheap they'll just take out the electric meters. You'll pay a flat fee of $10 or $20 a month for all the electricity you can use."
Yeah, right.