Antique Cards

June 25, 2003 12:34 PM

Victorian Visions of the Year 2000.
posted by crunchland (20 comments total)

Fascinating link. Thanks, crunchy.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:54 PM on June 25, 2003

This is really spiffy. I love stuff like this.

What I want to know is this: will my collection of Garbage Pail Kids be as interesting to people 100 years hence as these are?
posted by eilatan at 12:56 PM on June 25, 2003

All of the balloons reflect a serious underestimation of the amount of volume required to lift a given mass.

The televised entertainment thing is great and misses the mark only in the finer details. I'm reminded of the fact that Alexander Graham Bell did not believe at first that telephones would be used for person-to-person conversations. He expected them to perform the function that radio ended up fulfilling, a way to receive news and entertainment.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:56 PM on June 25, 2003

Dammit, where IS my personal aircraft?
posted by crookdimwit at 12:58 PM on June 25, 2003

funny that s/he thought the moving houses thing never happened - that's what mobile homes are, and they are constantly getting bigger, and marketed as more middle class (pre-fab homes, or whatever)...
posted by mdn at 1:02 PM on June 25, 2003

I especially like how the introduction predates the actual rollover to 2000. Oh how quaint the 20th century was, with its fears about the y2k bug!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:07 PM on June 25, 2003

Wow, that was a cool page. And really encouraging, too, in its way. Like, even though we have some idea how the future is likely to pan out, the reality will almost certainly be pretty different from what we think.
posted by COBRA! at 1:13 PM on June 25, 2003

This is fantastic, thanks crunchland!
posted by jonson at 1:14 PM on June 25, 2003

in the year 2000!
in the year 2000...
posted by aiq at 1:15 PM on June 25, 2003

According to the 1969 visions of Zager and Evans, in the year 4545 "you won't find a thing to chew." Additionally, they claim that nobody's gonna look at you. (*)
posted by eddydamascene at 1:33 PM on June 25, 2003

Neat! Thanks, crunchland!
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:46 PM on June 25, 2003

That page was great, but whoever put it together wouldn't poke such fun at roofed cities if they'd been in a shopping arcade in Japan. And there are systems which can now see through walls, although they missed the millennium deadline by a year.
posted by Officeslacker at 1:50 PM on June 25, 2003

And to add to Officeslacker's comment, police (as the Victorians foresaw!) have used some perceive-through-the-wall devices (infrared? I can't remember) and there have been some invasion-of-privacy issues raised about the practice.
posted by kozad at 3:12 PM on June 25, 2003

In fact, we actually have some technology that's pretty much X-ray's through walls.
http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2003/2/13/155342/305
posted by fros1y at 4:51 PM on June 25, 2003

kozad: they used IR cameras on planes or helos to look for people growing dope indoors (their roofs would get size extra-hot). Can't remember the case offhand, but the court agreed that you need a search warrant to do it.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:55 PM on June 25, 2003

This is wonderful. It is sort of amusing, though, to see all these new millenium folk still dressed in Victorian garb - except for the lady in the personal flying machine, who is daringly wearing a pants... thingy.
posted by taz at 5:15 PM on June 25, 2003

Fabulous post! I'm so glad there are still a few here struggling against the newsfilter tide. Oops, sorry, *metatalk*.
posted by PigAlien at 8:12 PM on June 25, 2003

All of the balloons reflect a serious underestimation of the amount of volume required to lift a given mass.

Unless you fill those balloons with Cavorite vapours, or perhaps some of the Luminiferous Ether.
posted by Hildago at 8:17 PM on June 25, 2003

perhaps of equal interest, from the same site: Inventors and Aviation.
posted by crunchland at 8:24 PM on June 25, 2003

I'm late to this, but just wanted to say [this is good] and thanks, crunchland.
posted by jokeefe at 12:35 PM on June 26, 2003