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Popular Mechanics 1950: Life in 2000! [56k Beware]


TiE23

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This thing made me giggle in delight.

 

Direct Link:

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/10/05/miracles-youll-see-in-the-next-fifty-years/?Qwd=./PopularMechanics/2-1950/next_fifty_years&Qif=next_fifty_years_10.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig

 

Site:

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

 

When Jane Dobson cleans house she simply turns the hose on everything. Why not? Furniture (upholstery included), rugs, draperies, unscratchable floors — all are made of synthetic fabric or waterproof plastic. After the water has run down a drain in the middle of the floor (later concealed by a rug of synthetic fiber) Jane turns on a blast of hot air and dries everything. A detergent in the water dissolves any resistant dirt. Tablecloths and napkins are made of woven paper yarn so fine that the untutored eye mistakes it for linen. Jane Dobson throws soiled “linen” into the incinerator. Bed sheets are of more substantial stuff, but Jane Dobson has only to hang them up and wash them down with a hose when she puts the bedroom in order.

 

Riiiight... Suppose we all have jet packs and PS3s on our wrist watch, eh?

 

 

Pics:

 

 

Tip - Press F11 for slightly larger viewing area.

 

 

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Random: If you think that we'll have flying cars in 30-50 years, just remember that that was what people were saying in the 70's.

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This is why you never make future predictions. :p

 

That new "2057" show on the discovery channel will be equally ridiculous by the time 2057 is actually here.

 

If you actually read through it you'll discover that they're not far off, some of these things are just being used differently.

Yeah, but I'm not hosing down my living room or burning hairs off of my face with acid.

 

And I can tell some of the things in "2057" aren't too far-fetched, but most of them are really dumb.

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And I can tell some of the things in "2057" aren't too far-fetched, but most of them are really dumb.

I saw that, the clothes really made it look stupid.

 

 

 

About the old article, they were right about the cancer thingie. But making oil fires at sea to stop hurricanes? Yeah. Very intelligent.

 

Another thing, say that no one has gone to the moon yet, "But the idea is not laughed down [upon]."

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Yeah, but I'm not hosing down my living room or burning hairs off of my face with acid.

 

But you are buying things from halfway across the world on a television set with the twitch of your finger.

 

Too bad we all don't have a personal helicopter on our front porch like the article says. But then again, if everyone had one doesn't that mean it would've made 9-11...times a thousand?!

 

(Also, I'm now going to criticize game magazines less about their ads. A full-page add along with a few smaller ones isn't quite as bad as the 1950's, what with those blasted things covering the entire left half of the page.)

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But you are buying things from halfway across the world on a television set with the twitch of your finger.

...

 

Internet and computers are never mentioned (other than incredibly archaic paper-punch coding) in the article. If you showed a computer scientist in 1950 your computer he'd be harder than a diamond.

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Internet and computers are never mentioned (other than incredibly archaic paper-punch coding) in the article. If you showed a computer scientist in 1950 your computer he'd be harder than a diamond.

 

I was referencing the "shop on the television" portion of the first ad, which bears a large resemblance to internet shopping.

 

Reading comprehension ftw.

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I was referencing the "shop on the television" portion of the first ad, which bears a large resemblance to internet shopping.

 

Reading comprehension ftw.

The only comparisons is vision and buying stuff remotely. Talking to a sales person over a TV-Phone doesn't count.

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Concepts don't need to be exact, that's why they're concepts.

Yeah, but some concepts are just bulls***. Like one of the two episodes of 2057 I watched, it depicted a city being completely shut down by a kid who accidentally infected the entire city with a virus he "accidentally" wrote in an MS-DOS-looking program. That's about as ridiculous as hosing down your couch of the future.

 

Ok, I admit I can see where they're coming from with most of those things in that article, and some of them aren't far off. But still, I don't think people should make predictions and claim it'll be what the future is like. Maybe if people do both the research and admit that it's still fiction, that would work (something like BF2142).

 

I dunno, it just annoys me when people claim they know "this will be what life will be like 50 years from now." :¬:

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@ IG-64: Jeez, don't get your panties in a twist, it was just some people having fun with what may or may not happen in the future. Everyone likes to try to predict what might happen to us in the future and everyone has a different view of what may go on. What was posted was just an extremely thin slice.

 

But if you seriously don't think we should be predicting the future then I guess we better shut down the weather service or something..... *looks around*

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