Ten Predictions About 2023 from 100 Years Ago
What do you think it'll be like a century from now, in the year 2123? Will we finally have flying cars? Or maybe we'll be ruled by robots?
Someone went through old newspaper articles from 1923 to see what experts were predicting back then for 2023.
Some of them HAVE come true. For example, constant airline traffic . . . America's population topping 300 million people . . . and being able to talk to someone in real-time through your wristwatch.
But the ones that HAVEN'T happened are a little more fun. Here we go . . .
1. People will work a max of four hours a day. The headline for that one was, "No More Hard Work by 2023!" They said electricity would make it possible. (In 1923, less than half of U.S. homes had power.)
2. No ugly people. They thought beauty pageants would become obsolete, because it would be almost impossible to choose a winner.
3. Women will paint their teeth black to be fashionable. Instead, a lot of people whiten their teeth now.
4. Gasoline will be replaced by radio waves. So, powering your car by blasting radio waves somehow. (???)
5. The average life expectancy will be 100 years old . . . and another expert said 300. The average in the U.S. back then was just 57 years old, and now it's around 76. The oldest living person is set to turn 119 next month.
6. Flying from Chicago to Germany will only take 18 hours. They were too conservative with that one. It's really half that now, around a nine-hour flight.
7. Cancer will be eradicated. Not yet, but we're making pretty good progress.
8. Homes won't have kitchens anymore. That one basically said we'd have ways to make food using, quote, "chemical formulas" and wouldn't need to cook. We do have Uber Eats and DoorDash though.
9. Telepathy will exist. That one said we'd even be able to speak telepathically with babies.
10. Kidney koozies. (???) Like beer koozies, but to keep your internal organs warm. (Isn't that just a coat?)
(Twitter / BoingBoing)
Originally posted on January 6th, 2023