I have always been fascinated with the past, with the way people lived, the fashion. Very often I felt like I would have been much happier living in the 1920s, 1940s or even the 60s.
What fascinates me now is the way the people saw the future, the year 2000, the 21st century. Literature and illustrations from those times give us a clear vision of what the world would look like in 90, 70, or 50 years. Much of their predictions were right however, some predictions were far-fetched.
I believe that the news of being able to watch TV on a wristwatch was a real technological breakthrough back in the 1960s but today we can ask ourselves why didn't they think of devices like mobile phones or Tablets earlier. It seems ridiculous to watch a match or your favorite sitcom on your wristwatch.
What fascinates me now is the way the people saw the future, the year 2000, the 21st century. Literature and illustrations from those times give us a clear vision of what the world would look like in 90, 70, or 50 years. Much of their predictions were right however, some predictions were far-fetched.
Individuals predicting the future were definitely wrong about the life on other planets, or even space. It's 2011 and we're still searching for a body in the Solar System being capable of hosting conventional organic life. Besides water, gases and microbes, no extraterrestrials were found on any of the planets observed so far. So the mankind will have to wait another decade or two before it can build colonies in space. OK, there are manned spacecrafts orbiting the Earth, but that's far from the vision of human colonies in space.
Solar heating is quite common in homes and buildings today. However, only a small amount of the entire available solar energy is used. "Commercial solar water heaters began appearing in the United States in the 1890s.These systems saw increasing use until the 1920s but were gradually replaced by cheaper and more reliable heating fuels.As with photovoltaics, solar water heating attracted renewed attention as a result of the oil crises in the 1970s but interest subsided in the 1980s due to falling petroleum prices. Development in the solar water heating sector progressed steadily throughout the 1990s and growth rates have averaged 20% per year since 1999.Although generally underestimated, solar water heating and cooling is by far the most widely deployed solar technology with an estimated capacity of 154 GW as of 2007." (more on wikipedia).
I believe that the news of being able to watch TV on a wristwatch was a real technological breakthrough back in the 1960s but today we can ask ourselves why didn't they think of devices like mobile phones or Tablets earlier. It seems ridiculous to watch a match or your favorite sitcom on your wristwatch.
I guess everybody wanted to have a multi-screen TV set back in the 70s. Imagine watching you favorite shown and having to switch to the other channel to see if the news has started yet. Or a husband watching his show and his wife coming into the room telling him to switch and see if her favorite has started yet. How annoying!
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