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1970s Children Draw Robot Presidents and Nuclear Apocalypse
Fourth-grader Lisa Gilvar's Jetsons-inspired bubble-top homes (Happy Hollow Middle School) American futurism of the 1970s is a fascinating mix of sleek Jetsonian utopianism and dreary mushroom cloud...
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The iPad of 1935
The book reader of the future (April, 1935 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics) There’s no denying that devices like the iPad, Kindle and Nook have dramatically changed the way that many people...
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The Magazine of the Future (on floppy disk!)
Editor John Henson of The New Aladdin floppy disk magazine (Disk Publications, 1987) In 1987, a small Dallas-based company launched a floppy disk magazine that was supposed to be a grand experiment in...
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Maps of the Future
1966-67 AAA map of New York Remember paper maps? They used to be the only game in town. But the 2000s (the aughts? have we named that decade yet?) saw a radical shift in the way that befuddled drivers...
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Big Things Ahead… But Keep Your Shirt On
Cover of the October, 1944 issue of Science and Mechanics The October 1944 issue of Science and Mechanics looked at what technological advancements Americans might expect after WWII with an article...
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1987 Predictions From Bill Gates: “Siri, Show Me Da Vinci Stuff”
Bill Gates (from a 1987 Microsoft promotional video) In 1987, Bill Gates became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, making the Forbes 400 Richest People in America list with a net worth of...
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Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?
“Orwellian” illustration from the 1965 comic strip, “Our New Age” According to Athelstan Spilhaus, writing the comic strip “Our New Age” was his way of slipping a little subliminal education into the...
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Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 01 – Rosey the Robot
Jane Jetson working out her strained fingers in the premiere episode of “The Jetsons” (1962) This is the first in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original...
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A New Great Depression and Ladies on the Moon: 1970s Middle School Kids Look...
People in a space colony of the future (by Rick Guidice, 1977) The February 26, 1977 edition of the Herald-Star in Steubenville, Ohio published dozens of predictions for the year 2000 made by the...
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The Gadgets of the Future From the Electrical Shows of Yesterday
Postcard from the Chicago Electrical Show circa 1908 [Source: Novak Archive] The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which concluded last week in Las Vegas, is where the (supposed) future of consumer...
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Predictions for Privacy in the Age of Facebook (from 1985!)
Cover of the January 1985 issue of Whole Earth Review (Source: Novak Archive) “The ubiquity and power of the computer blur the distinction between public and private information. Our revolution will...
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