In 1935, scientist Nikola Tesla predicted what the world will look like at the beginning of the 21st century: wars will become a thing of the past, robots will become everyday life, and wheat will be the basis of nutrition. And in 1958, the artist Arthur Redbaugh painted the world of technology in half a century - where there was almost everything that surrounds us today.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the popularity of scientific predictions about the future broke all records. It seemed to humanity then that it was able to design the future. Scientists and futurists believed that progress is linear, and they are armed with such a reliable forecasting "apparatus" as ideology - be it Marxism, fascism, Keynesianism or conservatism. Society was depicted as a machine, and scientists and politicians acted as its designers.
One of the most well-known futurists at that time was the mechanic Nikola Tesla. In the 1920s and 1930s, he made about 20 predictions, practically one every year. Here, in particular, is his vision of the future from 1935.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
There was still 35 years left before the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, but Tesla predicted the establishment of such an agency:
“Hygiene, physical education will become recognized areas of education and management. The Secretary of Health and Fitness will be far more important than the Secretary of Defense in the cabinet of the President of America who will take office in 2035. Such pollution of our beaches, which exists today around New York, will seem inconceivable to our children and grandchildren, as it seems to us today it is inconceivable to live without running water. The water we use will be controlled in a much stricter way, and only a madman will drink unsterilized water.”
Promotional video:
Education, war and the newspapers of tomorrow
“Today the most civilized countries in the world spend the maximum of their funds on war and the minimum on education. The 21st century will change this ratio. The fight against ignorance will bring greater glory than death in war. New scientific discoveries will become more important than the bickering of diplomats. Even the newspapers of our day are beginning to treat scientific discoveries and the creation of new philosophical concepts as news. Newspapers of the 21st century will devote just one column on their back pages to information about crimes or political strife, while they will put messages on new scientific hypotheses on the front pages.
Health and diet
Towards the end of his life, Tesla developed a theory regarding the optimal human diet. In the last days of his life, he ate almost nothing but milk and honey, believing that this is the purest food.
“I personally avoid any stimulants. I also practically gave up meat. I am convinced that in a hundred years, coffee, tea and tobacco will no longer be fashionable. However, alcohol will still be consumed. It is not a stimulant, but a real elixir of life. Refusing stimulants will not be mandatory. It will simply become no longer fashionable to poison the body with harmful products. Milk, honey and wheat will become the basis of food.
In the future, there will be enough wheat and food based on it for the whole world, including the multimillion people of China and India, which are constantly on the verge of starvation. The land is abundant, and where this abundance is absent, nitrogen extracted from the air will restore soil fertility."
Robots
Tesla's robotics studies began in the late 1890s, when he patented his remote controlled boat, and this invention astounded visitors to the 1898 Electrical Exhibition at Madison Square Garden:
“We are currently suffering from a breakdown in our civilization because we have not yet fully adapted ourselves to the machine age. The solution to our problems is not to destroy machines, but to take possession of them.
The countless number of operations performed by human hands today will be performed by automatic machines. Right now, scientists in American university laboratories are trying to create what is described as a "thinking machine".
In fact, I've even designed "robots". Today robots are already a generally accepted fact, but the principles of their use have not received proper development. In the 21st century, robots will take the place that slave labor occupied in ancient civilization. Nothing prevents this from happening in less than a century, and then humanity will free itself to realize its highest aspirations."
Cheap energy and natural resource management
“Long before the end of the next century, systematic reforestation and scientific management of natural resources will end devastating droughts, wildfires and floods. The ubiquitous use and transportation of water-derived electricity will provide all households with cheap electricity, eliminating the need to burn fuel. The struggle for existence will weaken, and development will take place not along material lines, but rather along ideal lines."
After World War II, scientific forecasting focused primarily on technology, rather than the rebuilding of society. The Interpreter's blog shows what the world was like at the beginning of the 21st century in the works of the famous illustrator Arthur Redbo, made by him in 1958-1963:
Afibian machines:
Bloodless surgery:
Bathroom:
Agricultural mechanization:
House of the Future:
Selection of food crops:
Global labor market:
Cash register that can speak and understand speech:
Supercomputers:
Space tourism:
Round airplane take-off area:
Robot - traffic controller:
Computerized office:
Moving in space:
Police on a superconducting motorcycle:
Flying Postman:
Automated poultry farm:
Servant Robot:
Robotic warehouse:
House with solar panels:
3D television:
Tranquilizers sprayed on the streets (to improve the mood of the people):
Weather control:
Police video surveillance on the streets:
Multifunctional watch:
Highway from the USA to Russia:
E-library:
Electronic postcards: