Predictions and hindsight: 1900s view on the year 2000

One of the great fascinations of Science Fiction is its mandate to explore the future. This is also true of this 1900 prediction for the year 2000 published in Ladies Home Journal in 1900. When you go back that far to examine predictions the fascination runs both ways: examining the accuracy of the predictions and looking back at the expectations of our ancestors.

In 1900 my grandfather was about 16 years old and, like most people, got around by walking, animal power, or steam driven locomotive, though automobiles were just then becoming a regular sight. The horrors of World War I were still unimaginable. Electric lights were a new and exciting prospect as were electric driven trolleys. It would be a few years yet before my grandfather and his brothers would build the first house in Loudoun County Virginia with indoor plumbing.

So how did the experts in Ladies Home Journal do? Here's one that is pretty much on the money:

The American will be taller by from one to two inches. His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present – for he will reside in the suburbs. The city house will practically be no more. Building in blocks will be illegal. The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only [if only this last point were true!]

Some are a little less prescient, to our loss:

There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with “moving-sidewalk” stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels. Subways or trestles will be reserved for express trains. Cities, therefore, will be free from all noises.

Some are just a little odd:

There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second [notice how they don't consider the language spoken by the greatest number, Chinese, to be worth mentioning].

Some are highly accurate, though the terminology sounds strange to us:

Hot and Cold Air from Spigots. Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house as we now turn on hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Central plants will supply this cool air and heat to city houses in the same way as now our gas or electricity is furnished. Rising early to build the furnace fire will be a task of the olden times. Homes will have no chimneys, because no smoke will be created within their walls.

Read the rest - it's great fun. Also notice one interesting thing. This was long before Women's Lib, or any of the more modern ideas of a woman's role outside the home. Yet these predictions are serious and intelligent and the editors of Ladies' Home Journal expected their readers to appreciate this piece.