Predicting the future?
In early January we see all the great predictions made about the new year. You will see everything from the serious side of things like the economy to wars to light hearted predictions about which celebrities will be hooking up. That’s all well and good, because they’re pretty easy to make but, how about 5 predictions for 2024 that were made 100 years ago? Now that is a bit tougher and a lot of fun to look back on.
The folks at USA Today compiled a list of predictions that were made a century ago. Some are truly wacky, others have kind of come to fruition and others are still possibilities.
You don’t have to be a psychic to see the future
I bet if you gave yourself a minute to think about it, you could come up with a few predictions about the future for yourself. Let’s say you can play Nostradamus and predict what will happen in 100 years. The good news is if you’re wrong, chances are, you won’t be around to have to answer for your predictions
Maybe you can look to a futuristic, sci-fi, movie or TV show such as Star Trek or Star Wars to come up with your predictions. After all, isn’t that with the writers and producers dead on those shows?
Beam me up?
Would it be far-fetched to predict that in the future we could be deemed too far away locations? On Star Trek in the 1960s they predicted that we could be transported through our human body becoming mirror particles that could be dismantled and put together again in a time. Space continuum. with the advent of DNA and genome tracing, is it that far-fetched? Certainly not in 100 years!
Back in the day we watched the Jetsons and marveled at what they thought the future would be. Therefore saw flying cars. Also, what we would call zoom and FaceTime. The ability to see and hear our love ones on a screen from far away places. We marveled at the imaginations of the writers, and now only 50 years later, a lot of it has come true
Here are 5 Predictions made 100 years ago for 2024
Everyone would be flying to work
The Jetson family wave as they fly past buildings in space in their spaceship in a still from the animated television series, ‘The Jetsons,’ circa 1962. (Photo by Warner Bros./Courtesy of Getty Images)
A real estate mogul in New York said the airplane was still “in its infancy.” But eventually, we’d all be using them. Quote, “It will be the everyday occurrence for the businessman to fly from home to office, and back home again.” Again, the Jetsons were all over this one!
A limit to the number of kids you could have
A Department of Agriculture official predicted we wouldn’t have enough food to go around. So births would “have to be limited in some manner” by 2024. Ironically a lot of countries are encouraging childbirth due to the sharp decline of their populations.
Working from home
Your kids are home from school, so are other family members. Plus, there’s distractions abound. Find a spot in your home and treat it like your office.
In a book called “Wireless Possibilities”, a guy basically predicted the Internet. He said we’d be doing most things remotely, and it would be great if you hate cities. Quote, “What a help to the man who objects to a large city! Why could he not conduct his business from his house in comfort?”
Ever since COVID it has become more acceptable to work from home. Too bad it took a pandemic to make that happen.
No one would have teeth
. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
A nationally syndicated advice columnist thought America’s eating habits could drastically change our looks. Quote, “Will we have any teeth at all? Will there be any color on our face except paint? Will the men have any height to speak of, or will they be all girth?”
This is one of the most zaniest of the predictions. Fortunately we still have our teeth and thanks to modern dentistry we have them longer than ever.Women would be in charge, and men would be raising the kids
In a letter to the “New York Daily News”, a guy said “women will occupy all the highest positions,” and men will just do physical labor, or stay home to, quote, “wait on the babies or mind the pets.”
it is funny that this seemed like such a preposterous notion 100 years ago. At the time when I had just gotten the right to vote so it seemed very far-fetched, but ever since the 1970s women have taken over just every conceivable enterprise. We might head there doing a great job at it! What took us so long?
