What People From 100 Years Ago Thought The World Would Look Like Today

A TikToker has shared predictions from 100 years ago about the world we live in today. Watch here:

The issue with predicting the future is this - we can only go by what has already been developed.

So while we can envision computer chips in the brain thanks to Elon Musk and Black Mirror, who knows what else will come to the fore - especially with technology progressing at its current rate.

At the end of the 19th century, a group of European artists decided to do just this and mocked up a series of postcards foretelling what the world might look like in a century's time.

The pictures were recently shared by TikToker David Justinn, who discussed the various ideas with his 6.7 million followers.

We might look at these drawings and laugh at their primitivity, but you can guarantee people 100 years from now will do the same with our predictions.

So let's put the present moment aside for a moment and take a look at these incredible illustrations that depict the world as it was anticipated to be like today...

Automatic Moving Pavements

First up, the artist who created this image thought that people would ditch their usual mode of transport and instead get around thanks to automated moving sidewalks.

Little did they know that we'd all have cars, motorbikes, scooters and Ubers available at the click of a button.

Personal Air Balloons

Who needs Jesus when you can walk on water with your own personal hot air balloon, am I right?

To be fair, the human race still hasn't mastered how to walk on water - but do we really need to when we've got commercial flights and jet skis?

Whale Bus

Perhaps the most bonkers of them all is this unbelievably cruel Whale Bus, which sees a carriage strapped to the belly of a whale so that people can travel underwater.

You can only imagine what animal activists would have to say about this invention if it were proposed today.

Weather Controlling Machines

This one's kind of accurate in that China has developed a way to 'seed' clouds and make it rain.

However, the weather control machine depicted by the artist was clearly made at a time when the industrial revolution was still in its infancy - it looks suspiciously like one half of a steam train.

Plus, you know, the ability to chase the storm clouds away would be far outweighed by the impact this sort of device would have on the environment.

City Roofs

Speaking about the weather, another forecast was that humanity will have built roofs over all of its major cities in order to protect people from the wind and rain.

Clearly the person who came up with this idea had absolutely no concern for the neighbouring towns and villages - flooding is bad enough as it is.

School Headsets

It's hard to imagine a time before the internet was a thing, let alone when the only way a kid could learn was through... just books.

The artist behind this image assumed we'd move away from this form of education thanks to a machine that digests books and implants the information into students' heads.

To be fair, that would've made exams a helluva lot easier.

Flying Taxis

This postcard isn't the only thing that made this prediction - even Blade Runner foresaw flying taxis in our future.

But alas, we still haven't reached that point. The closest we've got is self-driving cars and even these are still in development.

As said by David Justinn in his video: "They thought we would have flying taxis, which I really do hope we get one day."

Video Phone

Hats off to the creator of this image, who hit the nail on the head with their video phone concept.

Okay, so it's not an iPhone - but other than that they certainly captured a significant technology that is used today.

Copy: Daisy Philipson

Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Topics: Viral, Interesting, Community, TikTok

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey