A scene from the 1927 movie "Metropolis": Early Skype?
Back in 1931, The New York Times asked a bunch of luminaries to predict what the world would be like in 2011. Here are a few of the highlights.
The sociologist William Ogburn was off in a few big ways: He predicted the end of poverty and said the U.S. population would be 160 million (it's nearly twice that). Nevertheless, a lot of what he wrote rings true today:
Labor displacement will proceed even to automatic factories. The magic of remote control will be commonplace. Humanity’s most versatile servant will be the electron tube…. the heterogeneity of material culture will mean specialists and languages that only specialists can understand. …
Inevitable technological progress and abundant natural resources yield a higher standard of living. Poverty will be eliminated and hunger as a driving force of revolution will not be a danger. Inequality of income and problems of social justice will remain. …
The role of government is bound to grow. Technicians and special interest groups will leave only a shell of democracy. The family cannot be destroyed but will be less stable in the early years of married life, divorce being greater than now. The lives of women will be more like those of men, spent more outside the home.
