Thomas Edison’s 1911 Predictions for 2011

Probably not so covered in steel.

It is more like 730 MPH in a gigantic machine (Airbus A380) now.

He was obsessed with steel. That would be a horrible house to live in and very uncomfortable.

I think Edison was trying to predict a Steelers win.

In 2111 everything will be made out of wood, converted by cunning varnishes to the semblance of steel.

there will be no life as we know it in 2111 because we are all dying in 2012

To heck with flying cars, where’s my damned jetpack? I am supposed to have one my wall I can easily pick up and fly off with. Stupid 21st Century and it’s non-flying cars and no jetpacks.

Balls of steel!

A truly smart man would never have answered the question.

Man will live as a caged beast, driven by Marcus, chief of security on a planet of apes.

Just to throw my hat into the prediction business, in 100 years perhaps we will be able to use antimatter conversion to power spaceships. If so, then the limits to speed in interplanetary or interstellar flight will be to prevent the occupants from being fried by the relatively accelerated particles the ship is continuously running into.

Either that, or society will have collapsed as a result of continuing wars over food, water and space and a failed attempt at global governance. Huge numbers of people (perhaps 1 billion) will be refugees of war and climate change, whether colder or hotter.

Edison molested me

In 100 years everything will be made out of chrome and platinum

My toilet is all steel, even the seat. But I’m in jail.
I love earth crawling, hate swallows, and I don’t like eating on the cheapside.

I think it will be filled with music…

Food will be hunted with sticks and stones..thats 2111..

Edison wasn’t entirely off base. Most modern houses are constructed of aluminum, PVC, and vinyl (studs, window frames, garage doors, siding). It is very rare to see houses that are constructed mostly of wood any more.

2111? Crystal ball says…

Advances in medicine and disease prevention will have raised the life expectancy to more than 100 years. Power generation through the incineration of waste biomass will be commonplace. Railroads will be a mere memory. Landfills and small dumps will be the goldmines of the day as “prospectors” search for recyclable petroleum-based plastics they can sell. Two failed missions with total loss of life will spell the end of efforts to establish a permanent facility on Mars. Out-of-control inflation and skyrocketing oil prices spark gas riots forcing the president of the once-powerful US to declare martial law in several major cities. Electric charging stations are overwhelmed as consumer rush to buy electric vehicles. The wait for office visits increases again as physicians endure yet another round of union strikes against government health care mandates. The dollar is devalued once more against foreign currency as markets drop it from trading. Protesters in Washington DC burn stacks of $1,000 dollar notes…

Studs are not made from PVC, Vinyl or Aluminum.

They’re either steel or douglas fir.

Wood-framed windows have a higher R-value, even if they are clad with Al or vinyl.

Didn’t anyone else read the article? He thought that we would be able to convert steel into solid gold! o_O
That was a common belief amongst alchemists at the time however, so you can’t really blame him.

It’s virtually impossible to accurately predict that far ahead. Even world experts fail to accurately predict the state the world will be in regarding their particular field 15-20 years into the future. At least he had a good shot at it.

As for 2111, I believe 2 things are certain: overpopulation and inflation.

Tell me what next week’s lottery numbers will be. Then I will be impressed.

I believe that in 2111, Dick Clark’s frozen, severed head will still be hosting New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on ABC.

Call up Howard Ruff, he’s a real prophet like a fortune teller, correct about 1% of the time and then only if it’s totally obvious to everybody in the world.

Immortality will become possible,but only for Billionaires.
Nano-bots controlled by a SuperComputer will perform the
actual surgery transferring the Brain from the 100yr old
body to the 20yr old Clone.
There won’t be any problem finding a Billionaire that can
get past the moralities involved.
Whatever Corporation offers immortality will charge at least $1,billion.

y so much fixated on steel…. !!!
anyway future cannot be predicted …!!

Also some accurate things there about transportation. The steam locomotive was the predominant train during his time and these were eventually replaced by diesel and electric trains several decades after this prediction.

One could say his prediction about high speed electric trains was a good description of what happened in Europe and Japan during the 1980s.

In 2111, buildings housing businesses will be all different colors, not just gray. Transportation will be better and so everyone won’t have to live in cities for convenience. There will be smaller hub cities, not just one big ones such as NY and Boston.

Space travel isn’t faring too well and so we will learn to produce lush plant life in our deserts so we can inhabit them. Perhaps we’ll have sea worlds, too, but I rather think we’ll build up before we build out in the ocean.

Because people need to work, robots won’t be as popular as people have imagined, although housework will definitely be easier to manage through clever, time saving inventions.

Shopping will be done through some kind of Internet system, and because the world will be so crowded, we’ll all be more home oriented. In fact, we might have more family businesses operated out of the home as people did in the middle ages, but they’ll be much more modern and efficient.

We’ll still have governments and loyalties to our government, but we’ll all have become so self sufficient that we won’t have as much need for wars. Our interpersonal relations will start becoming more important than our relation to our governments. Ponderous government systems such as Fascism and Communism will seem even more cumbersome than they do now.

Clothes won’t be scientific and efficient. They more advanced we become, the more we crave color and adornment.

In 100 years from now, there will be only 4 or 5 countries, America, China, Europe, Africa and one more. The nuclear threat will be a thing of the past. The number of religions will have deminishe, and one religion will dominate over all others and it won’t be Christianity. We will no longer have the Olympics and our homes will be mobile. And hopefuly teletransportation will be a few decades old in 2111.

How many fools to change a light bulb? None. A fool has no clue he’s in the dark. I made that up for Edison who would take claim for the ‘change a light bulb’ jokes if he were still alive.