Thomas Edison's 1911 Predictions for 2011

The 23 June 1911 issue of the Miami Metropolis featured predictions by Thomas Edison about life in America one hundred years hence. Here's a selection from of prophecies of "the Wizard", as the author refers to Edison:

But the traveler of the future, says a writer in Answers, will largely scorn such earth crawling. He will fly through the air, swifter than any swallow, at a speed of two hundred miles an hour, in colossal machines, which will enable him to breakfast in London, transact business in Paris and eat his luncheon in Cheapside.

The house of the next century will be furnished from basement to attic with steel, at a sixth of the present cost -- of steel so light that it will be as easy to move a sideboard as it is today to lift a drawing room chair. The baby of the twenty-first century will be rocked in a steel cradle; his father will sit in a steel chair at a steel dining table, and his mother's boudoir will be sumptuously equipped with steel furnishings, converted by cunning varnishes to the semblance of rosewood, or mahogany, or any other wood her ladyship fancies.


What do you think life will be like in the year 2111?

http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2011/1/18/edisons-predictions-for-the-year-2011-1911.html via Geekosystem | Photo: Library of Congress

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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. ;-)
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Light weight steel ~ aluminum siding. I wonder if he saw computers in our future? Anyone who thinks 2012 is dooms day needs to re~think the math. If 12/21/12 or 12/12/12 which ever is who ever's prediction, it's still off by a longshot. It wouldn't be 2012 because the numbers all have to be 1 & 2 so 12/12/2121 or 12/21/2112 would be more logical but I don't by into the hype. I won't won't even watch the movie 2012 becauae I won't support what I don't buy. How many fools does it take to change a light bulb?
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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.
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He predicted a light steel, so stainless is kinda out of the question, maybe something more like alloy, but one still has to keep the cost in mind seeing that he said it would be cheap.
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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.
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