How 20th century residents imagined the future: images of cities, fashion and technology (15 photos)

A person always thinks about the future - both about his personal and about the future of humanity. They thought about this in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, during the Renaissance, and even in the 20th century they did not slow down. What is particularly interesting here, of course, is not the fact itself, but how people imagined the future, visualizing their forecasts.





This is how the city of the future was presented in the film “Metropolis” (1927)



These sets are on display at the German Film Museum.

Fashion of 2001 - this is how fashion designers from 1982 saw it





This image is by fashion designer Pierre Cardin, founder of the Pierre Cardin brand.

Future Manhattan, New York



Drawing by Richard Rummell, 1910s.

New York 2000



This is how he was shown in the 1975 film Death Race 2000.

Cover of Popular Mechanics from World War I



A robot vacuum cleaner was predicted back in 1959



Yes, some of these predictions may well come true—in fact. The visual execution will be different, of course.

How the 1950s imagined the next decade



A grocery store that does takeout like McDonald's.

Buy tickets with the click of a button



Automated bread van



A frightening drawing of a futuristic war machine in a 1916 magazine



And this is the year 2274, shown in the 1976 film Logan's Run



Walls in the future of humanity will become exclusively mirrored.

Nuclear-proof underground Manhattan



Drawing by architect Oscar Newman, 1969.

Amazing retro fantasy: a newspaper that will be shown on TV



What is especially striking here is the example of terrible news that the people in the picture are reading.

On the set of the film “The Shape of Things to Come” (1936). This is how it showed the year 2036



There are only 12 years left before we find out if this fashion prediction will come true