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One of the interesting things about these photos is that, aside from all the under-water ones, many of the contraptions exist. We just call them Roomba, Kubota
by simonsarris 3y ago
One of the interesting things about these photos is that, aside from all the under-water ones, many of the contraptions exist. We just call them Roomba, Kubota tractor, Audible, Philips All-In-One Trimmer, etc. One consistent facet is that many of our modern technologies are a lot more complex on the inside, but simpler in appearance. There really is one guy pushing buttons to harvest thousands of acres.
There's a complex kitchen one, and many people do have robot butlers in their kitchen today, they're just corporate chic instead of nearly alchemical, and called a Keurig. Though I would not invite such a creature into my home on account of its aesthetics I do admit its impressive.
Another observation is that we've abstracted away the robot-ish nature of a lot of these machines. There's a special factory that makes k-cups, so that our home environment can have the simpler machine. We decided to pave millions billions(?) of miles of road, and also perfectly flatten the square footage of nearly every store and warehouse, just to make the machines run smoother. I think it would be hard for a person from 1899 to understand just how much flatness we've engineered for our cars and roombas and shopping carts to work universally.
- badpun 3y agoPeople desired flat roads before cars. There was a huge effort in XIX century to develop better roads for the horse-drawn buggies and stagecoaches.
- simonsarris 3y agoI think, like with almost all of these, the scale of our modern success is out of the scope of any of their beliefs.
- eastbound 3y agoYes. In 1899, they hadn’t even invented the lift, necessary for skyscrapers. Imagine showing them, not Dubai, but a mundane success story like Bangkok. Edit: The Eiffel Towers had some, earlier than that. See comments ;) Sorry.
- userbinator 3y agoSorry, but that's incorrect; the guy who invented that had already been dead for over 3 decades in 1899: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Otis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Otis
- manmal 3y agoThe flatiron was finished in 1903.
- samatman 3y agoIn 1899, the Eiffel Tower was 10 years old. Not only did it have lifts, it famously, notoriously had lifts. French futurist artists could hardly be more aware of the concept.
- eastbound 3y agoOk I thought they were created around 1920 when skyscrapers started in NYC. Maybe that is wrong too. My apologies.
- folmar 3y agoThe Colloseum had approximately 25 elevators. Build year 80 AD.
- Gibbon1 3y agoI remember reading about an early hotel or some such. Passenger elevators weren't a thing but they knew they were coming so they designed in round elevator shafts. Which later they needed to make a custom elevator for. Because round. Google comes through for once. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/04/the-elevator-shaft-that-came-before.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/04/the-elevator-shaft-tha... tl;dr: Cooper Union's Foundation Building built 1853. Otis demonstrated his invention at the Crystal Palace in 1854, first installed Haughwout Building in 1857 Also freight elevators existed for a long time before but were unsafe for passengers.
- 3y ago
- ant6n 3y agoI believe the better road movement was started by cyclists.
- withinboredom 3y agoI believe the better road movement was started by Rome, long before cycles were even a dream.
- ant6n 3y agoDifferent movement. I actually meant the „good roads“ movement from the 1880s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Roads_Movement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Roads_Movement
- badpun 3y agoThe "movement" was of course a continuous effort, hard to say when it started. In England, a major improvement effort was done around 1810-1830 by a rich nobleman, who was irritated by having to use very bad country roads to go to his local nobility political meetings (can't recall his name at the moment), and he was going there by horse. He had a scientific mind and devoted last decades of his life to studying road construction techniques and writing up the results. Since he had money and political clout, his ideas were adopted, and later spread across Great Britain, leading it to having by far the best roads in the world at the time.
- thih9 3y agoWhat contributes to accuracy is what’s not there. To me especially the biology and medical advancements are missing. While we’re way better at maintaining our bodies than 100 years ago, we’re still mostly focused on improving our environment, just like 100 years ago. In 2124 I’d like no illnesses, regrowing limbs, perfectly balanced nutrition that is universally available, safe and accessible bio tech, and I could go on.
- Animats 3y agoThat's not the full set. Here's the archival copy.[1] Not much biology, though. Biology in 1900 was mostly observation. [1] https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&maximumRecords=50&collapsing=true&exactSearch=true&query=(dc.creator%20adj%20%22C%C3%B4t%C3%A9%20%20Jean%20Marc%22%20or%20dc.contributor%20adj%20%22C%C3%B4t%C3%A9%20%20Jean%20Marc%22) https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=...
- orwin 3y ago> regrowing limbs I can see that, in limited capacities, in less than 10 years for animals, and 20 for humans. Regrowing bones from genetic/growth defects for children at least, maybe minor bone reconstruction too.
- sandworm101 3y agoIt is closer than that. Arguable, we are regrowing lost bits and pieces already (skin graft, moving blood vessels around). >> World’s 1st drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials https://globalnews.ca/news/9984605/tooth-regrowth-drug/ https://globalnews.ca/news/9984605/tooth-regrowth-drug/
- GuB-42 3y agoI didn't realize that the underwater thing was so important back then. We are all thinking about flying cars, and these drawings don't disappoint, but there is as much happening underwater as it is happening in the sky. Now, we are still fascinated with flying, machines, etc... but going underwater is boring by comparison. We have submarines, mostly for the military, a bit of scientific exploration, etc... but besides a few passionate people, people usually don't think that much about the underseas. It is as if space completely took its place in our imagination.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoWhat would be the benefit of large scale underwater transportation and living? I suppose if the surface became uninhabitable, or if we wanted to hide from space-based surveillance.
- bboygravity 3y agoNice radiation shielding in case the earth poles reverse. I can't think of anything better.
- rvnx 3y agoOr in case submarines launch nuclear warheads, then the people living under water would actually be the ones surviving (for some time)
- pram 3y agoPerfect place to build your anarcho-capitalist utopian city without government interference.
- datameta 3y agoThat would be quite a shock to biology
- SgtBastard 3y ago
- Simon_ORourke 3y agoEither accurately by design or through omission they didn't portray much in the way of collective bargaining through work unions either.
- Sebb767 3y ago> Another observation is that we've abstracted away the robot-ish nature of a lot of these machines. In some ways, this is also limited by the format. It would have been easy for people back then to illustrate a Roomba or a modern sound setup (instead of the old-school speakers), but it would have been a pretty boring picture and confusing to people at the time, without additional explanation at least. The way these scenes are drawn, it's immediately obvious what has changed.
- shiroiushi 3y agoThat's a good point. When I saw the robotic symphony, I thought it was pretty ridiculous, because you don't need separate speakers to play the sounds of different instruments. But a normal person in 1900 wouldn't have understood this from a picture, and if they saw a picture of a normal rock concert today, they wouldn't know what it was or how anyone could hear the instruments (though they'd recognize the drums and guitars as such).
- jasonwatkinspdx 3y agoYeah, it's crazy how different things are now. My neighborhood dates from the turn of the century. The houses that date back to the original days of the neighborhood are easy to spot, because they're built up on a berm about 3 to 4 feet higher than the street level. This is because when they were built, the street was just a bunch of mud and horse manure. The standard house design would dig out a half under grade basement, piling the excavated dirt into a berm around the house to keep it above the surrounding muck.
- wanderingstan 3y ago> My neighborhood dates from the turn of the century. Note that this phrase now means “24 years ago.” Seems every day I have to correct myself to “turn of the 20th century.”
- jasonwatkinspdx 3y agoWow, you're right and I'd never even thought of that. Lol.