Some of the predictions from the Showa-era Japanese newspaper are surprisingly accurate, while others are hilariously wrong.
These photos surfaced recently on the Vipper forums, and give an insight into what the people of Showa-era Japan thought the future would look like. Some of the predictions are actually pretty spot-on, while others are hilarious Jetsons level fallacies.
In the photo to the right, we can see “2011” Tokyo, where tutus are the most fashionable form of clothing, cars are both capable of flight and disappointment, and video-screens show space colonization efforts. However, if you look off into the distance, you can see some planes utilizing vertical take-off, technology that has actually been invented since.
Another photo shows a classroom, featuring discipline robots that smack kids with a red ball on a stick when they make a mistake. Touch-screen computers are in use in the classroom (something that is now happening) and the teacher has been replaced with a slideshow.
Other photos accurately predict sprinkler systems, automated fire alarms, Roombas, 3-D televisions, and teleconferencing, but also make some bold claims on mobile tables that bring dinner to you, automatic clothes irons, and more wacky fashion statements.
Some members of the Vipper community were spurred on by the pictures to make their own predictions of what the year 3013 may have in store:
“Robots will be smarter than us.”
“Endangered species will make a comeback.”
“Humans will no longer have chins.”
“Human legs will become too weak from over-reliance on elevators, chairs and cars, and degenerate into slug-like appendages.”
How about you? What do you think the future of 3013 holds in store for the human race (that is of course if we don’t all nuke each other to death before that)?
Source: Vippers (Japanese) via Rocket News 24
