Frank R. Paul was an illustrator who was an expert in future speculation in the 1920s and 1930s. His illustrations were so influential as to define the looks of science fiction illustrations for decades to come. In particular, his imagined creatures from other planets illuminated the imaginations of Earthlings.

Taking into account the little knowledge that we had about the other planets in our solar system in that time, Paul dreamed up what alien creatures might look like.

Creatures from Mercury (pictured at top of the page) would be insect-like thanks to their close proximity to the sun. Jupiter residents would have no legs thanks to the very strong gravity there; rather, they would slither around like enormous slugs.

Strangely, Paul’s imagined creatures from Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, look the most like something you might see on Earth. Decades later, Io would be considered as potentially being able to support life.

We’ve since learned so much more about our solar system that we know these life forms don’t actually exist. Still, Paul’s imagination illustrated for us the vast possibilities that exist out there in space.

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Unless you’re in the minority of people who don’t care to post their whole lives online, you probably leave a lot of information about yourself and your typical daily routine out there in cyberspace. The Future Control project from designer Dor Tal is a set of smart objects that can predict what’s going to happen to (and around) you next.

The objects are to be paired with a smartphone and a proprietary app. The app looks at at the user’s social media networks to find info on the user as well as his or her interests and any groups, friends, organizations or events that might affect the user’s daily life. Allowing the app access to more of your information will, naturally, give it more ability to predict what will happen in the course of your day. Do you always stop off for a coffee at the same time every day? Based on your credit card information, the Future Control can predict that – but telling you something you already know isn’t that spectacular.

What’s really cool is what the Future Control does with the information. The objects – a smartwatch or tiny projector – scour information from your networks and contacts to predict how certain events will go. In the video above, the app analyzes texts between team members to predict that their presentation will not be ready on time so that you, the user, can reschedule the presentation.

The relevant information can be displayed on a wall if you’re at home or the office, and controlled with hand gestures. When you’re on the go, the wristwatch can project the necessary messages right onto your hand. This brilliant concept was part of Dor Tal’s graduation project as an exploration of humans’ age-old obsession with trying to predict the future.

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An animated short entitled ‘Talking of Tomorrow’ proposes two types of technology will be commonplace among executives of the future. Made in either 1960 or 1962, the cartoon lead works for an “interspace engineering company” and communicates purely through video phone. Crazy idea, huh?

Future-retro shorts like this one were common in the mid-20^th century. The thriving economy of the era led to manufacturing booms and rampant advertising, the two catalysts of the popular interest in innovation. Bell Telephone Labs were at the cutting edge of communication technology – at least according to this animated short.

The film speaks of “business materials” being transmitted via “telephonic machines.” This is presumably the precursor to the fax machine. The idea of video conferences presented by the short could be seen as the original Skype. Are shorts like this one prophetic or simply following the logical growth of technology?

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Back in 1967, the 21st century seemed like a magical future world in which we would all have robot servants and be able to do anything and everything from the comfort of our own homes. While that second part kind of did come true (this writer ordered a case of toilet paper from Amazon last week and it came right to my front door), the future actually looks quite a bit different than the people of the 60s imagined it would.

Back then, legendary journalist Walter Cronkite had a weekly 30-minute program called “The 21st Century,” in which he would describe for his enraptured viewers all of the amazing technology that would exist in about 40 years. The March 12, 1967 episode was all about the 21st century home and the then-unbelievable services that would be available to future Americans.

As Cronkite tours a mock-up of a futuristic home, he explains how the home will be self-sufficient, running on its own private fuel cell and recirculating its own water supply. The predicted living room looks a lot like an actual 21st century living room (minus the distinctly 60s aesthetic). There is a huge 3D television, a surround sound stereo system, and a console from which all of the home’s various gadgets can be controlled – although our “control console” looks more like a smartphone or a laptop computer.

One prediction which unfortunately did not come true for most Americans is Cronkite’s assertion that the standard work week would be 30 hours and all workers, as a rule, would be granted month-long vacations. But he also predicted that more of us would work from home, and the home office of the 21st century would be a truly high-tech wonder.

Cronkite shows off the console and screens that will allow business people of the future to read the news, check the weather and even keep up on their stocks, all from a home office. He also predicts video phones, which never really worked out in reality but Skype and FaceTime come pretty close. One thing he couldn’t predict is the horrible pop-up ads for mail order Russian brides that interrupt your checking the news, weather and stocks.

One of the weirdest parts of the future-home tour is the kitchen. Cronkite predicts that cooking will all be automated, with some kind of automated chef selecting the ingredients for pre-programmed meals and then assembling and cooking them in a microwave oven. The dishes are all plastic and molded on the spot, then after the meal they are melted down to be recycled and used again at the next meal. So he missed the mark by a bit there, but as for the rest of the program – it comes remarkably close to how we actually live in the 21st century.

The post The High-Tech Home of 2001 as it Was Imagined in 1967 first appeared on Gajitz.

Thirty years ago, Atari was on top of the gaming game – and they also apparently employed some remarkably clairvoyant people. Atari’s Chief Scientist Alan Kay collaborated with Encyclopedia Brittanica consultant Bob Stein to picture how people might use encyclopedias in the future.

Their result was these surprisingly accurate illustrations (drawn by Disney animator Glenn Keane). In essence, the men predicted Wikipedia…way back in 1982.

The images look kind of commonplace to us these days. Most of us have looked up old videos online, read about things in which we’re interested on Wikipedia, or checked stock quotes from a portable device.

But for all of their accuracy, the images missed a very important factor: the human one. Stein points out that, in imagining their conceptual future network, the men completely overlooked the fact that this type of technology could connect people to one another.

Interestingly, the predictions included handheld, wireless devices that were way smaller than the computers being used for real in 1982. See the images and their original captions over at the Future of the Book blog.

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