Oh, the joy of new year and the relief of 2020’s final departure! We have waited for 2021 with an uncommon enthusiasm for obvious reasons. Given the year 2020 experience, wouldn’t you just love to know some predictions about 2021?
No, we are not kidding! There really are some predictions about 2020 that might be really fun to know. And who made these predictions? Our dead friends from 1921. These people were sure very excited about life a century ahead!
It’s not exactly a matter of great surprise though. A century ago people were far more into predictions and astrology than people today are. What makes these predictions fun to know is the eerie similarities of some of these predictions.
Of course, not all these predictions were correct, even if some of them did turn out to be right. So let’s venture into this fun exploration of predictions that people from 1920s made!
Mastering the heat, aye mate!
Literally, a wizard predicted this for 2021. An electrical engineer also called “The Wizard of Schenectady”, Charles Steinmetz, had been talking about how people in 2021 would successfully master temperature.
An article that he had written at the time was widely circulating in which he talked of a ‘revolution’ in home environments.
He said that the heating would be done electrically and how he could set the temperature as per his wishes. He said how he could set the thermostat at 70 degrees in his home and it would stay exactly at that.
“This temperature will be maintained uniformly regardless of the weather outside,” he said. “This will also hold true on the warm day when the temperature outside may be 90 or 100 degrees. The same electrical apparatus will cool the air. And what’s more, it will keep the humidity normal at all times.”
Entertainment at home
Netflix and chill, friends?
Steinmetz was all set to quit the “congested, poorly ventilated hall” to have his fill of some musical concert. He talked about how the concert could be brought to our homes by pushing a plug into the base receptacle as we do for a vacuum cleaner.
He talked on about the modes of these musical concerts brought home: “Music will be supplied by a central station and distributed to subscribers by wire, just as we get our telephone service today. Perhaps this may be by wireless, the home being equipped with a radio-receiving apparatus. With this arrangement improved, we may hear grand opera stars as they sing in European capitals while sitting in our libraries at home.”
The man had quite an imagination, eh?
Electric transportation
Don’t know about you guys, but I have definitely started believing he had some superpowers. Maybe.
Although we are still working on “electric wheels”, Steinmetz saw the future of electric transportation pretty clearly. He might have been talking about Tesla cars and automobiles. This guy definitely sounds like Elon Musk – making bold claims and imagining electric cars.
He talks about the changes in transportation systems that will come with electrical advancements.
He says, “There will be more electric automobiles and electric bicycles and tricycles will be developed. Because of their simplicity and low price they will be available to almost everyone. Our cellars will be the place to keep them.”
Wanna hear an audiobook?
Steinmetz wasn’t the only one in 1921 making predictions about 2021. Moses Folsom wrote a column for Miami News in 1921 – “One Hundred Years From Now”.
In this famous column, he had described what we today call audiobooks. Here is an excerpt from his column:
“By 2021 the phonographic principle may have become practically infallible and the best books will be reproduced in plates for use in many different styles of speaking machines.”
“The exact tones of the elocutionist in speaking the words of the dramatist, poet, teacher, philosopher and novelist will be imitated in the library or parlour of every home. The exact tones of the sweet singer will also be faithfully reproduced on records to last long after the voice of the singer is silent in the sleep that knows no waking.”
Predictions about 2021
This doesn’t end yet. The column by Folsom also predicted with startling accuracy the everyday life in 2021.
With stunning accuracy, he predicted the existence of “moving sidewalks and elevators” in densely populated cities. Probably referring to hyperloop, he talked about tubes that might connect cities at a dazzling speed.
And what’s more, he also talks of the uses of solar energy and advancements in digital media such as photographs and movies. He says, “Colored photography will be a fact and vast improvements made in movie pictures. The tides may be used for power as well as the rays of the sun for heat and power.”
He further adds, “Utensils and dwellings will be manufactured largely of pulps and cements so as to utilize vegetation and stone in every stage of decade, ordinary waste or unfitness.”
So, what do you think about all these predictions? 2021 might be a crazy year, who knows? What we do know is that some people made some quite amazing predictions about 2021. So let’s reel in this fun information as we take this new year head on!
Happy New Year to all! Until next time!
Happy new year! Let’s Celebrate 2021