An interesting look back in time at what the people at Popular Mechanics magazine thought the future would look like.   They got a few things right,  like longer lifespans and alternative fuels, but for the most part?   Not even close.  

They didn’t see the computer age coming at all, and thought we would be using Live TV Picture phones for shopping. 

They thought cities would be made of concentric circlular roads (oddly enough,  Black Rock City actually is that way).

And they thought we would be traveling in nuclear powered Ocean Liners and Super-Sonic airplanes (Not anymore).

From Modern Mechanix:

Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years

By Waldemar Kaempffert

Science Editor, The New York Times

WHAT WILL the world be like in A.D. 2000? You can read the answer in your home, in the streets, in the trains and cars that carry you to your work, in the bargain basement of every department store. You don’t realize what is happening because it is a piecemeal process. The jet-propelled plane is one piece, the latest insect killer is another. Thousands of such pieces are automatically dropping into their places to form the pattern of tomorrow’s world.

The only obstacles to accurate prophecy are the vested interests, which may retard progress for economic reasons, tradition, conservatism, labor-union policies and legislation. If we confine ourselves to processes and inventions that are now being hatched in the laboratory, we shall not wander too far from reality.

The best way of visualizing the new world of A.D. 2000 is to introduce you to the Dobsons, who live in Tottenville, a hypothetical metropolitan suburb of 100,000. There are parks and playgrounds and green open spaces not only around detached houses but also around apartment houses. The heart of the town is the airport. Surrounding it are business houses, factories and hotels. In concentric circles beyond these lie the residential districts.

(more here)