Humans have always been fascinated by what lies ahead. From fortune tellers to futurists, we crave glimpses into the unknown. While writers and politicians have made bold predictions, artists have taken it a step further by bringing their visions to life through detailed drawings and designs. However, as time has shown, not all of these predictions have come true. In fact, many of them couldn’t have been more off the mark. This collection of 17 historical drawings explores the fascinating and often wildly inaccurate visions of the future that artists once conceived.
Related: 9 Times the Future Was Predicted With Surprising Accuracy!
1. A 1923 cartoon that imagined machine made art 100 years in the future
2. Ambitious predictions about 1975
3. A futuristic cleaning device imagined in 1900
4. In a 1985 issue, Ebony magazine imagined what Michael Jackson would look like in the year 2000
5. An artist's depiction of the future, painted in 1930. Not too bad, huh?
6. Life magazine in 1914 imagined a world where 1950s fashion would look a certain way. The cover illustration features people dressed in this predicted style, ironically glancing back at the fashions of their own time.
7. A 1925 prediction of what a future New York could look like
8. This is Nissan's futuristic car design from 1983. Quite a difference from today's models!
9. A 2001 paper of “Future Predictions”
10. A comic book from 1939 depicted today's high-speed rail technology
11. Retro-future office from the 1964 World's Fair
12. 2022 Energy Predictions from 1922
13. This is what people thought housework would be like in the future
14. Ah, if only this were true!
15. The "Secretary of the Future", 1960s
16. A 1958 prediction suggested cars could change color as quickly as refueling
17. Full marks for the bold prediction
