3. In 1901, it was predicted that by 2001 New York City would become a city in the clouds wherein people traveled by balloon
In the wake of the works of the early science fiction writers, especially Jules Verne, expectations and hopes about the future of technology were abundant at the beginning of the 20th century. Perhaps foremost among these speculative dreams were flying machines, a vision only enhanced by the successful creation and flight of the first plane by the Wright Brothers in 1903.
Published in Collier’s Weekly Journal of Current Events in 1901, American illustrator Frederick Strothmann predicted an imaginative and incredible future for New York City by the year 2001. Among the technological innovations Strothmann believed the present generation would enjoy whilst living in an immense high-rise environment, akin for video game aficionados to the city of Columbia from the Bioshock series, the main modes of transportation were prophecized to include floating trams and hot air balloons. Concurrently, Strothmann depicted a world in which wireless telephones were the norm, in addition to compressable food tablets as sources of nutrition.