The coolest part about retrofuturism is how it potentially inspired some young kids someplace to later grow up and actually engineer technology we have today.
I LOVE the old “home of the future” movies from the 1950’s! Any reel from the past that speculates on what the future was going to be is really interesting. It tells us a lot of what society’s priorities were.
1920s Futurism in a nutshell: - Zeppelins - Radio Everything - Underground Cities - Sky Cities - Predict The Hyperloop - More Zeppelins - Prepare For The Next War - Go To Space Impractically - Planes Everywhere - Stupid Things That Will Never Work - Robots - You Know What This Concept Needs? Zeppelins. - Solar Power - Place Women In Small Chambers - Art Deco Coruscant Doesn't Exist, It Can't Hurt You. - Glass Everywhere - Contact Mars - Go To The Bottom Of The Sea - Crap. Too Many Zeppelins. Time To Blow Them Up With Light.
you forgot Cryogenics, EEG, Laser Weaponry, actual TV (or maybe CCTV?), Online Conferences (in the vid it's Medical Diagnosis), and...... that Feelium meme at 09:57. They predicted the Feelium meme.... Out of all things to predict, something matched the Feelium meme.
I was obsessed with these types of books when I was younger, it's probably the reason I'm so influenced by sci-fi and technology. My grand father also worked for Lockheed and I spent more time around him than my father who was in the military.
Flying Cars have already exist but Still Prototypes for testing in order to be mass-production. but the idea of Flying Cars in My opinion is a terrible idea that there would be a risk of multiple accidents since there are a lot of irresponsible drivers out there.
Some of the ideas that are presented that became true: Imax, solar panels, interferometers, walking vehicles, humanoid robots, self contained space suits, space travel, parasite fighters on airships, multi deck roadways, monorails, mag-lev trains, television, manned orbit of the moon, aerial firefighting, amphibious armor, lasers, fiber optics. You can also see the beginning of the Art Deco style of the late 20's-early 30's. Some of those rough city sketches look like storyboards from the Christopher Nolan Batman series.
Excellent and I especially can appreciate the 1920's to mid 30's, being nestled between two world wars, they seem to have been either forgotten or ignored but how interesting and optimistic this period seemed to be. Thank you for covering this "lost" epoch
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
Beautiful compilation, thanks for sharing. Very interesting. And lovely background music. Those that struck me the most: 3:33 - Solar power (electricity). 3:48 - Recycling of garbage & sewage. 4:26 - Highspeed wheelless trains. 8:23 - "In the Year 2026", not far off? 9:04 - Haven't I seen this skyscraper in modern times? 9:12 - "Light beam piano", laser? (Jean-Michel Jarre). 9:28 Helicopter landing pad on skyscraper roof. 9:36 English Channel rail tunnel.
Amazing technology now, but it's so fragile you're going to have to buy it again every year or 2. Also nut houses are all closed down. We have twitter and it's kind.
Fun Fact: John Jacob Astor IV actually wrote a sci-fi book in 1894, entitled “A Journey In Other Worlds”, that took place in the year 2000 and featured all kinds of stuff like space-colonization. And yes, this is the same JJ Astor that perished aboard the RMS Titanic.
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
@@jonathantan2469 You just wasted time typing this, and it costs you real money that your ISP takes from you. Plus, you don't have to pick up the magazine, alternatively, people read what they want at the news stand & put it back. So many options.
I find the old science magazines and pulps very inspirational. The artwork of spaceships, aliens, robots, planets, etc helped inspire me to go into science. I had no interest in fields like business and law.
This is a very good and interesting video. I like the presentation. I was born in 1939, so Science Fiction, not Sci Fi, and I have grown up together, and neither of us are relevant any more. Having seen these magazines and their kindred in the 1940s and 1950s, it seems like I have gone back in time. At 6:21 the robot has "R U R" displayed on his chest. That is from a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Carel Kapek. "Rossumovi Univerzalni Roboti". In English it is given as "Rossum's Universal Robots". The Slavik word "roboti" means to work or do work. This is the introduction of the word "robot" into English. Prior to that mechanicall people were called "automata" or 'automaton'. Although Rossum's robots were not...........oopsie, I almost gave away the pl The 1920s fantasies were becoming realities in the 1930s. People were overwhelmed by a radio play in 1938,, which I don't think could have happened without the futureism of the 1920s. Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" was aired in 1938. During the last few minutes of the broadcast, the page boys, reporters and other staff fought off the police and barricaded doors leading to the studio. The police were trying to stop the play. To say that the play was a sensation is an understatement.
Greetings from Russia. I'm 34 years old. And I read your text, it was very interesting !!! I was also interested in the life of Hugo Gernsback, I read Wikipedia. Stay healthy. Thank!
It's kind of a mix of steampunk and (early) dieselpunk, I think. But since it's set in 1912, I'd say it would lean more towards steampunk since the more mechanized aesthetic came after WWI. I'm not an expert, but that's just my impression. But Bioshock Infinite did a great job making a unique, transitional look.
Imagine building that, then a few years later deciding you didn’t really want to be part of the European Union, good job this is all just science fiction!!!
When you think about the leaps and bounds that science and engineering has made over the last century or so, it is absolutely mind boggling. To think that my own grandfather was alive when the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, and also when the Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, makes me smile at all we've accomplished. I know this may sound strange, but it also makes me kind of sad that nothing in my lifetime of such magnitude has been accomplished by comparison.
Fritz Lang's sci-fi films certainly fall under this category of "retrofuturism." I especially like the designs for the rocket to the moon from "Frau im Mond" from 1929.
Not forgetting Lang’s masterpiece, his dystopian Metropolis (1927). It’s also worth checking out an early Soviet version of sci-fi futurism, 1924’s Aelita.
This was not only fun but also quite informative. It's remarkable how far we have come since then. What is even more remarkable is how much of these imaginative devices are now actually here in one form or another. Examples are at 09:35 the concept for the Chunnel, 10:35 was remote diagnostics of a patient, at 12:05 there is the moving walkway, One that caught my attention in particular was at 10:48. At the top left is notes "cold light 95% efficient". Can we say LED lighting?! All of this was helped well by the choices in music. Thank you for your hard work in creating this look back in time.
6:48 100 years later corporate events are not that far off from that. Multiple rear-projection screens, speakers on the sides of the screens, technical staff seated and operating the equipment from backstage, technical director and other staff sitting front of house. Damn, 1920...switch the "Drama TV" with corporate content and you nailed it!
I never even heard of this magazine before, so thank you very much for this video. I was lucky enough as a kid (back in the 70's) to get my hands on a stack of Amazing Stories and similar pulp scientifiction magazines from the late 20's and early 30's and fell in love with the covers and limited interior art showing "the future". PS I like to think that in some parallel universe out there, this "future" look became a reality.
@@darania1 Yeah, same with every original Star Wars toy I had and original run of Spider-Man and X-Men from old dime and quarter boxes at yardsales. Even had Wolverine's 1st appearance right off the rack when it came out (sigh, lol). But unfortunately all long gone. Could be worse; my dad would kick himself if he had known how much Superman and Batman 1st appearances that he gave away to the WW2 paper drive were now worth.
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
I like how the predictions of solar power and television have come true. I also like how you piped the song, 'You'd be Surprised' into the slide show. It reminds me of a guy that I went to college with.
Some of the images blew by so quick I had to pause the video to take in what I was seeing. Some of these visions are surprisingly close to what eventually happened. The vehicle at 7:30 for instance looks pretty similar to a VW 23 Window Bus from 40 years later. Other images depict buildings with what looks like a helipad like many buildings in metro areas have today. On top of all this, the Art Deco look of the 20s and 30s is just plain _cool_.
I agree. They were far closer than I would have expected. About 80% of what was shown has actually been done, maybe a little different than drawn, but you can clearly see the base idea that was eventually realized. Helicopter for fire fighting, trans channel tunnel, remote physician diagnosis and treatment, slidewalks, hard pressure suits,...
@@waynecampeau4566 You can find really old films that show the moving sidewalks. They must have discontinued those for a reason! I imagine there were safety issues. And they almost guessed 3D printing. Like the cartoon with the house building machine.
So interesting! They were close on a few things such as the 2 men sitting at a table, with a screen in front of them, each looking at a different image.
This might be why I love Final Fantasy games so much, especially 7 because it seems to combine the best parts of all the retro future genres. It has air ships and everything is designed with huge gear systems like steam punk, yet also has fuel-powered vehicles and the world runs off nuclear-like power where everything is super-enormous like with diesel-punk
As soon as the picture roll started I was instantly reminded of the film “Metropolis”. Amazing work. I’m going to keep watching your videos. Love this content.
@@dariusanderton3760 Yes! Very interesting on so many levels. I love Oldman's Zorg. Such an unapologetically despicable character. Priest Vito Cornelius: "...You're a monster, Zorg." Zorg: (rather smugly) "I know." 😆 Delicious! 😸
Most of this stuff is actually a thing now, it’s just not depicted exactly like it is now. But they got REAL close on their guesses. It would be wild to go back in time and tell people what it’s actually like in 2023. You would be the most famous and valuable person alive.
Love the music! Pleasant surprise! Wish grandma was still alive she’d like that ! She only died in 2013 but she was a teen in the 1920s . Miss you grandma RIP!
My dear granny told me a story about seeing her first automobile in 1902. She was amazed that it was moving without the use of a horse. She also described watching the German airships dropping bombs over London during WW1. Direct accounts to history are the best.
@@richardthompson9836 that’s sound very much like my grandmother who said when washing machines were invented, people were initially afraid of them and though it was witch craft lol
Yeah, grand moms really were 'the aces' I think. Grand dads too! Well, for that era of interest, THIS seems the right place to be! He's just getting started, and it's a good one.
Fascinating video. Ive always been intrigued by steampunk, and by nature of research learned about dieselpunk and atompunk in the process. And Ive just assumed 1920s futurism just rolled into dieselpunk, coming across random bits of info here and there wasnt enough to make me think different. But having all this collected in one video really goes to show it is its very own niche. Man I love youtube, I think ive learned more here than I ever did in a traditional school lol and totally for free to boot!
Omg, so glad I've found this channel. I love anything 1900-1959, but especially the 20's. The invention of traffic lights, the vacuum cleaners, and televisions, wasn't the 20's when sound was added to film? What a time!
It was the time in which we had access to the most technology AND the most civilization at the same time. Since then, civility has gone down and technology has increased. If I had a time machine, the 20's is where I'd go- for multiple reasons.
@@mcdoctorglock Why would you go back to the 1920s? What would you do for fun? You'd have no video games, Netflix, rock music, or durable cars. You'd also be missing modern medicine, including most antibiotics and vaccines we take for granted today. What would you do back then that you can't do now?
The 1920s and 30s are my favorite period of time because of the fashion, entertainment, music, and art it’s interesting to see what kind of ideas they thought of for the future
I saw a few things we do have in there like an obvious television screen, solar power, personal planes (of course not at many lol) and loud speakers. I've always been fascinated by futurism. So glad to find such a collection.
It's pretty cool seeing how some of these actually happened. The first one predicted the suburban craze of having shopping/living centers, kinda like mini cities, out and around the suburbs: two notable in Georgia are Halcyon and Avalon. Then the Sea-Plane, Boat houses, even Solar panels.
I am running a D&D game with a retro futurism setting, set in the mid to late 1920s. These are perfect inspirations for worldbuilding. Thanks for bringing this to light
Also, notice some of the "sci-fi" illustrations in those pages aren't too far off from what we have still today. Electric snow eliminators exist, and wheel-less trains exist. Also, the 4 screen theatre is very much like the wrap around screens we have now.
This is great. The music is spot on, perfect, and it's funny that sci-fi and futurism from this period doesn't really have a formal name because it's definitely a very specific and highly influential aesthetic. In fact, it's really the beginning of science fiction really entering the mainstream, especially in the form of pulp fiction, like 'Amazing Stories'.
Interesting video with period 1920's music. Well thought out and presented. Reminds me of my memories of reading Analog as a kid in the 50's and 60's. Thank You!
3:05 -- notice "parking space for flying autos" in the upper right corner. The notion that in "the future" we will of course have flying cars has been around for a hundred years!
Haha I could possibly imagine a Tesla or Slingshot airborne but just think of one of those boxy clunkers they had back then zooming around in the skyline XD
We do have flying cars, since the 1940s. They're called helicopters, but it turns out that you need an FAA license to operate one and they're really expensive to own to begin with.
Computers did exist in the 1920. both meat computers as well as mechanical computers. I seen some concepts from 1900, -10 and -20 with computer learning in school. but becasue they didn´t know how a computer would look, the concept was all very strange. headphones was pretty common, but in some concept they just zaped the knowalge in to the brain with electric shock... yea.. if we only had that technology.
@@imperialgamer1667 I would say our network is better to. There was a idea in the 1920 to build a internet of sorts. Where you would in steed of having links have a deep web of phone numbers. And where you could call in and get both photos, text and video like on demand TV. For it to work they would need wide band telephone. That did in dead exist back then. Both 4kHz (standard) and 50kHz existed and there was plans for 6Mhz telephone. Well what happen was the war and after the war most of the 50kHz line was discontinued due to economical factors. There actually was still 50kHz cables around in as lat as the 1990 and 6Mhz cables was eventually created (and was still in use in 00) Prior to the digital age, if there as a live broadcast or even a live interview in a other part of the world, those was connected via 6Mhz telephone cable. When they was first designed they was intended to go to every home
At 8:48 this type of machine is basically unchanged and still in use in space observatory auditoriums all around the country. I remember paying more attention to this strange projector as a child than the cool stuff it cast onto the dome overhead. At 12:03 Isaac Asimov used the idea of a moving sidewalk with standing lanes and seated lanes for various types of workers in his story "Caves of Steel". Where enormous metropolitan cities were constructed underground, people were living in overcrowded conditions, robots were an essential presence in this hive of humanity, the farmland above was tilled by machines only. He dealt with the psychology of what this sort of existence does to a man's mind, what might he feel if he were to try to reclaim life on the surface of the planet. It also dealt with gradual starvation for an entire population of the city as more and more people were crammed into it over time. When I read that story I was laying on a stone bench at my college trying to imagine what it'd be like living as those characters had. I succeeded at scaring the bejeesus out of myself as I thought I was drifting away up into space.
Dude, that four-screen theatre looks so good! A giant curved display would probably be better (and seamless), but it'd be a lot easier to do 4 flat ones. Although, you'd have to account for the angle changes and film accordingly
It is interesting to see that they, nearly a hundred year ago, predicted "the cold light" (The LED of today) and "Picture radio or picture phone" (Todays TV and smartphones with Facetime)
Facetime is totally different, and not close to the same ambience, company specific, and not overall compatible, nor stable. There were actually picture and video phones in the 80s, just never became mainstream.
Jules Verne predicted the internet and how people will stay indoors and chat via it instead of going out and socializing. It was in his last novel, i believe.
Great vid! Judging from the image at the 3:18 mark, they had far more imagination than we do now. I could look and wonder through that cityscape all day...
It's interesting to see the stark contrast between the optimistic vision of the future in the old days versus the pessimistic view of the future surrounding apocalypses and WW3 and whatnot in our time. We don't really get THAT much advanced as they'd hoped we'll be, in which case they probably would feel a bit disappointed if they see what their future (our time) really looks like.
I suspect that someone from 1925 would be pretty impressed at life today, and probably amazed that people don’t appreciate it. Very few people die of bacterial infections, whereas that was common back then. The internet, microwaves, television, MRIs (exploratory surgery is rare today), airliners, the ISS, photos from other planets and moons, the Hubble, vaccines, smartphones, etc., etc. I agree that futurism today isn’t optimistic. Kind of a shame.
The thing I'm disappointed in is the fact that I couldn't have been born 100 years from now. All those technological advancements I will never get to see
I think the difference is. That we're not amazed by ideas of Utopias or technological innovation anymore. These ideas don't really astound, amaze or even sell. While we don't necessarily want to wallow in our own sadness. I think people find a certain degree of release from the concept of the post-Apocalypse. Almost like the end of everything would free them of the mundanity of life. That having to rebuild society would give them greater meaning than simply being another cog in a machine. It is however important to remember thar these things ebb and flow with social and political climates of the time. And that people in the twenties didn't all share the same vision for the future. Optimistic and pessimistic views of the future have always been present. Many post-apocalyptic works in the early twentieth century dealt with plagues. Due to the prevalence of illnesses. While the Dystopian genre saw its genesis with the novel "We" in 1920.
It's mostly because the economy was far better back them for the common people. People back then were of the optimistic opinion that their descendants would live better lives than they did. They never thought that young adults would be buried in debt and while we do have amazing technologies, they are out of reach for most people and homelessness had grown significantly since then.
Thank you for sharing. It was a fantastic time and I suddenly realised that my childhood was somehow tuned to that wave band. Times are made by people who live during them. The people raise children and grandchildren and the tune goes on, though fades away gradually. Thank you so much for sharing the magazines - I'd love to watch the video over and over again to see the Spirit of the time
Thank you so much for this amazing video. It's like you are living in my head, except It's been like that for 69 years! All your hard research, your passion, and how beautifully you put it all together.
The French actually built miles-long "fortified underground cities" in the 1930s, as the Maginot Line. There were disappearing guns of unprecedented caliber, gas projectors, machinegun turrets, etc. up top, with barracks and mess halls and ammo storage and workshops and vehicle garages below. Unfortunately German agents infiltrated the work crews from the start, and diagrammed the whole setup for German intelligence. It was believed to be so strong the Germans just went around the Line, via Belgium, in 1940. The project had cost so much and so occupied the imagination and energies of the French General Staff and of its Government overseers that little else was done in the way of modernizing the rest of the French armed forces. France fell within six weeks.
@@notyeet8683 L'histoire ne voit rien! Ce sont ceux qui la renseigne qui lui mentent! Désolé! Stéph. History sees nothing! It is those who inform it who lie to it! I'm sorry! Stéph.
Switzerland also has vast underground fortifications/bunker cities to this day. Also there are numerous underground bunker towns in the United States created in case of a nuclear war. Unfortunately these are not available to the public but only meant to house upper echelons of the government and military. You can read about these top secret installations in the book "Raven Rock" by Garrett M. Graff who is an investigative reporter.
@@notyeet8683 Yes. The French demographic crisis was also key to their defeat. Frankly put, the young men who were killed or made invalid in 1914-18 were not around to sire the male children who would have been inducted into the French armed forces in the mid-to-late1930s. Their military doctrine was also unimaginative -- witness the Maginot Line itself, a castle-like fixed fortification which was built partially in response to the lack of men (as a "force multiplier"). Also, the French tanks, while numerous, were mostly of the slow, machinegun-heavy infantry-support type that had been needed during WWI -- not the faster cruiser type with large cannon, a relatively low profile, and radios for command-control, all of which made them capable of making independent armored thrusts.
This was very interesting, thank you for the video. They nailed the train from London to Paris in the Chunnel 60 years before it was completed, and were pretty accurate for the future movie theater, as well as tele-medicine (they had the radio, but remote doctor visits were in their predictions). I saw a page from one of the magazines that had predictions for the year 2026. Is there an actual copy of this that you can read? I'd love to read what they thought 2026 was going to be like.
I love these old illustrations of future tech and architecture. There's something so crudely naiv, wonderous and imaginative about the. They didn't have the knowledge or technology we, nowadays, tak for granted. Yet, what they had was optimism, hope and tons of imagination. Imagine reading one of those comics while listening to Gustav Holst's The Planets. That would be the ultimate 1920s science fiction feeling.
3:10 Using the roofs of city buildings as pedestrian plazas seems like such a neat idea! It would be especially helpful in a time when cars dominate transportation.
Parts of SE London still have the original attempt to put this into production. It was called the Pedway and was started around the 50's and mothballed by the 80's. Sadly, most of what remains in and around the city is attached to dive housing estates riddled with the bottom feeders of society.
I just like how good old fashioned stuff is often as filthy as anything that came later. Only difference is it has to be more cleverly worded to convey its intent without scandalizing listeners of a delicate disposition. :)
I love hearing the words to the songs so clearly! They are really great songs, I really had no idea, even though I am almost 60 and remember a lot of the 50s as that was my parents style. ❤❤❤
That's what I thought at the time. I noted then that the cultural changes we were undergoing were reminiscent of the '20's, though none of the counterculture crowd then understood what I meant. But it's worth recalling that the movie 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' (1967 or so) was essentially about the 1960's instead of the 1920's that it professed to represent.
Both the 1929s and the 1960s were exceedingly conservative decades. People think of cigarette-smoking flappers and pot smoking hippies but it was really the KKK in the ‘20s and Nixon in the ‘60s. The latter ushering in a counter-revolution disregarding human rights and glorifying corporate capitalism, the most un democratic system of control of modern, Western civilization. Socio-political trends drive technological advances, which is why we’re still using the internal combustion engine in 2021. Nixon-Reaganism. A hundred years from now, people will be saying they couldn’t believe people drove gasoline powered cars and put vehicles and men into space using fossil fuels.
Some of futurism of the 20s is such a product of its time in that their vision of the future is packed with style.while the reality is we have less and less. Some of their ideas sort of came true, some need more time and some are cute because they were just so naively creative. Lol
I'm actually most surprised by the price of those magazines back then. Assuming these covers are in fact from the 1920s, Twenty-Five cents per issue was very expensive! I would have guessed maybe 5 cents per copy, but not 25!
Pretty cool collection, thanks for that. I occasionally stumble upon these cool cover artworks for Science and Invention and other mags but should probably dive a bit deeper in. Oh, and the setdesign for Fritz Lang‘s “Metropolis” from 1927 fits perfectly.
many of the ideas did come true, but not using the technology they predicted, for example, we have mag lev trains that do not need wheels, and high speed underground tunnels. also the solar power concentrators to create steam for a turbine. also there was a picture of doing medical diagnosis by "radio" which I found cool since they did not have a word the "television" yet, but you can see that is exactly what they were predicting, the doctor was shown, probing a patient, now we have remote surgery. there are many more things they got right.
Whenever I think of retrofuturism I either think of the Bioshock trilogy or the fallout games. Both really nailed that futuristic dystopian 1940-1950s feel.
there was actually an island in the outer hebrides i think, more recently than the 1920s. inaccessible by boat most of the time, they used rockets to send letters and small packages back and forth.
There were dystopias imagined then too. Orwell wrote "1984" in 1948. The Czech writer Karel Čapek introduced the word "robot" in 1920 with his play R.U.R. What's it about you wonder? The "robots" are basically manufactured servants/workers for humans. They may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first, but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race. It seems like they had the idea for "Terminator" or "Matrix" in the 1920's already. People in the 1920's feared another world war and they feared that this one could be so long and so devastating there would be hardly no humans left once it was all over. Basically they imagined it would be like World War One but ten times worse or more. In WWI the Germans did develop the "Paris Gun" which could fire shells 120 kilometers (75 miles) away from Paris. The shells actually entered the stratosphere some 40 km (25 miles) up in their trajectory. Nothing human made had ever gone that high up. So they imagine these kind of monster cannons would turn everything to a giant shelled landscape if there ever was another war. Not to mention that bomber aircraft became ever greater at the end of the war. In 1919 they even made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in a WWI Vickers Vimy bomber flown by Alcock and Brown. And yes, H.G. Wells wrote "War of the Worlds" in 1898 already and in 1938 they even broadcast it on radio. Some reports claim that the "live report" format of the broadcast made some people who just tuned in really believe there was an invasion from Mars with tripods walking all over people and frying them with heat rays. And never mind the modern era. Ancient mythologies were full of "end of days" depictions. The Norse mythology called this "Ragnarok" in which everybody would die and the world collapse. In the Bible this is called The Book of Revelations in which the four horsemen of the Apocalypse will ride out and the angels of good will do battle with Satan and his demons. As for dystopic Hollywood films. The first truly famous Hollywood big budget production was the original Planet of the Apes from 1968. A dystopia if there ever was any. Sorry. Nothing new.
I don't entirely agree. I feel like people mostly just like to focus on dystopias and post apocalyptic futures. That is typically because people tend to enjoy action and these types of media are a perfect setting for plenty of brutal action sequences. But there are still optimistic views of the future in modern media such as Interstellar, Elysium, Her, Bicentennial Man, and even A.I.(Depending on how you interpret the ending). There are plenty of stories where we don't bomb ourselves or don't enslave ourselves with technology. It just depends on which stories you choose to notice and or remember.
For us of the old generation (1950), it was thought that the 2000s would bring a lot of technological benefits to society: Moving walks, flying cars, super automatic houses in management......... We didn't notice , that we were taking the "technological step" instead, in those years. If anything, the 2000s can be configured, like the global failure, to progress culturally, to communicate between people..... of new conflicts......... The good old days.
5:57 this is what we need in Seattle Wa. They just tell us there is no room for more traffic lanes and the traffic just gets worse and worse every year for the last 30 years since the freeways were built.
I like the way their future inventions have lots of dials, meters, vacuum tubes, banks of switches, giant high voltage coils, etc, to impress us as to how advanced the devices are. It had to look futuristic, seeing it was just a drawing.
Published in 1930, written in the years before, Aldous Huxley's novel 'Brave New World' is an eerily accurate portrayal of what was to him the future. He set his dystopia in about 2500 AD. It is sobering to think that many of his predictions typify modern Western culture right now.
So fucking awesome, the first American SF stories were from pulp magazines. One was called The Boys of New York and described an automaton steam powered robot pulling a covered wagon on the cover. Thanks for the link. The 1920s robocop was fantastic. All these ideas are 100 years old
I really wished there would be video games in this style! Whether the 1920's steam punk or the 1950's , I think bishock came pretty close but I want a fleshed out sort of like open world game, would be cool as hell imo
The coolest part about retrofuturism is how it potentially inspired some young kids someplace to later grow up and actually engineer technology we have today.
now everything is cheaply made and getting more run down and lazy, F
now people think the earth is flat. lmao what a world.
@@purefoldnz3070people have always figured the earth was flat until we went to outer space bro
@@Pigflippy they must have been pretty f*** when they tried to fly their spaceship using a flat earth map above the earth then.
@@Pigflippy people knew the earth was round since the dawn of time lmao
It’s been 100 years. Where the hell is my flying car!?
Marty, where we're going, we don't need flying cars.
Flying car is possible but if you think about it it's just a waste of technology
Great Scott!!!
As soon as you get a pliot's license and a huge insurance premium
@@waqqashanafi now I have to watch back to the future again
It's funny, if people from the 20s could see the society now. It's even stranger than they could dream.
Yes. They'd be shocked to see that the USA is well on its way to becoming a third world country.
Don't forget their are some still alive who remember the 1920's even though they were children at the time.
@@DM-dn7rf there* you have the grammar of a 9 year old.
We're in the 20s now.
They'd probably overthrow the government and try to stop the world from ever getting to how things are today
I LOVE the old “home of the future” movies from the 1950’s! Any reel from the past that speculates on what the future was going to be is really interesting. It tells us a lot of what society’s priorities were.
One of my favorite Ren and stimpy episodes
IF we still had the same economy
My Grandpa is 100 this year! He was born in 1921, so I thought I'd check out the video. Good job.
Happy birthday to your grandpa.
Happy Birthday!
so was mine served in ww2
My grandpa just died last month
Happy birthday
1920s Futurism in a nutshell:
- Zeppelins
- Radio Everything
- Underground Cities
- Sky Cities
- Predict The Hyperloop
- More Zeppelins
- Prepare For The Next War
- Go To Space Impractically
- Planes Everywhere
- Stupid Things That Will Never Work
- Robots
- You Know What This Concept Needs? Zeppelins.
- Solar Power
- Place Women In Small Chambers
- Art Deco Coruscant Doesn't Exist, It Can't Hurt You.
- Glass Everywhere
- Contact Mars
- Go To The Bottom Of The Sea
- Crap. Too Many Zeppelins. Time To Blow Them Up With Light.
you forgot Cryogenics, EEG, Laser Weaponry, actual TV (or maybe CCTV?), Online Conferences (in the vid it's Medical Diagnosis), and...... that Feelium meme at 09:57. They predicted the Feelium meme....
Out of all things to predict, something matched the Feelium meme.
And you know what else?
Zeppelin
You left out pneumatic tubes.
And firefighting machines 🚒 🔥
You get a zeppelin, you get a zeppelin, EVERYBODY GETS A ZEPPELIN!
Some of these predictions have turned out to be supprisingly accurate.
Hyperloop avant la lettre at 5:20, scheduled to arrive around 2050?!
The god damn Maglev Train was the biggest surprise to me
Yeah, some of these ideas are not so farfetched, just that we designed them differently and some were just never made.
@@kezmsfilms1300 The maglev part blew me away
@@piip4 I know, right :D
I was obsessed with these types of books when I was younger, it's probably the reason I'm so influenced by sci-fi and technology. My grand father also worked for Lockheed and I spent more time around him than my father who was in the military.
1920: We will have a flying car
2020: How to open a curtain
U mean 2021?
@@gigganticx no
Flying Cars have already exist but Still Prototypes for testing in order to be mass-production. but the idea of Flying Cars in My opinion is a terrible idea that there would be a risk of multiple accidents since there are a lot of irresponsible drivers out there.
@@MidianPOfficialytch That's why society develops
We have flying bathroom from german guy now
Some of the ideas that are presented that became true: Imax, solar panels, interferometers, walking vehicles, humanoid robots, self contained space suits, space travel, parasite fighters on airships, multi deck roadways, monorails, mag-lev trains, television, manned orbit of the moon, aerial firefighting, amphibious armor, lasers, fiber optics.
You can also see the beginning of the Art Deco style of the late 20's-early 30's. Some of those rough city sketches look like storyboards from the Christopher Nolan Batman series.
You are correct and I agree!
Multi-deck roadways already existed... It's more about multi-multi-multi-deck roadways.
Also at 4:09, there's literally a primitive version of Tesla autopilot and a drone operator base
Parasite fighters on airships? You mean Alien's Ripley?
You don’t see a very very small crown and virus, now we have a corona virus we call covid.
Excellent and I especially can appreciate the 1920's to mid 30's, being nestled between two world wars, they seem to have been either forgotten or ignored but how interesting and optimistic this period seemed to be. Thank you for covering this "lost" epoch
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time.
Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them).
Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI).
Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy.
Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.
Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI).
Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).
Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning!
Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures.
Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement.
It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them.
(19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad)..
Salam (Peace) ----------
@@islamisthetruewaytogod6812 STFU
There were many more military-orientated inventions drawn than I expected in this vid.
Yeah, especially when the Great Depression came along. People were so optimistic and happy.
Beautiful compilation, thanks for sharing. Very interesting. And lovely background music.
Those that struck me the most: 3:33 - Solar power (electricity). 3:48 - Recycling of garbage & sewage. 4:26 - Highspeed wheelless trains. 8:23 - "In the Year 2026", not far off? 9:04 - Haven't I seen this skyscraper in modern times? 9:12 - "Light beam piano", laser? (Jean-Michel Jarre). 9:28 Helicopter landing pad on skyscraper roof. 9:36 English Channel rail tunnel.
Futurism then: amazing technology
Futurism now: eating bugs, living in pods, owning nothing
Futurism then: amazing technology
Futurism now: technology is good, but so expensive
Futurism then: amazing technology
Futurism now: technology is really good. But humans are not in their best....
Amazing technology now, but it's so fragile you're going to have to buy it again every year or 2.
Also nut houses are all closed down. We have twitter and it's kind.
and having a swab driven to the back of your nose to find out if you have a supermegadeadly disease... :D
@@homesinternational8015 Get a vaccine and you'll avoid that.
Fun Fact: John Jacob Astor IV actually wrote a sci-fi book in 1894, entitled “A Journey In Other Worlds”, that took place in the year 2000 and featured all kinds of stuff like space-colonization.
And yes, this is the same JJ Astor that perished aboard the RMS Titanic.
Hmmmm
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time.
Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them).
Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI).
Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy.
Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.
Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI).
Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).
Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning!
Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures.
Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement.
It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them.
(19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad)..
Salam (Peace) ----------
@@islamisthetruewaytogod6812 TL;DR
@@islamisthetruewaytogod6812 didn’t your religion blow up a bunch good Americans in some dusty ass village in the middle of bumfuck hadjialabad?
that aint even fun
Because "Science & Invention" was a magazine you picked up at a news stand, the cover art can be classified as Pick-Bait.
Oh, I saw what you did there.
Well done.
CJ Satnarine. I actually think that was a giant "frog toung", they were capturing a tiger. Lol.
But with pick-bait, you wasted both time AND money...
@@jonathantan2469 You just wasted time typing this, and it costs you real money that your ISP takes from you. Plus, you don't have to pick up the magazine, alternatively, people read what they want at the news stand & put it back. So many options.
I find the old science magazines and pulps very inspirational. The artwork of spaceships, aliens, robots, planets, etc helped inspire me to go into science.
I had no interest in fields like business and law.
For some reason music like this makes me nostalgic in a way for a time where I was never even close to living in
Well, Good music DOES that. I was born in the 1960s, But I LOVE "Ragtime".
it could be a past life thing
Bio shock vibes
@@durnbruh maybe the past life is from the genes
right?🙃
This is a very good and interesting video. I like the presentation.
I was born in 1939, so Science Fiction, not Sci Fi, and I have grown up together, and neither of us are relevant any more.
Having seen these magazines and their kindred in the 1940s and 1950s, it seems like I have gone back in time.
At 6:21 the robot has "R U R" displayed on his chest. That is from a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Carel Kapek.
"Rossumovi Univerzalni Roboti". In English it is given as "Rossum's Universal Robots". The Slavik word "roboti" means to work or do work.
This is the introduction of the word "robot" into English. Prior to that mechanicall people were called "automata" or 'automaton'.
Although Rossum's robots were not...........oopsie, I almost gave away the pl
The 1920s fantasies were becoming realities in the 1930s. People were overwhelmed by a radio play in 1938,, which I don't think could have happened without the futureism of the 1920s.
Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" was aired in 1938.
During the last few minutes of the broadcast, the page boys, reporters and other staff fought off the police and barricaded doors leading to the studio. The police were trying to stop the play.
To say that the play was a sensation is an understatement.
wow!
Wow, this needs more upvotes, I am glad you are alive and continue to do so
The long message confirms your age, also this is CRIMINALLY underrated
Greetings from Russia. I'm 34 years old. And I read your text, it was very interesting !!! I was also interested in the life of Hugo Gernsback, I read Wikipedia. Stay healthy. Thank!
Thanks grandpa. Or uh, grandma. Anyway thanks
Would Bioshock Infinite be set in this type of Retro Futurism?
It's kind of a mix of steampunk and (early) dieselpunk, I think. But since it's set in 1912, I'd say it would lean more towards steampunk since the more mechanized aesthetic came after WWI. I'm not an expert, but that's just my impression. But Bioshock Infinite did a great job making a unique, transitional look.
Well well, Larry. I didn't think you'd be here
hello Larry,
u keep popping up on the same vids I frequent.
(love ur content btw).
@@The1920sChannel Indeed, It's definetely an original premise even ten years later!
It's more Bioshock 1 & 2 rather than Infinite
10:29 that light beam clock idea is so cool and actually can be accomplished easily
They should make a sci-fi movie today about an alternative reality based entirely on these predictions.
Or a movie about the future with these predictions
Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow
Why do i want pizza balls for some reason....
Hi! I'm actually an aspiring film maker and this is actually what I'm up to. Keep an eye out for "Love Will Keep Us Together".
@@asteroidkatfacts1036 👁️
"London to Paris by rail"... ya, right, like they are going to build a tunnel under water or something... dreaming!
You mean like the Channel Tunnel that opened in 1994..?
@@texanbritt his statement was tongue in cheek.
Imagine building that, then a few years later deciding you didn’t really want to be part of the European Union, good job this is all just science fiction!!!
They predicted the hyperloop !!
“And I even hear tell about two brothers from North Carolina who are working on some kind of flying contraption. (Chuckles.) It’ll never work.”
this is an extremely interesting aand very well made video you deserve more views i cant wait for your channel to blow up
One good video doesn't make a channel blow up. Continually making good videos and hope he hits a trend rut
When you think about the leaps and bounds that science and engineering has made over the last century or so, it is absolutely mind boggling. To think that my own grandfather was alive when the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, and also when the Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, makes me smile at all we've accomplished. I know this may sound strange, but it also makes me kind of sad that nothing in my lifetime of such magnitude has been accomplished by comparison.
You're watching this on a cell phone!
Like the other commenter said. Just because they’re so common now doesn’t mean tiny computers aren’t incredible feats of science
I was still alive back when you needed a big clunky monitor and desktop to access the Internet to watch videos
Fritz Lang's sci-fi films certainly fall under this category of "retrofuturism." I especially like the designs for the rocket to the moon from "Frau im Mond" from 1929.
Not forgetting Lang’s masterpiece, his dystopian Metropolis (1927). It’s also worth checking out an early Soviet version of sci-fi futurism, 1924’s Aelita.
Man never reached the moon ,it's all fake ,like most of history .
@@StamfordBridge I've seen Metropolis many times. I love the music that was composed for it. It fits the action in the film perfectly.
@@marcdemell5976 "What Is History But a Fable Agreed Upon?" Napoleon Bonaparte
@@stevewingate3023 Napoleon ,ugh.
This was not only fun but also quite informative. It's remarkable how far we have come since then. What is even more remarkable is how much of these imaginative devices are now actually here in one form or another. Examples are at 09:35 the concept for the Chunnel, 10:35 was remote diagnostics of a patient, at 12:05 there is the moving walkway, One that caught my attention in particular was at 10:48. At the top left is notes "cold light 95% efficient". Can we say LED lighting?! All of this was helped well by the choices in music. Thank you for your hard work in creating this look back in time.
6:48 100 years later corporate events are not that far off from that. Multiple rear-projection screens, speakers on the sides of the screens, technical staff seated and operating the equipment from backstage, technical director and other staff sitting front of house.
Damn, 1920...switch the "Drama TV" with corporate content and you nailed it!
This is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
Kinda wondering how no one ever tried a 4-panel movie theater, that sounds like an awesome idea
There are imax theaters which are essentially the same
I never even heard of this magazine before, so thank you very much for this video. I was lucky enough as a kid (back in the 70's) to get my hands on a stack of Amazing Stories and similar pulp scientifiction magazines from the late 20's and early 30's and fell in love with the covers and limited interior art showing "the future". PS I like to think that in some parallel universe out there, this "future" look became a reality.
If you still own those old AS pulps in very good condition they could be worth a small fortune selling to collectors now...
@@darania1 Yeah, same with every original Star Wars toy I had and original run of Spider-Man and X-Men from old dime and quarter boxes at yardsales. Even had Wolverine's 1st appearance right off the rack when it came out (sigh, lol). But unfortunately all long gone. Could be worse; my dad would kick himself if he had known how much Superman and Batman 1st appearances that he gave away to the WW2 paper drive were now worth.
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time.
Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them).
Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI).
Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy.
Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.
Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI).
Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).
Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning!
Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures.
Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement.
It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them.
(19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad)..
Salam (Peace) ----------
@@islamisthetruewaytogod6812 No mames we, aquí dos tipos hablando de revistas viejas y tú te metes con tu discurso religioso. ¿Qué pedo contigo?
I like how the predictions of solar power and television have come true. I also like how you piped the song, 'You'd be Surprised' into the slide show. It reminds me of a guy that I went to college with.
Some of the images blew by so quick I had to pause the video to take in what I was seeing. Some of these visions are surprisingly close to what eventually happened. The vehicle at 7:30 for instance looks pretty similar to a VW 23 Window Bus from 40 years later. Other images depict buildings with what looks like a helipad like many buildings in metro areas have today. On top of all this, the Art Deco look of the 20s and 30s is just plain _cool_.
There was one image of a single tall building that looked much like the Burj Khalifa skyscraper.
After Art-Deco, design took a sharp downward spiral.
I agree. They were far closer than I would have expected. About 80% of what was shown has actually been done, maybe a little different than drawn, but you can clearly see the base idea that was eventually realized. Helicopter for fire fighting, trans channel tunnel, remote physician diagnosis and treatment, slidewalks, hard pressure suits,...
there will be more infrastructures the future for drone landing. a common scene in a not so distance future.
@@waynecampeau4566 You can find really old films that show the moving sidewalks. They must have discontinued those for a reason! I imagine there were safety issues. And they almost guessed 3D printing. Like the cartoon with the house building machine.
So interesting! They were close on a few things such as the 2 men sitting at a table, with a screen in front of them, each looking at a different image.
This might be why I love Final Fantasy games so much, especially 7 because it seems to combine the best parts of all the retro future genres. It has air ships and everything is designed with huge gear systems like steam punk, yet also has fuel-powered vehicles and the world runs off nuclear-like power where everything is super-enormous like with diesel-punk
Final fantasy has been doing that since the beginning of the series
As soon as the picture roll started I was instantly reminded of the film “Metropolis”. Amazing work. I’m going to keep watching your videos. Love this content.
😃 Looking at some of those multi-level cities made me think of "The Fifth Element" movie. Some truly interesting designs there. 😊
@john jones Yes! Blade Runner was full of these. 😏
The Fifth Element was a great movie
@@dariusanderton3760 Yes! Very interesting on so many levels. I love Oldman's Zorg. Such an unapologetically despicable character. Priest Vito Cornelius: "...You're a monster, Zorg." Zorg: (rather smugly) "I know." 😆 Delicious! 😸
@@dariusanderton3760 it’s actually terribly underrated! I love it
Or Coruscant from Star Wars
Most of this stuff is actually a thing now, it’s just not depicted exactly like it is now. But they got REAL close on their guesses. It would be wild to go back in time and tell people what it’s actually like in 2023. You would be the most famous and valuable person alive.
Love the music! Pleasant surprise! Wish grandma was still alive she’d like that ! She only died in 2013 but she was a teen in the 1920s . Miss you grandma RIP!
My dear granny told me a story about seeing her first automobile in 1902. She was amazed that it was moving without the use of a horse. She also described watching the German airships dropping bombs over London during WW1. Direct accounts to history are the best.
@@richardthompson9836 that’s sound very much like my grandmother who said when washing machines were invented, people were initially afraid of them and though it was witch craft lol
Yeah, grand moms really were 'the aces' I think. Grand dads too!
Well, for that era of interest, THIS seems the right place to be!
He's just getting started, and it's a good one.
7:27
Fascinating video. Ive always been intrigued by steampunk, and by nature of research learned about dieselpunk and atompunk in the process. And Ive just assumed 1920s futurism just rolled into dieselpunk, coming across random bits of info here and there wasnt enough to make me think different. But having all this collected in one video really goes to show it is its very own niche. Man I love youtube, I think ive learned more here than I ever did in a traditional school lol and totally for free to boot!
What make the 20s special is the amount of technology that changed everyday lives.
The 1920s are arguably the first modern decade since it's the era that instantaneous mass communication (radio) became widespread.
because of Nikola Tesla's.
I’m confused. The current 20s or the 1920s 😅
@Lassi Kinnunen 81 you Finnish?
Or are you just gettin started?
Hahaha goodnight everybody!!!
👋
@@donttalktomeyoureannoying8736 Yes.
Thanks! 😀 for putting this on TH-cam.
Thanks so much!
I loved their designs of Mega cities. Especially the towers with the Restaurant airstrip! What a way to travel. That was so dope.
I just realized I have a strong connection to 1920's music... It feels remarkably nostalgic watching and listening to this. Wow!!!
I think 20s Futurism should be called ArtDecoPunk.
Flapunk?
I like it!
I prefer 'Flivver Punk'. After the commonly-used slang nickname for Ford automobiles at the time.
@@georgetaylor4719 “A ‘flivver’ captain.”
I'm told most people confuse Deco with Modern. I know I do.
Man, i would love for more video games to explore stuff like this. Bioshock is a work of art, and I dont understand why its not done more.
The writing for this channel's narration is first class. Bravo!
The magazine cover at 5:05 shows a real instrument called the Theremin invented in 1920 by Leon Theremin
So weird that he invented an instrument that had his last name!
Actually, it is an InBody Model 570 scanner. I have used them a lot.
I want to name my next kid Leon InBody Model 570 Scanner
@@danielfireside4821 unfortunately Mr Fireside that's not your last name!!☺.
Moog makes several models today.
Omg, so glad I've found this channel. I love anything 1900-1959, but especially the 20's. The invention of traffic lights, the vacuum cleaners, and televisions, wasn't the 20's when sound was added to film? What a time!
I love the 1920/30s. Even though it was decades before I was born, I feel like I have a real connection to the era.
Mike Myers who played Austin Powers is really a fan of the 1960's so it's not atypical someone to be a fan of an era.
It was the time in which we had access to the most technology AND the most civilization at the same time. Since then, civility has gone down and technology has increased. If I had a time machine, the 20's is where I'd go- for multiple reasons.
@@mcdoctorglock Why would you go back to the 1920s? What would you do for fun? You'd have no video games, Netflix, rock music, or durable cars. You'd also be missing modern medicine, including most antibiotics and vaccines we take for granted today. What would you do back then that you can't do now?
@@abstract5249modern medicine I get, but i hope that other stuff was satire lol
@@gaemr_o5147 It's not. What could you possibly do in the 1920s that you'd give up all modern entertainment and travel luxuries?
The 1920s and 30s are my favorite period of time because of the fashion, entertainment, music, and art it’s interesting to see what kind of ideas they thought of for the future
I saw a few things we do have in there like an obvious television screen, solar power, personal planes (of course not at many lol) and loud speakers. I've always been fascinated by futurism. So glad to find such a collection.
It's pretty cool seeing how some of these actually happened. The first one predicted the suburban craze of having shopping/living centers, kinda like mini cities, out and around the suburbs: two notable in Georgia are Halcyon and Avalon. Then the Sea-Plane, Boat houses, even Solar panels.
I am running a D&D game with a retro futurism setting, set in the mid to late 1920s. These are perfect inspirations for worldbuilding. Thanks for bringing this to light
Your channel is very underrated. Great content, it's obvious you put in the work!
Also, notice some of the "sci-fi" illustrations in those pages aren't too far off from what we have still today. Electric snow eliminators exist, and wheel-less trains exist. Also, the 4 screen theatre is very much like the wrap around screens we have now.
This is great. The music is spot on, perfect, and it's funny that sci-fi and futurism from this period doesn't really have a formal name because it's definitely a very specific and highly influential aesthetic. In fact, it's really the beginning of science fiction really entering the mainstream, especially in the form of pulp fiction, like 'Amazing Stories'.
Interesting video with period 1920's music. Well thought out and presented. Reminds me of my memories of reading Analog as a kid in the 50's and 60's. Thank You!
"WAR OF THE WORLDS," was what, 1897? H. G. Wells had some
CRAZY vision.
True
Wasn't that long ago
I totally want to ride in a watersport wheel, wearing my Homburg.
8:06 "Catapult For Divers"
BTW: Are you jaxtraw from Wichita?
These images are so breathtaking and also a world building all of its own. Thanks for the info as well!!! More from you please!
That was an excellent presentation. Thank you. I've never seen all of those illustrations in one place before.
3:05 -- notice "parking space for flying autos" in the upper right corner. The notion that in "the future" we will of course have flying cars has been around for a hundred years!
Haha
I could possibly imagine a Tesla or Slingshot airborne but just think of one of those boxy clunkers they had back then zooming around in the skyline XD
We do have flying cars, since the 1940s. They're called helicopters, but it turns out that you need an FAA license to operate one and they're really expensive to own to begin with.
@@RCAvhstape I wasn't aware you could drive helicopters on the freeway XD
@@maxi-me If the cars fly who needs a freeway.
@@RCAvhstape Haha good point But then again if they fly, why would they even need to be cars?
Nobody ever really understood how massively important computers would become. An analysis of the cyberpunk future style would be cool
Computers did exist in the 1920. both meat computers as well as mechanical computers.
I seen some concepts from 1900, -10 and -20 with computer learning in school. but becasue they didn´t know how a computer would look, the concept was all very strange. headphones was pretty common, but in some concept they just zaped the knowalge in to the brain with electric shock... yea.. if we only had that technology.
Other than computers, our timeline is shittier than the "Future Of The 1920s" timeline.
@@imperialgamer1667 I would say our network is better to.
There was a idea in the 1920 to build a internet of sorts. Where you would in steed of having links have a deep web of phone numbers. And where you could call in and get both photos, text and video like on demand TV.
For it to work they would need wide band telephone. That did in dead exist back then. Both 4kHz (standard) and 50kHz existed and there was plans for 6Mhz telephone.
Well what happen was the war and after the war most of the 50kHz line was discontinued due to economical factors.
There actually was still 50kHz cables around in as lat as the 1990 and 6Mhz cables was eventually created (and was still in use in 00)
Prior to the digital age, if there as a live broadcast or even a live interview in a other part of the world, those was connected via 6Mhz telephone cable.
When they was first designed they was intended to go to every home
At 8:48 this type of machine is basically unchanged and still in use in space observatory auditoriums all around the country. I remember paying more attention to this strange projector as a child than the cool stuff it cast onto the dome overhead.
At 12:03 Isaac Asimov used the idea of a moving sidewalk with standing lanes and seated lanes for various types of workers in his story "Caves of Steel". Where enormous metropolitan cities were constructed underground, people were living in overcrowded conditions, robots were an essential presence in this hive of humanity, the farmland above was tilled by machines only. He dealt with the psychology of what this sort of existence does to a man's mind, what might he feel if he were to try to reclaim life on the surface of the planet. It also dealt with gradual starvation for an entire population of the city as more and more people were crammed into it over time. When I read that story I was laying on a stone bench at my college trying to imagine what it'd be like living as those characters had. I succeeded at scaring the bejeesus out of myself as I thought I was drifting away up into space.
Dude, that four-screen theatre looks so good! A giant curved display would probably be better (and seamless), but it'd be a lot easier to do 4 flat ones. Although, you'd have to account for the angle changes and film accordingly
It is interesting to see that they, nearly a hundred year ago, predicted "the cold light" (The LED of today) and "Picture radio or picture phone" (Todays TV and smartphones with Facetime)
Facetime is totally different, and not close to the same ambience, company specific, and not overall compatible, nor stable.
There were actually picture and video phones in the 80s, just never became mainstream.
@@aronhighgrove4100 Picture phones existed in the 60s, but were never financially viable.
@@aronhighgrove4100 and we now have jetpacks, which people never use....
Jules Verne predicted the internet and how people will stay indoors and chat via it instead of going out and socializing. It was in his last novel, i believe.
@@aronhighgrove4100 Very few of us want to look at each other over the phone anyhow, after we're start struck teenagers.
Great vid! Judging from the image at the 3:18 mark, they had far more imagination than we do now. I could look and wonder through that cityscape all day...
This escene is like metrópolis " or AKIRA from Katsuhiro Otomo.🤔🎉😊👏
It's interesting to see the stark contrast between the optimistic vision of the future in the old days versus the pessimistic view of the future surrounding apocalypses and WW3 and whatnot in our time. We don't really get THAT much advanced as they'd hoped we'll be, in which case they probably would feel a bit disappointed if they see what their future (our time) really looks like.
I suspect that someone from 1925 would be pretty impressed at life today, and probably amazed that people don’t appreciate it. Very few people die of bacterial infections, whereas that was common back then. The internet, microwaves, television, MRIs (exploratory surgery is rare today), airliners, the ISS, photos from other planets and moons, the Hubble, vaccines, smartphones, etc., etc.
I agree that futurism today isn’t optimistic. Kind of a shame.
The thing I'm disappointed in is the fact that I couldn't have been born 100 years from now. All those technological advancements I will never get to see
I think the difference is. That we're not amazed by ideas of Utopias or technological innovation anymore. These ideas don't really astound, amaze or even sell. While we don't necessarily want to wallow in our own sadness. I think people find a certain degree of release from the concept of the post-Apocalypse. Almost like the end of everything would free them of the mundanity of life. That having to rebuild society would give them greater meaning than simply being another cog in a machine.
It is however important to remember thar these things ebb and flow with social and political climates of the time. And that people in the twenties didn't all share the same vision for the future. Optimistic and pessimistic views of the future have always been present. Many post-apocalyptic works in the early twentieth century dealt with plagues. Due to the prevalence of illnesses. While the Dystopian genre saw its genesis with the novel "We" in 1920.
It's mostly because the economy was far better back them for the common people. People back then were of the optimistic opinion that their descendants would live better lives than they did. They never thought that young adults would be buried in debt and while we do have amazing technologies, they are out of reach for most people and homelessness had grown significantly since then.
@@The_Man_Who_Sold_the_World. or a nuclear wasteland…
Thank you for sharing. It was a fantastic time and I suddenly realised that my childhood was somehow tuned to that wave band. Times are made by people who live during them. The people raise children and grandchildren and the tune goes on, though fades away gradually. Thank you so much for sharing the magazines - I'd love to watch the video over and over again to see the Spirit of the time
Thank you so much for this amazing video. It's like you are living in my head, except It's been like that for 69 years! All your hard research, your passion, and how beautifully you put it all together.
Thank you for posting. Wonderful graphics and I enjoyed the music.
The French actually built miles-long "fortified underground cities" in the 1930s, as the Maginot Line. There were disappearing guns of unprecedented caliber, gas projectors, machinegun turrets, etc. up top, with barracks and mess halls and ammo storage and workshops and vehicle garages below. Unfortunately German agents infiltrated the work crews from the start, and diagrammed the whole setup for German intelligence. It was believed to be so strong the Germans just went around the Line, via Belgium, in 1940. The project had cost so much and so occupied the imagination and energies of the French General Staff and of its Government overseers that little else was done in the way of modernizing the rest of the French armed forces. France fell within six weeks.
France did not fall in six weeks, but was betrayed and sold out in six weeks, review your story. Thank you! Thank you!
@@SB5SimulationsFerroviairesEEP unfortunately for you the history would not see it that way
@@notyeet8683 L'histoire ne voit rien! Ce sont ceux qui la renseigne qui lui mentent! Désolé! Stéph.
History sees nothing! It is those who inform it who lie to it! I'm sorry! Stéph.
Switzerland also has vast underground fortifications/bunker cities to this day. Also there are numerous underground bunker towns in the United States created in case of a nuclear war. Unfortunately these are not available to the public but only meant to house upper echelons of the government and military. You can read about these top secret installations in the book "Raven Rock" by Garrett M. Graff who is an investigative reporter.
@@notyeet8683 Yes. The French demographic crisis was also key to their defeat. Frankly put, the young men who were killed or made invalid in 1914-18 were not around to sire the male children who would have been inducted into the French armed forces in the mid-to-late1930s. Their military doctrine was also unimaginative -- witness the Maginot Line itself, a castle-like fixed fortification which was built partially in response to the lack of men (as a "force multiplier"). Also, the French tanks, while numerous, were mostly of the slow, machinegun-heavy infantry-support type that had been needed during WWI -- not the faster cruiser type with large cannon, a relatively low profile, and radios for command-control, all of which made them capable of making independent armored thrusts.
You've done some AMAZING sourcing !!!
This was very interesting, thank you for the video. They nailed the train from London to Paris in the Chunnel 60 years before it was completed, and were pretty accurate for the future movie theater, as well as tele-medicine (they had the radio, but remote doctor visits were in their predictions).
I saw a page from one of the magazines that had predictions for the year 2026. Is there an actual copy of this that you can read? I'd love to read what they thought 2026 was going to be like.
I love these old illustrations of future tech and architecture. There's something so crudely naiv, wonderous and imaginative about the. They didn't have the knowledge or technology we, nowadays, tak for granted. Yet, what they had was optimism, hope and tons of imagination. Imagine reading one of those comics while listening to Gustav Holst's The Planets. That would be the ultimate 1920s science fiction feeling.
You might think he's a wimp
But when he gets in his blimp
You'd be surprised
3:10 Using the roofs of city buildings as pedestrian plazas seems like such a neat idea! It would be especially helpful in a time when cars dominate transportation.
Parts of SE London still have the original attempt to put this into production. It was called the Pedway and was started around the 50's and mothballed by the 80's. Sadly, most of what remains in and around the city is attached to dive housing estates riddled with the bottom feeders of society.
Okay, that “You’d Be Suprised” song is just straight creepy...
...we get it, your dude’s a freak in the sack! 😬
It's less creepy when Marylin sings it. Irving Berlin was most likely batting for the other team, as they say. Or a switch hitter at least.
I just like how good old fashioned stuff is often as filthy as anything that came later. Only difference is it has to be more cleverly worded to convey its intent without scandalizing listeners of a delicate disposition. :)
Especially the whistling part.
This is a silly mix of old 20s prints and sillier music.
@@jimmyharrison1864 NO SH*T SHERLOCK. It's called making a sarcastic/funny comment.
1920: In 100 years later, We will have a bright future
2021: Why my WiFi is slow af
No it faster
I love hearing the words to the songs so clearly! They are really great songs, I really had no idea, even though I am almost 60 and remember a lot of the 50s as that was my parents style. ❤❤❤
They certainly had a great sense of beauty (and creativity) in their designs.
Subscribed!
9:36 This prediction DID come true in 1994.
The Channel Tunnel.
with the exception that the tunnel actually runs through the earth underneath and not the water at the bottom.
See..I always thought the 20s were similar to the 60s, cuz they were two decades that changed dramatically from beginning to end...
That's what I thought at the time. I noted then that the cultural changes we were undergoing were reminiscent of the '20's, though none of the counterculture crowd then understood what I meant. But it's worth recalling that the movie 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' (1967 or so) was essentially about the 1960's instead of the 1920's that it professed to represent.
Both the 1929s and the 1960s were exceedingly conservative decades.
People think of cigarette-smoking flappers and pot smoking hippies but it was really the KKK in the ‘20s and Nixon in the ‘60s. The latter ushering in a counter-revolution disregarding human rights and glorifying corporate capitalism, the most un democratic system of control of modern, Western civilization.
Socio-political trends drive technological advances, which is why we’re still using the internal combustion engine in 2021. Nixon-Reaganism. A hundred years from now, people will be saying they couldn’t believe people drove gasoline powered cars and put vehicles and men into space using fossil fuels.
Some of futurism of the 20s is such a product of its time in that their vision of the future is packed with style.while the reality is we have less and less. Some of their ideas sort of came true, some need more time and some are cute because they were just so naively creative. Lol
As a hard science fiction fan, I think your channel is one of the smartest I've ever seen on TH-cam
I'm actually most surprised by the price of those magazines back then. Assuming these covers are in fact from the 1920s, Twenty-Five cents per issue was very expensive! I would have guessed maybe 5 cents per copy, but not 25!
You are RIGHT !………… Hot Dogs were only 5 cents each, Rent averaged 9 Dollars a month and Movie Tickets cost 10 cents each !!!!!
Some other magazines and comic books in 1930's were 10 cents each so some might have been 5 cents then.
Yes they were expensive!!!!
We had a Vulcan mind-meld - thought same immediately.
Pretty cool collection, thanks for that. I occasionally stumble upon these cool cover artworks for Science and Invention and other mags but should probably dive a bit deeper in.
Oh, and the setdesign for Fritz Lang‘s “Metropolis” from 1927 fits perfectly.
The ideas from that time are not totally inconceivable. Great content and presentation on your channel.
Electric cars. Imagine that.
many of the ideas did come true, but not using the technology they predicted, for example, we have mag lev trains that do not need wheels, and high speed underground tunnels. also the solar power concentrators to create steam for a turbine. also there was a picture of doing medical diagnosis by "radio" which I found cool since they did not have a word the "television" yet, but you can see that is exactly what they were predicting, the doctor was shown, probing a patient, now we have remote surgery. there are many more things they got right.
Whenever I think of retrofuturism I either think of the Bioshock trilogy or the fallout games. Both really nailed that futuristic dystopian 1940-1950s feel.
"Aerial Mail Torpedoes"
Strange, I wonder why that invention never took off?
basically amazon drones
**impending tesla noises**
there was actually an island in the outer hebrides i think, more recently than the 1920s. inaccessible by boat most of the time, they used rockets to send letters and small packages back and forth.
Have been rebranded under the name hyperloop
@@chuckhendrix4053 oi thats my joke
Now all anyone can imagine are Dystopia's, and with good reason. Welcome to the Future, it's almost here..
There were dystopias imagined then too. Orwell wrote "1984" in 1948. The Czech writer Karel Čapek introduced the word "robot" in 1920 with his play R.U.R. What's it about you wonder? The "robots" are basically manufactured servants/workers for humans. They may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first, but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race. It seems like they had the idea for "Terminator" or "Matrix" in the 1920's already.
People in the 1920's feared another world war and they feared that this one could be so long and so devastating there would be hardly no humans left once it was all over. Basically they imagined it would be like World War One but ten times worse or more. In WWI the Germans did develop the "Paris Gun" which could fire shells 120 kilometers (75 miles) away from Paris. The shells actually entered the stratosphere some 40 km (25 miles) up in their trajectory. Nothing human made had ever gone that high up. So they imagine these kind of monster cannons would turn everything to a giant shelled landscape if there ever was another war. Not to mention that bomber aircraft became ever greater at the end of the war. In 1919 they even made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in a WWI Vickers Vimy bomber flown by Alcock and Brown.
And yes, H.G. Wells wrote "War of the Worlds" in 1898 already and in 1938 they even broadcast it on radio. Some reports claim that the "live report" format of the broadcast made some people who just tuned in really believe there was an invasion from Mars with tripods walking all over people and frying them with heat rays.
And never mind the modern era. Ancient mythologies were full of "end of days" depictions. The Norse mythology called this "Ragnarok" in which everybody would die and the world collapse. In the Bible this is called The Book of Revelations in which the four horsemen of the Apocalypse will ride out and the angels of good will do battle with Satan and his demons.
As for dystopic Hollywood films. The first truly famous Hollywood big budget production was the original Planet of the Apes from 1968. A dystopia if there ever was any.
Sorry. Nothing new.
@@equestriangirly2296 Great history lesson. Did you forget about the 1927 movie Metropolis? The first Sci Fi dystopian movie.
@@equestriangirly2296 Erudite.
I don't entirely agree. I feel like people mostly just like to focus on dystopias and post apocalyptic futures. That is typically because people tend to enjoy action and these types of media are a perfect setting for plenty of brutal action sequences. But there are still optimistic views of the future in modern media such as Interstellar, Elysium, Her, Bicentennial Man, and even A.I.(Depending on how you interpret the ending). There are plenty of stories where we don't bomb ourselves or don't enslave ourselves with technology. It just depends on which stories you choose to notice and or remember.
@@leroyatleroys for a different kind of Apocalypse try Silent Running, the eventual loss of earths fauna for profit, just a brilliant film.
For us of the old generation (1950), it was thought that the 2000s would bring a lot of technological benefits to society: Moving walks, flying cars, super automatic houses in management......... We didn't notice , that we were taking the "technological step" instead, in those years. If anything, the 2000s can be configured, like the global failure, to progress culturally, to communicate between people..... of new conflicts......... The good old days.
5:57 this is what we need in Seattle Wa. They just tell us there is no room for more traffic lanes and the traffic just gets worse and worse every year for the last 30 years since the freeways were built.
I like the way their future inventions have lots of dials, meters, vacuum tubes, banks of switches, giant high voltage coils, etc, to impress us as to how advanced the devices are. It had to look futuristic, seeing it was just a drawing.
Yes, our computers are much more advanced, but they look boring. And our architecture is much more boring, plain, and lackluster compared to theirs.
The fan on the train! 😂
Its not a fan its propeller blade
It looks like some of them thought the laws of physics could changed through legislation. Just draw something that looks like it could work.
Fan lol
you mean like Schienenzeppelin?
th-cam.com/video/E-ID_ktSoLY/w-d-xo.html
and yes, it's not a fan.
Better hope it didn't suck you in and turn you in to chop suey!
Published in 1930, written in the years before, Aldous Huxley's novel 'Brave New World' is an eerily accurate portrayal of what was to him the future. He set his dystopia in about 2500 AD. It is sobering to think that many of his predictions typify modern Western culture right now.
This channel is up my alley.
I lovevretro futurism from the 1950s and 60s (Atomic Age Punk) , but its still interesting seeing retro futurism of the 1900s to 1940s
So fucking awesome, the first American SF stories were from pulp magazines. One was called The Boys of New York and described an automaton steam powered robot pulling a covered wagon on the cover. Thanks for the link. The 1920s robocop was fantastic. All these ideas are 100 years old
I really wished there would be video games in this style! Whether the 1920's steam punk or the 1950's , I think bishock came pretty close but I want a fleshed out sort of like open world game, would be cool as hell imo
Something like L.A Noire but with Art Deco aesthetics from Bioshock would be neat tho
OMG! Thank you for posting this!! I was about to fix my dinner and came across this and completely forgot dinner! This is fascinarting!