Back to the Paleo-Future

Getting the future wrong is easy. Getting the future wrong with style requires some skill.

Paleo-Future is a blog that specializes in digging up ancient visions of the future, particularly those distant futures that we now inhabit (i.e. what will life be like in the year 2000?). It’s an impressive blog, because the author, whose name is only given as Matt, really works it. He digs up predictions as old as a newspaper from 1900 (check out how it anticipates the Segway) and as recent as Apple’s 1987 Knowledge Navigator video. Lots of great videos, like Walt Disney himself explaining the GE Carousel of Progress.

Predicting the future with any accuracy is just hopeless. This explains why we are so fascinated with the clothes they wear in the future. The same thing is true for royalty: if you don’t have power, work the pomp.

I much prefer Tim O’Reilly’s approach, which is built around the famous William Gibson quote: “The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.” If you don’t see people doing something now, you shouldn’t count on seeing it in the future.

(Paleo-Future seen on tingilinde)