The alarmingly accurate predictions made 100 years ago
A university researcher has uncovered predictions made in 1924 about what the world would look like 100 years in the future, with some of the predictions proving to be scarily accurate.
The Canadian professor Paul Fairie shared a selection of headlines and articles made by newspapers in the 1920s on his X account, showing in what ways the world has changed and how it has remained the same.
While some predictions made in 1924 hit the nail on the head, others couldn't be further from reality.
Accurate predictions
Car speedways
One newspaper clipping claimed that in the future, cars would be travelling on super "speedways" that allowed them to travel faster.
While cars first hit the roads in the 1880s, it wasn't until the 1920s that vehicles became more common, with cities quickly trying to build safe roads to accommodate the growth in motor vehicles.
“In the city of 2024, this authority predicts there will be three-deck roads; speedways through the heart of town,” the newspaper article predicted.
The article also envisaged monorail express services to the suburbs replacing cars and buses and moving sidewalks (similar to airport travelators) that moved people in all directions, “serving all railroad stations and business districts”.
Women getting tattooed and dyeing their hair
In the 1920s, tattoos were exclusively reserved for sailors, criminals and gangland figures until they became more commonplace.
But one 1924 article predicted, incredibly accurately, that by 2024 women would be getting tattoos and dyeing their hair “all the colours of the rainbow”.
“Debutantes of 1924 are shingle-haired, sleek-looking maidens with delicately rouged cheeks and provocative red lips,” the article stated.
“The 1924 debutante successfully conceals her personality under paint and power."
“The debutante of 100 years hence may revert to type and frankly copy her ancestors, who dyed their skins with woad; only, with the modern instinct for progress."
“She may go still further and dye her complexion and hair all the colours of the rainbow.”
Women becoming stronger
The newspapers of 1924 also predicted that women of the future would be “physically strong, vital and alert.”
One article predicted that women would spend more time in the outdoors, participate in sports, and would be “engaging by choice” in activities that were historically restricted to men.
Intellectually, women would be “quick at wit and keen of judgment,” while spiritually, she would “radiate love and good will”.
Remote viewing
One of the most accurate predictions from 1924 was the invention of technology that would allow people to view entertainment "remotely".
“Many inconveniences which the touring artist now has to suffer will no doubt be eliminated,” one prediction read.
“It will not be necessary to travel great distances. The strain of the concert tour will be dispensed with. Artists may not even have to leave their homes (to perform).”
Not so accurate predictions
Horses becoming extinct
One prediction from a 1924 newspaper believed that as cars took over as the main form of transportation, there would be no more use for horses and they would soon becoming extinct.
“If a house would decrease in the same ratio as in the last ten or twenty years, it might be easy to tell when the last horse would give up his stall to an automobile,” the prediction read.
Self-launching beds
Another not-so accurate prediction claimed that beds would soon come with a feature that would override the use for an alarm clock, but would come with a mechanism to launch you out of bed in the morning.
Describing this futuristic scenario, the reporter wrote: “My bed turns over automatically and I am deposited on the floor”.
“Eight o’clock and the switch operating above the fiendish substitute for an alarm clock is operated from school, so at the moment, I am in the same predicament as the rest of the 450 scholars.”
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