The very Long Now of 01922

The good folks over at Paleo Future published this great nugget from the 01922 Ogden Standard predicting what the world might be like in 10,000 years (click image above for a large version). While they seem to have nailed a few things that have already come about like solar power, chemical re-breathers, and strong clear plastics, we are still clearly working on the anti-gravity floating cities. Perhaps most disturbing is this illustration of a flying person in the year 11,922, where the author failed to grasp the inevitable advancements in hair loss treatment:

The strangest part is the reasoning around why we might live in cloud cities Lando Calrissian style. The author seems to think that while humans could easily adapt to the lower atmospheric pressure, that (what we now know are very hardy) microbes would not, and we would therefore no longer have to worry about disease. The other interesting assertion as to why we might live above the clouds is that “Sunlight, as we know, is most beneficial to humans beings, and having a 100 percent of it all the time we naturally shall be far better off.”

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

More from Futures

What is the long now?

The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

Learn more

Join our newsletter for the latest in long-term thinking

Long Now's website is changing...