Matt Novak

Matt Novak

 

Matt Novak is the author of the Paleofuture blog, which can now be found on Gizmodo.

1928 article about astrologers predicting that 1929 will be a year of prosperity

Astrologers Predict 1929 Will Be Year of Prosperity

The world without the Great Depression looks a lot rosier in hindsight

“Closer Than We Think”, May 11, 1958

Before the Jetsons, Arthur Radebaugh Illustrated the Future

In the 1950s and '60s, the newspaper cartoonist dreamed up a madcap American utopia, filled with flying cars and fantastical skyscrapers

1950 depiction of a smoldering New York after a nuclear attack

Hiroshima, U.S.A.

In 1950, a popular magazine depicted what an atomic bomb would do to New York City—in gruesome detail

The milkman's robot helper of the future as imagined by illustrator Arthur Radebaugh (1961)

The Milkman’s Robot Helper

Could futuristic technology have saved the milkman from extinction?

The rolling home of the future from the September, 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics

Tomorrow’s Mobile Home

Moving is a lot easier if you live inside a giant ball

Soldiers and police officers respond to a terrorist attack at an airport of the future (1981)

Fighting Terrorism in the Future

A 1981 book predicted that the soldiers of the future could be more like heavily armed policemen than a fighting force

A doctor's diagnosis "by radio" on the cover of the February, 1925 issue of Science and Invention magazine

Telemedicine Predicted in 1925

With video screens and remote control arms, any doctor could make a virtual housecall

Laboratory technician injects tomatoes on the "factory farm" of the future (1961)

Super-Sized Food of the Future

How do you eat an eight-foot-long ear of corn?

The book reader of the future

The iPad of 1935

Yep, there was an app for that

The solar powered house of the future from 1959

The World Will Be Wonderful In The Year 2000!

The secret formula for predicting a fantastical yet credible future

Fourth-grader Lisa Gilvar's Jetsons-inspired bubble-top homes

1970s Children Draw Robot Presidents and Nuclear Apocalypse

Kids predict the darndest things

Medical experts inputting data into the electronic library (1981)

One Library for the Entire World

In the years preceding the Internet, futurist books hinted at the massive information infrastructure that was to come

None

Imagining a City of Treelike Buildings

Amid growing concerns that skyscrapers were blocking sunlight for people on the ground, a British architect proposed a novel solution

Honeymooners on the moon as imagined by illustrator Arthur Radebaugh (June 1, 1958 Closer Than We Think)

Honeymoon on the Moon

Newlyweds who didn't want to visit the cliched destination of the time, Niagara Falls, dreamt of one day spending their first days as a couple on the moon

An advertising campaign from the American Federation of Musicians

Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots

The woman of the year 2030, illustrated by Edward McKnight Kauffer in 1930

Lab-grown Babies in the Year 2030

A 1930 book argued that women's "liberation from the dangers of childbirth" would be a crucial first step toward gender equality

Jetpack pilot at Super Bowl I in 1967

The Super Bowl’s Love Affair With Jetpacks

Thankfully, this Super Bowl spectacle never had a wardrobe malfunction

The Venopolis Zoo

Hunting Dinosaurs on Venus

Why bother with cloning and time travel, when your dream safari awaits on a nearby planet?

None

Sunday Funnies Blast Off Into the Space Age

When Dr. Athelstan Spilhaus met President Kennedy in 1962, JFK told him, "The only science I ever learned was from your comic strip."

An inventor from Philadelphia using his "wireless telephone" technology in 1920

The World’s First “Carphone”

Meet the 1920 radio enthusiast who had the foresight to invent the annoying habit of talking on the phone while in the car

Page 6 of 8