Back to the Future

When you’re trying to put some life into an ancestor, it’s fun to imagine what they’d think of the world now. One of my new favorite blogs, Paleo-Future, gives you an inside look at how our ancestors (and our childhood selves) thought the future would be.

A menu on the right side lets you browse posts by decade, and the earliest (like this one about flying machines as imagined in 1885) are often accompanied by fanciful illustrations from the Library of Congress.

Soon, the blog will highlight responses to its Paleo-Future Project, which aims to preserve the collective memory of the future. If you want to get involved, dig out the digital camera or recorder and start asking questions! Paleo-Future offers a few talking points to get you started, such as “Did you ever try building your own jetpack?”

Here are some more gems:

More Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (1901)
Aerial Navigation Will Never Be Popular (1906)
Food of the Future (Indiana Progress, 1896)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)