mik3cap: (Default)
mik3cap ([personal profile] mik3cap) wrote2007-04-20 11:57 am

Behold the prognosticative power of the year 1900

"Prediction #22: Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house."

http://www.yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm
bluegargantua: (Default)

[personal profile] bluegargantua 2007-04-20 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)

Some of those prognostications are surprisingly accurate, even if their method of execution is wildly different than expected.

later
Tom

[identity profile] mikecap.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I think Ted Stevens was reading this copy of LHJ when he made his speech about the Internet being a series of tubes...

[identity profile] mikecap.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
It would actually be fun to do a side by side and see how far off the estimates were... and then try and extrapolate to 2100 and post it on the intarwebtubes so that future generations can mock us just as soundly.

[identity profile] ultimatepsi.livejournal.com 2007-04-21 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
That was my observation as well.

[identity profile] sirroxton.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I've always wanted pneumatic tubes -- 2 hour pneumatic delivery of anything within a certain size. You could get IKEA parts, shoes to try on, a replacement DDR2 stick, a steady flow of one-time pad "sheets"...

[identity profile] mikecap.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to open a completely self-serve Mexican restaurant where every table has a station like they've got in the kitchens at Taco Bell - there's a sour cream gun, and a guacamole gun, and a salsa gun all hanging from the ceiling and people just shoot what they want onto the table.

[identity profile] sirroxton.livejournal.com 2007-04-21 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
You know how much fun I could have with a guacamole gun?