2024 as seen through the lens of predictions made in 1924

Paul Fairie, a researcher at the University of Calgary, has been doing deep dives into old, often very old, newspapers for an upcoming book looking at arguments that come up again and again, society’s need to blame its ills on pop culture and inanimate objects, and more. As part of that research, he posted some predictions found in newspapers from 1924 about the year 2024.

As you might imagine, they got a lot wrong—often hilariously. But the futurists of the Roaring ’20s did come fairly close on a few prognostications. Here’s a look at what they got kind-of right and what they got very, very wrong.

The semi-right

Apartments and subways – One prediction foresaw apartment buildings that were 100 stories tall. “We’ll climb to a hundred stories in air. And we’ll burrow below to pay homeward fare,” the prediction reads. “Our city a hive, with a huge population, will swallow the farms of a fifth of the nation.”

Granted there aren’t many of those super-tall skyscrapers today, but more than 20 buildings around the world meet or exceed that height.

Home movies – “There is going to be a movie in every home,” one forecaster mentioned. “Trains, which will be traveling twice or three times as fast as they do now, will have film theaters on board. Families will make their albums in motion pictures.”

Watching a movie at home is easier than ever—especially after the streaming wars and the boost to in-home cinema from behavioral changes during the pandemic lockdown. And while we’re not on trains as much as planes when we travel these days, in-flight entertainment is often a good chance to catch up on releases you missed in the theater. As for those albums in motion pictures? Sounds a lot like TikTok and our camera rolls.

Cinematic realism – “Motion pictures 100 years from now will be so nearly like the living person or the existing object pictured that you will be unable, sitting in your orchestra seat, to determine whether they are pictures or the real thing,” wrote one futurist.

A quick glance at any well-done CGI-enhanced film proves they nailed that one.

The wrong

NYC’s population –  The five boroughs have never been particularly suited for people looking for elbow room, but the prediction by real estate baron J. P. Day that the city would have a population of 30…