What people in 1900 thought life would be like in the technological paradise of 2000

Personal flying machines.

Image: Hildebrands/Public Domain

In 1900, German chocolate company Hildebrands produced a series of postcards imagining the wonders of life in the year 2000.

The optimistic renderings envisioned people in Victorian fashions enjoying lives of boundless leisure and comfort enabled by a century of technological advancement

The predicted innovations range from accurate (live broadcasts of plays) to absurd (cities covered by weather-proof glass roofs) to depressingly plausible in the near future (summer holidays at the North Pole).

Movable sidewalks.

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