While on vacation, I was in a book store and bought a 1955 copy of Maclean's magazine featuring an article in which various experts in their fields predicted what Canada 50 years hence would be like -- 2005.
Here are some of their predictions:
No more air-polluted cities. Dr. E.G. Faludi, renowned town planner, said cities would be contained in huge, air-conditioned plastic domes; summer all year long.
Buses and streetcars. Bye bye. Faludi said cities and towns will have moving sidewalks with an "express" sidewalk moving up to 40 mph and carrying people in seats, with sidewalks slowing down so passengers can shift from one to another if need be.
Motor vehicles would operate in underground air-conditioned "streets," beneath the moving sidewalks.
Motor vehicles would drive themselves. W.D. Scholfield, manager of electronic equipment for Canadian General Electric: "You will be able to put your car out on the highway, turn on the automatic pilot, then go to sleep or read a book. There will be an anti-collision radar in the front to slow it down or stop it when an obstacle appears ahead.
There would be a magnetic field down the centre of the highway and an electronic device coupled to automatic steering that would keep the car glued to that field."
"The air space over big cities," said Maclean's, "will have 'highways' and 'intersections' to prevent aerial traffic jams and police in helicopters will patrol both surface highways and airways, directing traffic by loudspeakers, perhaps by traffic lights mounted on helicopters."
Passenger jet travel?
"Large passenger-carrying jet aircraft with speeds up to eight thousand miles an hour will probably be a reality by the turn of the next century ... to accomplish this speed the aircraft will have to fly 20 miles or so above earth where atmospheric friction won't cause melting of the fuselage."
Space travel? Man on the moon in 25 to 200 years from 1955.
The common cold? Referring to medical experts, Maclean's said: "The common cold will be only a memory."
Cancer? Dr. Arthur Kelly, secretary of the Canadian Medical Association: "We should have the answer and a method of cancer control well before another 50 years."
Automation? The work week would be no longer than 20 hours; the work year, six to eight months. "Machines and assembly lines will be boxed in, but the only true buildings will be the control rooms where a few engineers scan their instruments and keep the automatic process operating smoothly."
Dishwashing? "Standard" equipment would be plastic plates that melt in hot water and go swirling down the drain.
Sports? Total farewell to all referees, linesmen, and judges; replaced by "electronic devices, eliminating all chance of human error."
Grocery shopping? "The electronic supermarket will merely display staples of merchandise and the housewife will shop by punching a card or checking off her needs with a pencil that writes with electricity-conducting lead. She will push her card into an electronic gadget that will 'read' the card and send her goods down a chute from a hidden warehouse located behind the machines."
Dr. Stuart Jaffary, University of Toronto sociologist: "Human and spiritual values, a greater respect for human life, marriage and the family, will replace the material values predominant today."
Yeah, right.
