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Article: A backward look ahead.(there were many predictions, in the middle of the 20th century, about how life would be in the year 2000)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- December 28, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The future then
Americans have always cared more about visions, even flawed visions, of an unknowable future than for hard-eyed appraisals of the past or present. If a happier, safer, easier world could be willed into being, Americans would do so. The midpoint of this century prompted an outpouring of such speculation about the way life might be by the year 2000--with mixed results.
Gerald Wendt was one scientist whose fantasies outran reality. He informed the nation's teachers in 1951 that he could confidently predict a 24-hour work week, a life span of 85-90 years, auto engines as small as typewriters, and rocket planes carrying Americans on space ...