A selection of German postcards from more than 100 years ago depicts the world we live in—gadgets and all. They're amazing, anticipating a few real developments with suprising insight, albeit with everyone still dressed in Victorian garb.
What did they get right? We have people-conveyors, television broadcasting, weather control (albeit not with giant cannons) and underwater observation decks.
What machines are missing from the real-life 21st Century? The aquatic unicycle, vacations to the north pole, domed cities and ornithopers all never quite panned out.
Most creepily prescient of the Hildebrandt-style postcards is the one depicting a policeman watching villains with an x-ray equipped surveillance camera. That Germans had strong ideas about what London should be like in 100 years is no surprise, but the fact that were so accurate has an eerie edge to it.
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900) [Paleo-Future via BoingBoing]
