A century ago, the English novelist Walter Lionel George tried to imagine the future of the world: the one we live in today. His books, a great source of inspiration for George Orwell, were defined as "good, bad books", because despite the analysis of negative and dystopian aspects they provided interesting ideas.
In its edition of May 7, 1922 , New York Herald asked George to share his predictions with readers. A rather interesting portrait turned out.
The future of the world: WLGeorge's predictions
Transportation
First, George thought about the end of the transport revolution. 2022 will see a future world in which “commercial flight has become completely commonplace,” with the distance between North America and Europe reduced to eight hours, and fewer and fewer railways and steamships.
Telecommunications
“Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephones they will have crushed the cable system“, he continued: in the future world no one would ever see poles with wires again.
Energy
George, a great supporter of Tesla, also applied this prediction to the transmission of wireless electricity (and in this, I must say, he proved hasty). But not only in this.
By 2022, coal will be overtaken bysolar power and by that of the tides, and “even atomic energy could be used”.
Entertainment
As for cinema, “the figures on the screen will not only move, but will also have natural tones and speak with their own voices”. Will the theater disappear? Quite the opposite, in fact: like "once upon a time", the actors of the future world of 2022 "will also have to know how to speak, as well as smile".
Role of the woman
“All positions will be open to them and a large number of women will have risen to the top. The year 2022 will likely see large numbers of women in Congress, many as judges, others in civil service positions, and perhaps some in the president's cabinet.”
Society
George foresees the birth control pill: unlike some reformers, he hesitates to declare the abolition of the family, but imagines the “majority of humanity” occupying modular homes in perhaps somewhat shoddy skyscrapers (“I have a vision of walls, furniture and curtains made of papier-mâché more or less compressed”), inside cities with a climate controlled by large glass domes. About freedom of speech? “There will no longer be things that cannot be said and things that cannot be thought.” Who knows if he would have ever imagined social media.
The future of the world seen since 1922, in a nutshell
For George, however, the progress of 2022 wouldn't be so crazy, maybe even a little boring. In fact, only the improvement of a technological orgy that has just broken out. He wasn't entirely wrong. At least today, 2022: but like then, we are on the eve of a great explosion (and I'm not talking about war).
Overall, as seen since 1922, in 2022 “the progress of science will be amazing, but it will not be as amazing as it is today compared to a hundred years ago.”
You can read a copy of George's original article at the Library of Congress.
