Over the years, a variety of visionaries, from esteemed architects and scientists to lowly pulp magazine writers and illustrators, have sketched out their predictions of what the future would look like. Here are some imaginings of futures that seem unlikely ever to come to pass.
By Patrick J. Kiger
King Gillette's "Metropolis" (1894)
Gillette, though better known as the entrepreneur who popularized the safety razor, also was a utopian socialist author. In his 1894 novel, The Human Drift, Gillette imagined his ideal world, in which 60 million people would live in "Metropolis," a vast 180-square-mile city located near Niagara Falls. Gillette saw the city as a gigantic machine, powered by hydroelectricity, which should have "no unnecessary parts to cause friction or demand unnecessary labor." To free Metropolis’ inhabitants from the drudgery of housekeeping, there would be no private houses. Instead, they would live in 24,000 domed, air-conditioned apartment towers, spaced not less than 600 feet apart. For transportation, they would rely on electric carriages and bicycles. "Here we have a city every building of which is a perfect work of art," Gillette wrote,"and whose setting is nature's loveliest handiwork, made perfect by the intelligence of man."
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