Matt Novak, Author at Gizmodo

Flying Carpet Car (1958)

Andrew A. Kucher [right] with Anastas I. Mikoyan [left] (Life Magazine, 1959) In 1958 you’d find no greater advocate for the hovercar than Ford vice president Andrew A. Kucher. Kucher was on a media blitz in the late 50s and early 60s, being quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Mechanix Illustrated, Chicago…

Tech News Matt Novak

Cooking in the Future (1990s)

This clip from an early 1990’s AT&T concept video shows a futuristic world of voice recognition, networked computing and nearly sentient robotic sous chefs. And yet our protagonist’s computer doesn’t even know the word “HURRY.” But what our machines lack in vocabulary they more than make up for in obnoxious pop up coupons right on…

Tech News Matt Novak

Tesla Predicts the Portable TV (1926)

In 1926 Nikola Tesla gave an interview to Collier’s Weekly in which he predicted something that sounds remarkably like portable television. Perhaps most interestingly, he mentions that this technology would be used to watch war unfold, “just as though we were present.” NEW YORK, Jan 25 – (AP) – Application of radio principles will enable…

Tech News Matt Novak

Canada’s Drugged Up Dystopia (1969)

Remember back in the year 2000 when you’d feed your brat kids their breakfast pellets, head to work under the city’s weather controlled dome, your computer overlords only knew you by your nine digit identification number, and you’d end your day fantasizing about a life before computers? The January 18, 1969 Montreal Gazette ran this…

Tech News Matt Novak

Cleveland Elementary School, San Francisco (1910-2011)

A copper box buried for a century behind the Cleveland Elementary School cornerstone didn’t hold a singing frog in a top hat or a stash of gold coins. But the 1910 time capsule, opened Wednesday in front of San Francisco schoolchildren, teachers and city officials, was full of treasure nonetheless. Read more at the San…

Tech News Matt Novak

Traffic Problems Will Disappear by Year 2000 (1955)

From the 1958 Disneyland TV episode Magic Highway, USA The September 22, 1955 Lewiston Daily Sun (Lewiston, ME) ran a wonderful piece titled, “Hope For the Motorist: Traffic Problems Will Disappear by Year 2000.” Such unbridled optimism for the yet to be developed Interstate Highway System is downright cute. Well, cute in that condescending “bless…

Tech News Matt Novak

PBR Jetpack Ad (1976)

In 1976 Pabst Blue Ribbon ran this TV ad of a man flying effortlessly with a jetpack.* Though the man we see at the end who takes off his helmet is just an actor, the man who actually flew in the ad was none other than William P. Suitor. You know how we’ll know when…

Tech News Matt Novak

Face to Face Phone Calls (1957)

In this ad from the March, 1957 issue of Scientific American we see John Q. Businessman making a “face to face” telephone call. The ad declares that thanks to the Hughes Tonotron and other products from the Hughes Aircraft Company people will soon see “on the wall television, electronic control of factory production, and countless…

Tech News Matt Novak

Watching Television With My Robot Butler (1932)

The December 4, 1932 San Antonio Light (San Antonio, TX) ran this illustration accompanying a piece titled, “Looking Ahead Another 50 Years.” TELEVISION — The husband at home in bed is able to sweep the mechanical eye through the shopping district and see what his wife is doing. He also has all sorts of appliances…

Tech News Matt Novak

Shopping in the Future (1981)

I’m often shocked at how accurate some 20th century predictions of online shopping were. However, these retail prognosticators frequently miss the mark by assuming that individual goods would need to be photographed or videotaped live for consumers. While I can kind of understand how this might make sense with fresh fruit, today we have sites…

Tech News Matt Novak

Telephones of Tomorrow (1962)

Brian Horrigan, co-author of the retrofuturism bible Yesterday’s Tomorrows, pointed me to this amazing advertisement from Bell Telephone System which appeared in the November, 1962 issue of Boys’ Life. The comic follows “Chip Martin, college reporter” as he learns about the future of the telephone. Shut-in kids of the year 2000 are learning from home…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Trench Destroyer (1917)

This chilling image from the height of World War I appeared on the February, 1917 cover of Hugo Gernsback’s The Electrical Experimenter. The excerpt below is from Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future by Joseph Corn and Brian Horrigan. The design of this mobile dreadnaught, with its steel-tired, spoked wheels, suggests that its…

Tech News Matt Novak

Ford’s Magic Skyway (1964)

Of all the major attractions at the 1964 World’s Fair it seems Ford’s Magic Skyway receives the least amount of chatter, ink and pixels in 2011. It wasn’t moved to Disneyland like Carousel of Progress or It’s A Small World, and it wasn’t a sexy sequel like Futurama II. But it looked like quite the…

Tech News Matt Novak

Space Farmer of the Year 2012 (1982)

The 1982 Kids’ Whole Future Catalog is just bursting at the seams with amazing advancements from the world of yestermorrow. From space hotels and universal language translators to factories in space and schools in the sky, this catalog fed the imaginations of countless rugrats in the 1980s. Today we have an excerpt from the catalog…

Tech News Matt Novak

Edison’s Predictions for the Year 2011 (1911)

On June 20, 1911 the Miami Metropolis published predictions about the year 2011 from the one and only Tommy “Dumbo Killah” Edison. Edison makes some amazing predictions about a future of golden automobiles, the discontinuation of gold as currency, the rise of steel and the death of the steam engine. I’m especially interested in his…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Sno-Melter (1960)

Having recently moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis, my experience with snow this year has been limited to pixel-drenched dispatches that family and friends have beamed out from the unforgiving tundra. With historic blizzards, closed schools and caved in stadiums it sounds like the snowy season has been off to a punishing start in my…

Tech News Matt Novak

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

The shiny happy futurism of the 1950s gave way to much darker predictions for humanity in the 1970s. With energy crises, fears of terrorism and skyrocketing unemployment, it’s really no wonder that Americans of the 1970s were often pessimistic about the future. Out of this dread, the apocsploitation film was born. Movies like Future Shock…

Tech News Matt Novak

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

The shiny happy futurism of the 1950s gave way to much darker predictions for humanity in the 1970s. With energy crises, fears of terrorism and skyrocketing unemployment, it’s really no wonder that Americans of the 1970s were often pessimistic about the future. Out of this dread, the apocsploitation film was born. Movies like Future Shock…

Tech News Matt Novak

Driverless Car of the Future (1957)

TVs that hang on walls? Automatic lights? Food cooked in seconds? American power companies sure had the future figured out! Except for one little thing… we’re still waiting on those driverless cars. The futuristic family from this ad bares a striking resemblance to the family of Disneyland TV’s 1958 episode, “Magic Highway, USA.” ELECTRICITY MAY…

Tech News Matt Novak

New Nutrition (1933)

The book Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food by Warren Belasco is one of my favorite books ever. So well researched and written, I could devote a thousand posts to its genius. Instead I’ll share an insight from page 217 about the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and American attitudes at that…

Tech News Matt Novak

Matt Novak

Flying Carpet Car (1958)

Cooking in the Future (1990s)

Tesla Predicts the Portable TV (1926)

Canada’s Drugged Up Dystopia (1969)

Cleveland Elementary School, San Francisco (1910-2011)

Traffic Problems Will Disappear by Year 2000 (1955)

PBR Jetpack Ad (1976)

Face to Face Phone Calls (1957)

Watching Television With My Robot Butler (1932)

Shopping in the Future (1981)

Telephones of Tomorrow (1962)

The Trench Destroyer (1917)

Ford’s Magic Skyway (1964)

Space Farmer of the Year 2012 (1982)

Edison’s Predictions for the Year 2011 (1911)

The Sno-Melter (1960)

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

Driverless Car of the Future (1957)

New Nutrition (1933)

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